Man were we ready to bounce outta LA. Flew from LA to Mexico City and killed the 5 hour layover by drinking all afternoon. Probs not the best idea. Landed in Costa Rica at midnight hungover and then jumped over to the 24 hr Denny's by the airport to wait til our 5am bus to the border. Was comatose on the ride over to Los Chiles, ate some breaky then took a boat down the river to the Nicaraguan border. From there, hopped on another boat down the Rio San Juan and stopped in a nothing town, Sabalo, then transferred for another boat to go deeper into the jungle.
Arrived at our destination, El Castillo, and booked a place to stay. Really in the thick of the jungle and only accessible by the irregular boats that pass by, the town was just what we were looking for. Set up a tour with a local guide but since he wanted to spend New Year's Eve with his fam, we kicked it for a couple days in the town of about 75 peeps.
Woke up to a cayman in the river outside our room, toured the city, etc., then hopped aboard the sauce train. Spent the Eve drinking El Caballito, to which we gave the nickame of horse tranquilizer. Hung out with our guide's family for a bit which was awesome then spent the rest of the night at a jungle trance running around the dance floor.
Woke up to pissing rain and a raging hangover the next day. Hating life, Alby and I got in our canoe along with our fav Kiwi couple and the two guides. We paddled down river and to quote Forrest Gump, it was raining so hard I didn't know if the rain was coming down or up. We spent the next few days canoeing downriver, trekking through the jungle and fishing. It was pretty much the perfect way for us to spend New Year's. We had to catch what we ate, shared the river banks with crocs and slept in hammocks. The first night was pretty tough actually. Everything was simply soaked and I slept for just a few hours. Restless all night, I knew it was about morning when the jungle started echoing with the calls of howler monkeys which pretty much sound like girls from Staten Island having an orgasm.
We slept on an island in the middle of the river the second night, and after splitting a sleeping pill, the two of us slept solidly for like 10 hours.
On the last day we had a midriver pickup where we paddled out to a passing boat and they brought us back up river to El Castillo. Spent a few uneventful days heading up north through Granada and Leon and then bussed it back to Antigua.
From Antigua my feral friend went off to do Semuc Champey and Tikal and I spent a day in Guatemala City before coming back to Xela. Got weird with some locals and checked out a really sweet permaculture project that takes kids off the streets. Glad to be back, checked the garden, the fish are still alive and the garden's almost completely cycled so woohoo.
Twas actually reallllly nice being back by myself cuz it gave me the chance to start hanging out with my Guatemalan friends. Started seeing one of my friends so that's been nice. And they weren't kidding that dating improves your Spanish exponentially.
Chilling here for another 10 days or so then time to head north through Mexico. hasta pronto.
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