Last day in Guatemala

So here I am in Livingston, Guatemala, sitting in an internet cafe while an oscillating fan scatters the mess of gum wrappers, napkins, and beer labels on which I've written the email addresses of my travelling comrades.

I've been here for 2 days already, and have accomplished exactly nothing. This is after 6 days of laying in a hammock in Lanquin, 3 days of meandering aimlessly among Flores' beautifully colonial streets, and 1 day of pulling (or at least trying to pull) backflips off of the rope swing at La Finca Tatin, a riverside hostel only accessible by boat (or 10 hour hike from Livingston) between Rio Dulce and Livingston.

I suppose the one big thing I've managed to do in the past week has been to go to Tikal... the largest and supposedly most impressive of the Mayan ruins found to date. I wish I could post the photos, but my camera died there (replay of Machu Picchu, anyone?) and I only grabbed a shot or two up top before my month-old camera ate complete shit.... not like it mattered much to me. I was getting the spins by mid-day.. probably a byproduct of my cavalier dinner the night before.. (slices of bread heaped with canned tuna and beans, and constructed through the use of our DEET covered fingers and an expired ISIC card).

We managed to roll into Flores at night the night before Tikal with no reservations or method of transportation, wake up at 3 thirty, walk up to the only other person who was awake at that time, and convince him to give us a private ride in his van all the way to Tikal for 80Q (about 10 USD). We were literally the first people there. From the parking lot, it was a mad scramble to get to the top of Temple 4 before the tour groups arrived.... and, having successfully accomplished that (with only 1 person beating us to the chase)... we had a solid hour of silence, watching the mist lift from the jungle, thus exposing the peaks of all the other temples. Ahhhh...

Other than that, there hasn't been much happening. The bugs are having their fair go at me, which is bothering me less and less as my skin acclimates. However, as my trip progresses, the bugs seem to be getting BIGGER with every successive town I get to. I was having a satisfying squat in La Finca Tatin's impressivly primitive bathroom, when a spider (literally) the size of a sand dollar waded out to make friends. Thankfully, no one was around to witness my bare-assed escape. I have since learned to scout the premesis before making myself so vulnerable again.

Overall, I'm doing okay. No more food poisoning, although a hideous rash seems to be taking over my wrists and fingers. (???) Hopefully I'll get that sorted before heading into La Moskitia, the western part of Honduras that has been considered to be Central America's Amazon. Oh shit, I think the internet cafe I'm at is closing down. Gotta go... Check out my new photos under the Guatemalan Photos tab!

Besos...
Sam