11/10/2014

Today was all about cash. We walked to the airport to get to a bank that would allow us to withdraw some Quetzales. The ATMs we had tried didn’t work with our card. After that was taken care of we had a delicious plate of fruit with exquisite coffee at the airport lounge. We walked over a dirty pedestrian bridge to a big mall and browsed around. We went into the second Columbia Store we’ve seen in a mall here. It’s the outdoor clothes store not a strange Columbian-made products store. We almost bought a pocket knife to cut papayas with because no one wants to be caught with a papaya and no knife. Instead of buying that we walked to the grocery/dept. store, Super Maxi, and bought some stuff for lunch and some forks, spoons, bowls, and a steak/papaya knife. Back to the hostel with bags full of stuff. After we ate, we paid for our Tikal tour tomorrow! It’s pretty exciting to go to a city that’s almost 3,000 years old. We also got some instructions from the hostel we are going to volunteer at in Lanquin. We are going to get a ride with some tour operator they work with down there on Wednesday. Our chocolate factory opportunity got put on hold. We were going to help move the company and the new site won’t be ready until January now. We also walked around the island this evening. There is a ring road bordering the lake that is submerged for about 1/3 of the circumference of the island. The lake has risen a couple feet sometime recently, I guess it is from rains. The lake was full of kids swimming and little tour boats cruising. We walked back over the hill and listened to the cacophony of birds at the top. I asked one of the shotgun toting security guards what they were and he said Ranqueros. They make so many different noises all of which are annoying. We had the flock visit at about 5:30 this morning. It is fascinating to listen to all the noises but maybe not then. goodnight