Its Just that week

So I have hit the wall. This past week has just been... Blaah... in lack of a better word. I think the first month was overwhelming with so many different emotions, experiences, culture and adjustment. This weekend was a more relaxed weekend. The week was a little bit stressful. I had another Spanish test, my Mayan language class, well its still going. This week I have just felt inadequate. My whole house got in a funk and our Spanish sucked, my Mayan sucked, my English probably sucked and my Geography class used all my brain power for the week since it was on Monday. Ok, I am going to put my girl pants on and deal with it. I will stop feeling bad for myself, for pete sakes I am in Guatemala! This whole homesickness thing is contagious, I swear one girl feels sad and it spreads like a disease. Then all of a sudden all the girls are crying. Its crazy. I've been avoiding the criers cause that is contagious for sure. But to all my family and friends I miss you lots or in Spanish nos extrano mucho!!

But this week and weekend were very unexciting for me. I know its crazy Courtney with down time, more like Courtney over-whelmed with school and Spanish. So I really do not have much exciting news for the week. I apologize for the lack of excitement.
This weekend was fun and relaxing. However, on Wednesday one of the nurse's daughter had a birthday! Her name is Crista and she turned 12 years old! She did not have any plans so I told her I wanted to take her to ice cream! She was ecstatic. Ice cream turned into swimming at Hotel Antigua which turned into a lot of money spent! Holy cow, Hotel Antigua is like the resort of resorts here. In retrospect it wasn't an absurd amount of money but she was funny she kept asking me, are you sure? are you sure? She ran into the pool cannon ball style so of course my 20 year old self did the same.  The water was not welcoming and refreshing... It was soooo cold I instantly had chills. My toes went a little purple. The whole staff just stared at me... Probably thinking gosh beached whale in the pool hahaha. More lethargic comments to come. Anyway we swam for about an hour or until I could not move my limbs and then proceeded to eat some ice cream to feed my lethargic stomach! It turned out to be a great day. She was so excited I wanted to celebrate her birthday and her mom was very excited and more thankful than anything. Ok so that was Saturday. Saturday night consisted of homework, smoothies and going to bed early.

Sunday pretty uneventful as well. I got to sleep in for the first time in awhile it was great! The whole day was cloudy and rainy. I spent most of my morning sitting in a very quaint patio with a small fountain reading for hours! Just hours. It would probably help if my reading speed wasn't one paragraph per hour since I get so distracted by the water or the butterfly or a squirrel or something other than my reading. Focus Courtney... Focus Courtney... I also got scammed by a little boy, a very cute boy, but nonetheless scammed. He was selling little cloth bracelets he originally told me 3 for 20Q and 1 for 10Q. I only had a 10Q and then he saw 3Q on the table so he said ok 2 for 13Q... Great! About an hour later I saw him in the street and he had the biggest grin on his face. He proceeded to tell me he could get dinner now. It was another rewarding experience. Whether or not he was just scamming me or being serious I wont know but "es la vida". Meaning its just the life and you just have to go with it. It has also been raining all day... Never forget your rain jacket during the rainy season... You are guaranteed to get rained on no actually poured on.

Sorry this week and weekend are so unexciting but love and miss everyone!
Con cuidado (Go with safety)!!!!

Finally got the beach pictures!!

Beach front property! Our hotel is to the right!

Our rooms with the lovely mosquito net!

More hotel, out door showers only!

Hammocks in front of the room!

Fresh coconut anyone?

The gross chicken place...

Meat rack!!

Board walk!

The boys the started the sand war!

Colleen and her new best friend!

Giant waves!

Dirty black sand feet!

Not swimming in those bad boys!

Dear Fellow Readers,
I wanted to apologize for using "Jesus" to describe my emotion. The expression I meant to use was "jeeeez". So I apologize, it came out a little foul. That is all for now had a long day and long night for that matter. Kind seem to shake this tiredness lately.
Nos amo!

Vamos a la Playa!!!

Let me first correct my error in last weeks post... I said we vaccinated the dogs with rabbis. No we did not make all the dogs Jewish. How embarrassing... Jessssus! Correction rabies!

