Livingston on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala was very different to the rest of Guatemala...There is a mixture of the Spanish speaking Guatemalans and the Garifuna people...from the Caribbean. The Garifuna people speak Creole (I think) and English and LOVE Bob Marley. We stayed at a great Hostel called Casa De La Iguana. They had good basic bungalows with millions of crabs underneath (apparently they eat the mosquito larvae) and a great deck where everyone hung ...

So I left Tikal and headed to Rio Dulce on my own. Ready for the next adventure....the plan...do some volunteer work in Rio Dulce at the orphanage nearby. There is a backpackers in Rio Dulce called Hotel Backpackers (very original) which is owned by the orphanage. They usually have long term volunteers..people who volunteer for 3+ months. They sometimes have shorter term volunteers such as myself...who usually stay for about a week. My plan was to stay 2 - 4 week...

I left Antigua after 4 great weeks and caught a bus with 2 of the guys I met at the Spanish school, to Flores. Bus trip was good, great to listen to my iPod again and just chill out. Flores is on an Island in Lake Peten Itza in Guatemala. Niall, John and I met Stefan there who had left the day before us. We stayed at a great hostel. Flores is really close to Tikal - it is an ancient ruined city of the Mayan people. It dates back to the 4th century BC! So pretty...

Well my time in Antigua is coming to a close. I have been here just over 4 weeks and it has been great. Although my Spanish is still pretty average, it is good to be able to start a conversation in Spanish and not have to asking "can you speak English" before starting any conversation. Although I did just ask some guy ..."Have you want to talk to someone"....he probably wondered what the hell I was on about. A few of the highlights....and lo...

This weekend a bunch of us went away to Lake Atitlan for the weekend. It is about 2half hours from Antigua. It is similar to Lake Taupo in that it is a crater filled with water. It is surrounded by volcano's and it is absolutely beautiful! On Friday afternoon 4 of us left and headed to Panajechel which is the main town on the lake. We arrived about 7ish and found a hotel of sorts and headed out for dinner and drinks. Dinner was rather entertaining. A highly des...