Make the most of every opportunity we have. Often times, when we're in our daily grind, we take for granted the gift of a new day. Days come and go. They can get monotonous. We never know when our last one will be until it's already gone. I'm as guilty as anyone. But these last couple of weeks have really shown me how valuable each day can be. They've been full of new experiences, new faces, and new ideas. I know it's easy for me to say, as I travel from place to place, but there are ways we can all do this in our day-to-day lives. Whether it's reconnecting with old friends, greeting a stranger on the street, reading a new book, or going down a new path on the way home There are so many ways we can break the daily monotony and find ways to give back and gain from every single day. Lives can completely transform in a day. I know I will, not look at a single day in the same way after this experience. A week seems like such a long time when each day is a new adventure. When I last left y'all, I was on my way to San Pedro at Lake Atitlán. The lake and the surrounding towns were beautiful. We spent three nights in town at Mikaso, a hotel right on the lake. When we arrived Monday evening, we were greeted by a beautiful sunset over the lake and the surrounding volcanoes (San Pedro and Atitlán). It was a nice, tranquil place to spend a few days. We spent the first day shooting pool, reading on the deck, kayaking/swimming around the lake and relaxing in the hot tub. The views as we kayaked around the lake were pretty incredible. The lake is nestled in the highlands surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. We navigated around the shores of San Pedro for about an hour. At one point, we kayaked through an abandoned house on the water right next to our hotel. It was full of graffiti and some pretty cool street art. Earlier in the day, on our way back from a tasty taco lunch, we saw a sign that was advertising a pool tournament Tuesday night at Wild Rover, a pub not too far from we were staying. It was 10Q ($1.40) to enter and first place takes 150Q with a minimum of 8 players. The math was easy. We get our group of five (Pat, Matt, and I plus Avi and Johanna from our Acatenango hike) to enter and our odds to win are pretty good. There were 12 total that entered. After the first round three of us were still left standing, with Avi being the prohibitive favorite. The crowd favorite after her first round upset win was Rosa, a local Guatemalan banana bread seller in her seventies. The owner of the pub, an Irishman Paul, had told us that Rosa started playing about four years ago and comes in the evenings to sell her bread and play a little pool. She was awesome! Avi ultimately went down in the finals despite being up 6 to 0 on some weird technical rule. Although we didn't make it out winners, we all had a blast. So much so that we returned the following night for some more pool. The following day we decided to go horseback riding around the lake and up the San Pedro Volcano. Pat, Matt and I rode Gitana, Morena, and Muñeca as our guide Luis took us on a three hour ride around the Finca, a coffee plantation on the side of the mountain. The horses were great and at one point we were at a full on gallop, pretty exhilarating. The views of the lake on horseback were gorgeous. With a storm rolling in over the lake that afternoon we came back at a much quicker pace as to avoid the rain. There may have been some casualties along the way as Matt's horse ran over a dog and my knee banged into the rearview mirror of a tuk tuk as my horse tried to pass Pat's on the inside. Luckily, we all made it back safely to lunch just before the storm let loose. The following day we returned to Antigua for a night before making our way to Semuc Champay. It's really difficult not to spend more time in Antigua. The city has so much charm and the people are so great. I spend the day relaxing and exploring more of the city. I had some postcards that I'd been meaning to mail for a couple days but the post office in San Pedro had closed and as luck would have it, the one in Antigua had closed too. Supposedly they were shutting down all over the country. I went to the UPS equivalent in Guatemala to see how much it would be to send them, $25 per postcard! I went back to Matiox, my home in Antigua, and asked Andrea if she knew where I could send them out. She made a few phone calls and made it happen! One again, Andrea and Mario to the rescue! She figured out that I could buy postage and leave them at the reception of Santo Domingo, a stunning 5-star resort a block away from Matiox. Leave it to the 5-star hotel to take care of all your shipping needs. Santo Domingo is a converted monastery and surrounding ruins. It's massive, probably the size of an entire city block. It's extremely unassuming from the outside but inside it has five museums, an incredible pool, and dozens of gorgeous macaws gawking around the grounds. I'm so happy I stumbled in there. The following day we were off to Semuc Champay. I was late on reserving my seat on the shuttle so I had to book the 2pm. Pat and Matt were on the 8am. I wasn't looking forward to the ride as it was a 9+ hour ride to go 45 miles through the mountain and jungle. Before heading on the shuttle I went and got lunch at place I'd been meaning to eat at for a few days now. It's a little shop in Antigua, about five blocks from Matiox. It's called Odilia’s and for 20Q I had probably the best meal I've had on the trip to date, fresh handmade tortillas, stewed chicken, rice, beans, and a delicious salsa. I would've ordered seconds had I not had to get back to catch my shuttle. 