Saturday, September 15, 2007

Guatemalan Independence Day

So today is Guatemalan Independence Day, which I got to see celebrated last night by every kid in the country out on the street running the roads carrying a torch. Definitely one of those Halloween-like (Brent's reference) holidays that the kids just use to stay out late. Anyway, it made it so that it took 5.5 hours (should be 3.5) to get from Atitlan to Guatemala City where we were catching a bus for Flores. We nearly missed the bus and almost slept on the couch of an amazingly friendly couple in their honeymoon suite. Which we wouldnt have considered had they not seemed genuinely ok with it. Anyway, we did make it, and had a pretty horrendously bad overnight Latin American bus up to Flores. Flores is beautiful and we'll use it to hop off to Tikal as well as Belize tomorrow. Those with Belize experience, send word: my guidebook stops at the border.

3 comments:

Robert Huber said...

never been, but ambergris cay is supposed to have incredible diving/snorkeling. unfortunately, i can tell you zero about how to get there, where to stay, etc. however, this site might help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belize

and this one:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/central-america/belize

but, ambergris cay, while supposedly amazing, is also, remarkably, right on the tourist track. so i think you can just ask anyone how to get there and they'll be able to tell you. after that you just check around for a guest house and then start snorkeling, yes? GO!

Robert Huber said...

everybody knows...
you only live a day
but it's brilliant anyway

i saw you in
a perfect place
it's going to happen soon
but not today
so go to sleep
and make the change
i'll meet you here tomorrow
independence day
independence day
independence day

-elliott

Emily said...

hey! i hear ambergris is pretty awesome. it's mainly diving, which is the only reason we didn't go. hopefully i'll get my diving license and head back to belize someday. the peace corps worker i met from virginia down there (we were on the bus with mr. fingernails) says she's going to have to take it up if she's going to survive down there 2 years. she's also having trouble dealing with 2 hours of electricity per day and no running water. i guess i'd dive key after key all day too if i only had 2 hours of electricity per day.