Guate, accessible? Porque no! Guate, accesible? Why not!

Before writing my last post tomorrow, I wanted to take a moment to write down some travel highlights from the last few months.

Kayaking Lake Atitilan
Lake Atitlan is Guatemala's famous volcanically-formed lake. Surrounded by 3-4 inactive volcanoes, Atitlan just might be the most beautiful spot in Guatemala (when the lake isn't going through an algae bloom, that is). Mickey and I went to explore, and did so in kayaks. It's been confirmed: kayaking is our new favorite non-basketball activity.

Tikal: the New York of the ancient Maya
We weren't too excited about the prospect of a 10 hour bus ride to the seemingly inaccessible Guatemalan national park, Tikal, but we finally got off our butts and planed the trip. Tikal is one of the worlds biggest and tallest Mayan ruin sites. So I knew that Tikal's pyramids were big, but I had no idea they were sky scraper big - puchica! holy cow!

We spent a day and a half in the park and fully enjoyed lounging around these Mayan giants, in addition to climbing them. Props to Mickey who pulled himself up each pyramid, including the jaw dropping ladder on Pyramid IV.
Sailing Belize
Since my arrival here I haven't stopped noticing fliers for "Let's Go Sailing Guatemala." Mickey and I kept telling each other we'd do it, but found ourselves putting off the planning for work's sake. With only a month more to go in Guatemala, we finally sat down to pick the sail-off date, and asked our boss, Alex, if we could disappear for a week.
We spent 5 days and nights on a sailing through Guatemala's Rio Dulce (translated: Sweet River, because it's fresh water), and Belize's southern islands. Each and everyday we swam, snorkeled, explored beaches/islands, napped, read, and enjoyed eating the day's catch. And...we got so swim with reif sharks (well...Mick swam, I hid a bit more), and saw manta rays and a 4-7 foot (ft. depends on who you ask) sting ray. Most amazing water life I've ever seen!

The trip's tiny hiccup: about 4 hours into the bus ride to our boat's sail off point, we realized we had forgotten our passports (which were a tad necessary, as we were sailing to Belize islands). Ah! Fortunately we were able to board the boat the next morning, after our passports arrived on a night bus.