And I gotta get a move on fit for the sun, I hear my baby calling my name and I know she is the only one.

Yeah, it's been a fair while, hasn't it?
Well, here's a little update, then!

I'm currently sitting in a hostel in Flores, Guatemala, which is by Lake Petén Itza. It's a beautiful place here, but pretty boring if you have nothing planned or if it's raining, as it is doing now. The hostel has a community area and only part of it is covered. It's really nice, the rain is causing a cool breeze and it feels nice with all the humidity. It's brutally humid here (well, actually, it's not too bad; I'm not used to lots of humidity) and hot. I like the heat, though, and the sun; my tan is coming along quite nicely! I need to work on my legs though, my arms are quite a bit darker than my legs. Wearing pants more than shorts doesn't really help.

Living on the road and out of my backpack is a new and exciting experience for me; I'm loving it so far. I have a small amount of clothing that doesn't even take up half of my backpack, I suppose majority of the space is taken up by books; I packed Anna Karenina and Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller, Bambi by Felix Salten (just found that book in Antigua at a used book store- I was so happy!). I think that's all.. but I'm also packing around my laptop and some liquids, towels and other miscellaneous items. The feeling of having all you need on your back is awesome, I love it so much! I love my pack.

Yesterday, my friend and I went to Tikal to see the Mayan ruins. It was fantastic, we climbed three temples and wandered through the jungle. I was happy to hear that Tikal was George Lucas' inspiration for the Ewok's and the bases on Yavin 4 in Star Wars. I could definitely see the resemblance. The whole forest was amazing, it's seemed so tropical and awesome, it was almost fake. It reminded me of the tropical exhibit in the Calgary Zoo, so that's why I was thinking it didn't feel as real. But everything felt old; the stones had different types of moss growing on them and were black with age, all the plants and trees were huge and had long vines hanging off them. We actually saw some Spider Monkey's in the canopy too! And some.. Pizotes? Yeah, they were so cute. Some British guys were calling them Nose Bears. They make cute little chirping noises and it looked like there were three babies and an adult; I wanted to take one home with me. Yeah, Tikal was a great experience! I was waiting for some dinosaurs to come crashing through or something, too; the whole place reminded me of Jurassic Park. Everywhere down here seems to remind me of it!

So far my travels have been great. I love it down here, but I don't think I'll ever feel really comfortable and truly at ease here. Homesickness has been an issue, but I'm getting a lot better. A lot. I'm feeling really comfortable right now, but that's because I'm talking to people from home. We are heading out sometime today, heading out towards the coast, I'm thinking! Hopefully, we really want to see the ocean.
For the past few days, I've been traveling with a girl I met in Antigua through my other friends. She's so nice, I like traveling with her. My one friend that I came down here to be with went to meet a friend of her's and spend some time with him before he left the country, so we split up for a bit. It was okay, we did just fine without her, but at first I wasn't sure if I was comfortable to travel around without her. But we're fine now, we're all back together.

The rain is crazy here. It's awesome. It's snowing back home. Ha. No regrets.

Rachel