This past weekend my roommate Colleen and I decided to go the beach on a whim. We talked with about 3 different people to figure our bus situation out. One man said 5:30 another said 6 and lets face it, its Guatemala it could be 7 for all I know. I will say one thing though. If ever in Guatemala and you ask for directions be prepared to be even more lost. Most people will tell you directions and they take you no where near your destination... You have been warned. Ok back to the story. We missed the first bus because it left at 5am, none of the times we were told were right... Oh and there is only one bus per day that goes directly to the beach. Great. So we had to go to the crazy bus terminal with about a million buses zooming around, men yelling out destinations, vendors off and on the buses selling miscellaneous things, and people jumping on the front and back of the buses to catch a ride. Chaotic in other words. But we eventually we got ourselves on one bus to Esquintla where we would have to transfer buses, then take a new bus from there to a shuttle and from that shuttle switch to yet another shuttle to get to the beach. Our hour and half trip turned into three hours. The whole way to Esquintla the bus was packed. Three to every seat and people standing in the isle. Word to the wise, sit in the very back that way its easier to hop out the back door when its your stop. Oh and if all the windows are up its because the Guats are cold. I DIED with the windows up. No circulation and everyone is in your bubble. But once we were in Esquintla the bus terminal was tiny, it could only fit one bus on the actual road at a time, and again people yelling and bustling around. Colleen and I were very close to wetting ourselves and we could not find a bathroom anywhere. An older man yelled to us and pointed us down a tiny alley with no light. Colleen was walking down as I was trying to find my headlamp and sure enough at the end there was a toilet, and a ducky shower curtain. All I have to say is ewwwww. Then as I was gathering all my stuff I heard our bus called out. Colleen took off running towards it and I was a few steps behind her then the old man came yelling after me "Necisitas pagar!!!" Ay dios mio. I had to pay for both of us to pee. A hole 25 cents to pee. We made it onto our second bus and there wasn't a double seat open so I got stuck sitting next to a heavier set lady that was sweating PROFUSELY. She also sat with her legs wide open leaving room for about half my body to sit on the seat. At one point she moved around and her sweat got on my arm. Keep smiling Courtney, DO NOT make a face. Also, if you see someone do the sign of the cross before getting on, try not to be too alarmed. Anyways from there on out we got dropped off on the side of the highway and transferred into a small shuttle that took us through a couple port towns, where we switched yet again onto our last shuttle and within about 30 minutes we were finally at the beach! By this time I myself was doused in sweat and just wanted to get in the water. The town we were in Monte Rico was very small, pretty tropical and our first stop was a fried chicken place to use the bathroom. The lady took me into the back and asked a girl to leave... Hmm what the girl that left was watching chicken off in the sink and guess where the toilet was... Yup right next to that. Reluctantly I bought some french fries since I used her bathroom but the chicken uh no thanks. We did not have any hotel reservations so Colleen and I decided to just head to the beach and pick one ocean front. About 3 minutes of being on the beach we had a hotel, $6 a night, a pool, hammocks all over the place and a restaurant. Could I ask for more? We quickly changed into our bathing suits, had a smoothie and made our way to the black sand beach. It was incredible. The sound of the waves were enormous. It sounded like a storm every time they crashed into the surf. The waves were about 6 feet and the under toe was so strong. With my excellent swimming skills I only went in about 3 feet deep. For most of the day we sat on the beach ate fresh homemade tortillas and just enjoyed the sounds of the beach. Mid day we decided to start building a sand castle. Yes regressing to about age 8. But as we were building our mote about eight little Guatemalan boys asked to play with us. Of course we agreed and within 5 minutes it turned into a sand fight. I am not kidding I have not had that much all over my face, hair body in...EVER. They were absolutely nuts. They would chase us to the waters edge while throwing fists full of sand and then they would stop cause they were too afraid to go in the water. The sand fight turned into tag which turned into a shower and then a nap! They were nuts, just nuts. After our nap Colleen and I walked down the beach to watch the sunset and just see where the other hotels were. We came up to a resort and of course had to check it out. We looked like bums. We had sand all over our legs from walking and everyone at the resort was sitting by the pool, with their pina coladas, that was about 200 yards away from the beach. Are you serious??? Jeeez resort people... They gave us some looks. As we returned back to our hotel there was a sand volleyball game going on and of course Colleen and I being competitors at heart had to join. We got stuck with the shitty team at first... The second round we switched onto a team with two Guat guys that apparently were actually on a team that played in tournaments so we ended up ruling the court! It was a good time but again I was covered in sand from diving. Its very apparent too since the sand is black and its so humid it just cakes your skin. It was great. Dinner consisted of  a fresh cut chicken fried in front of us and delicious french fries. The french fries were perfect, not too squishy and not too hard. Reminded me of a five guys, a good American burger sounds good right about now. Later that night Colleen and I went salsa dancing. It was horrendous. Apparently there are a couple different types of salsa or at least just different beats. I looked like bambi with two left feet. Get the visual. The dancing did not last long so we returned to our room put our mosquito nets down and passed out. We missed the sunrise but were up by 7. It was quiet and the only overwhelming sound was the crash of the waves, in spanish very tranquilo (quiet and peaceful). Our shuttle to leave was scheduled for 1 so really about 1:20. Our ride home was nuts. The first shuttle started empty (false hope). Your shuttle will never just be empty. Sure enough ten minutes later the shuttle was full and the Guats closed the windows! What is the deal??? The second shuttle was even worse. I got stuck in the back with 3 people and two little kids on my lap, cute kids but it was hotter than poop. With about 3 more stops our 15 passenger van turned into a 26 passenger van. I got stuck sitting on the floor and again NO AIR! That was about a 30 minute ride back to Esquintla where we were dropped off in the middle of the town and given horrible directions to the bus terminal. While looking for the terminal of course it started to down pour. I mean with in minutes there were sheets of rain. After 10 minutes in the rain we found our Antigua bus and took cover. Again only 5 people on the bus... Do not get excited. Our bus took off and the city was just flooded, maybe about 7 inches of water in the street, hopefully our bald tires have traction... And again within 15 minutes the bus was packed. A woman got on, soaking wet, turned to sit in a seat next to me and sprayed me with her hair... I just have the best luck. If I end up having a growth on my face tomorrow I'll make sure to tell. The ride home was slow, long and hot. All the windows were closed except for Colleen's. The man sitting next to me put his wool sweater on since we had the window open, and then he proceeded to fall asleep on my arm. His wool sweater would rub my arm with every twist and turn in the road and basically chafe it. This was the story of our ride home! Oh wait I forgot to mention. There was a small leak on part of the roof and it kept dripping on this girl so I gave her a little rapper to maybe stuff it. That didn't work, so her mom asked for a piece of gum, chewed it and stuffed the hole. How innovative right, I thought it was funny. Pictures to come later!

