Garifuna Death Rituals.

So our death rituals and ceremonies are very tame compared to those in the Garifuna community of Livingston in Gautemala. WHne someone dies, they have a big party a few days later in the Cemetary, with music, drinks, and bright coloured paint to paint the gravesite, which is usually a concrete box. They invite everyone to the party like a giant wake in the cemetary.

Also on All saints day in the beginning of November, they convert the graveyard into a Dance club with 2 dance floors, bars and again brightly coloured paint to paint the graves. The colour does not matter and your grave could have a new colour every year. They also decorate the graves elaborately with flowers and motifs, very intresting indeed.

the Bay islands

These last few days have been pretty tough. The hardest decision today was to snorle or just to swim. We were on Jewel Cay, a small cay off of the island of Utila. It was beautiful, the water was a great blue colour, and the locals were very nice. I do not really have any funny stories from this part of the trip, it was just stunningly beautiful and very relaxing, which was much needed after almost 3 weeks of non stop going. I will post here again soon with more interesting stories.

Tikal and Semuc Champey!

Wow these were 2 great sites to go visit, and some definite highlights from the trip so far.

First was Semuc champey, which is an underwater river which flows under a natural limestone bridge that accumulates runoff water to make pools! complicated I know. It was very beautiful and the pools on top are deep enough to swim and even dive into. Good times. We also had a guide who brought along a rope ladder and helped us climb down into the tunnel with the underwater river, perhaps a little sketchy climbing down a waterfall using only a rope ladder but hey, it all worked out nicely and provided an experience I will not soon forget.

Tikal are Mayan ruins that are very impressive. Just the setting of the jungle with Monkeys everywhere and Toucans is amazing. We once again decided on taking a guided tour and do not regret the decision whatsoever. Our guide was funny but very knowledgeable and I learned a lot and had fun...crazy concept I know. We were able to climb a few of the temples t get awesome jungle views. My favorite complex was one they had fully uncovered which showed 2 big temples with a cleared out plaza in the middle where ceremonies including sacrifices used to take place. The mayan are a very interesting people and I am determined to learn even more about them.