Surfacing...

... from the wilds of Guatemala's backwoods to send you all an update.

I've been away from Internet access for a while but when you hear what I've been doing you might be glad you weren't told about it in advance!

I left Coban with Tim and Eric, a nice Swedish couple I met. We took a minibus to Fray Bartholomew de las Casas, a tiny, nothing town in the middle of nowhere. The bus was ridiculously crowded. We had 23 adults and 4 children in a minibus designed for 16! but it was fine, and the scenary was very nice. It's great to see rural Guatemala. Lots of forested hillsides and tiny houses in the middle of nowhere. It really is very beautiful. We got to Fray after 4 hours and checked into a cheap hotel cos the bus we wanted to take to Poptun (our next stop) leaves at the ungodly hour of 3 in the morning. Spent the afternoon wandering around Fray and being the hotest attraction in town - Fray is a very small place and we were the only foreigners in town that day. Got up at 2:30 and stumbled out to the bus stop only to find the bus driver and his helper still asleep in hammocks strung up in the bus. The bus leaves when they wake up. So we had fun experiencing what a tiny Guatemalan town looks like at 3:00am for a while until the bus finally got moving.

The road from Fray to Poptun was very nice, but I was asleep for most of it so I only caught glimpses. Just before Poptun I took my leave from Tim and Eric. I wanted very much to go to a travellers retreat thingy called the Finca Ixobel and I couldn't convince them to come with. So I jumped (not literally mum, don't worry) off the bus at the front gate and ended up at the Finca which is where I still up.

It's a lovely spot started by an American couple 20 years ago. It's in the jungle on lots of land and its a very relaxing place to hang out and meet other travellers. They have lots of trips and tours going as well.

Two days ago I went inner tubing down a river. It was very fun but the water was too low (the rains haven't really hit here yet) to do serious white water stuff. Mainly we just floated along looking at the jungle and the river. Occassionally we'd float past a group of Guatemalans doing their washing. We must have looked ridiculous, 7 foreigners on innertubes with bright orange life jackets and helmets floating past. We got soem very strange looks!

Yesterday I went on a big trip to a cave system. It was very adventurous. First you walk for 2 hours through the fields and jungle to the cave mouth and then 2 hours in the cave, which has a river running through it so sometimes you swim and often you wade. It's pitch black inside and the only light comes from your torches. After walking for an hour in the cafe you come to a 4 metre high waterfall which to get down from you have to jump. You have to me careful where you jump cos although the right spot is very deep, there are hidden rocks.

After that the river disappears into an underground passage before the cave opens up again. To get to this bit you have to swim underwater for 3 metres in a flooded tunnel, there's no airspace above you, only rock, so you just have to swim until you get to the other side. It's not really that dangerous, there's a rope that you grab onto to pull yourself along, and the guide goes through first and then shines his torch under the water, so you just follow the light. It only takes about 5 seconds but it feels like forever when you're doing it. So after that there's a bit more caving and another waterfall and then back the same way you went in. Through the underwater passage again, up a rope next to the 4 metre waterfall and an hours trek out of the cave and another 2 hours walk back.

It was exhausting but very cool. I can't belive I did it all - and I'm not sure I would again. It was fun, but once is enough.

I like the Finca alot. I've met lots of people, including a lovely woman from St Kilda, and its nice just to hang out. I'll probably leave tomorrow for the ruins of Tikal and then across to Belize.