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.

Guate Guate Gaute

Back to the blog now that I am back in travel mode. I am here in guatemala with Marina and enjoying every minute. Some highlights of the first week include.

- Roasting Marshmallows over lava on a volcano. Pacaya was the volcano.

-Climbing another volcano and seeing others erupt. Santa Maria was this volcano. This was a tough climb bu tdefinitely worth it at the top.

- Seeing a 3 or 4 year old chop a coconut with a machete.

-Chicken busses. One trip between 2 cities that should have taken about 4 hours took us 7 busses and 7.5 hours to do. Included on this was the crazy guy who would climb over the bus while it was moving to talk to people at the back or collect money.....NUTTY! I would have died several times. Of course this was the only way for him to get back and forth as the bus was so packed.

- Lake atitlan was really beautiful and the boat ride was quite relaxing.

- Pineapple soda...man it is so good.

More to come!

A couple examples of travel fun

One of the coolest things about travelling is of course meeting people from all over the world and here are 2 fun examples of what can happen.


4 of us were hanging out in the hostel, laughing having a grand ol time when someone asks us where we are from (she assumed as she told us later we were all travelling together). we kind of chuckled and had to ay, France, Sweden, Canada, and Holland. I love it.



I was in el Chalten in the hostel on a rainy day and met a french girl, so we spoke in french, then met an American girl, so we spoke in english, and then the 3 of us spoke together so we spoke in.......Spanish.


Cheers
Off to the pool.
Bus tonight is heading into Brazil

futbol game

sorry for the delay in writing folks!! I am now in Uruguay, enjoying the sights and sounds, but what I really want to talk about is the soccer game I went to last week.



It was a championship game for the copa sudamericana. It was packed at 50 000 people, and everyone was wearing red, I had to go through 2 security checks to get in and there was no place to move, it was rush seating, and we had troubles finding a spot even 1 hour beforehand. The atmosphere was electric right from the get go and did not stop. The fans from the opposing team were cordoned off in one section, with sections left empty around them for security, with 3 lines of police on either side to prevent intermingling. These fans were also not allowed to leave right after the game, they had to wait for everyone else to leave first.

During the game, we stood up the whole time and sang songs, the entire game, we did not stop, it was nutso. The game unfortunately ended 1-0 for the wrong team but was still a great south American experience!

Free Hugs

So yesterday in Santiago, Me and a couple of friends were walking downtown, having a great day with ice cream and what not, and ran into a group of people giving out free hugs. When asked why, they said simply to bring good cheer to Santiago.......sweet. I think there should be free hug groups everywhere.