Wednesday the 3rd of November; GUATEMALA, WELCOME TO THE WET HIGHLANDS

An uninteresting 1st flight to cold and rainy Costa Rica. The 2nd flight to Guatemala City was again lonely, but after a few Cuba Libres and some good catchy tunes I felt like having a big party :-) Woooooh I want to share this feeling with some people now...is it also the altitude? On the airport I met Stephanie, another traveller from Germany. She told me, like many others, not to go to Guatemala City so I joined the minivan to Antigua. Guatemala says 'Welcome!' What a big difference with Cuba, people speak proper English, everyone is more than willing to help you, everything is easy, ATM's work, cheap transport. After a 1.5 hour minivan trip Antigua I was there, a relaxed and colorfull town full of tourists. And the roads, like Belgium :-) Ummagumma was a recommended hostel, how the hell did we know that there were 2 here? We choose the wrong one :-) A wet room with some bugs made us sick. The staff looks impressive with their hostess outfits, but the first thing that happens when you chill on the rooftopand say you're Dutch? The staff throws a big bag of weed on your lap, welcome to Antigua! Every afternoon it rains here, it rains a lot! Where are my winter clothes?! Happy that I bought some warm stuff in Holland. A chill night with some people on the roof, expensive large pizza's and big Gallo cerveza's.

Thursday the 4th of November, ANTIGUA CHILLLLLLL...GUNS, WATERPIPES AND FLIRTS

No big plans for today, the 'biggest' thing is to change the hostel. El Cato Negro Inn was way more relaxed and OMG the food...the plates here a so huge, even a garbage bin like me can't finish it. I'm seriously gaining a lot of weight here. Nacho's, burrito's...am I already in Mexico? See what the weather does today, maybe climb a volcano. But it seems to be normal that it's nice in the morning and cold and wet in the afternoon. So just chill, do some shopping, wonder around between the huge amount op cops. And going to get some cash out of the ATM is a laugh, everywhere there is a security guy with a huge gun standing next to you to protect you whahhaaaa. An afternoon in the waterpipe (or should I say Vodkapipe) bar; hilarious! 4 goodlooking young Guatamalese girls trying very hard to seduce you. Withtheir English skills and putting on some songs like 'I know I want you...' They didn't even matter that there was someone sitting next to me. They show their hot dancemoves in front of me, a lapdance is probably an easy thing to get here. Well this was a funny afternoon. The day became even more funny after visiting the local market, first there was the chickenbus madness and then a lot of screaming and fighting on the market. Yep, I was in the middle of a big riot between locals and loads of police with big guns. Trying to make a movie, but this was only allowed for another local and I have to delete my stuff. When it got darker I found out thatb it's not that supersafe on the streets here, kids trying to rob you and weird teenagers that are kind of agressive and trying to get yopu to some prostitutes...it's all part of the experience though. The nights here are not that crazy, bars close early. So the only thing that keeps you awake here are some drunken Amrican's in the hostel.

Friday the 5th of November, ERUPTING VOLCANO'S, HIKING, GETTING SICKER AND SICKER

Get up! 6 AM and we have to be in the minibus to the Pacaya Volcano. Thinking that it was the one that we see every day...no, it was a 2 hour winding drive through the mountains. San Vicente Pacaya, I am ready for some lava! What a toruisty shithole, dozens of people try to get you on a horse (that's for lazy Dutchies). Again watch out for pickpockets here. The hike was not so heavy. A little bit steep now and then, some gravel and a little bit of wind near the top. But a 1.5 hour hike (because some people are soooooo sloooooow) is not that hard to do. You don't even go to the top because it's to dangerous with this active volcano. It's smoking and sometimes spits stones and ash. The other volcano next to it was exploding a couple of times this morning. There were some holes with hot steam coming out, but no lava like on all the pictures (this was 4 months ago). There is a cool small cave where you go into...uhm cool, I mean hot....this was hotter than a sauna. A 1 hour hike back a nd a long drive back, because traffic can be slow wqith all the trucks going up in the mountains (not even 20km per hour!). We took another shuttle to Panajachel...at least, that's what we expected :-) Not possible, but we could go to San Pedro instead and have to leave in 5 minutes. Hurry hurry means forgetting stuff Stephanie ;-) What a bumby and winding trip. This country has even more speedbumps than The Netherlands! Surprised we are, when we are kicked out of the shuttle in cold /is a shithole so just take a small boat to San Pedro, another small town on beautiful Lago de Atitlan. Surrounded by volcano's. This laidback town is known for it's 'Sex, drugs and Rock and Roll' atmosphere. I can imagine :-) It's like being on the party islands of Thailand again, complete with all the food. Easy to get lost. Buddha Bar was luckily not that far from or little lakeview palace.

