Me marcho hoyyy....

Actually, no, not quite yet. Tomorrow. I was just thinking of Selena.

Tomorrow we begin our two day TICA Bus journey to Costa Rica. Here´s hoping the Honduras border will be open. Hahaha.


Chao.

San Salvador

We´re in the big city. The bus ride here was quick and painless. We spent our time here mostly at the mall. Haha. We settled in, and then took off walking towards it becuase we figured it´d have airconditioning, food, and a movie theater. A good combination. It was a really massive mall. The biggest in Central America. We watched The Proposal with Sandra Bullock. We really liked it. We´re such suckers for Sandra Bullock and movies like that. Mom, you would like this movie. Dad, you wouldn´t...

I´m having a load of laundry done today, and tomorrow I´m going to find a bank to change my last Quetzales (Guatemalan money) to dollars before we leave El Salvador. I don´t know if Costa Rica would change them...

I haven´t been able to upload fotos to any recent computers I´ve been on. It´s frustrating. Bleh.

Juayua, El Salvador

We made it out of Santa Ana. Thank God. It sucked out our souls and bodily liquids.

But anyways, we´re in an interesting place. I´m enjoying traveling around without a guide book. It makes things more interesting. We didn´t realize this place had a ¨famous¨food festival every weekend until we were already on the bus over here. The place we stayed at last night was weird though... We met a nice woman on the bus over here, and she said she´d help us find a place, so we said sure, and she led us to a hotel that she lived next door to... and it was ok, but too pricey to stay anymore than one night in. But. The weirdest part of this hotel, was the door man person. He spoke to us as if he didn´t understand spanish, or if he was drugged and dazed. People always understand me, I speak with a good accent and if I don´t know how to say something right I I just usually won´t bother. I haven´t had any trouble with people understanding my spanish. And yet every time I said something to him he´d have to have a long pause, and it was as though he was waiting for more, even though I had just asked him a question. Odd... And he kept trying to talk to us in english too, which was irritating. I think it´s rude when I´m very clearly trying to talk to people in spanish and they insist on responding in english just because I´m a gringa.

Another funny thing, is that before El Salvador I´d never had anyone ask me if I was Canadian, but I´ve already been asked that twice in the very limited time I´ve been here. Strange... Some things about El Salvador I like more than Guatemala (the men arent obsessed with yelling at foreign women like they are in Guatemala, and the street vendors aren´t as pushy) but other things I like Guatemala more (the food. the food. lake atitlan. the food.)...

Anyways. We bought our tickets to Costa Rica yesterday... and Erica wants to go. That means we go. Bai.

El Salvador

Hasnt been nice to us so far... Haha. Erica and I have been sick in bed the past two days but were good now. Were probably going to try to do Rutas de las flores here... although Im not even entirely sure what it is. Well find out, I suppose.

But were alive and well! Puking, fevers, and stomach issues dont stop the Martin sisters! And! We managed to make a delicious veggie soup! Yaay! It would have been nice to have mom or nana make it though... but we did a good job. It only took us literally 24 hours being bedridden to gain the strength to walk to the store to get the ingredients. Hahaha.

Chao!

San Pedro, Guatemala

Estamos en San Pedro... fuimos aqui en una lancha publico con otras turistas de Israel, Canada, y otros lados... Estamos enamoradas del Lago Atitlan! Es hermosa aquì! Ayyy...

Yesterday we had a funny little thing happen with our Danish friends. We were hanging out with them, eating dinner, and then they took off briefly to take their bag back to their room, and then after a bit one of them came back and said that we could get icecream. From Sombrilandia. The most amazing ice cream place ever. It had been closed all day and we were all sad because of it. But they ran into a guy who said he could get us some, so we all went over, and it turns out hes the brother of the woman owner, and they were in pjs and they let us buy some ice cream at like 9pm or so. Haha. It was really funny, but simply delicious...

Im a little bit HAPPY NICE right now because Im starving and we had a litro of Gallo beer and I need to eat... MOM. I cant wait until Im home and we can have some vino tinto and be happy nice together. Im really looking forward to that.

Still here!

Lake Atitlan. Internet foto.

We really like Panajachel. Haha. Today we went kayaking on the lake for an hour. It was reallybeautiful, although the water was slightly treachorous. And there were hellicopters.... And yesterday, after Chichicastenango, we hung around and wandered and ate lots of ice cream and hung out with our Danish friends for a few drinks. Maria and Maja (pronounced Maya). They´re pretty much the only people we´ve really spoken to on this entire trip. We had a British friend for a bit too, but she´s off in Honduras, I think... we´re quite the loners. But it´s ok. It´s been wonderful. I tend to be suspicious of other tourists, and don´t usually want to have anything to do with them. Haha..

Oh! I made a skype account. My skype name is melanieramona.martin you should find me if you have an account.

