Last night at Jungle party, Luis on the right

Am Departure

Snack for the road

The hill of Guatemala

We were picked up by a shuttle that we arranged the day before to go up Semuc Champey. This is a natural wonder. A series of limestone pools with a giant river that flows underneath them. The hostel we booked, recommended by Nate was right at the entrance to the pools and had a great river that ran past. It is still up in the air if we want to spend three nights or two. The shuttle ride is eight hours to get there, not too torturous either. Every blog that Mateo or I have read say we must do the tour, I’m not into tours but we are going to do it. After a senic drive through Guatemala’s countryside we arrived. The first thing I notice once we were on to dirt roads were the cocoa trees, they were everywhere, just growing wild. I couldn’t believe it. I had completely forgotten that this is where chocolate comes from! It only grows within 20 degrees of the equator. We really have arrived into an Emily paradise.

Crossing over this lovely bridge

fancy dirt roads

Moved into our dorm room for the next couple days and met the Swedish couple who were sharing it with us. Spent the evening playing jenga and had dinner. The food at the hostel was cheap and really tasty. That has been a theme on our trip, cheap and tasty, and when we do go to a real restaurant it’s is normally underwhelming and expensive. Street venders are typically safe or out of business. I wonder about the day when our luck runs thin and what that will look like. For now we live without fear!
I woke up at 6:30am, I am an early riser I like to enjoy the morning, our tour took off at 10am so I had time. I watched the lastest round of people leave and enjoyed listening to other peoples conversations about where they had come from and how they where getting to to their next destination. Not being on the bike has thrown us into somewhat of a backpacker whirlwind culture where many people talk of where they are from and where they are going. The culture of the country your in is some what lost in it all in a hostel, mainly all foreigners and English. I enjoy it and I don’t, I want to know who people are are not just where they have been or where they are going. Maybe who they are will all come later on, the Swedish people we met are really nice. I hope to find myself meeting them again but in Sweden.