Water caving and lava walking in Guatemala

Ash and I arrived into Guatemala City, and it was our first time flying into an airport since the whole swine flu "pandemic" hit. We exited our plane only to be greeted by a few stone-faced health inspectors, and Ash, in his perfect wisdom and timing, decided to sneeze a couple of times right in front of them! I was half expecting him to be tasered, wrapped up in a bodybag and dragged off into a quarantine, but unfortunately, that did not occur. We were also given a standard health form to sign off on upon entry. I thought to myself that I could (in my hungover state) actually say yes to probably about 7 out of the 8 questions available... Fever? Nope. Cough? Yeah, from all that smoking.... Headache? Definitely yes. Limb and joint pain? Pshhhhyeah, my knees belong to an 80-year old.. Eye redness, umm.... lemme check, yeah... Nasal flux? My allergies always act up on an airplane! Difficulty breathing? Well... I suppose it depends but sometimes. I guess I had swine flu after all!!

From Guatemala

We headed straight from Guatemala City and took the 8-hour night bus to Flores, to see the ancient Mayan ruins. One of the highlights that day was climbing up this rickety old staircase up one of the temples. I am usually not afraid of heights, but I am, however, very afraid of faulty Guatemalan engineering. I climbed up anyway, and when I got to the top I was nearly frozen in fear. There was maybe about two feet of clearance before you would tumble over and become, in the wise words of the Mayan gods, "ruined." (Bud-dump dump ching! Two shows nightly everybody!!) Anyway, no handrails were present either, and again reminded me how sheltered and protected we are in the US. When I asked one of the tour guides why we could not visit another temple down the way, he said that it was closed because two German (?) tourists fell down the previous year, killing one and critically injuring the other.

After just a couple of days in Flores, Ash and I headed over to Lanquin to visit the water caves and natural pools of Semuc Champey. On our 7-hour bus ride from Flores to Lanquin, we stopped for a quick lunch break at McDonalds. I ordered the usual Quarter Pound with Cheese combo and Ash ordered a Big Mac Meal. The cashier asked him, "Coca Cola?" and maybe it was because of the long bus ride, (not) or more likely, that his brain was on pause, but Ash looked at me completely confused, waiting for me to translate what this lady just said. An impatient teenage next to him told him in perfect English, "She is asking you if you want a Coca Cola!" Apparently still stunned, I told him, "Coca Cola in Spanish means Coca Cola in English!!!"

Oh yeah, I have to add yet another Ash Deer-in-Headlights-Lost-In-Translation-at-a- Fast-Food-cashier moment: Typically everywhere you go in this world, whenever you order food, cashiers will always ask you, "For here, or to-go?" Translated into Spanish, "Para aca, o llevar?" Keep in mind that Ash has been travelling through Central America for over 6 weeks by now, so you would think that when the cashier asked him this rather simple question, he would have been able to understand. But not this genius. Ash replied, "Australia!" thinking that the guy asked him if he was from America. How Ash misunderstood "para aca" from "America" remains a mystery to me. But then again, I suppose if you can't understand Coca Cola in Spanish...

Semuc Champey was awesome, as it was my first time ever swimming in and wading through water caves, with nothing but candles to light our way through. We later went tubing down the river and even had some time to jump off a bridge, one of my favorite childhood pastimes. Later that night, we had a 14-person poker tournament amongst some friends from the hostel for about a $1.25 buy-in. I ended up in third place even though I was the chip leader going in..... ahhhhhhh well, it was well worth the enjoyment of playing with new friends from all over the world.

Our last stop in Guatemala was Antigua, an old cobblestoned city that is best known for its tours up the live Pacaya Volcano. For about $13 you can hike up this thing with a guide and literally get to within feet of, as Dr. Evil would say, "Liquid hot mag-ma...."

http://www.killerclips.com/clip.php?id=79&qid=756

It is so hot in some places that one of the girls' shoes had both of her soles burned off! I always had this idea in my head that you needed space-suit type clothing and outerwear to get so close to lava, yet there I was amidst 50 other tourists dressed in nothing but my Nike Air Force Ones, shorts and a tshirt! I have to say that poking a stick in lava and seeing it go up in flames was one of the most amazing things I have done on this trip.

Complete pics to come up shortly (another virus!) here is what I have salvaged so far...