Love to all!
Also good news for Rufino, I got a local doctor from the city to come and visit Rufino so we can hopefully get him some help!

Long day on the Finca!

Thank you to everyone for all your support and well wishes!

Today I had the opportunity to work on a finca! Also known as a farm. We left the house around 6:45 to catch our public mode of transportation: a chicken bus. Why they are called that I have no idea... Actually I do. They have bald tires, they squish about 4 people in a 2 person seat, they blast what ever kind of music, people board from the front and the back "exit door", they hall ass down side roads and their brakes well, you just hope they work. Our bus ride cost about 25 whole cents and we rode it for about 15 minutes. The town we got off was called Ciudad Vieja. We had about a 5 minute walk to pick up tools at a place called As Green As it Gets. I met a man named Pedro who was my jefe (boss) for the day. He is about 2 feet shorter than me and can carry twice as much as me. I carried a pick ax and two cement buckets (not with cement) and we headed to the finca. The town we were in was situated at the base of the volcano "Agua" and the finca was on the side of Agua. It felt like we walked forever... FOREVER... It was literally about a 15 minute walk to the finca and it felt like an hour. Our first job was to fill up the cement buckets with rocks and sand. We filled about 5 buckets with rocks and carried them down to a small creek (sin=without water) and then we carried 6 buckets of sand to the same place. The plan was to mix the rocks, sand and some cement mix to make a mixture. After those 11 buckets we had to fetch water. I had to walk up a hill to a tilapia pond with the most fowl smelling water I have ever smelled. Apparently tilapia feed on algae so the water was green and nasty. Walking back down to the creek I had to stop multiple times to switch arms to avoid spilling water on myself. The plan for the day was to build a retaining wall in part of the creek so when the rains come the water is retained and then the sediment from the rain will fill up part of the creek to make a natural bridge across the creek for motorbikes to access. Before I had got there someone had dug a trench  for us to fill with BOULDERS and cement. I started in the ditch and would pour some cement then place a boulder and pour more cement. This process was repeated for about 2 hours. When I say boulder I mean boulder. They were at least 30+ pound rocks we were using. My rock duty ended and I got to mix cement. Not much easier than lifting rocks. Mind you we were mixing with a shovel not an electric mixer. Joyous. We got to the finca at 7:30 and after all I just described it was only 9 am! Are you kidding me. Only 9am... But we did get about half of the retaining wall built and thank the heavens we ran out of cement. So we did some weeding in the farm area and had lunch in a tree! It was great but my body is in pain. I forgot what exertion was! Geez more signs of obesity ha. That was my day in  nutshell! More stories to come after I go to the black sand beaches tomorrow.