Chao

Chichicastenango, Guatemala

We´re here at the biggest market in Guatemala. It was overwhelming. Erica and I are not natural shoppers. Uy... But it went well. Now we have two hours to kill until we get a ride back to Panajachel. We´ll stay in Panajachel at least another night, then stay one night back in Antigua, and then back to Guatemala City to buy our Tika Bus tickets to Costa Rica and then head to El Salvador for a couple days, 4 or so... and then to CR for our last week! Craziness.

Chao!

Panajachel, Guatemala

Now we´re here. We got in last night and met up with one of Erica´s friends from her school. He helped us find a nice cheap hotel, roughly equivalent to about 3 dollars and 50 cents a night, or so. Per person. I just tried to upload some photos, but this computer doesn´t want to let me.

Our second day in Guatemala City we climbed the volcano Pacaya with Ivan. And we saw lava! It was really awesome. That was a day long endevour because after we left we got lost in the city for almost two hours. Pretty horrible. Haha. That night I stayed up watching Titanic all by myself. Quite a high point... the next day we went to Antigua, Guatemala, a beautiful beautiful town that reminded me of Cuenca. Cobblestone streets and colonial buildings. We ate a lot of delicious icecream there and had some drinks in a Mexican restaurant called Frida´s to celebrate our heritage. Haha. (Ivan is half Mexican, too.. other half Salvadorian)

After that we headed back towards Ivan´s aunts house to drop off a cake Erica and I bought her as a thank-you for her hospitality and then we bought ourselves a grande Gallo (Guatemalan beer) each, and drank in the parking lot to a movie theater because we were going to watch Harry Potter. When we got in, we realized... we wanted more... so we speed walked through the empty mall to the TGIFridays and we had a quick shot of tequila each and cheersed to Harry Potter in a spanish accent. It was glorious. We were quite happy as we ran back to the theater, and the movie was fantastic. Great night. Great night.

The next day (yesterday) we hung around Ivan´s house for the morning and beginning afternoon. We watched High School High and played a lot of Guitar Hero. His aunt showed up at about 2 or so, and then she drove us back to the mall for a quite bite to eat and then we were off to catch a bus to here, Panajachel. Our first bus driver was crazy, although he did have good taste in music and we heard a lot of Vicente Fernandez (Yo soy el chofer!!). He seriously had a death wish though. Erica and I were the only gringas on the bus, but even all the locals were looking at each other like, ¨Is this guy mad?¿?¨ Haha. But we made it alive... and here we are. This town is on Lake Atitlan. We haven´t seen much of the lake yet but we will soon. I think tomorrow we´ll go on a ferry ride or kayak or something.

We´re trying to work out our plans for the last 2-ish weeks of our trip. We want to go to Semuc Champey, because everyone has been telling us it´s amazing. After that it´ll be El Salvador for a few days and then we´ll Tika Bus it to Costa Rica. The bus trip will take about two days, but we stay the night in Nicaragua, so that should be cool...

Love, love, love,

chao, chao, chao,

In Guatemala City

Erica and I are here in my friend Ivan´s aunt´s house. We got in yesterday evening and watched a good dose of So You Think You Can Dance? and now this morning after breakfast and Guitar Hero we´re heading out to a volcano nearby to do some hiking and other things. Tomorrow we´re probably going to Antigua. We´ll be hanging out with Ivan more or less until we head out to Costa Rica to meet up with dad.


Chao!

Fotos

Tikal

At el Castillo de San Felipe

Tapado in Livingston, Guatemala y cocos frios con ron. Mmm.

Weve had several...

Tomorrow we leave for Guatemala City to meet up with my friend Ivan! Today we went to Siete Altares, a series of waterfalls. Super beautiful. We took fotos with Ericas camera since hers is waterproof. Those fotos will surface one day...

Hurricane´s A´Comin´!!

Seriously. We´re in Livingston, Guatemala and the weather is crazy. Stormy, lightning-y. I´m in an internet cafe by myself. Erica was a pooper today and she´s been in bed the past hour even though it´s Saturday night and we´re in a party beach town. But no matta.

Erica and I´s first full day together in Guatemala we went to the Mayan ruins at Tikal, which was amazing, especially because there were hardly any tourists. It´s always crazy to see things you´ve studied in person. After Tikal we went back to Flores and had yummy taco dinner... Guatemala reminds me a lot of Mèxico. Very comforting... but anyways, some Anthropologist who doesn´t know how to eat with his mouth closed sat with us, and showed us a 2000 year old Mayan foot he´d found earlier that day because of all the construction and renovations going on currently in Flores. That was pretty cool. What wasn´t cool was that he kept bothering us and being really pushy. Times like that it really really would be nice to have a male with us, but usually we don´t ever have problems, and all the hostels and hotels have people at the front so he wouldnt have been allowed to follow us into our hotel if he had wanted to.

