Mi casa es tu casa

Holla Reader!

Well after a 15 hour journey Lewis and I have made it to our first work for stay hostel in Antigua. But before I describe the scene here I've got a few good stories about our last unexpected hours in Flores and our stay there in general.

The main reason we kind of went to Flores was to check out the Tikal temple ruins. I'll let you do your own research of the place, but basically it's a 3,000 year old town built from limestone by the Mayan people. Very interesting place. The highlight was watching the sunset on top of the highest temple. Flores itself was a very lovely little town. I loved all of the bright houses and wobbly cobble stone streets.


Last night was by far the most exciting day. Lewis and I were having farewell drinks at our new found cheap restaurant, when a middle aged man in a brand new Jeep drove by us eating a lichee fruit listening to Stairway to Heaven at full volume. He winked at us then parallel  parked into sidewalk patio furniture. He called the waiter over to move the chairs out of the way, asked us what we were drinking a bought us a round then sat down.  Josh/George/ El Jeffe ended up being quite the character. He told us that he had just been pulled over for drinking and driving and wanted to celebrate his freedom! Over the next hour he called his friends to join us and we had more drinks and listened to his "rock" music from the speakers of his car.  He even had one of his friends that owned a boat to cross the lake to get a bottle of 12 year old whiskey from his house. This man had such a presence to him! When he talked everyone listened and when he didn't say anything to say neither did anyone else. So we have nicknamed him the boss/ el Jeffe. He encourage Lewis and I to only speak Spanish, which was hard, but it was a really helpful experience. We didn't really want to leave the fiesta, but we had a bus to catch! Maybe before we leave Guatamala we will be able to take el Jeffe's home stay offer up :)


Our other new friend Cesar had saved us a bunch of money on our Tikal tour and our bus to Antigua. We opted to down grade from the fist class bus to the "US Greyhound bus". Turns out those few extra dollars would have been well spent. We arrived at the bus station an hour earlier like Caesar advised. We saw our bus pull in at around 9:15, sweet we can get good seats we thought. The bus turned off and didn't turn on again for another three hours! We thought we got lucky when another bus pulled into the station but that turned out to be the next schedule bus, so we had to wait. It was nearing 1 am and there was still no bus. Lewis and I were weighing our options, take a taxi back to town get a hostel for the night or sleep outdoors to save money (sorry mom)! No one else seemed to be leaving so we waited it out, and at last the bus started! Yay!!!! An uncomfortable 9 hours later we arrived in Guatemala City to have missed our connecting bus. Due to lack of Spanish we struggled to get the information on when we could leave. In the end I was able to call Cesar's office to ask if we were stranded. Nearly three hours of waiting and a mini bus was honking for us to join. After a very wild bus ride, we made it to our hostel!

We are both a bit apprehensive of this place, it may be way to much of a party site for me to endure, but it's only four weeks. Plus this city is absolute beautiful!!! The town in surrounded by small hill mountains and a volcano! Wish us luck at the Party Jungle Hostel!!!!!

Snorkely Workely

Hello from gorgeous Belize!!!!!

It's day 4 of our trip and I'm still in awe of how beautiful this island is! We are truly living in paradise.

I instantly fell in love with Belize, because it reminds me so much of Ghana. Stepping off the plane I was hit with smells of salt water, gasoline, spicy home cooking, and undertones of poo. Taxi cabs were glorified personal cars and each building is a different color of bright 10 year old pealing paint. After our taxi ride from the airport we crammed into a packed speed boat to our island paradise that we get to call home for seven blissful days! Lewis was pleased to chat with some Aussies on the ride and revamp his Aussies twang,I enjoyed listening.

Now we are settled into our lovely beachfront hostel, swinging in hammocks. What could be better?!?! How about six hours on a sail boat for a full day of snorkeling!!!! The main reason we came here didn't let us down! Unfortunately Lewis's waterproof camera wasn't very waterproof but we'll  have mental pictures of all the cool things we saw for the rest of our lives.  Even though I didn't quiet master the mask, and sported an awful red ring on my face for the day, the views were worth it.

Our first stop was the Coral Gardens where we saw fire coral, brain coral, patriot fish, blue and black angle fish and many more! The Regga King sail boat with Bob Marly jams took us next to Shark Ray Ally. Yeah we swam with nurse sharks and sting rays!!!!!!!! Honestly I was terrified to leap of the boat, and was terrified each time I got even 10 feet near one of these huge creatures, but how cool!!!!!!! The nurse sharks had creepy white eyes and catfish like whiskers, I'm guessing I saw one that was eight feet long! The sharks, sting rays and these other massive fish just mingled together almost like they were trying to huddle for warmth. I wouldn't have expected this kind of co habitation. The last stop of the day was extra special, Ho Chan Marien Resereve. After about 45 seconds in the water everyone ahead ( because I constantly struggled in the back) was very excited because there was a SEA TURTLE! How special is that!!!!! We just got to float above it, as it had a buffet of seaweed. Our guide says they eat up to 10 pounds a day, very massive animal. We got super lucky a saw a spotted eagle sting ray, a green moray eel, and Lewis swam through  a coral reef cave, what a stud! To top it off we drank rum punch on the ride back, I almost fell overboard, and we danced with our new friends at Sports Bar (funny coincidence B town friends), now I'm in a hammock looking at the Carribien sea!

Life is very good :)

Belizeit or Not

Hello Reader!

In a few hours Lewis and I will be in our bikinis on the beach in Belize!!!!!!! Belize kicks off our adventure in through Central and South America.

Here's a quick run down of our trip so far:
Caye Caulker, Belize>Flores, Guatamala> Antigua, Guatemala(1st work for stay hostel)> Mirimar, Nicaragua( 2nd work for stay)> Costa Rica!

Lewis and I will be swapping work for free accomidation for the majority of our trip, but for the next 10 days it's all vaca!!!!!