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!