Long Excursion

Before the second phase of our program, we took a group trip to some sweet places. We left last Friday the 6th and got back on Valentine’s Day. It was a very romantic day, no doubt, spent in a bus with fellow stinky students.

Some general notes about the whole trip: a lot of hours in buses on bad roads (as can be said with any trip in Guatemala). And a lot of hacky sack was played.  We played on top of ruins, in hotel lobbies, and at every gas station along the way. It seems like every street vendor sells hacky sacks, but I have not yet seen any Guatemaltecos playing with them.

Angela, Doug, me, and Laura playing hackey sack on top of ruins in Tikal. Photo: Steph Wegmann

So the following is a list of the places we went and the highlight(s) of each place.   

Guatemala City - We stayed on the 15th floor of the Holiday Inn with the National Mexican soccer team. They were wearing their green jerseys and were of the right age and shape, but I didn’t know it was the actual Mexico team until we left.

Tikal - Titanic ruins. We climbed the 4th temple (among others), where the Ewok scene of The Empire Strikes Back was filmed (I'm not a huge Star Wars fan). I guess more impressive than that factoid were the actual ruins. They are massive and took several hundreds of years to construct and are in the middle of a rain forest, complete with howler monkeys.

Howla monkey in action. They sound like dinosaurs! Photo: Shannon Conk

Mammoth temple, I think #5. Photo: Shannon Conk

Yaxha - Tikal gets all the hype, but I thought this place was even cooler. This was the scene of Survivor Guatemala (I’m also not a Survivor fan). I liked this more than Tikal I guess because there were less people and our guide was really great and also was able to tell us about all the plants.  This is also where I fell in love with ants.

Here's me observing a "love tree," which is really a parasitic plant that suffocates a normal tree. Photo: Shannon Conk

A temple in Yaxha. Photo: Angela Guentzel

An ant diligently working. Ants can carry (or in this case pull?) up to 50 times their weight! Photo: Becky Suhr

Flores, Peten - Flores in an island without police officers, only the occasional visit from the mainland police to make sure everything is okay.  We started out our first night there in a club and were surprised when 15 police came in.  They let our group leave and we relocated to another club.  This was a good move.  If you ever want to make friends at a bar in Guatemala, wear a Super Chivos (Xela’s team) soccer jersey.  I know it’s not typical club attire, but they locals absolutely loved it.

Copan - This sandwiched our time at Las Marias.  My favorite part of Copan was Taqueria Jalisco. The food was so cheap and so good.  The first time I went there, we watched the US-Mexico futbol game. We saw the US team beat the same team we had ridden in the same elevator with 5 days before in Guatemala City!

Semuc Champey/Las Cuevas Marias - SC was absolutely amazing! We ended up hiking through the rainforest in our bathing suits (we didn’t know what to expect, clearly), and spent some time swimming in the beautiful river. A lot of people jumped of a really tall bridge. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, but I think next time I have the opportunity I will. I would probably be a lot cooler if I did that. We spent about 3 hours swimming and walking and crawling through the underground rivers/caves caused by Semuc Champey. This was all done one-handed as I had to carry a candle to light the way. I was one of four people who wore the unnecessary life vest.  As my dad always reminds me, I am not a strong swimmer. I think I am strong enough to have survived the caves, but I know that my dad would be pleased with my decision. Just as long as I wasn’t the only dork in a life vest. 

Some of the pools/cataracts of Semuc. Photo: Angela Guentzel

And I finally got my package last week with my camera which I'm hoping will expedite the process of writing my blogs.