it happened so fast

oh wow, sorry it´s been a bit.  so much has happened.  this is how it went:

neil and i were sitting in hostel friday night discussing how we were going to travel to lake atitlan.  i didnt particulary want to take a chicken bus on long mountain roads, and shuttle busses are pretty expensive.  "well, let´s just walk there," we joked.  30 minutes later, neil walks into the room with toto, the kid the kid would be guiding us on foot over 5 mountains to atitlan starting the next morning.  en serio .. we walked.  the next day we joined toto, our guide saul, and three guys from israel (gilad, gal, and avia) in a van and drove thirty minutes into the mountains.  we started our hike in a little pueblo at 7000 feet.  my god, these mountains are so beautiful.  indescribable.  my pictures wont do them justice.  the first night we stayed in a cement room in someone´s house in a town with maybe 50 people.  their shower is a sauna, and they fired up this little room and we each bathed and used the sauna one at a time because it was so small.  the next day we rose at 5, significantly earlier than the sun, enjoyed a cup of hot milk and corn flakes, and headed off as the sun made its way above the mountains.  my legs were already sooooo sore from the day before, but we proceeded to descend steeply for 2.5 hours until we reached a raging river.  scariest thing of MY LIFE crossing two foot bridges made of logs strapped together with natural cordage and suspended 15 feet above the rio braced by giant bolders.  we arrived in a town called santa clara at about 3 in the afternoon and slept in a cement building with no lights and straw mats for beds.  we managed to get quite tuned up off of liters of gallo with the israelis and one of our guides.  this made waking up at 4:45 to see the sunrise over lake atitlan pretty weird.  after watching the sunrise with a group of 17 other trekkers, we headed off on a two hour hike with hangovers and no water on a tiny little bench cut trail.  and now, here i am, in san pedro la laguna, a super hip beach town on a mind blowing lake amidst mountains and volcanoes.  we are still staying with the israeli guys (in two hotels rooms that are costing us about $2 a piece per night), and our guides have headed back to xela.  this town is awesome .. i could imagine hanging around here for quite a while.  we have three more nights booked here, and might stick around with these guys for a bit longer as then check out other places around the lake.  let me tell you, we´re having a damn good time. 

well then, that´s the story.  it certainly seem to happen quickly .. strange how things fall into place like that.  until next time .....