Guatemala

On the weekend we went to Guatemala! We left early in the morning and headed for the boarder. When we got there the money changers came running to exchange out Belizean money into Guatemalan money. We parked our bus on the Belize side of the boarder and walked with out backpacks over the Belize boarder and the Guatemalan boarder. It was exciting to enter another new country, to get another new stamp in my passport. The other side of the boarder was a lot busier. And there was Pepsi! I learned on that day that Coca-cola has a monopoly in Belize and that you aren’t not even allowed to bring anything Pepsi across the boarder into Belize!

Thank fully we had a family who went with us from Belize. Ian and Shenny and their kids, Sheanne, Elisha and Joel. Shenny is from Guatemala so she knows how things work there, and she can speak Spanish. Once in Guatemala Shenny organized for us to rent these 20 seater bus-van things. We road in those for about 2 hours.

The roads in Guatemala were very wide and dusty. There were lots of random pigs on the side of the road. Our bus chose to drive on either side of the road… which ever side was better. About half of our ride was on a dirt road, the other half was on a paved road.

The place that we stayed in Guatemala was called Las Flores. It is a small tourist island. It was not a high tourist season, though, which was nice. We got set up in a hotel with two people per room… and a pool… and AC… and HOT SHOWERS! It was such a nice treat.

Los Flores was beautiful! The roads were all coble stone and the stores were all nicely painted and bright. I didn’t end up buying all that much there. Thing were pretty cheap, but I have spent so much so far so I thought that I should hold off a little.

On Sunday in the afternoon we departed from Los Flores and headed for Tikal, which is a Mayan City. It was amazing there. The other Mayan ruins that I have been to have only had one large temple and then a few other small buildings. This one had several huge temples and tons of small structures.

Going to Guatemala was so refreshing. It was relaxing, exciting, gorgeous, and I had a chance to get to know Lisa and Hannah better. It was so good!