Tikalish

Well we arrived safely in Guatemala and so far no signs of any bandits, just some kittens and a few underfed horses. We arrived in Flores and are staying in a really funky Hostel called "Los Amigos" There are hammocks scattered around, lanterns and chill out music and they light a bonfire at night which is great for keeping away the mossies. (A nice relief after the weekend-the black flies were in their element at the arrival of fresh blood-you see them bite you as the blood just trickles down your arm. Yum) Another early start as we headed off to Tikal-a series of Mayan temples rising up through the jungle. They are really huge and there are great views from the top of the ones you are allowed to climb. Some are strictly look but don´t touch as apparently people have fallen to their deaths on more than one occasion. We were also lucky enough to see a whole colony (flock/herd/...?!) of quadimundi (or something like that!) They look a bit like possums but they have longer noses and a baby came up really close to us. Just about managing to make myself understood here although there are a lot of random words that are different to Castilian Spanish. Verdict on the Guatemalan beer (Gallo). not bad but not as good as the Belizian Belikin. The search continues....

Belize in colour

Into the Woods

had ourselves a wee bit of a jungle trek the past two days. we went 12k up the path to victoria peak, highest point in belize to visit some TrekForce trekkers who were building shelters along the route.
highlights include seeing a bajillion leaf-cutter ants marching two by two and their HUGE ant hills, a black hairy tarantula bigger than my hand, tons of lizards and butterflies, beautiful cool rivers, dense jungle, and an intense downpour of rain that soaked everything and chased sarah from her hammock.
a note: if you ever plan on trekking in the jungle during rainy season, bring high boots. cause walking for a kilometer in mud that can reach your knees is not as easy as it looks!
tomorrow bright and early we are off to Guatemala for a week, starting in flores.

snorkel snorkel

wow. my first blog entry. ever. ari informed us that he wouldn't post again until amy and i started writing something ourselves, so i guess it was time. nothing like veiled threats to get the imaginative juices flowing. but alas, amy beat me to the punch and so now it falls to me to fill you all in on pointless nothings with my random ramblings. gah. somehow that doesn't seem as easy as i thought it might. oh well. so let's see. i touched a sting ray. it was slimy and thankfully unstingy. amy and i came up with a wonderful bonding idea to fight travel boredom. one of us comes up with a word or a theme for the day, and then we are have to say a memory connected to this. i am not sure if ari is as into this forced bonding as amy and me, but so far he has been humoring us. so far our stories have centered around "bread," "fish," "horns" and "childhood birthday parties." i am finding this so be a highly enlightening experience. if any of you have some good (and pg 13) topics, post em up! till then, love all around.

Week 1 in the Big Brother Backpack

Well we eventually all managed to meet up after the longest flight ever and I never, never want to see Miami Airport again as long as I live! Mildly disappointed at not being able to order a Corona in Mexico but the Sol proved to be an adequate substitute. Monday morning 6am we took a bus(first class, darling) down to the border of Belize/Mexico where we had to wait for 3 hours for our connection. There was an air conditioned waiting room inside the station which we were not allowed to enter as it was apparently reserved for those traveling to Mexico. Discrimination methinks... Anyway so far Belize has proved to be much more of a success. Its really very laid back and Carribeanesque (surprisingly!)here and everyone is incredibly friendly. After spending a night with Sarah in Belize city (she has a great place just outside the city with various wildlife including dogs, cats, crabs that have to be removed with pliers and a crocodile out back!) From there we came over to Caye Caulker which is a gorgeous tropical island just a short water taxi ride away from the city. Yesterday we did a full day snorkeling on the Corral Reef which was great(aside from getting fairly severely sunburned)-at one of the stops we swam with Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays. Luckily they served rum punch on board after that (purely medicinal-for the nerves!) Plans from here are still vague-heading to the jungle at the weekend and then on to Guatemala from there.

in short...
didnt go to aztec ruins.
did 1 tank of a 2 tank scuba dive
and went to the beach
and tomorow we head south to belize.

In Cancun

lets see.... its about 95F here but not humid which is pretty good. staying in a hostel which is sort of a dive. on my first night, went out with a few guys i met and ended up drinking beer, tequila, and being in the middle of cocaine money argument. but one of the guys was a travel agent so he set me up with a tour tomorow of the huge aztec ruins in the area. i went into walmart this morning because it has AC. ahhh, the life of a bum. i wish erica and amy would show up already so poeple dont have to read only my boring blogs.

Good starts

So, Monday, 8/15, 7.45am, I’m supposed to be on an airplane heading from Newark (new jersey) to Chicago, and then later from Chicago to Cancun.
At 10.30 on 8/14 I get a call at home asking for ariel weissman. Now, I know when people first see my name, they think im a girl. But I’ve never had someone continue to think I was a girl after talking to me. This lady on the phone was either deaf or dumb (stupid), because she answered all of my questions with “yes ma’am” or “no ma’am”. Off to a good start.
The jist of the conversation was, my flight is cancelled. The next flight I can leave on is Wednesday, so I am at home for an extra 2 days. The 7.45 flight from jersey to Chicago was cancelled due to ‘weather’. BUT, the 6.00 flight was not cancelled. The 9.00 was not cancelled. The same airline had other flights leaving at the same time from other New York area airports which were not cancelled. Only mine. Curious? And when I try and call back, no operators are available. (I checked online and it shows,only my flight was cancelled)
Out of the gate with a thud.

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