Traveling south in guatamala

Hey everyone,

First of all, Happy newyears! gelukkig nieuwjaar! Felice Anjo Nuevo!
And I hope that everyone has had a good cristmas, kerstmis, navidad!

You guys might have been wondering: whats up with this guy, what the hell is he doing there in guatamala, why guatamala?! Well, i´m really enjoying my self, chillin, relaxing, learning new things about life...
.. And i haven´t even started my spanish classes jet.. thats next ;) It kinda got prolonged, i´ll tell you why..

So lets get back to flores, from where i last put down a message, where i was with those 5 guys from all over the world... well, one day I kinda got inpatiant and together with the turkish guy, who is called ¨Levend¨ i went to el renate, and after watching a beatiful sundown, i went to bed, because the next morning we where getting toured trough the dark, 4 a clock in the morning, to reach tempel 5 in tikal..

Temple 5 is the most western temple, that is looking to the east, where you see 3 other tempels appearing trough the fog.. just after the sunrise, pretty amezing.
Then we got the tour, and that was interesting (about the whole maja calender and stuff.. 13 moons and stuff) And after seeing all those impressive maja ruins i arrenged a place to sleep, and went to the festifal, and most amazelingly met a lot of people that i met b4 all over the place, that was cool... and the festifal in the afternoon was a bunch of hippy kinda people that where honering the preperation of 2012.... They where just talking about it, dancing and playing some music (live, with a lot of people, that was pretty good..) and later in the evening the real maya people showed up and made a seremonial fire, where i got to sacrifice wood, leaves, nuts, and candels...

By that time there was an fibe in the air.. very powerful, spiritual? a well, everybody was happy ;) and i kinda found out more about 2012..

apprerently it is the end of the 5125 year running calender of the majas, their calender is better then ours, for the simple fact that the moon comes back to the same place after 13 months, and they count that in as the end of their year, 21 dec. Well, some people have joked that 2012 is the end of the world, but once again, its the end of time, not the end of the world. or a beginning of a new cycle. I would like to check the fact that the planets will line up.. and it might cauze the earth to change a bit... but will see.. i don´t worry about it :P.

Anyways, that was.. interesting... but i had to move on, so after a long day and seeing the sunrise again i slept a bit and whent back to florance. From there the next day we went to coban, a city where we payed to much for the bus.. and stayed in an empty hostel, went to some markets, where i bought some extreamly cheap stuff... Because by then i had lost some in florance... and from there we, i was still with that turkish guy, we went to chemoek champe(verkeert gespelt)... that was really nice, a river, water caves, natrual pools, really really nice.. realax hanging out there... chillin out walking there with some brazilians, and meeting some other people over and over again..(example: i met this 1 guy in like 5 diffrent places, randomly) and after having a good crismas night where i got poured free champaing and being hugged by locals saying: felice navidad, marry crismas ;). I diddn´t have any internet to send something from there!

And i kinda got buzy then... the turkish guy was going to colder places, and i diddn´t wanted to go with him, so I went with this dutch couple, and some others toward san pedro... and that ride.. made me really sick..

The roads are the worst here in guatamala, and all the busses they try to stuff full of people... like +-25 people in a shuttle bus fit for 15... really, its crazy, always 2 people more then should fit in 1 row... and me being huge here compaired to those little guatamalans i kinda got sick.. i cought something..

But we made it to the next town, 9 ours later.. after 4 diffrent busses.. and i crashed.. and was fine the next day.

Still a bit drowzy i went to the marked, because that was why we made the stopover there, don´t remember the name of the town, but there was a Big marked, and i ended up buying little stones from my new necklace.. because it is not so good quality :P.

Anyway, after seeing that we went to sant pedro, and that reminds me that we made a stop on the other side of the lake.. tried to ATM(pin) money, but failed, and now hope that it diddn´t took any money from me elektronicly, without giving any to me... But i still had some cash, and ended up getting cash later. in san pedro. After we took a taxi-boat for 15 Q (1,50 euro). Did i mention that everything is cheap here? accomodation 2 or 3 euro´s, dinner around the same price, drinks half of that(+-1,5 euro), and fireworks 0,10 cts for a little packed of fire crackers (pakje rotjes), yes, they sell fireworks.. just like in holland :P.

So yea, here in san pedro i´m staying at a place called ¨trippies / muchies¨ and i made a lot of friends there, whent hicking for like 4 ours(and we hired a jeep kinda to get there) to get to the top of this mountain, and the nose of this mountain.. witch was a hard climb, because by now i don´t have any shoes any more, and was trying to do it on my flip flops(slippers), and ended up walking the way up on bare feet(blote voeten..) en dat was vermoeiend.. want het was een serieuse hike.. niet een makkelijke.. geen uitgelegde paden.. maar was erg lijp! Geweldig uitizcht! Well, i was exosted when i got back..

And the next day i went to this party, this 48 our trance/doof, again with the 2012 idea, festifal, where everyone just got mad... So i desided to take it easy and joined in the 2e day, and did the whole second night... That was amezing.. but got cold so i ended up getting a blanket and sleeping on a hammik... But it was alright.. a bit cold...

And after sleeping a day after that, the next evening was newyears already., and to celebrate that in the hostel, everybody made something.. frensh ratatui, these banana leaves chicken with rice... all kinds of sauses.. this super veggy soup, and i made my famous chees pankakes... a lot of them... There was a lottt of food, from like 10 diffrent cooks.. And there where like 30 people eating as well.. and playing music, singing, dancing.. amezing party, very relax..
And 11.40, everybody got up, and we where all in time to miss the countdown, and just saying happy newyears to each other all of the sudden :P. And after doing 3 bars saying happy new years everywhere, i crashed in on a couch in the last one, and woke up when it was already light outside.. that is where i whent back to the hostel, and owyea, i forgot to mention, i have been sleeping outside the last few nights, because the hostels are all booked out, but its fine.. its easy once you have a blanked and a hammik, or some soft pillows... and my stuff is in the locker.. kinda...

And then, i made pankakes in the morning, with the icecream i had bought be4... those where nice, and everybody loved them... so.. now, i am at the internet cafe, and going back there, to chill out some more, and might start spanish classes tomorrow...

Well, my computer is keeping getting stuck, this internet really sucks here.. I´m going to try it once more..

Bye all, Peace and free hugs,

Albert