Anyways, the next morning we took a bus to Rìo Dulce, about 5 hours away. From Rìo Dulce we took a lancha to Casa Perico, a hotel on the water. It was ok, but Erica and I felt a little stir crazy since we weren´t able to walk anywhere. We decided we only wanted to stay one night, so this morning we packed our things and went back to Rìo Dulce and stashed our bags at a cafe and went on a 4k hot and humid and sticky walk to el Castillo de San Felipe. Built 1600, or so. After that we took another lancha, aka boat, back to Rìo Dulce, got our bags, and then went on a 1+ hour lancha ride to where we are now, in Livingston on the carribean coast. This town has a huge African population and a completely different language is spoken here. I don´t feel like I´m in Guatemala anymore. We´ll probably hang out here for at least another full day because they have a nice beach here, and I´m itching to swim.

After this, we´re not sure, but I know I want to head back to Guatemala City to hang out with my friend Ivan. He´s there with his family who is welcoming us to stay in their house and offer their car for us to go on day trips which would be amaaazingg... Hopefully Erica won´t have a problem with that. I don´t see why she would. It´ll be a blast. And then we´re probably going to go to El Salvador with him as well because his family is having a huge family reunion, and if they´re anything like our family then it should be a blast. Hah.

Ok, it´s thundering a lot. I´m going to publish this before the power goes out.

Estoy en Lima!

At the end of the program dinner with my family! Olga and Maria Eugenia, one of my sisters.

The best looking spanish class with the best looking prof... who also spoke the best spanish. Hellz yes.

Me and my jungle friend, Barbie.

Our last night together in Quito, hanging out where we did the first days of our trip.

Yo folks.

I´m alive. I left Quito on the 4th for a 10 hour bus ride to Cuenca. My friend Israel picked me up and we went out to eat and spent the evening together. The next morning he and I spent several hours online trying to work out how I was going to get to Lima quickly and safely. I took a four hour bus ride from Cuenca to Machala, and then from Machala to Tumbes, Peru, but I only paid to go to Haquillas, Ecuador. Sneaky sneaky me. Jaja. I saved about 3 bucks. Pretty schweet.

After Haquillas I was whisked away by a Peruvian man and now we´re supposed to get married. I´m kidding. I was whisked away though on a motorcycle cab, which was pretty fun. Picture a covered motorcycle with a bench in the back. He drove me to a bank to exchange my dollars into Soles, the currency here, and then he took me to a good company that had a direct route to Lima. I bought my ticket and off I went. I´ve been on a bus for the past 22 hours. Ay... But it wasn´t that bad actually. I saw about 5 movies and got to see the beach. Peru isn´t very pretty though, so far it´s just been dirt and more dirt. And not even pretty dirt like in El Paso. Ecuador is a much more beautiful country to drive though. But anyways, I arrived in Lima just a bit ago and once again was taken away by a cab driver to a bank to get more monies and then to a nice part of town (aka, gringo land) that Israel had told me about.

I have 8 hours until my flight. I was originally thinking I´d go to the airport and try to check in my big bag and then leave and wander around, but my bag really isn´t too heavy, and it´ll be getting dark in a few hours anyways, so I´m just going to hang around and once it gets dark I´ll just go camp out at the airport until my flight.


Tomorrow is Josh´s 13 birthday! WHooooaoaaaa lil BRO! Right. On. Teenager. Awesome.

Chao.

Full circle

I´m back in Quito, where I made my first blog entry.

The past few days I´ve been in the Amazon. Lots of canoe rides and chicha drinking and mosquitos. Two from our group are already gone, they stayed in the Oriente. Molly and Scott are leaving tomorrow. I feel really overwhelmed with everything. It´s gone by so fast, and it´s been so amazing. I feel like my future is so incredibly wide open, it´s scary, but so exciting. I know I´m doing the right thing...

My time is Ecuador is nearing it´s end... but I´ll see familiar faces soon in Guatemala and Costa Rica and all will be well.

I cried quite a bit my last day in Cuenca. I went out dancing my last night, and before I went out I had to say bye to Anabel. I told her it was my last night and she got very quiet... and she said (in spanish), I want to be a gringa... And I asked her why she would say something silly like that, and her response was, Because I was to be just like you...

I had a hard time not bawling right then and there. I gave her a huge hug and told her she was silly and perfect being who she was and that I wished I was more like her. I told her I loved her and said good bye and was crying the first few blocks towards downtown... Poor Reed. What a way to kick-off our last night.. but it ended up being an amazing night. I didn´t go home until 5am when the cops kicked us out of the club. Zö. Our spot. Haha... I danced with the guy from the salsa club again... Lots of fun.

I still don´t know exactly how I´m getting to Lima, but I´m not worried...

The morning we left Cuenca I cried alot when Olga and I had to say goodbye. I promised her I´d be back, and I meant it. I will... I think I want it to be a graduation gift for myself... I will be back. I know. I´ve fallen too in love to not come back.


I saw the biggest waterfall in Ecuador, which is also the biggest I´ve ever seen in my life. It was breathtaking. I also floated down the Rio Napo with Reed, Molly, and Scott back to where we were staying... and then the rest of the folks in the boat started yelling and saying to get out of the water because there were piranas. Hahaha. That was a little bit of a thrill.. Turns out they weren´t piranas though. Some sort of other dangerous creature that I never caught the name of.


Ecuador... estoy enamorada de ti!


Chao...