nana nana nana nana batcaves!

lanquin, guatemala.

so were chilin in a small town called lanquin at a great hostel called el retiro
great buffet dinners and a dope river right beside..all the rooms are made with wood and thatch leaf roofs
one close by attraction is the grutas de lanquin (caves)
we checked that shit a few days ago and....damnn!
these caves are huge..you can walk back for maybe like half a kilometer..
plus there are many small sections that you could squeeze into...we chose not to do this because the ground is covered in a consistent layer of guana (bat shit)...and me and jon are not real men,,so we dont take rrisks like that.
and shit...holy stalagmites in there!.....they are like the size of a small building
at close to sunset we walked out to the entrance to watch the exodus of the bats.
this was amazing/terrifying
there is a constant stream of bats (tons of them) flying out for maybe like 30 mins.
and they are flying extremely close...if you try to look staright at the stream, it appears there about to hit you in the face but they always seem to turn at the last second...also, they are so fast that its almost impossible to photograph them.
so there was a group of israeli kids just hanging out there like it was nothing...and there was me and jon crouched on the ground with our hands over our heads yelping like little schoolgirls..
bats are mothafucking scary! have you seen pictures of these things? they look bloodthirsty!
anyways...we didnt get eaten...just exhilirated....
so we bought a litre of liquor for 5 dollars to cool down...yep.

we cant post pictures up right now cause the ineternet is too slow in these parts


ps. props to thomas berry for all his blog comments!

danger to the east

recently found out that "bufete popular" is not a popular buffet. it does however have something to do with law..
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did some hiking in the highlands (nebaj). a two hour hike took us to an extemely small town well known for being the worst hit by the military in the civil war. lots of sad faces round here. nights were cold and wet / the elevation was high enough that clouds engulfed the town. 5am morning wake ups by church bells and explosives, sometimes lasting up to 30 min. minimal tourists / our presense in the streets attracted more looks and laughs than usual. and, we ate 7 meals at precisely one restaurant.
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spent the majority of the day taking shuttle vans east (the alternative to busses but not the better of the two). the 2nd of 3 had over 30 people in and on it, which beats our current record of 22. not an inch of space could be called my own. even my lungs were at half capacity. more, we spent half an hour riding the roof with the baggage. funandscary. this was probably the only time in my life i was preparing for the most painless exit route (m.p.e.r). to make matters a bit more exciting, like our last chicken bus excursion, the roads were... a-hem, eccentric? bumps, curves, cliffs and massive rock/land slides in frequent intervals. danger man. i didnt blink once.

at any rate,
arrived at "the famous" el retiro lodge in lanquin tonight. we were welcomed with a well deserved hearty buffet.. we will probably spend some time here.

buses, mountains, hangovers

hi there.
today Jon and I left the tourist stained cobblestones of Antigua and decided to head up in the mountains. this required roughly five different buses. all of which were fairly sketchy.
guatemala is very mountanous...so your constantly driving up and down these mountains...this usually occurs with zig zag roads/switchbacks...whatever you wanna call them.
to preapre for this journey we drank a bottle of the cheapest rum we could find in antigua. neither of us remember what happened that night...only that we bought chips at some point.
so here we are riding these suspension-less buses which are sending us flying off our seats every few minutes or so...zig zagging back and forth, feeling like the bus should probably tip over at any point, with drivers who seem to enjoy passing others cars on dangerous blind corners....extremely hungover.....

but the views were nice.

also we managed to fit 22 people into our mini van at one point. thats a personal best in my experience!

lava!

we gone done a volcano tour a few days back. it was really special to see lava. so warm and inviting. what made the tour even more special were the hyper-cautious elderly americans that joined us. one woman inparticular was on a lot of uppers and pounding back 3 liters of grape soda. she ultimately did not make the summit.

the shuttle to the volcano was an adventure in itself. we had to pull over due to white smoke and someone yelling ´fire!´ the americanos almost killed each other to get out the door. colin and i sat there quietly.. after much argument, 50 onlookers and the fire departments arrival, everyone piled back into the van.

i have photos but the internet is hurting in these parts.

