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,