Where was I?
I feel like I´m not doing Lake Peten justice. It merits some real description. As previously stated, the lake is huge. I mean really really really big. It´s surrounded by low mountains. There are little towns and a few not quite cities dotting the coastline. Mostly though it´s just green beauty. Parts of the lake are super shallow. Reeds and grasses grow up out of the water in little patches. There are a few tiny islands and one island large enough for the town of Flores. When Carlin got out of her kayak in a shallow spot, she discovered that the bottom of the lake is eally silty. Her feet sank in a few feet. It was like slimey quicksand. yuck.
There were lots of fish in the water. They nibbled my legs, which Annie thought was gross. It tickled. Nothing really happened on the water. That was part of the beauty of it. We sat back and floated. We paddled towards particularly green spots. We explored some rocks that were covered in cormorant shit. Annie and Carlin sat on the bird poop. I elected to remain in the boat and give them rides. To each her own. Mostly though, we just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery and sunshine. It almost stormed on us, but the clouds passed quickly enough.
The next day was extra exciting. We got up early (for us) picked up some munchies to pack a lunch, grabbed a quick breakfast and took a bus to Tikal. Tikal is this amazingly huge ruin. It´s a Mayan city that spans kilometers and kilometers of jungle. According to a local guide, in its day, the whole city was cleared of jungle by the Mayans. Nowadays though it´s a magical forest with hidden Mayan treasures. There are pyramids, temples, carvings, underground storage areas, and lots and lots of things that I know nothing about all over. We decided to forego a map. The ones offered didn´t really tell us anything. Instead we just set out with the goal of discovery. We took a path that seemed less traveled and began to walk. Above us swung spider monkeys, and all around us were insects, spiders, and fuzzy caterpillars. There were orchids hanging off trees, vines climbing to tremendous heights, and clouds looming ominously. It began to rain pretty quickly. The rainforest canopy protected us for a while, but eventually even the thick canopy of leaves was no match for the buckets of rain that began to fall upon us. On went the rain jackets and away went the cameras. No rain was going to stop us though. The hike continued up a slippery path. It was so beautiful there. The smell of the forest is so fresh and the sound of the rain on the trees is glorious. As the rain slowed we arrived at two beautiful pyramids sitting at right angles. There were some men with machettes clearing plants off of one of them, so we dumped our jackets on a bench and started exploring the other. Carlin walked around the bottom, and Annie and I trekked up it. The do not enter sign was appropriately ignored, but all we found were 3 empty short hallways. Fearless explorer Annie, otherwise known as Sunshine Scout thought it would be a good idea to circle the edge. I´m sure people used to walk all the way around with only a bit of trepidation, but yours truly couldn´t help but notice the crumbling dirt and the slippery spots. We got about two thirds of the way around, holding on to the wall for dear life when we had to go around corners or when the path was no wider than our feet. I´m sure it felt more dangerous than it was, but my heart was pounding hard. The clouds began to get dark again and Annie and I decided to go back the way we came before it really got slippery. On the way back I got really chicken at the slippery narrow part and Annie had to go first to show me it could be down. A whole bunch of rock steps later, we rejoined Carlin who had been snapping away with her camera the whole time. Lunch was enjoyed on a bench by the pyramids. Peanut butter and jelly never tasted so good. As soon as we were done eating, a little raccoon like creature which the Belizeans call Quash showed his cute face. He was snuffling around looking for something to eat. We got a bunch of good shots of him before he ran away. Look for them on our shutterfly website. I´ll put them up just as soon as I recharge my camera batteries. We packed up and headed out in the direction of Mr. Quash. Down came the rain, on went the coats, and off went the girls. We were in search of the BIG pyramids. We figured we´d wait until it stopped raining, but when we got there the wooden ladder steps beckoned and we couldn´t resist beginning our climb. We left our gallon jugs of water at the bottom, and began climbing straight up. So many steps! Annie and Carlin booked it up so fast. I don´t know how there legs moved that fast. I trudged up at my own slow pace, but when I got there it was