Guatemala

After only being back in the US for a couple of weeks, it was time for another vacation. This time I headed to Guatemala with family. My brother and I arrived at 11am in Guatelmala city after leaving the states at 6 am. After only a few hours in the city it became very apparent that no one really spoke English. I would have to rely on the teachings of Mrs. Bond to get me through this trip.

The first night we went out on the town. We went to a really expensive club and were literally the only people there. I guess most people don´t have the money to spend at expensive clubs. After an hour, we went to a ¨poor people¨ club as Celeste called it. It was really fun. I got some stares for being the only gringro (white person), but the drinks were cheap and the music was good.

The next day was basically spent just getting to Celeste´s house. We managed to get to the Oaklawn mall in Guatemala city which was one of the nicest malls I have been to. I purchased a watch there for 800 q or $100. The currency exchange rate is fantastic for the US.

There were a couple days of beautiful sight seeing. We saw Semuc Campey which was a river with beautiful waterfalls and lagoons.

We also did a 1 k walk up a mountain to get a better view.

A kilometer doesn´t sound like a lot but when you are traveling straight up it can really wear you down. The coolest part was that we were walking on the road that Mayans paved long ago to get up the mountain. It was quite rocky and a difficult trek especially since we were wearing flip flops.

The family we are staying with has been extremely nice and generous to us. It is difficult to communicate sometimes because they only speak Spanish but they have cooked us many delicious meals and driven us to the best places in Guatemala. Yesterday, they took us north where we were able to do zip lining through the trees and then tubing through caves. Zip lining was extremely fun. Very cheap but probably not as safe as most zip lines. My harness got turned around somehow during one of the lines and burned my arm on the rope. I was able to use my gloves and press off the wire to twist myself around forward. The lines went over some beautiful rivers and waterfalls. 

Later that day, we drove three hours north in the back of the truck to see the Candelaria Caves. When we got there it was around 4 pm and it gets dark around 6 pm so they were not going to let us do the tubing. It took some convincing from Celeste´s family to get the tour people to let us go. Thankfully they did cause the caves were amazing. The water was cold and all we had were crappy made in China flashlights but it was quite the adventure. The cave was so long that it was pitch black inside. If you moved your light around you could see bats above. The water was completely still so we had to paddle to get through. The inside of the cave was really amazing though and the places were light peeked through looked really cool. I felt like I was in the movie The Descent.

Pictures

I forgot to set a lot of my pictures to be public on the web. That is all fixed now and if you click the link on the right you can see more pictures than you could ever want of my time abroad.

New Zealand

This post is probably long overdue. It will also be the last one I post until my new trip which is going to be Guatemala.
I had a bit of difficultly leaving the country but it was nothing that I couldn't handle. I did make an extra trip back to Sydney because of it though. Sydney was favorite Australia city but I liked it less after paying for an expensive hostel and having it rain on me everyday. I did manage to see more of the downtown area and even went out to a pub with one of the Australia's living in my hostel room.
Security on my international flight to Auckland was surprising lenient. There were no gigantic machines that scanned your underwear and I didn't have to take my shoes off. I did have a restriction on the amount of liquids on my carry on which normally doesn't happen. When I arrived in Auckland they had adorable beagles that searched your luggage for any illegal substances. I felt the strong urge to pet the dog but figured that I would get in trouble for it.
I got to my hostel no problems. I didn't really do much that night or really any night I was in Auckland. I talked to a British guy who told me to get to Queenstown as soon as possible because it was so much better. I booked a flight that night and left the next morning around 11am. He also told me to try mountain biking because it was the best thing that he did there. I will get back to that.
I first arrived with just a backpack full of clothes. It was nice not having much to carry. In Sydney, I wondered the streets for an hour and a half looking for a hostel while carrying two heaving bags and a rolling suitcase. In Queenstown, I walked the heart of the city in 20 minutes. I found a nice hostel right next to the lake. It was far enough away from the pubs that I figured I would be able to get some sleep.
The first day I basically just had a walk around the area. The population of Queenstown is only about 10 thousand but there are gardens and trails around the lake to walk around.

There is also a disc golf course right next to the gardens. It has to be one of the best places to play. I really wished I had a Frisbee. Later that night, everyone in the hostel was LOTR: The Return of the King. I thought it was very fitting considering we were staying so close to where it was filmed.
My second day was all about adventure and fitting in as much as possible. I did a jet boat at skippers canyon and mountain biking in the afternoon. The jet boat was pretty crazy. They took us through a scenic drive through the country with many stops to talk pictures. The guy really barrels through the canyon on that boat. He goes through some pretty tight spots. You have to duck when going under a couple rocks. Every time he stopped he did a 360 cookie thing and we all had to hold on cause there were no seats belts. He said that the boat could travel in 4 inches of water and its max speed is over 80 kph. 

The jet boat you felt pretty safe cause the guy had training but mountain biking was so scary. Not sure why I thought it would be so easy giving that I hadn't ridden a bike in about a year. I was bricking it the whole way down. There is no guard rail or anything to stop you from falling down the mountain. The people I rented the bike from said that beginners could do it but I didn't see anyone else that looked like a beginner up there. The second time I went down it was much better and by the third time I was doing the jumps and obstacles they had set up. After that I still had some time will the bike so I rode it around town (driving on the left side!) and then rode 20 k around the lake. It was really beautiful. Like every place I have visited New Zealand was also expensive. I was $70 for the bike and $90 for the jet boat. At least the US dollar is higher than the kiwi dollar.

It was funny to ride back on a plane to America with mainly foreign people. They all snickered when the flight attendant said that it is US policiy to make sure that guest to not congregate around the toilets or exits. The flight itself wasn't even that bad. It was around 13 hours from NZ to LAX. I got probably 4 hours of sleep though and there were plenty of movies and TV shows to watch while we flew.

So overall, it was an amazing experience that I won't forget anytime soon and probably one of the best decisions of my college career. At least I have this blog if I do happen to forget any details.