Guatemalan Adventure - Part ONE

A BIT DAMAGED, BUT JUST DANDY
Well hello to all,

After an absolutely insane 28 hours or so, i am currently sitting in San Pedro, Lago Atitlan Guatemala. I am very tired, a little sore, and a bit injured (oh don't freak out!!!!). I kinda fell of a curb last night in antigua after my left foot stuck itself in a crack as I was trying to step off a curb, but unfortunately it didn't move with the rest of my body so i now only fell, but i fell and extra 6 inches or so OFF the curb, twisted my ankle and my left arm bore a large portion of the fall. A little stiff and swollen today, but totally ok, things are too crazy to slow down for....SOOOOO, with only 90 minutes notice yesterday i left copan with 3 other teachers for Antiga Guatemala at 2pm. By 8pm we were in Antigua and found a hotel for 2Bucks each!!! It was clean big and had a GREAT view of the volcano. At 8 am the librarian, emily, and I hopped a local chicken bus for some city *choltomeca, or something like that* and from there we hopped a NOTHER chicken bus for Panajachel, Lago Atitlan. This bus was SOOOO packed i only had one cheek on the seat! However, problem is that there was a road block, police said noone could pass....SOOOO we got off the bus and wandered the line of cars too see if that was true, and then the bus left.... we ended up walking a bit to talk to the police and while doing so a very large bus driver was arguing with him and ended up gettin permission to pass through the road block...sooo we boarded this and it was SOOOO packed that i had to stand at the front next to the open door with 2 other guys and hang on for dear life every time he sped around a corner....after one stop i was able to sit on a bucket next the driver and the open door, but at least i was a bit safer *it was SOOOO exciting! and scary though*....from here we hit ANOTHER block an this time NOOONE was oing through, they said we'd have to walk if we wantd to get anywhere, so we did.....we walked with some preists that we met, for about 3 or more kilometers and found out why there was a block...well, L and G, there was no more road, it kinda washed off the mountain and we had to trudge through the mud on the side in order to get around the ENOURMOUS hole...once we got uphill we bartered for a truck and got to STAND in back with about 10 others to the next city...los encuentros. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE VEIW the WHOLE WAY... from HERE we boarded another bus to the city outside of panajachel (it may have been solola(. Once here we found another truck *a very VERY small toyota* with TWENTY , i kid you not, other people. I almost fell out the back (where i was sitting ) and made some woman scream, after i got a grip on the railing i was practically gropin the guy next to me....THEN the old guys taught me how to ride and be safer. Once we reached another block we walked about 3kilometers down hill to panajachel. After a GREAT lunch, we walked around then bartered fro a boat to get to san pedro, after an hour or more we arrived and walked up hill and now i'm sitting here....tomorrow we go to santiago, lago atitlan and then god knows where from there...we haven't figured out how we're getting home yet....soooo I'll update you when i can...got to get going the place is closing.

With love,
and i PROMISE I'm ok
alssa