Las Georginas!

The hot springs were great and it was such a fun time! 7 of us went, jill, amy, ruchi, nicci, greg, jake, and myself. The rest of the group came too but they left around 430 back to Xela. So, you take a chicken bus (old US school bus) to Zunil, ~30minutes, 5Q, then you get to Zunil and hop into a pickup truck which takes you up to the springs. That was an interesting ride, the roads are super small and windy and the drivers drive like nuts so often you feel like the truck may tip over. SCARY. but it was fun. I'll post pics later of the place but there are 4 or so pools, one of them is off more secluded and right next to our bungalows...so we got there, checked in to our bunglows, which were quite interesting...and made some lunch inbetween the bungalows cause we brought bread from the bake shop, avacadoes, cheese and meat and chips...yum! We rarely get to eat sandwiches here, so it was nice. Had a few brewskies then off to the pool next to us. It was perfect, and if you got near the spring that water was super hot. It looked like if it were to rain then there would be a waterfall into the pool, which could have been awesome but it didnt. Then we got out and ventured to the other pools where everyone else was, locals, foreigners, all in their trajes de bano (bathing suits). Theres a restaurant there too which we had a few beers in and played 2 drinking games just cause we had nothing better to do. More swimming, the pools up top were way hotter so we didnt stay in long. We decided as it got later that we really needed to improve on our drinking so we opened up the bottle of rum and passed it around taking a shot every time it came by you...so Ruchi ended up puking in Jills shoe and all over the bathroom, Greg and I hoisted Jill up on a cliff to check out the glowing door in the side of the mountain which obviously was the door to the 8 of hearts, and when Jill disappeared behind it we freaked out, screamed, and jumped back into the springs, not to mention we were all butt naked since it was pitch dark and you couldnt see anything, asking and answering questions no one should, had a moment of confession with jill, stared at the recta (jill kept calling the star right above us the recta because recto means straight) so we could all see the same shooting star while we were on our backs in the middle of the street, spilled some sort of fire goo on the wood table outside and watched it burn cause it was awesome looking, took pictures of a melted candle and a lily in a tecate bottle, ate way too many chips, came back to find jake had made the fire in his bungalow so jill and i decided wed stay there too since we knew ruchi and amy didnt make one, therefore jake went and stole their wood too, slept like shit cause jill stole all the covers, then when we came back to see the crazy door in the hill, just happened to see dads headlamp in the bottom of the pool! I freaked out, recovered it thinking dads going to be sooo pissed, to find that its waterproof to 1 meter. Nice purchase pops! So, everything is a-ok. The door to the 8 of hearts ended up being the sign by the pool that said stuff like wear bathing suits, no drinks or food or pets...pretty funny. Had breakfast, and now I'm here at the school again waiting for jill to come here to so we can lay out..cause it's sunny and hot!

I hope we have beets for lunch, and I hope that every day. I used to hate beets but here they mix them with tomatoes and onions and put, guess, lime all over it, and it's delicious! yum. We're all really excited because Jills birthday is next saturday and we're spending the weekend at the coast, on the beach in a house! Its going to be so much fun. The town in Tilapia, I think, and apparently the undertow is so bad its dangerous to swim, but we'll see...the hotel next door has a pool so that will be great. I'm going to get a pinata for Jills bday night! But heat and bathing suits and sun and sand and swimming = perfect. What else...this place is so beautiful, I wish you all could come visit. We were joking the other day cause Guatemala is fertile in all areas...girls get pregnant here from kissing at 15, and that's normal and no one cares. I still can't get over that there arent any animals here, just birds, dogs, and a few cats...apparently other places have more, like panthers and shit. 3 of the other kids in the program booked their week off trip to CUBA, Eric, Ruchi, and Amy...I don't really understand why they'd want to go there except just because they can. I would much rather scuba dive and sit on a beach for a week, which is exactly the plan. Jill's friend Michelle, her parents have a timeshare in Belize near San Pedro so shes going to go there during the week off and Jill and I are going to meet her there...we're working on what we're going to do to get there and what to see on the way. Right now we're thinking of taking a bus to Antigua, staying a night, taking a bus to Rio Dulce and floating the river to the coast for a day to Livingston, taking a boat to Placencia, perhaps a bus to Belize City then a flight or something to San Pedro. Then on the way back take a flight from San Pedro to Tikal, flight from Tikal to Guatemala City then a bus back! Sounds great eh? Anyway, I'm on Amy's computer and she's here now so I need to go...que les vaya bien!