Cómo están???

Here everything is pretty good! Although I still have diarhea though, it´s been a while, and I am not feeling too well, but I´m still alive and enjoying my stay in this beautiful country, and that´s the most important thing!

This week was my last week in San José, too bad!!! I was just becoming friends with my teacher Adérito, and some other students from abroad, and now we had to say goodbye again! But I going to be here for another 6 months, so I can always visit the nice village of San José.

Last Friday we took a day trip to their protected reservation area with all the teachers and all the students from the school. It´s one of the projects of the Bio-Itza Spanish school. They own this protected tropical rainforest area. They donate money to conserve this piece of forest. So we decided to go and take a look at it. It was a pretty amazing experience!

All together we were with about 20 people, and we had two cars. I had to sit in the back of a pick-up truck with 7 other people. We were just sitting on the floor of the car all together! Really cosy! The first part of the ride was okay, it was a road which at least they had tried to pave! But then we took a left, and man, it was right into the jungle! All of a sudden you could not even say there was a path! It felt like we were just  racing through the jungle! We had to get down several times because of trees and other plants growing over the road! All of a sudden there was a tree on the road. All the teacher out of the car with their huge knives, and they started cutting and pushing the tree away! Amazing! They managed to do it too! And the trip continued!

But not for long, because our car got stuck in the mud! Everyone out of the truck and started pushing! It was really funny, and we were covered with mud!

Finally after two hours, we reached the site. What an amazing experience! Welcome to Petén, Guatemala!

Anyways, that´s where the walk through the jungle began. Those teachers knew everything about every pland and tree there is that forest, incredible! And every plant and tree had some medical purpose. It was very interesting.

We also saw some small Mayan ruins. They were still covered with jungle, but you could see that people had tried to rob the jewelry and pottery within those ruins, because there were little holes that would go into these ruins.

It´s pretty weird to walk around in the jungle and to see some huge hill, knowing that somewhere underneath that hill is some Mayan ruin. That feeling of mystery is hard to describe.

After 2 or 3 hours wakling, we got to a pick-nick spot, where we ate our lunch boxes. After lunch the trip went back to the school again. What an experience!!! And how interesting!

When we got back to San José that afternoon, it was hot and we were dirty, so we decidede to take a swim in the lake. The water was SO nice! I am always a bit scared to swim in waters of which I do not know what animals live in,  but it was okay. It was actually my first dive in Lago de Petén Itzá! It was very nice!!

So that was another experience in the jungle! Right now we are in Flores for the weekend. We have a nice hotel, hot showers, nice soft bed, normal toilet! It feels like heaven! And I have to admit that I brought my dirty laundry to the laundry-mat. Sorry! I just can´t seem to get the feeling of washing my clothes with my hands and some soap! haha! I have a lot of respect for the mother of my hostfamily, who does this every day!

Well, everything is great here, hope to hear from you, and take care!!

Ciao,

Marjolein