Today I wake up very refreshed after a great nights sleep and no dreams. My dads already down at the breakfast bar so I get up, use my fingers for a hair brush and saunter down to breakfast.
At the bar my dad tells me that something called "Continental Breakfast" is free. After placing my order for a "Continental" I wait with great expectation painted across my face. When it arrives a witness would have seen my face sag and turn into a mutation from disappointment. I dangerously eye my bowl of soggy bread and orange colored water, which should have passed for orange juice. Very disappointed I order a side of bacon for ten quetzals(Guatemalan currency). Promptly two shriveled up pieces of microwave bacon are ushered onto my plate by a grinning server. The obese server continues to retire to his own table with a plate piled high with sausage, bacon and eggs. He moans out loud as fat dribbles down his chin.
Groaning I surrender to the ugly bowl of wet bread and swallow it whole to avoid the taste. Laughing the waiter graciously accepts our money, keeping the change for himself.
After breakfast we went down to the docks to take a lantcha (very fast boat) around the lake. Every couple of minuets small four year old kids would run up to us with huge eyes and puckered lips asking us in the most angelic voice possible if we wanted to buy anything. Eventually one of the students (Kathleen) gave in to the temptation and bought a bracelet, she was instantly swarmed by an army of children all shoving cheap bracelets in her face, their expressions becoming more angel like by the second. She runs out of the crowd arms flailing around her body and screaming, the children followed her like a river, gibbering in cute Spanish.
An hour later we arrived at the docks and found Kathleen sleeping on the grass, hair disheveled, a very scary expression on her face. We woke her up, she sat up like she was a rake that had been stepped on and asked us where her dog was. Confused we murmured that we didn't know. After getting to know her again we finally hired a lantcha.
I was the only person smart enough to sit at the very front of the boat. At first it was very fun. It was very fun until we hit a wave, the nose of the boat lifted into the air a whole meter and I went with it, the problem is that the nose went back down but I didn't. I flew all the way to the back of the boat and landed on my arse to a chorus of gleeful laughter at my expense. Stunned I carefully stand up and move to a safer seat, I tie myself to the boat.
After that one unfortunate incident I had lots of fun. After traveling in the boat for half an hour I step of the boat into Santiago, bowlegged like a real sailor. We order a tuk-tuk (a very fast three wheeled car with no suspension), unfortunately the roads are cobble stone which means I spent the whole time rattling my bones to powder, I'm quite positive I got a concussion from hitting my head on the top of the car so much(I can't do math anymore).
I get out of the tuk-tuk disoriented and I'm led to our destination by the cackling driver. We arrive to our destination-it would have been inconspicuous if it wasn't for the fact that about a hundred people were crowding around a random clay sculpture with a cigarette, praying. Our tour guide told us that it was some famous guy named Santa Cruz and that he granted wishes. My dad thought that the guy was Santa Claus, got down on his knees and asked in a very solemn voice for a case of beer for Christmas. Concerned our guide, shaking his head, led my dad away like he was a granny.
After our visit with "Santa Claus" we walked down to the market, saying no thanks to every offer for a tuk-tuk. At the market I set my eyes on a awesome sculpture of a humming bird sticking it's snout in a flower. After thirty minuets of ferocious bargaining I manage to shave ten quetzals of the price. I walk over to my dad and triumphantly explain my financial advancements. Chucking my dad tells me that six quetzals is one dollar, he continues to rip up a five quetzal bill just to show me how priceless the money is. I gape at him, my mouth becomes a black hole sucking up every thing within a meter. Still laughing my dad walks away, angry I drop to the ground, pickup the pieces of the bill and scuttle of to find tape.
Next we go to the tiny village of San Huan, walking of the boat we are swarmed by an army of children trying to sell us stuff and tuk-tuk drivers that try to convince us there tuk-tuk's have suspension. After rejecting what seems like forty people the villagers decided to put a taboo on us, most of us also managed to acquire a twitch from shaking our heads in denial for so long. We visit three weaving museums before we find one that still doesent know about the taboo. We are shown by an old, short granny how to make the string and how to dye it, she speaks in a unnatural monotone voice the whole time. Then she started showing us how to weave, her hands blurred unnaturally fast and a pattern started to emerge, first very simple but then more and more complicated. I gaped like a monkey trying to fit a banana tree in it's mouth, magically words start to appear-"Stop staring at my like I'm a circus act you pillow muncher" her weaving read. Hoping it's a trick of light I walk away furiously rubbing my eyes until they turn red.
After my dad bought some blankets from the museum we disguised our selves, so we aren't recognized by the locals, and then we went to Santa Cruz, with me tied to the boat.
Getting of the boat god must have heard our prayers because nobody was waiting to sell us stuff. Relaxed we walked through the town to our hotel, random chickens clucking at our feet.
We arrived at our hotel at eight in the evening, we had dinner and most people went to bed, not me... I stayed up till four reading my book and feel asleep trying not to think of the drowsy day ahead of me.
