unfettered

After a night of the howling monkey soundtrack, Ester and I returned to the park at 7am. The previous day we had been prepared to see packs of spider monkey swinging from the trees but we saw only one. Maybe it was two, but I think it was the same monkey twice, which doesn’t count. Our guide had told us that the best time to see the monkeys, parrots and all the other critters is in the early morning hours, so we were anticipating some great wildlife photos. Sadly, these monkeys never appeared. Ester saw parrots in a faraway tree, but I couldn’t quite make out what they were exactly, other than some random birds in a tree. We did get some really great photos of the pyramids and landscape free of tourist adornment. It was definitely worth a second visit; it felt like a different experience from the previous day in the early afternoon sun. The only disappointment was the lack of monkey sightings. We took a shuttle back to Flores for our return flight later that afternoon. On the way, we met an English/Canadian couple living on their boat, which they dock in Guatemala to wait out the hurricane season. They had been to the park that morning at exactly the same time of day and seen packs of at least 20 spider monkeys and couldn't believe we didn't see the same.
We had a very bumpy flight home because it was still raining in Antigua. Ester is a flight attendant and she looked nervous, so it worried me. It was a small plane, maybe capacity of 24 passengers and we were seated in the front with a view of the instrument panels. She noticed that some of the instruments were labeled in Russian and she told me afterwards that Russian planes are cheap and terrible. I'm glad she told me after the fact. We had heavy traffic all the way back from Guatemala City and arrived back to Antigua at about 7:30 pm, when I officially moved into my new house.

The new house is only about 2.5 blocks from the old house and it's a huge improvement. For starters, I have my own bathroom with shower. I still prefer the shower at the gym, so I'll probably stick to that routine. It's just nice to have the option. There is also a living room with comfy chairs and a tv to watch the hilarious telenovelas and upstairs there's also a roof deck. It still kind of rains inside, but I no longer feel like I'm camping. Every last one of my new roommates will be gone by the end of the week, so I'll have a whole new batch to look forward to. It should be interesting. Oh, and the food is much better, too. There is still the usual white bread and starch overload, but more variety and fruit every morning at breakfast. I think I'll stay put for the duration of my time here. I'll try to take some pictures to post later in the week so you can do a before/after comparison of the houses.

I think I have officially decided that I want to take the last 10 days to 2 weeks to go to Belize and then meet up with Noortje in Honduras. If anyone has some free time from about July 25 - Aug 3, feel free to fly down here to join me:) I haven't worked out all the details, but I am pretty solid on the route, which will mostly be by ferry, I think. I'll let you know once I figure it all out.

posted by Angie @ 5:03 PM