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just outside of antigua,
spent a few days up in the mountains at a cottage like getaway called the earth lodge. got some hiking in and witnessed some serious local culture. not much else to be said here. they had some alright dogs and avacados.

san pedro

dec 8 - witnessed a wacky religious procession in san pedro la laguna a few nights ago. people crowded the centro to catch a glimpse of the shrine they call maria. her heavy float-like carcus was carried by 20 elderly women who slowly made their way around the streets. the most entertaining aspect of this procession was not maria herself, but the firework display leading her on. every 10 feet she would settle and the ´pyro-technicians´ (kids) would unroll carpets of fire-crackers. they must have lit millions of them because the sound didnt stop.
after 20 minutes of loud and smoke and earplugging, things got a little tiresome.. good thing it was a 3 hour ceremony! and in the not so far distance, la policia and others were setting off mortors into the powerlines.. smart.

and that´s when the bull came out.. just strapped with dynamite, a man dressed like a bull ran through the crowd. his explosives would occasionally fall off near our position and we would do our best to protect our eyeballs.

the highlight was when they busted out the big mortors that misfired. i only caught the after-sights, but a man got blown into a store by a faulty fireball. he came out ok but his sombrero was all chard up.
(a few shitty pictures to come)
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finished with school for now and bounced over to antigua, an old colonial style town surrounded by active volcanoes. feels really good to take control of my diet again. no more tortillas.

garbage in guatemala

guatemala has some garbage problems.
environmental consciousness here is not too high, so its quite common for people to throw wrappers and bags on the ground after using them...not to mention the´pristine´lake we are on has quite a bit of disgustingness floating around in it.

yesterday i saw an old man picking up garbage on his on accord..and i thought, its nice to see someone doing something.
right after i pointed his actions out to jon..the garbage he was picking up of the concrete street..he proceeded to throw on top of the coffee plants growing in someones lawn.

:)

layn´ low

layn´low for the time being. both got our own families. school mon to fri, 8 to 12. a few friends from puerto escondido made an appearance on the island. no toilet seats. been eating nothing but tortillas for the most part. mmm suffered the most agonizing 20 hours of my life yesturday. 12pm to 8am i was incapacitated with cold sweats.

jl

working class heroes

7am- we meet up with antonio and 4 other students for a hike into the mountains. we piled into a large flatbed truck with 30 other labourors (and a dog - shakey jim), all of which were wielding machetes. the 20 minute drive took us uphill to an extensive network of cornfields, coffee and avacado plantations. periodic stops were made to allow men and boys of all ages to disembark.

our hike took us into the peripheral of a diciduous forest. we stopped at a religious shrine..and if what i understood from antonio s spanish explination is correct, a certain sect of people from the area gather twice a year, drink, and sacrifice some animals. whoa.

murrrrrrrder.

after guatemala we´re headin to el salvador
i just found out its the leader in murder for ppl between the ages of 15 and 24

on a personal accomplishment note
after el sal....i´ll have been to the top 4 murder countries in the world

check the link
send us a gun if you can




http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7750054.stm

YOUTH MURDER RATES PER 100,000
1. El Salvador: 92.3

2. Colombia: 73.4

3. Venezuela: 64.2

4. Guatemala: 55.4

5. Brazil: 51.6

15. South Africa: 16.6

70. Greece: 0.5

76. Japan: 0.3

Source: Ritla, Instituto Sangari

mike bell

internet cafe´s are more common around these parts than honda civics in etobicoke.

more people make use of them.

letter to family

as much as i am joking, this is no joke; i am renting a guatamalan family here in san pedro.
i just moved in today. im living, eating, breathing spanish with descendents of the ancient mayan civilization.
i am really out of my element right now, but my spanish is sky rocketing. beyond the family stay, im doing 4 hours of class per day for 5 days a week. this whole program cost 120$ USD per week, probably the cheapest in the world.

the house is very minimalistic and rustic. its a bit worrysome at first but after the lunch maria (mom) made for us, my nerves settled down a bit. its a family of 4: father, mother, 14 yearold brother and 2 year old sister (and a young girl the hire as slave kinda?¿). they all call me Juan. yikes. in the family s spare time they sew backpacks (mochillas) for Jansport. what the hell, right?

if you want to see some pictures and read some commentary of my trip so far, visit.. www.jonandcolin.blogspot.com
it starts from the bottem and works its way up (so my newest postings will be at the top).

i have a really cool picture to send all of you, but i forgot my chord, so i will send it later.

take care.
i still love you all. this new family of mine is only for the experience.

- Juan

kings of the court in Gtown

today.
colin and i paired off against two young girls in a good ol game of AMERICAN BASKETBALL. needless to say, we slaughtered em.

this picture is a very accurate discription of the match. even an average 5 ten-er like myself has skysraper advantage in this part of the world - feel my rath.

"in-yo face sucka!"