Also good news about Rulfino, my friend Lisa helped me contact a local health organization and one of the doctors have agreed to come out and check Rulfino out!!! More to come next week!

Internship and Random Thoughts

Yesterday I went to Buena Vista which is a small town about 20 minutes away from Antigua. I again rode on the back of Daniel's moto bike (he is the travel nurse) this time with a huge box of vaccinations and we had to go up a hill... Yea I think we had to stay in 1st or 2nd gear the whole way. At one point I kind of just giggled to myself and Daniel leans over and says "Courtney... Tu pesas mucho!" Translation: "Courtney... You weigh alot!" I must say I laughed pretty hard. He was completely joking but earlier I had told him I am "gorda" or heavy because I have been eating so many tortillas. He is a jokester. We pulled into a small alley and walked into a room that was about 6ft by 30 ft. It had concrete walls and was just baren. This is the "clinic" we were working in. I could not believe it. In the front of the room there was a small table where Daniel and I would check each patient in and then they would sit on a wooden bench next to me and we would give them their shots. Mostly children received vaccinations but a couple of mothers had a complete check up. The women would go into the back of the clinic where a small medicine cabinet stood and a single cloth divider quarded them from the rest of us. Through the course of the day small children, dogs and even a couple chickens ran through the clinic. Have you ever heard of ANY type of animal in a clinic in the US?? I think not, the only animals I have seen in the US clinics are the screaming children haha. At the beginning of the day we gave vaccinations to babies and towards lunch we gave dogs rabbi vaccinations. I actually gave some dogs the vaccinations but when a dog looked suspicious to Daniel he'd say no no I ll do it. He was afraid of a dog biting me so he took the naughty ones. For lunch I learned how to make tortillas!!! It was soooo hard. The girl that showed me how was only 16 years old and she probably made 16 tortillas to my one! How embarrassing. I just did not have the proper hand clap down right to flatten out the dough! But to get the dough I sifted through corn kernels that had been soaking in water, drained them and then took them to a grinder or mill that literally ground the semi wet corn into dough right in front of me. From there she kneaded the dough and then we made small balls and started "clapping" the dough into circular forms. The only two I made were disfigured and had holes. Fail. They were the "special" ones out of the group. After lunch I was waiting outside the clinic and saw a woman maybe 4 ft tall and had a small child with her not more than a year old and she had this huge jug of water she had filled up at the local water faucet. She started walking away so I asked her if I could help. She looked at me funny and reluctantly gave me the water. Oh I failed to mention she had been carrying it on her HEAD!  She lifted it off hers and placed it on my head. HOLY CRAP. It was so heavy. I could not help but laugh and neither could she. She saw me sway a little bit with the weight and thought I was crazy for wanting to help. She tried to take it back and I insisted I would take it to her house. She was amazed I even made it! It was an incredible to see how grateful and shocked she was I wanted to help. It's the little things right. After that Daniel asked me if I wanted to meet his friend Rufino. Without hesitation I said yes and he proceeded to warn me that he had a "sickness" of the skin. I still wanted to go so we bought Rufino a couple cookies and juice. We had to walk maybe about 5 minutes up part of a hill and we finally came to his small little property. Daniel called out for him and Rufino came out. I have no words or emotions to describe the health condition of Rufino. His entire body was taken over by his health condition. I can not even put into words how horrible Rufino's condition is and is getting. His mother apparently left and he is only 21 years old. He has been living like this for most of his life and has never been seen by any medical professional besides Daniel. He has 3 of his little cousins living with him (all around 3 to 5 years old) and his dad works somewhere close to the house. I am not kidding when I say if I was 3 years old and I saw Rufino I would think he was some kind of "monster". As horrible as that sounds, I am not exaggerating when I say his body is deformed because of his condition. I completely lost my appetite and just was in utter shock. How could someone go so long without medical attention. It broke my heart and made me feel guilty for ever feeling sorry for myself about anything for that matter. I talked with my friend Lisa about things I could do to help Rulfino, so right now we are in the process of contacting organizations in the area that could get help for Rulfino. Keep Rulfino in your prayers and hearts, for now we are in limbo. We left Rulfino and walked in silence back to the clinic. We gathered up all our gear and headed back to Antigua. Daniel asked if I was ok and in my best Spanish I told him I was just in shock. He gave me a hug and we were off. I did not sleep as well last night, one: I was thinking about Rufino and two: I was so SORE from that stupid water jug... How pathetic. Early signs of obesity from tortilla intake!

