Finally in Mexico!

Hey everybody!

It´s been a long time since I wrote something, but I have not been around internet for most of the time!

After spending a lovely last weekend in Antigua in the pool and the sauna, Rodney and I left for Copan, Honduras, where there are ancient maya ruines with lots of inscripions. The hills were super green there, definately a nice change from the dryer mountains around Antigua!

Next, we went to Lanquin with some dutch friends that we bumped into in Antigua. Lanquin is a little town in the centre of Guatemala. We went to the caves there, where we saw lots of bats, and went tubing in the river (very cool!). The place we stayed at had the most amazing, comfortable hammocks to hang out in too!! We also visited the turquoise pools and the cave at Semuc Champey. In the cave, we had to swim with candles and climb up waterfalls etc. Very adventurous!!

After a couple of relaxing days, we left for Flores, in the north of Guatemala. We visited Tikal (ancient ruines). We wanted to see the sunrise here, so we stayed the night at a hotel in the park, where (being very cheap), we rented a tent with the six of us (without matrasses!)– not very comfortable, but we had a great time! It was definately worth it, seeing the sun rise over the jungle from the top of an ancient temple while hearing howler monkeys!!!

One of the guys we travelled with that week convinced me to go on a 6 day jungle trek to El Mirador and Nakbe (2 ancient ruines further north). Unfortunately, Rodney couldn´t come along, since he cut his toe while swimming in the cave. I ended up doing the jungle trek with 2 guys from the U.S, 1 from New-zealand and one girl from germany. We had a guide and horses to carry the food, camping gear and luggage. It was 2 days walking to El Mirador, where we stayed a day and got a tour from the project leader. Then, it was 4 hours to Nakbe and after, another 2 days walking back to the town we started from. It was such a great experience – seeing monkeys, tucans and only jungle for 6 days and playing card games on the top of an ancient temple in the moonlight with great company!

After chilling in the hammocks on the roof of our hotel in Flores for another 2 days, I unfortunately had to leave. I went to Palenque, Mexico (yes, again mayan ruines) and stayed there for a day visiting the ruines. Yesterday, I arrived at San Cristobal de Las Casas, about 5 hours south of Palenque, a mayan mountain city. Today, I visited a super nice canyon and actually spoke spanish again with chileans all day!! Muy bien!

Monday or Tuesday, I´ll meet up with Rodney again at the beach near Cancun for a couple of days of beach relaxation before I have to leave this friday!