Into the Energy Vortex

After spending a week at utila getting my open water scuba diving certification I caught the boat back to the mainland before the hurricane hit the island! Scuba diving was an amazing experience. I had a very long travel to lake atitlan after this... Traveling by bus for about 24 hours. Lake atitlan is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. I spent the first night in panajachel and took a boat to San Pedro la laguna the next day. Definitely one of my favorite places on the trip so far.

Apparently lake atitlan is one of the three energy vortexes in the world which include the great pyramids and machu pichu. I think I'm now a believer in this after what happened yesterday. I was in San Pedro for about 2 hours when I heard someone call my name as I was walking down the street. I looked back, and there was my ex-girlfriend Kira! I was sooo shocked to see her... I still am. We went and had a beer and chatted a little. The evening was incredibly surreal. I also met up with another friend of mine here from when I was in xela. That's to be expected though when you're on the traveling circuit.

So what am I doing here? I'm actually taking more Spanish lessons. I found a very inexpensive school and housing...
I'm also beginning to feel a bit homesick and anxious to find a job when I return to the states... I'm feeling very poor (as in no money) right now. But dwelling on the future is bad for my health, so I'm going to try not to worry about it until it's time. Now, I will just enjoy the lake, my tacos, my capuchino, and my Spanish homework. Here are some pics from the lake and San Pedro:

Scuba diving

when I posted last, I was in Flores debating where to go next. I wanted some place to chill for a few days at a good beach... With the possibility of trying scuba diving. My first destination was Livingston. Livingston can only be reached by boat as there are no roads into the town. Because of this I took the beautiful boat ride down the rio dulce to get there. Immediately after getting off the boat, I had about five different locals trying to lead me to some hotel so they receive commission. This place was completely different than everywhere else in Guatemala. There were some good places to eat, but other than that, there was not much to do. I decided that the next morning I would travel into honduras and over to the bay islands and learn to scuba dive. This is probably the cheapest and one of the best places to scuba in the world. Getting there required about 10 transfers in transportation, but I was still able to make it in just over one day. I've been here for about five days now, and after training for the last 3, I finally got to go out into the open water and scuba. AMAZING!!! I have two more dives tomorrow and two more on Friday. Today we descended to about 40 feet, tomorrow and the next day around 60 feet.

Welcome to paradise

I've been able to see and experience some amazing things in the past few days. I arrived to coban a few nights ago and promptly left for lanquin and semuc champey the next morning. I got to semuc at about 11 and swam until the parked closed at 5. This place is probably the most magical place I've ever been to. Semuc is a series of crystal clear aqua-green pools with small cliffs and waterfalls to jump off. What makes it even more incredible is that I sits on top of a powerful river rushing underneath it.

The next day I took a tour of the b.... Caves. This was a very special tour because it required wading and swimming a kilometer deep while holding a candle as your light source. The cave is actually 11 km long. After this I went and explored the lanquin caves. The chambers were huge and home to hundreds of thousands of bats. I was at the cave at dusk, which is the best time to see all the bats flying out into the night.

The next morning I took the long trip up to Flores. I took a shuttle bus full of people from all over the world. None from the us. I also met many people at semuc and Tikal (where I was today) from all over the world.... But none from the us. I found that kind of odd. Anyway, I uad some time to walk around Flores last night, and I have to say that it is the most beautiful town I've been to yet... It's very nice here, but is also very touristy. Many very nice restaurants that are way out of my price range and some nice cafes.

Today I caught a shuttle at 6am to go to Tikal, probably the best place to see Mayan ruins anywhere. I'm glad I went early, the ruins were spectacular, and I had them all to myself. Crowds of people started pouring in around 10. I was at the park for 7 hours... If that gives you any idea of how big the place is. I'm not totally sure what I'm doing tomorrow yet. I think I'll probably go to livingston... A town that is supposed to be much different than the rest of guatemala and much more like Jamaica or other caribean places. Hope you enjoy the pictures.