2pm came and went and no sign of my shuttle. There were four Germans who had arrived to Matiox the previous night that were also on their way to Semuc. After waiting for about an hour, the shuttle arrived at Matiox to pick us up at a quarter past three. Luckily, it was just the fives of us on the shuttle so we were able to spread out and rest a bit on our 8.5hr ride to Lanquin, the town 10km outside of Semuc Champey. On the ride, I'd gotten a message from the Kiwis saying the hostel we'd originally booked was full and they had to stay at another hostel. The Germans had not booked a hostel yet, so I figured the five of us could figure out where to stay when we got to Lanquin. When we got to Lanquin at around 11:45pm there were only two options and one of them was recommended by TripAdvisor, GreenGos. Little did we know it was another 1hr from Lanquin through a muddy, unpaved road in the back of a truck in the middle of the njghts. We had our fair share of gasps, bumps, and laughs. We finally made it to GreenGos a little before 1am. We went dropped our things off and hit the sack. The following morning we got up around 9am packed our bags with towels and some snacks and made our way to Semuc Champey. The nice thing about GreenGos is that it is a 10min walk to the national park, so you avoid having to take the shuttle to and from Lanquin if you're going to explore Semuc Champey or the nearby caves. Semuc Champey is a beautiful chain of turquoise-colored pools with a river running underneath them. We decided to start a visit with a trip to the Mirador to see the pools from up high. Note to self: hiking in Toms, probably not the best idea. We didn't realize the hike to El Mirador would be just that, a hike! Nevertheless we made it up in safely. And the views made the trudge up and down the muddy mountain well worth it! After a few minutes of taking in the views and snapping some pictures, it was time to go for a swim! As we were making our way down we could hear the howl of howler monkeys in the area. What's even more magnificent than taking the views from the top was exploring the pools first hand. The water was such a pure color and the temperature, perfectly refreshing. There was a series of about four-five pools with little waterfalls and slides all of which were pretty deep. We dove, swam and slid for a few hours in that little piece of paradise nestled in a tree-lined jungle valley. At around 2pm, we started to make our way up the road to our hostel, but not before we stopped at a little street stall for lunch. It was a quick, cheap lunch that hit the spot. One the walk back we were asked about 20 times if we wanted to buy some chocolate from local kids. They were so impressive. They had their set phrases which they shouted out without a hint of an accent. They even showed off their counting skills in 7 languages. Chiara decided to buy some chocolate from the kids and really enjoyed it. Back at the hostel, we hung out and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. We played some sand volleyball on the court that are right in the middle of the grounds. Elena and I dominated Luca and Chiara on the court. We played and won two matches before the afternoon rain started to come down. We decided to take advantage of the happy hour and played a couple rounds of pong. The Dream Team domination continued on the table as Elena and I took the 3 out of 5 games to win the match! By this time, the common areas had begun to fill up as two shuttles had arrived with tons of Israeli tourists. The music was bumping and we decided to play a game of Jenga. Before our tower was toppled we had some pretty fun challenges to complete. Luca somehow managed to pull all of the best ones, including Jalapeño Munch and Traditional Dress. By the end of the night we all completed some interesting challenges including a group late night swim in the adjacent river. We were such fun group that the owner of the hostel offered to let us stay an extra night for free. We thanked him and told him we had to continue on to Flores. The following morning we packed our bags and began our journey to Flores at 7am. We took that same bumpy road back to Lanquin to catch our shuttle to Flores. The ride was a beautiful one that went through the jungle and across the river that runs under Semuc Champey. Even though it was 7am and we were all still quite tired, we decided to see the bumps in the road as part of the excitement of the adventure rather than an annoyance. Sure, it would've been great to traverse the 10km between Semuc and Lanquin on a smooth to paved road, but I realize more and more each day that these bumps in the road bring a little life into each day. They keep you on your toes and ensure you enjoy your destination that much more because the journey was such a wild one. We made it safely to La Isla de Flores at about 4pm after a river crossing, two rest stops and two shuttle transfers. After a long day in shuttles, we rested for a bit and then set out to find some cheap eats. Every restaurant we walked by was pretty pricey but Guatemalan standards. Luckily after about 10mins of walking around the small island we stumbled upon some street vendors that were packed, always a good sign. We had some tacos, tamales, tostadas and horchatas. Those were followed up by some luscious chocolate and dulce de leche cakes. On our way back, we stopped by the central plaza and shot some hoops at the basketball court. It was fun to get a few shots in before calling it a night. Today, we’re going to explore the island a bit more and maybe go for a swim in the lake. Tomorrow will be an exciting day as we make the hour and a half trip to the Mayan ruins at Tikal. I've heard great things and excited to check them out. I hope everyone back home is doing great! I've really appreciated all of the kind words and thoughts you've been sharing with me thus far. I'm bummed that I am missing out on some fun celebrations in the past couple and upcoming few weeks (including Cate's birthday today, Feliz Cumpleaños!!), but know I'm definitely there in spirit. Love and miss you all very much! Hope everyone has a great week!
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AuthorColombian-born, Brooklyn educator traveling the world Archives
May 2017
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