the most beautiful places in the world

we've been having terrible luck with computers in the last week, but here are some updates! will write something soon, but highlights so far have included rana's 32nd birthday, insane chicken bus adventures through the guatemalan highlands, swimming in the pools at semuc-champey and watching the sun rise at 5am this morning atop a pyramid at tikal.

these few pics are from semuc-champey, which is probably the most beautiful place i've ever been.



post-paradise cerveza
tikal!




tikal, looking over the jungle:

want to know what the sunset from the top of tikal looks like?

photos at last

here is the nerdiest picture of myself i could possibly find. crossing the border is totally hot.

the next day, rana met me in antigua. so awesome!


she hates this picture but i completely disagree.



our second day in antigua, we climbed volcano pacaya, which is about an hour and a half out of antigua. we went up with a smallish group and a guide. once we made it up to the top, we were walking over lava. like picture yourself as a spaced out seven year old at the grocery store stepping on every other tile to avoid lava -- that´s sort of what it was like. the views were absolutely amazing and we played up there for about 40 minutes before the stars came out and we had to head back.



as i mention in the previous blog, we made grilled cheese with the heat from the lava! some other guys in our group boiled water for coffee



here´s our view of lake atitlan and the volcanoes from our room at the awful party hostel

and finally.. back in central america! we took a series of chicken buses through these breathtaking stretches of highway and small towns. stopped for lunch in santa cruz del quiche and for less than 2 dollars each, we each ate an entire fish, rice, some veggies, endless tortillas and some amazing soup. here, the bus let us out to transfer to another bus. it was completely silent and stunning. a pickup truck came about 15 minutes later and the driver said we could ride in the back, so we climbed in and went on the most amazing ride to nebaj, where we are now.


in the back of the truck on the way to nebaj


nebaj! this is a gorgeous little town in the mountains. the ixil maya live here and they have the most amazing clothes -- the women wear these pom-pom-like woven strings on their heads and extremely colorful shirts with shawls and skirts. it´s incredibly rude to photograph people here, but that is really what this place looks like so it´s hard to describe without photos. lonely planet tells us that this area suffered the most during the civil war, as the government routinely tortured and bombed and burned entire villages of indigenous people here. we are going on a hike tomorrow through many of these communities with a local guide connected to this social justice cooperative in nebaj. there is a spanish school here and some really interesting volunteer projects. perhaps i´ll be back..

slow connection!

been trying to add photos for a few days now but rana and i are at lake atitlan in guatemala and the connection here is good for a few minutes and then seems to keep going out. we´ve been in hippie heaven-hell for three days and are leaving for a trip through the highlands in a few minutes. the place we´ve been staying is physically gorgeous -- right on lake atitlan, our seriously cheap room has clear views of these two volcanoes, there are hammocks everywhere and amazing vegetarian food for dinner. we mistakenly arrived on saturday though and that happens to be the hellish night of their weekly drag party. yes, it´s true. a bunch of lame straight australian guys dressing in drag and getting wasted to bongo drums. we were about to get the hell out of here sunday morning but woke up to the most beautiful day and most of the idiots from the night before seemed to had left so we decided to stay another night.

rana got in on thursday and we met up in antigua, which was major culture shock for me after being in nicaragua and honduras. i emailed some of you this already, but i saw small dogs wearing outfits, everything was expensive and there were millions of tourists everywhere. it´s a beautiful city, but after three days i was definitely ready to leave and go back to central america. we did climb a volcano though, which was awesome and we have some killer photos. this being central america and therefore with the absence of safety regulations, our little group climbed up this volcano with lava rushing down. we´d brought bread and cheese with us so i made a grilled cheese sandwich from the heat of the lava. some rasta israelis in our group boiled water and made coffee up there too. we watched the lava roll down until the sun went down and then climbed down the volcano with flashlights watching the lights of guatemala city. pretty magical.

photos soon! today we´re hopping on a bunch of chicken buses to get up in the highlands where there are lots of small towns and mayan villages. the next day we are planning to head through coban to semuc-champey to swim in these allegedly amazing mineral pools and rivers. bye!

copan ruinas, honduras

here are lots of pictures of today. aren't you impressed with how CURRENT this is?

i am still traveling with this hilarious guy ugge, a belgian who seems to subsist soley on cigarettes, french fries, milk in a bag (below) and beer. i, on the other hand, have been enjoying baleadas -- the honduran take on beans, cheese and tortillas. they even add avocado! it's been nice to travel with someone and i'm super excited to meet rana in two days. we spent the day at the copan ruinas in honduras, which are ruins of this ancient mayan city dating back to the 500s. totally impressive, especially because there is still way more excavation work to be done here and they'll probably find even more evidence of the city here in the next few years.







this is the hieroglyphic stairway, which is covered since they are still doing a ton of excavation work. each step has carvings on it.

updates plus some photos of estelí

i spent all day yesterday on a series of chicken buses from estelí through honduras, which i´m sure some of you are familiar with -- former u.s. school buses painted all these crazy colors crammed with people, bags, bags of potatoes, furniture, musical instruments, bicycles, and of course, chickens. the other gringo on all the buses i seemed to be on was this 40ish belgian version of jamie mccallum, and we´re now traveling together for a couple days. once we got to tegucigalpa, honduras, all the bus companies have their own bus stations and it´s pretty confusing to figure out where to go. we wanted to get to san pedro sula, which is in the north, so the guy at one bus station told us to get in a cab to another one. we got there and upon purchasing tickets, realized this was the serious luxury bus line and we´d just paid about 15 bucks for a ticket. ugh. had a few beers in tegucigalpa and then hopped on the airplane-bus for the most incredible four hours worth of scenery i´ve ever seen. the stretch of highway between tegucigalpa and san pedro is stunning -- green mountains giving way to valleys with visible waterfalls, people selling pottery on the side of the road, i can´t believe more people don´t come here. i am in this awesome hostel in san pedro and heading to the copan ruins this afternoon.

ok,
here are some shots of the museum of heroes and martyrs in estelí. the outside had these murals and inside were collections of news clippings and photos of people from estelí killed during the revolution and the contra war. this museum was incredible. just one homemade, crowded little room, run by mothers of people killed, but so so powerful.

below, the guy on the left was the father of my host mother, geovanny. they look almost identical.

this bar in town was filled with FSLN, sandino and che guevara photos and sketches. here´s me with the local heroes:

and, i got an FSLN hat in leon!

i spent saturday in this gorgeous national nature reserve called miraflor, about two hours north of estelí by a (6am) bus. it was one of the first sandinista collective farms and still has several settlements of people living there. everything is farmed organically and there are miles of hiking trails and waterfalls and amazing trees and monkeys.

i went there with my norwegian friend kristen and although we´d paid for a guide in advance, we couldn´t find one once we got there. so we met this guy who lived on one of the farms nailing a horseshoe onto his horse. he said he´d be our guide for the day, for free, explaining that it was a collective and that´s just what you do. whatever commie!

he swam in the freezing river. we did not.