Friday, January 7, 2011

The Final Weeks

The last few weeks in Central America passed in a blur, especially after Caleb showed up on the 20th to travel with me for the last three weeks.

We spent the first few days in Xela, where I showed him my favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and sights around town. We also climbed Santa Maria---going up during the day in the dry season makes for a much easier summit.

Summit of Santa Maria

After Xela we took a chicken bus over to the Lago de Atitlan, where we spent four days strolling around the city looking in vain for Christmas tamales and paches.

Lago de Atitlan

After the lake we had planned on heading up to Livingston, Semuc Champey, and Tikal, all of which are on most people's "must see" list of Guatemala. However a couple days before we were due to head up to Semuc Champey the president of Guatemala declared a military state in Coban. Since we didn't much feel like heading into an area where the military was having shootouts with Mexican gangs, we decided to scrap that part of the trip and instead headed into El Salvador and spent a few days surfing.

We went to El Tunco, where we stayed at a pleasant hotel called Casa Mirador. We spent a lot of time reading (Caleb, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, me, The Little Prince in Spanish) and lazing around, heading down to the beach a few times to swim, bodyboard, and surf.

I hadn't ever been surfing before El Tunco. It is a difficult activity, to say the least. The waves were quite unforgiving---big, powerful, and breaking quickly in great crashes. That said, my board seemed to function better as a bludgeon for my head than something to stand on, but I almost stood up once, and that was delightful and thrilling. Otherwise I mostly spent my time epically crashing---surfboard flying, legs akimbo, and thoroughly washing out my sinuses with salt water.

El Tunco Sunset

We spent New Years Eve in El Tunco lighting off Roman candles, swimming in the ocean around midnight, and watching people send heart-shaped sky lanterns floating off into the atmosphere. It was also Caleb's and my two-year anniversary that night. Delightful.

After the beach we headed into the highlands of El Salvador, and spent a couple days in a little town called Juayua, which happens to have an excellent food festival every weekend. Then we chicken bused it back to Xela to pick up the rest of my luggage and headed over to Antigua. Besides going on a coffee finca tour, we spent our time doing what most people do in Antigua: strolling around the city and buying souvenirs.

Caleb left for the States on Wednesday afternoon, and I on Thursday morning. Since getting home I have been battling a pretty hefty sinus cold, which has prevented me from going down the list of Things Becky Is Looking Forward to Doing/Eating/Drinking in the United States, since I'm darned tired all the time and the nasal congestion has nearly completely destroyed my sense of taste. Once I recover I'll share what is on the aforementioned list with y'all, as well as Things Becky Will Miss About Guatemala.