Sam Chu is bad at updating.

I know!

Anyway, Oh... from the waterpark...

Hmm... I ended up staying in Xela for a few more days, hanging out, learning Spanish, being yelled at by mi maestra for not studying, winning lots of games of Basta! ... you know, the usual.

I left on that Friday to head to Lago Atitlan with some girls from my school yet again, to San Pedro to dance to trance, yet again, and to buy the goucho pants I had had on my mind since going there 3 weeks back. It was marvelous! I also met up with a crazy New York lawyer to continue on to Antigua and Volcan Pacaya with.

This is us at Pacaya, an active volcano on the outskirts of Antigua. It takes about 2, 2 and a half hours to hike up, and another 2 to get down. It was pouring rain the WHOLE time up and the WHOLE time down. The only time that it let up was while we were there... thus the stunning pictures. I also coerced a stray dog to follow us up, and there are many pictures of me stroking his gangsta head on the top. Some will be on Flickr, some will be here. I haven't exactly worked out a method for keeping them all together yet. Hehe.

After Pacaya, Dave and I were off to Lanquin in a crazy and extremely long 6 hour minivan trip with a couple of Fins, an insane Italian named Annaliza, and a REALLY creepy old man from Berkeley who kept feeling up on our adorable Italian friend. It was bad news for Californians when that guy decided to go travel. The poor girl was squashed up against the window, curled into a ball of disgust while he stroked her trembling shoulder for 6 HOURS.

And now we're in Lanquin. Dave reckons he'll be off to Flores soon, but the sleepy pace of this place has sucked me in. We went to Semuc Champey yesterday with another American and two Israelis. This is Semuc Champey. Probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my whole life. The pools are turquoise green (the pictures don't even do them a shred of justice) and the river partially flows underneath this natural limestone bridge, and the part that flows up top goes from pool to pool, cascading down in waterfalls from each while thousands of tiny little fish circle your body. Paradise!

The ride there was rough though. I'm not going ot lie. The way there, they packed us in the back of a pickup truck with 19 other people, including a baby whose mother sat him on the floor (of the bed of a pickup truck) for the whole 45 minute ride. He somehow managed to eventually get to sleep, disregarding the (numerous) times when one of the 19 other people standing in the bed of this truck would step on his face. This includes Dave, who wears a size 13 shoe and is over 6 feet tall. Guatemalan babies = Gangstahs.

The ride back would have been maybe decent, but Bret decided at the last minute that he wanted to jump off the bridge over the Rio. This was at least a 40 foot drop, so Rotem (our militant Israeli friend) had to scout the depth of the river in several places. After we had scouted out a spot (I'm not sure why I'm saying we... I sat on the sidelines eating cheap Guatemalan chocolate), we had to wait for Dave and Li to load their cameras, Bret to build his nerve, and loads of astonished Guatemalans to gather. He jumped twice. And still has legs, although from what i know of the first drop, that may not have been the case had he been a couple feet over. Anyway, by the time we were done, we had loads of great photos, smiles on our faces, and a story to tell.

We did not, however, have a ride back to Lanquin.

We managed to catch the VERY last ride back after waiting for about an hour. This was in a milk truck with about 40 other people.

Guess who rode on the roof of that milk truck for 45 bumpy minutes?

I don't think I've ever been so aware of wayward electicity lines in my life.

Anyway, that was yesterday, and I'm spending most of today in a hammock. I'm so happy here, I've considered working for this hostel... but I reckon it'll be time to get going around next week. Flores calls!