Estoy Aqui!!!

My first two days here in Guatemala have been both amazing and stressful. I arrived yesterday morning in Guate at about 7:30 am and immediately took a cab to Antigua ($30), an old capital of Guatemala and one of the major tourist destinations. The town I was going to be staying at, Aldea El Hato, is about 6 kilos from there. Upon arriving to Antigua, I enrolled in a Tour/Spanish Lesson for about four hours ($30). I also spent some cash on water and food ($15). It is a bit more expensive here than other parts of Guatemala. By now I am out of cash, pero no problema, tengo una tarjeta de credito. Unfortunately, being Memorial Day back in the States, Mastercard could not contact my bank to verify the transactions. So now I am broke. I convince a cabbie to take me up to the village and that I would pay him tomorrow. Upon arriving in El Hato, which is a very small town in the mountains with pretty much just a school, a playground, a church, and una sila (a place to do laundry), I am pretty noticable. Many of the people here are Mayan and very shy but they so speak some Spanish, especially the drunk old man with very litle teeth who wanted to show off his English skills to me for like 20 minutes. I finally made some sense out of him and realized I was on the right path. Reaching my hostel/commune/avacado farm was a relief to be able to relax and stop worrying about the money situation (I'm on credit there and it's cheap). The Earth Lodge (www.welcometoearthlodge.com) was full of people from all over the world. Everyone there spoke English and Spanish so conversations are pretty interesting. There were fellas from Israel, Colorado, Columbia, Ecuador, Ireland, Canada...really relaxed atmosphere living pretty simple lives up there. For those of you who are familiar with Naz Far, it was a lot like that (cabins and dorms out of trees and adobe, outhouses, homecooked, family style dinners. Last night we talked about the aspects of socialism under Lenin and Stalin and the political infrastructures of a two party system versus a My brother and dad took care of my banking situation this morning and it is all fine. Make sure your bank knows when you leave the country. I've always done this before, I don't know why I didn' this time. I hiked down to Antigua this morning and paid the cabbie. I'm going to hike back up there and we are having a pig roast this afternoon. Looks like I'm eating more meat than I hoped for but oh well, at least it's food. Tomorrow I leave for Antigua tomorrow to meet my friends Katie and Hannah. I already am wishing I was spending more time in this country and in Central America in general. A wonderful country (full of expats too) with beautiful vistas, good food, and easy conversation. I really do enjoy the backpack travel and hope to do some more while I am here. From what I have heard from the people I've met here, the Lago de Atitlan region and San Lucas Toliman are beautiful places to stay. I'll confirm that in a few days. Hasta luego amigos. Paz y Amor.