On a lighter note here are some observations I have made:

1. My Mayan Kaq'chikel teacher, Osbilda is an indigenous Mayab woman. She has taking a liking to me since I am the worst spanish speaker in her class and yet maybe one of the better Kag'chikel speakers. The other day I had made a small "chiste" (joke) about something and she had the deepest belly laugh I have ever heard. I couldn't help but laugh harder. Her whole body kind of shook with her laugh it was great!
2. Outside of Antigua there are many small towns that are situated in the valley and some in the mountains. Every town I have been to outside of Antigua alot of the women walk around barefoot. Barefoot. My feet hurt from walking on the concrete floors in our house. These women are a complete different kind of tough.
3. The gardening done in Antigua is done with a machete. A couple mornings ago I was walking in the street and saw a man just carrying a machete in a holster on his belt. UHH woaaah dude. Before I saw what he was doing I made sure to cross the road... Like a street would stop someone with a machete but you know. I kept watching him and he came up to a couple of bushes and went to work.
4. If you ever see a woman carrying a babe here is the amount of clothing the baby is wearing:
      -A diaper
      -A light onezy (think I spelled that one wrong)
      -A sweater
      -A pair of pants
      -Socks
      -Sometimes shoes
      -A beanie
     -And finally a blanket
     -Sometimes two blankets
Poor kids they can barely breath or move!
5. I saw a little boy wearing a U of A sweatshirt in the street two mornings ago! How ridiculous!
6. I have noticed a lot of children are semi abusive to animals here. It breaks my heart, the other day I saw a little boy no older than 4 kick a puppy because the dog was in his way. It wasn't my place to tell him no, but I almost wanted to kick him back and see how he liked it. ( Ok not really but kind of).

One of the more vicious ones!

One of the chicken visitors 

Puppy in the clinic :(

Our tiny clinic

The three little boys that live Rulfino

Giant water jug... Look at the tiny woman in front of me!

My first animal vaccination!

Trying to make tortillas! Failed attempt about 2 secs later I dropped the dough

Ok that is all for now! Love to all
Abrazos!

Sorry for the Grammatical Errors

Warning. My brain is tired and there are probably alot of grammatical errors since I am trying so hard to think in Spanish. Lo siento! Xoxo

Semuc Champay Weekend Getaway

I want to first comment on the title. "Getaway", isn't this the term we use when we need to have a short vacation to relieve stress etc.. It's funny I'm getting away from my getaway. On my bus ride back home today I was thinking ok Court, back to reality time to get back into school mode. What am I thinking... Reality? I am in a dream world right now. Every day is a new experience, a new adventure!

