January 4, 2008
…if I came back from a 1 week trip in Guatemala with malaria, when I didn’t get hardly a tummy ache on my 3 month RTW trip? This is what was going through my mind as I was preparing to fly home while battling headaches, mosquito bites, diarrhea, and the onset of cold-like symptoms.
Well as it turns out, the headaches went away once I got out of the sun and heat. The diarrhea has cleared up, but I’ve still got a pretty nasty congestion cold. I do find it frustrating that 2 out of my 3 trips to Central America resulted in bad intestinal problems, where I had none through SE Asia and India. (though i’m sure if i stayed in India longer it would happen there.) I guess it just goes with the territory and i should stop being a wuss. I am going to post an old poop story though that I never posted, haha.
So – the rest of the trip was good. After Tikal I had a relaxing travel day back to Guatemala city. I was on the flight, and staying at the same hotel there, as a couple that used to live in Oakland! They were currently living in Quetzaltenango while he was finishing his graduate degree doing forestry research. They were cool to hang out with as he worked in high tech when they lived here. I also talked the whole way on the plane with a Guatemalan who now is a multi-country tourguide, and has a house in Ft. Worth. It was nice because I got a lot of questions I had about the country and various subjects answered by him.
Another funny thing I experienced… and I know this happened on my long trip, I just don’t remember if I wrote about it.
It’s always a little funny when people, from coworkers to the Customs police say “you are traveling by yourself?” with a hint of curiousity in their voice. I haven’t had any trouble meeting people, in fact, i seem better at it when i’m traveling. So I had 3 nights in a row where I ate dinner with 3 different people, a German girl, Spanish girl, and a Canadian guy… all great company. Then suddenly you find yourself eating dinner alone and you feel… LONELY! shockingly so. It was kinda of sad until I dissected it, and remembered this happened on my long trip, then I felt better. 
Anyways, new Guatemala gallery up to the right there and I will do a wrap soon… after I get over this cold.
December 31, 2007
The northeastern third of Guatemala contains less than 5 percent of its population, and is mostly jungle. Pretty cool, er, well, it´s hot too.
The main draw is Tikal, the heart of the Mayan empire for 1000 years. My plan was to make 2 visits to see sunset there when the jungle comes alive, and I convinced this Canadian guy to come along. We almost got stuck there because we didn´t make the last 6pm bus, fortunately he wasn´t pissed at me and we got a ride back eventually. I only stayed calm because a female restaurant employee was also waiting for a shuttle to our town, and my Spanish was barely good enough to communicate with her. Yesterday we, and a bunch of Americans we met on the bus got together to hire a guide, and it was really worth it. You learn so much more, and he will spot rare creatures like giant camouflaged moths. We saw plenty of howler and spider monkeys as well. The best part was just hours of hiking through the jungle, with intermittant rain and sun.
This picture is the “Star Wars shot.” I was the geek who reminded everyone the scenes in the 1977 film… it´s Princess Leia´s planet, the one blown up by the Death Star (i´m forgetting the name… for shame) there´s multiple shots from this exact spot where the lookouts are watching ships land and take off.
Tonight I spend my last night here in Guatemala City to fly out tomorrow, the 4th city I´ve stayed in. I´ve spent the last two in this sleepy lake town called El Remate, which apparently means, the Auction, and the least touristy place I got to crash in, although that is changing quickly as tourism grows here. Here was last nights sunset I watched with 2 Argentenian senioritas.
December 28, 2007
No time to write really, but I spent my first full day in Guatemala hiking an active volcano. Fun fun. Now I gotta arrange some transport. I decided I’m not going to try to see everything at a breakneck speed and avoid killing myself with 4 AM buses and crap like that. This is more vacation and less backpacking, or something like that.
pictures are going up on my Flickr cause it’s easier to upload from internet cafes.
December 26, 2007
December 25, 2007
When you hear someone flying over your roof tonight… it might be St. Chris instead of St. Nick, haha. I’m taking the Christmas Eve flight to Guatemala through Atlanta. I land in Guate at noon tomorrow. My plan is to head right away to Antigua (the tourist center of the country) to kinda get acquainted and plan some trips from there which supposedly is easy to do.
Guess what? I’m not taking a laptop! gasp! Hey it’s only a week and I could use a vacation from the computer. I did buy a new, much improved digital camera for the trip and future trips. It was my biggest regret of my big trip (that started only a year ago) was having a crap camera. I feel like I started to get good at photography but my camera just sucked so they didn’t turn out amazing.
But wow my pack is so much lighter without a Macbook Pro in it! Apparently internet cafes and hotels are abundant, so I plan on posting something.
Happy Holidays everyone. I’m off.
December 15, 2007
