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Hi - this will be the last you hear from me on this trip as we are almost at an end now. Since last writing we finished our first week in Xela with the weather getting gradually colder and wetter, thanks to a hurricane off the coast of El Salvador. Graham was however not put off by this and having failed jsut to get to the top of a volcano in Chile 2 years ago signed up for a full moon (ie night) hike up the volcano Santa Maria from which at dawn you can see the nearby still active volcano Santiaguito. Well, next time he says he wants to go up a volcano I will tie him to a chair. It rained, all night long and having rreached the top in about 6 hours of trudging in the dark the sun rose, in theory, but all they saw was mist and rain, lashing them horizontally. A quick cup of hot chocolate was brewed by teh guides theyn they started a 5 hour downward mudslide. Ihave never seen him look so wet, cold or fed up when he eventually got back down! His clothes took days to dry out. I on the other hand stayed warm and dry in bed! My 5 days at Spanish school went fast and thanks to Rocio, my teacher I think my Spanish has improved a bit.
Saturday morning we left at the ungodly hour of 4 am by bus for Guatemala city and then on to Rio Dulce. This is both a river and a town, close to the Caribbean coast. First we stayed on the river in small hotel which also had a marina. Many yachts spend the hurricane season here as it is well protected. Sadly all we could mange to get our hands on were kayaks but we had a lovely time pootling around in the warm sun and seeing some of the local sights, including some hot springs where you sat in a cold pool but underneath an almost scalding hot shower and we were the only 3 people there.
From Rio Dulce we took a boat to a tiny little jungle resort called Finca Tatin which was magical and from there kayaked for 2 hours through a beautiful river canyon to Livingston on the Caribbean coast. This does not feel so much like Guatemala and Jos felt it was much more like Belize where she lived before she came here. Unfortunately our stay there ws brief then the long bus journey back to Xela, where fortunately the weather had improved greatly in our absence.
The next day we were off again, this time with Jos and Fernando and by car to Lake Atitlan which is one of the most spectacular places I have seen, a huge lake surrounded by volcanoes. However it is plagued at the moment by a hideous type of algae as a result of years of polllution and mismanagament and currently you cannot swim or kayak in the lake for fear of contamination. This has happended recently and very quickly, Jos was there only a few weeks ago and it was fine and is likely to be a major disaster for Guatemalan tourism which is very dependent on visitors coming to the lake. However we stayed in a hotel with a beautiful view and we did some walking and ate great food. And now we are back in Xela for just 2 days to sort ourselves out, day our goodbyes and head first for Mexico and then on back to London, all in less than 24 hours we hope.
Ir´s been a fantastic and busy 5 weeks and in some ways we are ready to come home for a rest but I´m sure the feet will get itchy again soon.
Best wishes to all and see you soon.
Love Linda and Graham
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