Ok now to start our weekend. I will start by saying we got "played" by a couple of tour agencies. Trying to make a trip for eight women (who choose not to say what they actually want to do) is very difficult. After a minor freak out with my roommate Colleen we were set to be picked up at 5:30 am. Yes even Courtney was ok with that. The night before all the girls were asking what do we bring, what food should I pack, etc etc etc. I am not your mama, figure it out, your an adult!! Holy cow, future note to self, big groups are hard to plan for. But despite that, the girls that came on the trip were all amazing people. About 5:32 the roommates and I showed up to the van and we were missing 3 of the girls... We waited... and waited. Thirty minutes later three figures in the distance were SLOWLY walking towards the van. If that were me I would be sprinting and out of breath. Mind you the reason we were leaving at 5:30am was to avoid Guatemala City traffic. So much for that plan. Apparently the reason for their tardiness was one girls forgot her wallet. Trying to control myself right now and not blow up on her. In the realm of things, what ever, we were late and I am no candidate for being early but the idea was too get to Semuc early in order to see the national park before it closes. So much for that plan and the extra 70 quetzales (currency) we paid to leave earlier. It ended up being about a seven and half hour drive through jungles, valleys, alot of Guatemala City traffic, ghettos, and bumpy, pot holey dirt roads. We had about a 1600km difference in altitude change. I usually never get car sick... I can read in the car, I can sit upside down, turns in the road dont bother me but the altitude change got me feeling green. For the first half of the ride the girls and I were chatter boxes, we played middle school car games and as soon as the altitude started to change we all slowly got quieter and quieter. After about 7 hours we came into a town called Lankin and had to switch vehicles... Hmm our guide said you needed four wheel drive to get to our hostel and the "new" vehicle only runs at certain hours of the day. Comforting. But anyway all 10 us unloaded and transferred into a truck smaller than my f 150. Four of us piled into the backseat and the other 6 in the bed of the truck... (Don't worry parents I sat in the cab). But then our driver took off, hauling ass through the tiny cobble stone roads of Lankin. I gasped about 3 times thinking we almost hit dogs or pedestrians! Then we stopped at a little hostel and picked up two Brits who both sat in the front seat. Fortunately it was a couple, and they were able to sit on each others laps. So finally we were off to our 4 wheel drive adventure to Semuc. The road was... there was no road. It was a dirt path that had severe erosion from the rains. I quietly sat with my eyes closed suffocating from how many people were in the cab and not being able to roll the windows down since it started pouring again. I have to say our driver was terrific. His truck was older than me, his clutch seemed to be going out and he had to feather the gas every time he shifted. Reminded me of when I started driving stick "A LITTLE GAS... A LITTLE CLUTCH!" (famous last words from dad before I got the car stuck on a hill). But eventually after many bumps, jolts, hills, and mud puddles we pulled up to our rustic, quaint hostel situated about 200 feet away from the river.

It was gorgeous completely made out of bamboo and wood. We only had electricity from  6pm til 10pm, I am pretty sure the entire hostel was run off of one generator! But we were placed in dorm style rooms so 5 of us were in one room and 3 in the other. The beds were... well a little questionable. The first bed I chose had a GIANT stain on it. I am going to assume for my own sanity that it was a water stain from the storms but who really knows. So I switched beds closer to all the spider webs.. Lovely... Our first night we just walked around the area. Our hostel like I said was right next to the river. At the waters edge there was a huge swing that you could launch yourself into the river, so fun! Then we walked up the road which I might add is all jungle forest with wild turkeys and chickens just grazing the side of the path. Along the path we came upon a huge suspension bridge that led to the national park. I might add the floor of the bridge was wooden and shooooot I was nervous if it was going to hold my weight ( in reality cars drove on it everyday I was just being dramatic). But then we had a lovely dinner of fried chicken, rice and the most soggy, squishy, gooooeeeey salad I had ever seen, I said seen because I did not touch it. But after dinner we were all enjoying our two hours of electricity and in the meantime got salsa lessons. One of the guys that worked the hostel was also a salsa instructor. Man were we the entertainment for the night. Eight white girls with 16 left feet. It was hysterical but, he was patient and at least some of us have the basic steps down. The night was over lights out just before ten. We all proceeded to bed. I wore long sleeves, long johns and socks with my long johns tucked in. Mind you it is about 80 degrees out and 100% humidity. I was not about to get anything crawling all up on me. It took me awhile to fall asleep but eventually I fell into a coma.