San Pedro...we have new familes

Yo.
Were in San Pedro. Still on the same Lake...only better.
tried to bargian for a cheap boat here but only recevied a smile of silver teeth and a no.
We now directly beside the volcano...and there are almost no cars..mostly because there arent really streets...a lot of navigation is done through little alleys about 5 feet wide...however some people still rip through on their motorbikes.
there is also coffee trees growing everywhere...which is good for colin (me).
on the newsfront.
Jon and I have new familes....we are staying with familes as we attempt to learn the spanish language. theyre pretty tight...they cook us food and talk to us..ive got a personal rooftop terrace..and a crazy white dog named terry.
more news on this as it becomes more awkward..

impressions on guatemala
positives
1) lots of cofee
2) pretty cheap
3)incredibly beautiful
4)50 cent rum and cokes
5)dope traditonal clothing
6)lots of basketball ( at least in our town)

negatives
1) everyone tries to sell me weed (should be good but i dont trust anyone)
2) everyone tries to sell me prostitutes after i say i dont want weed
3) a large majority of guatemalans are eveangelical christians ( same religion as Geroge W and the southern USA)
4)falafels are expensive

TORONTONIAN (24) MAULED BY 3 SPANISH STREET DOGS

Guatamala - sustaining lethal lascerations to the neck, pelvis and 3rd lumbar, Jon Lee, was carried by coconut throne to the nearest hospital.

"I begged for mercy but they were unrelenting.. so blood thirsty. or perhaps they couldn t understand english."








back to reality, yesturday we peeped a natural reserve just outside of town. for about $6 USD we got to check some butterflies, waterfalls and spidermonkeys. truthfully, i was more focused on the 3 tacos for $1.25 waiting for me back in town. later that evening i ate an argentinian empenada and a whole coconut for about $2. i lost $6 on peso exchange and ripped off for $2 more at the hotel. that s a fine day.

































behind the buildings is a volcanoe..

guat-E

misprint in last blog.. not 2000 ft. - 7800 ft.!
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it recently occured to me that oaxaca was our first trip inland since jasper, ab. that was almost a month and a half ago - wow!

further,
goodbyes to mexico. hasta lluego. you have allowed me to see large quantities of hair jel, and in recent days, children{s boxing matches (unethical, yes. but they were too young and weak to actually hurt each other).
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guatamala is lush and tropical. there are plenty of children intentionally flying kites next to powerlines. the woman are swinging the hoe in the fields (with two babies on their back), and the men are tearing up city streets with a chizle and hammer.
also,
similarly to the girls in south east asia, the water quality here is the pits. so we are watching our anus s very closely now.

that little lake on the bottem left corner of the map is where we{re at - lake atitlan.

Guatemala...wow

we spent one night in san cristobal de las casas...it was really nice..but we just didnt know what to do (i did mange to get a falafel though)
so we hopped in a van for guatemala.
i kinda fell asleep for the exit of mexico..so i cant say much about that
but guatemala is crazy..its weird the sensation you get crossing a border..i mean its not real at all....just some bloody lines...and yet you get this excitement because youre entering into "new place".
first imprerssion of guatemala is that is incredibly beautiful...we came in through the highlands so everywhere you look a large hills/mountains with a powdery covering of green foliage...everything is incredibly lush and fecund.
so far ive noticed a lot of speedbumps, indigenous people, cool ass stray dogs, and handicrafts

we{re currently at panajchel....which is a 300m deep lake (actually a volcanic crater) surrounded by hills and volcanoes.....its a pretty breathtaking spot..

jon. post some pics yo!

colder still...

oaxaca to san cristolbal, 2000 ft. in the sky. got into a car (or bus) accident last night on a curvy mountainous road. rear-ended by an 18 wheeler. all is well, though. only minor damages.

there´s a lot of hippies and reggae here. can´t say how i feel about that... tomorrow or the next day we´re over to guatamala.

monte alban ruins

saw some ruins, napped on the grass.
its cold in the morning. first time i{v been cold/worn socks in a month.
colin... write something.

have you any children?

a little more PE..
it has been our longest stay of about 5 or 6 nights. and, beyond the hostel and people that made the stay what it was, i met a cool street dog named stealy-dan. he liked stealing people´s towels and blankets right from underneath them, and i liked that.

other highlights include:

-hitching a ride on the back of a bumper from a distant surf spot. we needed a ride, and he needed directions.

-most of time, poop-tickets go in the waste basket.
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this morning we arrived in oaxaca, capital of oaxaca state. in the underworld, oaxaca is acclaimed for its one-of-a-kind hot chocolate. this is the first thing we bought upon arrival. mmmm. switzerland´s got nothing!&%·
























stealy dan and I

puerto escondido

we just spent a week in puerto escondido...didnt do much blogging cause we were busy doing nothing...
vans surf contest....our freind from the hostel won the bikini contest (props nicole!)
we made friends with lots of stray dogs on the beach,,,surfed a bit...you tube parties...lots of nights on the beach.....sunburns
i dont really know how the rest of the days past....7 dollars for a litre of gin maybe?..
i also learned that i hate sandals.