Unfortunately something is getting a serious issue. Since my last dive in Indonesia (that was followed by getting lost in the mountains with the motorbike) I'm feeling dizzy and seriously dizzy. Daily headaches, musclepain, cramps in my cheast. If it's getting worse I can't ignore this any longer. But maybe it's just the winding roads, being in the mountains and the drinking (I hope...).

Saturday the 6th of November; SAN PEDRO, A DAY FOR A BREAK

A day without doing that much; just hanging around the lake, eating nacho's till you explode, check out the town and the streetlife and excape the shoe polishing kids. I'm way too sick to climb another volcano at the moment. After the first bar today I went back for a nap, not feeling well. Never been that dizzy before. I stayed in bed, my buddy partied hard in town. This sucks...

... A BREAK, SPEND SOME TIME IN MEXICO ...

Thursday the 11th of November; ADIOS MEXICO, CROSSING THE RIVER TO GUATEMALA

A ride to enjoy? FUck hell! The first part from 6:30 to 11:00 was not that bad. Okay, the Mexican border tried to rip me off and let me pay...no way, I was not in Mexico for more then 7 days. Some of us got memories of the Mekong river adventures in Laos when we crossed the border of Mexico/Guatemala. Again a small wooden boat on a river full of changing currents and whirlpools. Just 30 minutes in the burning sun. The Guatemala border costed me some money and my best camera. Yes, my 4th camera died, this time the best one so no more good pictures :-( Who cares, just a camera, it wouldn't have survive the following trip anyway... 2 hours of a bumpy dirtroad. This driver didn't like to drive faster than 20km per hour, even when we hit the concrete again. So Isla de Flores in the late afternoon. The island is okay, the hostel (Los Amigos) is very cool. The mosted crowded one as well. Don't except the first room the offer...well room, it's more a bunch of old bunk beds behind a curtain filled with mosquitos. But the place is very laidback, hammocks evwerywhere, nice people, loads of animals hahhaaaa. Don't be surprised when you are chatting with your friends on Facebook and all of a sudden a big bunny jumps on your notebook :-) There are also mice and dogs running around, parrots flying above you and the cats fall out of the trees now and then. The staff is so slow and grumpy, but who cares. Ozzy Dan, Taz, Stef and I went for some cheap local BBQ at the lakeside. Good stuff, good drinks, good people. But be careful with 'Mr. Bad Luck Dan'...he managed to break the key of our room, pretty smart when you need your stuff :-) The rastafari of the hostel knew how to work with breaking the locks.

Friday the 12th of November; TIKAL CORRUPTCY, MAYA EMPIRE?

They sold us a good story yesterday. 04:30 pick-up for seeing the sunrise at the Maya temples of Tikal (on of the most impressive Maya sites in Central America). Well, first some retarded Belgians needed their time for getting dressed so we already lost loads of time. Then an American family was not happy because a tour company ripped them off. The owner followed our bus and stopped us. Started a fight wth the family and it escalated. Constantly we were followed by this guy and he stopped the bus several times. The police got involved and they took some people off the bus. There was no sunrise, it was already light (but so cloudy). It seems that it rains here every day in the morning and the company knows that it's impossible to see a sunrise this part of year. Just a way to earn money for ponchos. Taz and I were the only ones to refuse to buy them so we were soaked after 2 hours of rain :-). The staff was not in a hurry at all. We had to pay 3 times the old entrance fee! But no tickets, the 'guide' collected our money, gave one of the security guys a hand and some money and let us in...no ticket control! What a scam! That's why they sell the early morning trip. Tikal is impressive if you never seen an ancient temple complex before. There are still many temples covered under the jungle. The sun came through later that morning, but we had enough after 6 hours of temples. So the rest of the day we spend in Flores, having a nice evening at Cool Beans. Tonight I'm taking a nightbus to Guatemala City and say goodbye to my friends from the last days.

Saturday the 13th of November; A LOOOOOOOONG DAY FILLED WITH TRAVELS

05:30 arrived in Guatemala City with the nightbus (9 hours), taking a taxi to another bus terminal to meet my Swedish friend Johanna. She arrived around 08:30, taxi to the airport. Wating and talking for many hours. Check-in, probable we didn't see the Immigrationsbecause we didn't had to pay 30 USD and we didn't got a stamp. We have to take 3 flights today to get to our destination! San Salvador, Lima and La Paz. A new record of travels in 1 day. Luckily Johanna is a good buddy to travel with. The airplane food gave me another episode of food posion adventures. Around 02:00 we arrived at the Loki Hostel in La Paz (3.600 meters above sea level). FUll! And I had a booking confirmation. So we got the better, more quiet room for the same price :-) Finally a normal bed to sleep in. GOOD NIGHT and SLEEP WELL.