Guatemala......yup, still here.....

I spent a couple days in Antigua where I randomly met up with my israely friends (Idan 1, Idan 2, Mor and Shirry) and from Isla utila in Honduras. We hung out for a couple days before heading off to the amazingly beautiful Lago Atitlan. While in Antigua we saw Buena Vista Social Club and I got a picture with the singer. They were great! And I have never heard anyone play a cowbell so well before :)

I also did a volcano hike/tour where we actually got withing a few feet of red hot lava rivers flowing next to us. It was crazy, and im sure that there are very few places i nthe world where you are allowed to do such a thing, and probably for good reason too. It was so hot near the lava we were sweating, and when we went away we were freezing cold because of the altitude. it was a neat contrast.

On the way to Lago Atitlan, after extensive research into the cheapest and easiest way to get directly to the lake, our express bus broke down midway through the journey. I had an incredibly bad case of food posioning and had been up ralphing al night long the night before so I wasnt feeling quite right that day. And when the bus broke down, not only did I not really care, I was kind of happy because i didnt have to deal with it rocking me back nad forth. We all had a great time of hit and just hung out in the back of the bus for like an hour wwhile everyone else frantically caught passing chicken buses. I started feeling alot better and al of the sudden a chicken bus pulled up and we had no choice but to get on because they decided to just take our luggage without even asking. The next 3 buses were insanely crowded, but again, we had alot of fun. We then caught a ¨ferry¨across the lake. From those bus rides, we gained a few more people in our lil gang and we all stayed together and had a great time for the next few days. We spent alot of time just hangin around and eating. There were little girls all over the place conning us into buying their delicious fruit breads and we used the bread along with massive amounts of fruit to make excelent yogurt, fruit, granola and bread breakfasts. At one point, while hanging out on the dock after breakfast, Matt and Eyal (2 of the guys I met on the bus) and I started trying to shove each other off into the water, but most of the time just wound up pulling each other in with us. We got a good video of it, but that probaby wont be uploaded for a couple days til my lil bro can get around to it.

All this week I had started getting to know Mor pretty well and we developed quite a fondness for one another, and I have been staying here alot longer than planned so that I can spend more time with her. We went to another side of the island called San Marcos; a very alternative place with a chill vibe and lots of yoga/massage. When we arrived that night, we passed a restaruant with a crackling fire inside, and I immediately knew that that was where we had to eat. The meals were ridiculously cheap and some of the best pasta I have ever had, accompanied by a glass of exquisite red wine, great company and one of the most sincere and friendly owners I have ever met.

Mor and I came back the next day to the restaraunt and checked out the rooms they had. the rooms were realy beautiful and cozy and extremely inexpensive. We got a room with a private bath for 130 quetzals, which is about $15. The next day. Mor and I got up early and had a 3 hour yoga session, followed by hour and a half long massages and by far the best meal ive had on this trip a the hotels restaraunt. We were incredibly sad to have to leave back to San Pedro and got a picture with the owners of the hotel/restaraunt and talked with them for a bit before mosying down to the docks and back to san pedro.

I am now in Coban and meeting mor and friends in semuc champey tomorrow since i left them to buy souveniers and do the touristy thing for the first time on my trip. I will spend a few days here before heading off to mexico and leaving mor and everyone behind.

Lila Tov (goodnight in Hebrew; mor has been teaching me a bit)

Honduras-Belize-Guatemala

So after I finished my advanced scuba course, I decided to go on and take the emergency first response course as well as the rescue scuba diver course before leaving Utila. The rescue course was incredible! It was quite difficult and really required constant vigilance of your fellow scuba divers since you never knew when a problem would arise. The instructors would act out scenarios involving panicked/unconscious diver and we would be expected to remedy Any and all situations, including finding lost diver in search and rescue. We did everything from cramp removal, to calming divers down to performing rescue breaths while towing divers back to the boat and performing CPR. Even when you weren't technically doing the course dives, you had to be ready for someone to jump off the boat and pretend to panic and make you get all your gear as quick as possible. Basically, it was a great experience that I will never forget.

After Utila I went rafting with some of my scuba instructors and fellow classmates and had an amazing time on these tiny 4 man rafts and we got thrashed around and I was thrown from the raft many times and got smashed into walls and dragged under the boat, and I loved it! Here are a couple pics , one of my rafting group(it didnt actually upload but will be soon), and one of me doing a backflip off some rock cliffs into the river with all my rafting gear on. Then I went to Belize to dive the world famous "Blue Hole", a 1000 foot wide, and 400 foot deep perfect circular hole in the coral reef with stalactites and stalagmites. And whilswimmingng there, we had 11 great gray reef sharks at least 8 feet long each swim up to and around us over and over. It was really cool, and yes, a litle frightening at the same time, and nedless to say, I kept finding myself checking wether or not I was in the middle of the group :) We also did a couple other dives after the blue hole which wer also very nice and we saw many more fish than i saw in honduras since we wer diving in a protected reef. On the last dive I started geting bored and began screwing with my fellow divers by trying to ride on their tanks like an underwater cowboy and leching off of their 2ndary air supplies until they noticed and it really made us all have a lot more fun. Belize was really expensive, and most anything you wanted to do aside from snorkeling costs about $10 U.S.D. The Blue hole and the other 2 dives cost me $200 and it was a 2 hour full throtle, 600 horse power boat ride out to it and back over crazy choppy water. So as soon as i was done with my diving and hanging out with my friend ryan that i left in el salvador and randomly wound up in the same hostal in the bed next to him in the island "Caye Caulaker", I left for guatemala.

When I arived in Guatemala, all in one day, I went to the massive Tikal ruins, where I literally ran through the ruins and took some pictures sInce i had very litle time. I was running up pyramids and hauling ass everywhere, but it was a good workout in the sweltering heat. From there i caught a bus for over 6 hours to central guatemala and headed to semuc champe to check out the beautiful waterfalls.

I am heading to Antigua guatemala in a couple days to se the cuban band "Buena Vista Social Club" play. I saw them like 5 years ago in seatle on their world tour, and one has died and the remaining guys in their 90´s are still playing so i figure ill take this chance to see them, probably for the last time.