Adventures and Misadventures from Xela to San Salvador

Made it to San Salvador, El Salvador! It is hot here and we read in the quide book that a lot of people get colds when they enter into this country...and I feel a cold coming on. Maybe it has to do that Xela, Guatemala was freezing, and when we caught the bus to El Salvador at 6:00 in the morning, Hana and I had to wear 6 layers and we could see our breath in the bus! It was crazy cold!

We got here last night, and are staying in some guest house from the guide book. This morning when we woke up, we got an offer to ride in the owner's car to their other guest house on the beach. So, we are hitting up that offer and off to the beach for a couple of days. Finally going to see the ocean again and maybe hit up the surf, or go in dug-out canoes through the Mangroove forest. Should be fun!

Thanks for the comments, Lisa, MATT, Kyla and Dad! It is a small world Kyla, and Ryan says hi! Also Lisa, I am totally up for that cookie making when I get home! Sorry Matt for not saying goodbye in San Pedro! Also, not sure why the pictures are not working on the last blog...I will try to fix that when we get back from the beach.

-Kristen

From Xela to San Salvador . . . adventures and misadventures:

For those of you who know Shasti Conrad, she´s a dynamite woman and fellow student from SEattle U! A couple weeks before we headed to Central America, SHasti found out I would be in Guatemala and suggested I look up an awesome guy by the name of Ryan Richards. Ryan has been living in Quetzaltenago (Xela), Guatemala working at a wonderful school that I will tell you more about later.
... So Ryan and I kept in contact and sure enough, KK and I headed out from language school to go visit him in Xela. Have you ever met someone who you feel at home with right off the bat and a sense of familiarity? Well that was Ryan. And to top it off, it turns out he´s from Coopville (where my dad spent a few years of his childhood) and Ryan went to school in Oak Harbor with KK´s lifelong friend Kyla, who we visited in Oak Harbor back in the day! small, small world.

Misadventures:
1. 5 hour long chicken bus ride from San Pedro to Xela -- we bumped along winding mountain roads (w/ INCREDIBLE VIEWS OF THE LAKE!), stopped in construction for a LONG time, found out skirts make for great roadside-pee-stops-attire, met 2 Germans on the bus, I got sick, couldn´t hardly standup once off the bus, luckily one of the Germans grabbed my bag and we walked the half hour to Central Park (near Ryan´s house). I spent two solid hours in the restaurant´s bathroom. And to top it all off, I missed the curb by the park and with All MY gear on (front and back), I slowly fell and sprawled out in the middle of a busy street. My bags were so heavy, I couldn´t move, so I opted for the alternative, which was to lay there and laugh until some Guatemalan women ran over to make sure I wasn´t broken.

2. Upon arrival in San Salvador, woke up in the middle of the night with a giant cockroach crawling on me! Yikes! Slept with the lights on while the creature skiddered back into the darkness under Kristen´s bed!!

Take care,
Hana T.