Britt and Emerald's Excellent Adventure: Hola Amigos

Colourful cemetary in Chichi

Family shop in market

Phew! It seems like it's been a long time since we've posted a blog. It has been quite a low key and relaxing time though so we didn't feel like we had much to write about. On January 29th we left Mexico and made our way back in to Guatemala. We took a long bus ride to a town called Chichicastenango. There isn't much to do there except on Thursdays and Sundays a huge market overtakes the town. People come from all over adn set up stalls selling all sorts of things. It was quite the transformation when we woke up on Sunday and saw the streets filled with stalls. So, we did A LOT of shopping and spent lots of time scouring the stalls. Let's just say our backpacks are a little bit heavier which is nothing to complain about. I plan on sending stuff home while Emerald has just been leaving things behind! We left Chichi after three days and traveled to San Marcos la Laguna which is a little town on the shores of Lake Atitlan. It's a small, quiet and relaxing town with a population of 3000- a lot of which are super hippy travelers passing through. It was good to be somewhere relaxing because we had been traveling a lot the past week and needed some chilling out time. In San Marcos we hiked to a waterfall and then did nothing but swim in the lake and eat amazing food (mmmm currryy), we even joined in on a potluck at our hostel. Emerald checked out a spirirtual chocolate ceremony but that's a story for another day. Hehe On our last day in San Marcos we got up at 8 and met up with a guy named Guy to go paragliding! It was soooo awesome, unbelievably awesome! We bussed up to the top of a mountain and Emerald went first, she had to run off the side of a cliff and barely made it. It looked like she was running in the air because the sail was already picking her up. We both got to fly in the air for about 20 minutes each. We went over the lake and swooped down through the hills. It was a crazy view we had and we both felt like birds! hahaha. We landed in a field with a lot of cows and pies. I had a crash landing and scraped up my knee but I'm actually quite proud of my battle wounds and happy to show it off! teehee :) We're now in San Pedro la Laguna which is across part of the lake from San Marcos. We've rented out a beautiful 4 story house over looking the lake and volcanoes, with an outdoor BBQ and tons of kitchen space. It is called the Casa de Parrothead. (House of the Parrothead) and it is dirt cheap between 3 of us plus other friends who have been coming and going. In San Pedro we're taking Spanish lessons for the next week. We've already done 6 hours and it is pretty intense. There is A LOT to learn and it's hard to retain it all in my mind. We've been to another potluck and met many Canadians. We have yet to meet any Saskatchewanians though! Anyways, now we're off to make smores for our Spanish teachers.. we had to bring something cultural but couldn't really think of anything else that we could buy down here that would be Canadian. Maple syrup? I don't think it exists here. Adios! Pictures to come later :)