At the bar my dad tells me that something called "Continental Breakfast" is free. After placing my order for a "Continental" I wait with great expectation painted across my face. When it arrives a witness would have seen my face sag and turn into a mutation from disappointment. I dangerously eye my bowl of soggy bread and orange colored water, which should have passed for orange juice. Very disappointed I order a side of bacon for ten quetzals(Guatemalan currency). Promptly two shriveled up pieces of microwave bacon are ushered onto my plate by a grinning server. The obese server continues to retire to his own table with a plate piled high with sausage, bacon and eggs. He moans out loud as fat dribbles down his chin.
Groaning I surrender to the ugly bowl of wet bread and swallow it whole to avoid the taste. Laughing the waiter graciously accepts our money, keeping the change for himself.
After breakfast we went down to the docks to take a lantcha (very fast boat) around the lake. Every couple of minuets small four year old kids would run up to us with huge eyes and puckered lips asking us in the most angelic voice possible if we wanted to buy anything. Eventually one of the students (Kathleen) gave in to the temptation and bought a bracelet, she was instantly swarmed by an army of children all shoving cheap bracelets in her face, their expressions becoming more angel like by the second. She runs out of the crowd arms flailing around her body and screaming, the children followed her like a river, gibbering in cute Spanish.
An hour later we arrived at the docks and found Kathleen sleeping on the grass, hair disheveled, a very scary expression on her face. We woke her up, she sat up like she was a rake that had been stepped on and asked us where her dog was. Confused we murmured that we didn't know. After getting to know her again we finally hired a lantcha.
I was the only person smart enough to sit at the very front of the boat. At first it was very fun. It was very fun until we hit a wave, the nose of the boat lifted into the air a whole meter and I went with it, the problem is that the nose went back down but I didn't. I flew all the way to the back of the boat and landed on my arse to a chorus of gleeful laughter at my expense. Stunned I carefully stand up and move to a safer seat, I tie myself to the boat.
After that one unfortunate incident I had lots of fun. After traveling in the boat for half an hour I step of the boat into Santiago, bowlegged like a real sailor. We order a tuk-tuk (a very fast three wheeled car with no suspension), unfortunately the roads are cobble stone which means I spent the whole time rattling my bones to powder, I'm quite positive I got a concussion from hitting my head on the top of the car so much(I can't do math anymore).
I get out of the tuk-tuk disoriented and I'm led to our destination by the cackling driver. We arrive to our destination-it would have been inconspicuous if it wasn't for the fact that about a hundred people were crowding around a random clay sculpture with a cigarette, praying. Our tour guide told us that it was some famous guy named Santa Cruz and that he granted wishes. My dad thought that the guy was Santa Claus, got down on his knees and asked in a very solemn voice for a case of beer for Christmas. Concerned our guide, shaking his head, led my dad away like he was a granny.
After our visit with "Santa Claus" we walked down to the market, saying no thanks to every offer for a tuk-tuk. At the market I set my eyes on a awesome sculpture of a humming bird sticking it's snout in a flower. After thirty minuets of ferocious bargaining I manage to shave ten quetzals of the price. I walk over to my dad and triumphantly explain my financial advancements. Chucking my dad tells me that six quetzals is one dollar, he continues to rip up a five quetzal bill just to show me how priceless the money is. I gape at him, my mouth becomes a black hole sucking up every thing within a meter. Still laughing my dad walks away, angry I drop to the ground, pickup the pieces of the bill and scuttle of to find tape.
Next we go to the tiny village of San Huan, walking of the boat we are swarmed by an army of children trying to sell us stuff and tuk-tuk drivers that try to convince us there tuk-tuk's have suspension. After rejecting what seems like forty people the villagers decided to put a taboo on us, most of us also managed to acquire a twitch from shaking our heads in denial for so long. We visit three weaving museums before we find one that still doesent know about the taboo. We are shown by an old, short granny how to make the string and how to dye it, she speaks in a unnatural monotone voice the whole time. Then she started showing us how to weave, her hands blurred unnaturally fast and a pattern started to emerge, first very simple but then more and more complicated. I gaped like a monkey trying to fit a banana tree in it's mouth, magically words start to appear-"Stop staring at my like I'm a circus act you pillow muncher" her weaving read. Hoping it's a trick of light I walk away furiously rubbing my eyes until they turn red.
After my dad bought some blankets from the museum we disguised our selves, so we aren't recognized by the locals, and then we went to Santa Cruz, with me tied to the boat.
Getting of the boat god must have heard our prayers because nobody was waiting to sell us stuff. Relaxed we walked through the town to our hotel, random chickens clucking at our feet.
We arrived at our hotel at eight in the evening, we had dinner and most people went to bed, not me... I stayed up till four reading my book and feel asleep trying not to think of the drowsy day ahead of me.