The next morning was gorgeous. I woke up around 6 30 and no one was up. It was quiet and peaceful. It was slightly chilly out and the river was calm. Our tour of the cave was scheduled for 9 30. Enough time for me to lose my cell phone and 100 quetzales. Not the end of the world, but I have no recollection of where I put both of those things... Early Alzheimer's. Yikes. But all the girls slowly woke up and we got our bathing suits on, head lamps and water shoes to go spelunking! The cave we went to has a river that runs through it and feeds into the river. At the mouth of the cave there is a semi large waterfall. Hmm how our we starting this little adventure. The guide gave us all two candles and we started the trek. We hiked up the side of a small hill and entered the mouth of the cave, also known in the Mayan world as the mouth of the alligator which leads into another world. We lit our candles and slowly walked into the dark, cold, mysterious water. I must say our Guatemalan guide was smeagol (the creature from Lord of the Rings that can climb crazy stuff and dive in dark water). I kid you not we are walking through the cave by candle light, very eerie feeling. Our guide was incredible he would tell us where rocks were in the water, steer us from room to room. Some of the rooms, we had to ascend ladders (again looked older than I did) and then descend some. As we were getting further back in the cave I could hear rushing water. Ummmm.. Thoughts in my head, great the cave is filling up with water. But to my surprise we crawled through this small opening and we were in this room with an actual waterfall. You could barely see the water was gushing everywhere. The candles went out and the guide grabbed my hand ( I was in front) and said hang on to this rope and without a word he swung me THROUGH the waterfall. I have never felt water so forceful before. He placed me on a little ledge bench thing and swung back through and started bringing everyone over one y one. Once everyone was over he told us to climb up yet another later to get to the next room. The last person came through and no guide... Heart drops for about 2 minutes and all of a sudden a man emerges from the waterfall, like I said SMEAGOL! He climbed up the center of the waterfall using the rope we swung from side to side with. He did it effortlessly. About another 5 minutes of swimming slash walking we came into the last room of the cave. Once again the guide disappeared and all of sudden a man flies in the air and lands in a cannon ball in front of us all. So of course I had to do it to. It was only about 3 km high but still cliff jumping in a cave! I was so nervous. Everyone kept chanting for me. I told them no I don't want to! But they were persistent and I couldn't be a chicken so I did it. What a rush. After our cliff jumping excursion, by the way I was not the only one to go, we headed out. The pure excitement from seeing natural light is overwhelming. Even though I knew Smeagol would get us out it was relieving. After the caves we got to tube down part of the river. It was freeeezing! So not enjoyable. But I was floating along keeping to myself and all of sudden someone says what is that... Of course I jump and there was an otter right next to me! Are those dangerous? It freaked me out. The guide said to me "Don't worry mi amor, it's only a perro de agua." Translation, "Don't worry my love its only a water dog!" Oh great I feel much better now. But after our tubing we grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to the national park to see the natural pools, also known to some as Eden. It was about a 15 minute walk along the riverside to get to these series of natural pools that are crystal clear. The pools are on top of a massive natural bridge that the river I have been talking about runs under! How crazy is that. These pools that we swim in are all above the river. Nature at its finest! The water was refreshing and cool. If you keep your feet still enough the little tiny fish in the pools will eat the dead skin off your heels! I am way too ticklish, but the fish sure liked mine for some reason. We spent the rest of our day just enjoying the pools and returned back to our hostel for the night. Ate another appetizing dinner... (sarcasm). We had a long day and an even longer drive home the next day. The girls turned in pretty early so we could get up early and catch our lovely four wheel drive truck home. That is about all I have for this weekend. I could go into so much detail about the pools and the history and the location but I would never be able to justify the beauty of the river, the cave and the pools! All in all a  great weekend. Drive back was slow, boring,  and well boring.

The pools!

The river going under the pools!

Aerial view!

Girls in the water! I am in the middle!

Ready at 5:30 waiting for the other chicas...

Still waiting!

Finally in the van and loaded!

The girls! After about 4 hours of driving... Notice I lost the socks

Our dorm room... You cant see the spider webs or the stains...

The outside! A nice little loft upstairs!

Girls walking to the river from our room!

The river! And the swing!

Very sketchy dock!

Tight tree walking!

The start to a new day!

View of the river!

Covered from head to toe!

Trying to go to sleep!

Part of the ghetto!