I’ve been pretty busy since Antigua, and yes, I am still alive!  Unfortunately with the loss of my computer I haven’t been able to upload any pictures or spend much time writing entries.  Here’s a quick update of where I’ve been since my last full entry… consider a hint of things to come:

I left Antigua and spent a few days at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.  The mountain fringed blue waters were beautiful, and the small towns surrounding the lake are full of activities.  The weather was a bit on the grey side when I visited, but I still enjoyed my time here.  Additionally, I had the pleasure of visiting an amazing local chocolate maker who just “had an idea” one day to sell chocolates to the locals, and now makes delicious cigar shaped chocolate sweets.  Mmm!

My next stop was Xela (Quetzaltenango) in western Guatemala.  The town is surrounded by volcanoes, so I went on a full night tour of Santa Maria where I was able to see an active volcano spewing lava and smoke below me.  The hiking was hard (and all in the dark!) and the wait up top in the freezing cold for the sun to rise was nearly unbearable, but the sunrise of gold, pink, and rose as we all shuddered in sleeping bags mostly made up for things.  Also, thanks to some American medical students I met on the hike, I was able to spend a morning looking in on a free dental clinic for local Xela residents!

Afterwards, I made my way slowly and expensively to El Salvador.  My grand plan was to learn surfing; I utterly and totally failed.  Although I did take lessons and paddle out with a board, I was never able to stand up and decided that I’m not very good at surfing.

Fortunately, my next stop was more to my liking.  In Honduras, I signed up for a scuba diving class from which I’ve successfully graduated with the rank of “Open Water Scuba Diver” - Yay! I’ll be doing a few more dives for fun and skills here… I can really see why people get caught up in diving as it’s wicked fun!  Alas, the candy on the island is seriously lacking so I haven’t been able to explore that aspect of my trip much.  Hopefully soon!

Sorry for the lack of photos, but my camera doesn’t seem to interface well with many internet cafe computers.

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