Flights + Arrival in Germany

Flights

So I got dropped off at the airport in Guatemala City the morning of my flight and checked in easily enough. Everything went smoothly, except for the fact that I had to travel on 3 different planes!

First, Guatemala City > Miami. That was ok. When I got to Miami, I got hopelessly lost, and couldn't find where the TapAir Portugal flight terminal was! Turns out it was completely random and out of the way, tucked in the corner of level 1. 

Miami > Lisbon. This was a connecting flight, by now I was already over planes. And I was sick of aeroplane food!

Lisbon > Frankfurt. I arrived about midday in Frankfurt.

Arrival in Deutschland

After checking through the airport, I waited at the train stop. I had contacted some friends on Facebook beforehand who were already there with the IUSP program (same uni stuff that I am doing) and they had told me where to go. I got off the train at the main train station in the middle of Frankfurt, and got lost again! Finally I found a tourist information centre in the station, and the lady helped me out - I had to catch another train to the part of Frankfurt where my hostel was. Turns out it is also the red-light district, as I found out when walking through it. Aaaaaakward.

Finally I got to my hostel, met the guys, and settled in. It was also snowing!

Walking around Frankfurt...

The guy at the Wurst stand insisted that he help us take a "real" German photo..the stench of 'tourist' is overwhelming ;)

(Josh, me, Callum)

And in the city centre...

My week of travel - Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey was my last stop before Germany. It was also far away, about 7 hours, and I felt a bit sick so it wasn't the most fun ride ever! I went by myself, and hoped I would make some new friends on the trip! The shuttle wove through the mountains and stopped at a lookout.

So we eventually arrived at this tiny town, and I got on this "shuttle" (which was a ute this time!) which drove up and down hills for about 40 minutes until we got to the hotel, which was right in the centre of Semuc Champey. The river was literally the front yard, and it was pure turquoise-green. It's a bit dark in this photo, but this was the view!

My room was pretty cool - it was islander-style, with a palm roof and open window spaces. It was high up in a loft, so my way in was through a trapdoor!

The window (you can drape a curtain over it at night) and door (floor on right)

The other half of my loft room!

In the morning, I was booked in for a day tour around the jungle. This is the view from the deck I was eating breakfast on...

I met 3 people the night before at dinner, they were heaps cool - my age and from Canada. So the next morning we all set off together for the tour. Turns out we had to hike up billions of stairs for like an hour. That sucked!!

But the view was worth it...

Me and Clare

You could hear the screams of howler monkeys in the jungle, and one of the guys said they used that sound for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park! It was awesome, it really did sound like dinosaurs!

The guide then took us back down to the pools - it rained the night before so there was a massive deluge of water!

All the natural rock pools, so crystal clear...

Then we went swimming! It was hilarious, the rocks were so slippery and I stacked it so many times. The guide took us through each level (the pools all flow into each other) and we slid down these natural waterslides made out of slippery rocks. I sat down and he gave me a push and off I went! It was pretty scary and dangerous because it was so possible to slide out of control and hit your head on the rocks are something. But I survived, with only a few cuts and bruises :-)

Went for a bit of a walk through the jungle...

The Caves

After all the activity, it was back to the hotel for some lunch and then we headed off to the caves. This was the best experience so far!! There's all these underground cave systems, and we went exploring with a guide. We were given candles - it was pitch black - and had to climb over all these rocks and swim through these underground lakes! Most of the time was spent swimming actually, it's really hard to carry a candle while swimming in deep water and laughing at the same time! My friends and I kept singing the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park themes songs, it was so funny and I had such a great time. There were slippery ladders meters tall that we had to climb up, there were waterfalls, submerged rocks, all in this system of caves! It was super dangerous and super fun!

River Tubing

After the caves (we were so tired!) there was one more thing to do - tube rafting on the river. Fortunately, that just involved us sitting in an inflated tire and floating along the river. It was very relaxing just drifting along, however the 30 minute walk back with no shoes was not so fun!

My week of travel - Pacaya active volcano

Pacaya

There are 34 volcanoes in Guatemala - and Pacaya is one of the active ones. It erupted in 2010 - so unfortunately there was no lava that we could see, but it was still an awesome experience.

There were guides with horses for those who didn't want to make the trek. I absolutely refused to use them, I love horses, and these ones were scraggly, and looked so unhappy. One big fat rich guy got on one and by the time the horse got to the top with him, it was breathing so hard it was trembling, and was completely covered in sweat. Poor little guy. (The horse, not the man).

Now, I'm not one that likes exercising. In fact, I hate it! I hate steps and I hate walking up hills! But I sucked it up (taking a stand on the poor horse's behalf) and managed to climb up the volcano all by myself without complaining ;) Halfway up the guides kept asking, "Do you want a horse now? How about now?" and I just pushed my sweaty hair out my face and soldiered on. 

I was too busy puffing and trying to look like I wasn't too unfit to take many pictures, but here are a few of the trail. It doesn't look to steep but maaaan my calf muscles were feeling it after an hour!

And the first view of Pacaya itself - it was originally pointed at the top like a normal mountain but it blew itself to pieces in the last eruption recently.

Pictures of the old lava fields..

Pumice rock, a piece of volcano that fits in my hand :-)

Apparently a world famous shop according to the sign...

Roasting marshmallows in the heat of the rocks!

I lost my legs! Haha jokes.
Just chillin' in a natural sauna, aka heated hole in the ground.

The volcano just casually doing volcano stuff...

We stayed at the top until sunset (arrived about 3.30pm) and it was just breathtaking.

My week of travel - Rio Dulce

Rio Dulce

So the day after Tikal (Sunday) we made the 4 hour trip to Rio Dulce (which means "Sweet River" in Spanish) on the way home. First off was a little mini-castle, which was used back in the day as a lookout against pirates.

 We had a boat for the whole day, alot of it was spent cruising along the river - was so picturesque. 

Erica & I

Erica, me, Noah

We also stopped off to go exploring...at a scenic little place with lots of natural rockpools.. both my flip-flops broke so I had to walk over all the stones in barefeet! 

And on the boat again...
(from the back L to R - our driver, tour guide Andrew, Braden, me, Noah, Erica, Dave, Sarah and Julie)

We went out to the start of the Caribbean, and ate lunch at a little town called Livingstone which is only accessible by water.

The water temperature was so so warm, almost hot!

And finally, we also visited some natural hot springs, which were heated by volcanic activity under the earth. The whole place smelt like sulfur mmmmmm.

(Dave, Braden, Andrew, me, Noah)