guatemalan misadventures

so... i'm hungry, i'm hungover and i'm woozy, but i'm posting. last night was pretty awsome, but i got a bit carried away, i think im done drinking for a while. We are currently staying at Los Amigos hostel in flores guatemala. last night I was down by the water with a group from the hostel because they dont alow us to play music late in the hostel due to complaints from the neighbors in the past. these two english kids, i call them the producers because one is studying music production and the other film production, were playing songs on guitar and singing. a few people had bongo drums, and there was lots of rum and gallo(guatemalan beer)involved. the producers names are Dominic and Phil. also present were two sweeds named rasmus and frida, alex and sara who we have been traveling with since barton creek, a kid from quibek canada, and maybe even a frenchman. It was a wonderful night, but Ahnna was not amused when i stumbled in drunk and wet from stepping into what looked just like sand and turned out to be muck about hip deep. so yea, exnay on the locohola-ay for a while.

to back up a bit, after the last post we crossed the border of belize into guatemala and took a minibus strait to tikal. Tikal is one of the biggest ruins in guatemala i'm told, and it did not disapoint. unfortunately Ahnna's memory card for her camera broke so we may have lost our pictures, i'll try and find out later today. I made the major mistake of not taking out enough money in belize and the ATM's this side of the border are always a gamble so we got to tikal with just enough money to pay the minibus driver and then we were flat broke. this is not a mistake i ever recomend anyone making. it ended up costing me maybe 50 us dollars over all because the only way to get money was to eat at the most expensive restaruant and then pay with the card and get cash back(when they were willing to give it too you, which was never at the times I needed it) at a charge of 10% of whatever they give you back and 5% added to your food bill for using a card. we almost couldn't afford to get into the ruins, but Jane, one of our travel mates from barton creek, had a $40 US emergency fund that she loaned us. so things worked out, but barely. Learn from my mistake, when traveling into a new country, do not assume you will have access to your bank account.

In tikal we stayed in hamocks in the camping area for a little less than 10 us a night. the first day we went and did a canopy tour on zip lines. it was fun, but rushed. i expected alot more info about the jungle and maybe a moment at a high point to enjoy the view. instead it was a speed relay of gringos by our guatemalan "guides". We decided to pay for the sunrise tour. We got up at 4.30 am and hiked into the ruins up to the top of temple 4 and watched the sun fill in the vista to the sound of exotic birds and howler monkeys. it was an excelent experience. that being said, i really expected that we would be some of the only people up there that early. as we were waiting with our guide for the last person to join our tour a group of 20 passed us on the way into the park. i thought, 'whatever, its not that many people', and just then a convoy of caravans pulled up and unloaded maybe 100 tourists. On the way into the park i felt the overwhelming ugre to bleet. i was pleasantly suprised however because we got there before the majority of people and got a seat up front and once everyone filled in this mean looking dude with a peice of mohogany through his nose between his eyes gave a very concise speach informing everyone that they essentially needed to shut the F*#$ up so people could enjoy the experience. i almost managed to forget all the people as the sun came up. we ate papaya and doritos while we watched. there was no real sunrise in the traditional sense of seeing the sun itself. but watching the jungle and temples materialize out of the fog and darkness was really quite enjoyable. our guide proved very knowledgeable and told some excelently funny stupid gringo storries.

we left tikal for Flores as soon as we left the ruins. all of us were out of money at this point, but we figured we could just tell the busdriver to take us to the atm when we got here. guess what, it wasn't working. i don't think he had understood that we were depending on it for his payment, but it provided him excelent inscentive to find us one that did work. we walked across the bridge to flores and had a nice siesta(nap) at our hostel Los Amigos. It was alex's birthday so we went in search of good times that night. a couple from humboldt county had heard about an after party on another island, we wandered until we found a boat, it was windy and the water was a beautiful dark turquoise. When we found a boat and told him which island he said it was too windy to go that far. so instead we walked all the way around the island and ended up on the main drag. we went all the way down the main drag to the end of the street where we found a cool looking club. we were frisked on the way in which made me feel safe, i don't mind getting punched by a local, but stabbed i'm not ok with. As it turned out i was in for something far less violent and far more distrubing.

we were dancing and drinking, having a good time. myself and sara went to the bathroom. there was a line. the guy in front of me went in and locked the door. another guy came up at the end of the line and said something like "es para dos" and knocked on the door. dude unlocked the door and the guy from the back of the line went in and turned imediately to the right. i figured he had to go really bad and that there was a urinal on the right hand side. dude from the back of the line came out again and motioned me in. i go in and turn to the right. no urinal. instead, theres a hole in the wall and an exposed virtical pipe. i'm puzzled to say the least, but whatever, i can piss into a pipe if the locals can. I unzip and just as it starts to flow i feel a tap on my shoulder. the guy who was using the actual toilet is seeming to motion me to it. i ignore his first tap, but the second sufficiently stemed my flowage. whatever, i think, i don't want to be rude, not a single alarm bell is ringing in my head yet. as i turn to use the actual toilet the guy reaches for my crotch. now alarms are blaring... "NO" i say and turn away, the man was very unimposing as he again attempted to grab my junk saying "es bien, es bien" or something like that. "No es bien!!! no es para mi, no es para mi!!!" i replied, and as politely as i could i shoved him out the door and locked it. I finished my buisness and left the bathroom. sara told me that outside the guy who had motioned me in had been laughing and making thrusting motions with his hips.

so yea, that was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. I hope you all get as much of a laugh out of that story as i did.

yesturday was beatifully relaxed and unproductive until our late night jam session. and now i'm recovering and seriously contemplating going to utila honduras with jane to get my advanced open water certification for scuba diving. ahnna would go off with sara since she wants to see more of Guatemala and then we would meet up at lake atitlan in a week or two and head back to belize before returning to utilla where i think i have decided i'm going to go for my dive master certification which will allow me to get a job taking people on dives. but who knows what the future holds. to find out stay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel.