Antigua has great knockers

Hi again,

So, after enjoying some time exploring San Pedro, we began our treck to Guatamala. We took a water taxi back to Belize City, and then hopped on a bus which took us to Punta Gorda. The bus ride was about 6 hours, which was a bit intense, especially considering the intoxicated military member who only spoke creole but really wanted to speak to us, and lean over the top of our chairs while doing it. His determination was fairly impressive though, you can only say No Entiendo so many times before most people give up, he lasted a good 30 minutes. The rest of the ride was uneventful and uncomfortable. Woo.

Once we got to Punta Gorda, we stayed at a nice little guest house called Tates. It had a nice garden and Tate was very friendly and helpful, especially considering how late the bus arrived. We spent the next morning in Punta Gorda, and then hopped another boat out to Livingston, Guatemala, saying farewell to Belize.

Uh...as for Livingston...it was interesting. I don't think either of us will miss it. Heather did see fireflies for the first time, however, we got ripped off by a guy named Polo, who sold us some music, but never returned our change. Meh, what's a couple bucks anyway? The place we stayed was nice...well...minus the random drunks outside yelling and pounding on doors in the middle of the night...that was not fun. Needless to say we left there as soon as humanly possible in the morning.

We took a boat up the Rio Dulce. It was a very beautiful, though rainy ride...as has been the last few days of our trip. Guess we brought the northwest with us. It's nice to have a reminder of home, minus that whole supposed to have sun down in the tropics ;) We then had a nice bus ride with some Brits. Unfortunately we lost a very cool walking stick that we had picked up in Belize for Heather's dad :( sigh. Guess we didn't pay enough attention to the guide book telling us not to put our stuff down. The brits were fun though. While Abe was sleeping Heather talked with the girl, Stella, for quite some time, and, since Stella was about to head home, she gave Heather her scetchbook and pencil to use, and her email so she can get a picture down the road.

The bus dropped us off in Guatamala City. The city is massive, about 3 million people. We really only stayed long enough to hop in a taxi to the bus station where we caught a chicken bus to Antigua (no, there were no chickens, that's just what they're called, it had a pretty sweet flame paint job instead :) ). The bus dropped us off in Antigua, Guatamala, which is where we are writing to you at the moment. It's very nice here. There are a lot of old building from when this was the Colonial Capital. The people are very friendly, and don't seem to mind our stumbling over our Spanish, or lack thereof. Wish we would have paid more attention in those classes.

Anyways, it is late, and we have yet to eat dinner, so Chao all, and much love.

PS - Antigua is full of beautiful door knockers that we've been taking pictures of. There was even a really cool dinosaur one. What's that you say? You thought we meant something else? Dirty birds...sigh :) jk

A & H