Surfs Up!

My schedule for each week at the school changes depending on availabilities and the ocean current. I had my first Spanish course at 8 am, followed by my first surf course at 10 am, then back to do a Spanish lab at 1pm. I am enjoying the Spanish lessons as I find them appropriately challenging yet approaching what I need to master the language. The surf lesson was fantastic, I did not get up every time but I learned a lot, and am ready to go back and give it my all. My surf instructor Geudy is great and has a lot of awesome catch phrases. I was informed later though that you need a “rash guard” which is just a lycra shirt that keeps you tucked in and protects your skin from the sun and a rash from sliding on the board and the waves.

Starting Out!

Saying good bye to everyone was definitely hard, but knowing what lay ahead for me made leaving at the same time so exciting. Thank you everyone who came out for my last night in town, made me feel so special and I only blame JT for my hangover! To let you all know getting cheep flights are not quite as good as they seem to be. I spent many hours in multiple airports and it would not have been so bad but I was craving a caeser.....trust me Canadians don't do it, the American “caeser” is quite different than ours. I did however meet some very nice travelling Americans and Nicole the advice on travelling with Canadian tags was positively true.

Sleep deprived after the red eye flight, not finding my friend in the airport in a foreign country made the first few moments abroad a little less comfortable than was expected, but everything seemed to work out ok. For future though I will always remember to set in place “plan B’s” when travelling with others and even myself for that matter.

Zone 13

As Guatemala is a pretty dangerous city to explore on your own I decided to just stay in a safer zone away from downtown and close to the airport. There were a few things to do in this zone, there was a zoo, museums and markets. At the zoo I saw many different types of animals from around the world like lions tigers and bears oh my lol. There were also a lot of monkeys and I really liked the giraffes. At the zoo we saw a show in 3 D about prehistoric animals (monsters) of the sea. The handi craft market was down the street and had your basic Guatemalan goods and a lot of silver and jade. I bought a little silver toe ring, well I hope it is silver, I guess I will know if my toe turns green if I go ripped off or not. Then we tried to go to the modern art museum but it was closed for a private showing so we only got to see the national Museum. It did however have some really beautiful statues and engravings as well as a cool cave with real paintings inside the cave. Leaving tomorrow for San Jose then home!

Spanish Grad

I am now considered an Intermediate Spanish student apparently! The school had a mini graduation for the people that were finishing their week and they gave us a diploma and a t shirt. My diploma said Intermediate it was really thoughtful and was a nice way to say thank you and good bye. The rest of the week I have just been checking out the markets and some of the churches and other preserved buildings in the city. A few of the girls from the school and I went out on Friday for some drinks and dancing but this week has been pretty mello. I am torn between beign excited to come home and live my life with all these new experiences that I have had and beign a little sad that I am leaving all these beautiful places. I guess though I am ready to come home now since it is getting into the rainy season and is difficult to keep a tan while Victoria is becoming warmer and warmer.

Gotta Love Guatemala!

Antigua is a beautiful town in Guatemala that used to be the third capitol if the country but after a large earthquake it changed to what is now called Guatemala City. One of the things I really like about this country is that everyone is so friendly, everyone says hello to you when you are walking down the street and the population is generally happy. The town looks up at a beautiful volcano and is very nicely preserved. It has cobble stone streets, secret passage ways, outdoor laundry fountains and 16 churches (12 which are active). I finally found a Spanish school that was reasonable priced and gave me the type of accommodation I desired. Unfortunately there is no pool but I did find a cool spot on the roof of the house to soak up the sun. The school also offered me a free t shirt, tour of the city and other activities throughout the week and of course hours of Spanish in a one on one setting!!!! Pretty intense but learning the language was one of my goals this trip that I plan to meet.

Copan Honduras

I travelled from Largo de Yojoa to San Pedru Sula which hosts the main bus station and it took two hours then from the main bus station to Copan where the famous ruins were (4 hours). The town is so beautiful, the streets are cobblestone, there are out door markets and it has a beautiful city center. I went for dinner at a pizza place and there I met an older man who used to play in a band. We jammed on his guitar and then the Canucks game came on. The score was not in the favour of the Canucks but it is always nice to be able to catch a game when I can, makes me feel like home is not so far off. It has been a little scary travelling without a guide book and only random internet searches available for information but I have been really lucky so far, everything seems to be working out fairly well and I am making the most of my time. Ruins tomorrow and a little more site seeing then off to Gutemala for some more Spanish!

I switched hostels to a place called Via Via as I got my private room and better internet, it also has a bar and restaurant. After the rude people at the other hostel last  night coming into the door at 3am wasted loud and turning on the lights I needed a good night sleep. After some town site seeing and grocery shopping I headed to the Famous Copan Maya Ruins. It was absolutely breath taking, the restoration was so good and there were not many tourists crowding up the place. I was able to see the statues, museum and ruin site, it took 3 and a half hours. I also got a sneak peek of the tunnels that you were supposed to pay an extra 12$ for by pretending to be a lost tourists who doesn’t understand any Spanish. At the ruins I ran into some other Canadian boys who I had met in Nicaragua, it is always nice to run into people from Canada and of course have some people to talk to on my adventures.

D&D Brewery

I travelled a little south from San Pedro Sula to this little town called Los Naranjos where they have a micro brewery. The chicken bus was a little scary because I thought the trek was supposed to be 1 hour and it ended up beign 2 hours in the mountains, then I wasn’t too sure exactly where this place was as I am now travelling without a guide book. The bus driver said that he would tell me when I was there and I remember reading somewhere that the bus route goes right past the place. So the bus driver says this is my stop at the side of the road and all I see is a sign for D&D Brewery and a long dirt road (not driveway road). I walk for a bit and see a little store I ask the guy if there were cabs here and they were none and then he said the only way to get there was to walk down this road for 10 minutes. A little worried that all of the locals who were on their porches looking at me walk down this road in the middle of nowhere solo, would come out and rob me I was ok. As soon as I got to the Brewery I was set up in a private room because the dorm was messy and they couldn’t tell what bed was clean, then I checked out the taps. I then found myself drinking delicious raspberry ale enjoying the tropical wilderness of Honduras.  This place had a pool, outdoor restaurant and even a horseshoe pit which I consumed for a while! The next day I hooked up with some auzies and went to Largo de Yojoa. There was a beautiful path and nature and we were going to rent canoes until we saw that half of them were sunk by the river.  In the afternoon we went to a coffee plantation, but it was sort of boring and had a hard hike to the top.