so obvious that it was worth the effort. We were at the highest point in the area. We looked down on the whole rainforest. We were above all the other ruins that peaked out through the trees. The clouds were nestled in valleys and stuck on mountain tops below us. It was truly awesome. We walked over to the center of the pyramid steps and just sat and stared. It was raining, but we didn´t mind getting wet. There was some scaffolding and a bunch of men sitting hiding from the rain. They were there to restore and rebuild the ruins. In the hour that we were up there, I didn´t see a whole lot of restoring being done. Eventually it stopped raining and our cameras zipped out. We couldn´t get enough! I have so many pictures that I don´t even know where to begin with my uploading. There were birds flying across the valleys, trees as far as the eye could see, and, once the rain stopped, swarming mosquitoes. These mosquitoes were not the ordinary variety either. They were striped yellow and black, and they didn´t take no for an answer. Thankfully we had already doused ourselves in repellant and we all had long sleeve shirts on. Nevertheless Once the swarming began, we decided it was time to move on. When we reached the bottom, my fears were confirmed. Someone had stolen our water. BASTARDS! It wasn´t hot out and we only had a little over an hour left before we had to leave, so we figured we´d just continue and chug extra when we got back to the entrance. More beautiful jungle walking brought us to a weird hole in the ground that turned out to be an underground food storage system. A funny sounding guide that we passed told us in an alien voice that the ruins of Tikal are even more extensive underground than they are above. We weren´t about to go find out, so we continued our hike above ground. There were huge white grubs that looked like they make deliscious meals for local birds. One of the coolest animals we found was a funny fuzzy thing. At first it just looked like a tuft of fur on a leaf. It was no mouse, and there weren´t other bits of fur nearby, so I examined it more closely. It was a hairy hairy hairy caterpillar! This thing had at least an inch of fur. You couldn´t even see the caterpillar part. There were also weird exoskeletons of flying insects that were left attached to trees. They looked like a zombie army of bugs waiting for their skeletal leader to wake them from the dead. Carlin pretended to eat one for a picture. The next ruins we came across were also the home of two foxes. We were jumping around and climbing to the top and never noticed them until we were climbing down. At the top Calin discovered the molted skin of a snake. We were all a little creeped out. In a nearby tree was a welcome sight. Two toucans were perched up there. There beeks were giant and yellow. It was so exciting! I had wanted to see one all day, but it didn´t seem like it was going to happen. Then all of a sudden, there they were. Time was growing short, and we still hadn´t seen the main square, so we took off. Onward!
On our way we passed giant shiny birds. They looked like peacocks without the big eye feathers. Their feathers were irridescent green and blue. There heads were beautiful. They were magical. There must have been four to six of them. It turns out that they´re a kind of Guatemalan wild turkey called Oscillating Turkey. Anyway, that´s what the weirdo tour guide told me when he walked by. We reached the main square with minutes to spare. I little climbing, jumping, and general sillyness, and we were off. The race was on. We had to make it to the parking lot before the last bus left the park. Someone showed us a shortcut and we got there 10 minutes early! More turkeys and some weird black headed vultures greeted us at our return to the parking lot. Thirsty, happy, and tired, we bought water and piled into the vans.
There´s another story from that night, but it will have to wait until the next blog entry.
Carlin and I will reunite tomorrow. We´ve begun the countdown to our return.
No more typing tonight or my hands will fall off!
Love to everyone,
Daniella

Well, I´m really doing. I´m writing something on this travel blog. I apologize for being such a lousy blogger. If it´s any consolation, I can´t even write in a diary consistently. I actually apologize to myself in my diary. Ok, let´s not waste any more precious internet time on apologies. Here´s a story:
We´re in Guatemala... sort of. I´m in Guatemala. Carlin used to be in Guatemala. Long story short, and then I´ll get to the good stuff.
Annie was traveling with us for a bit. Her flight leaves from Belize City on Saturday. Carlin is being a kind friend and has lovingly escorted her across the border. We´ll meet up back in Flores, Guatemala. ¨What´s that?¨ you ask. Let me tell you.
Flores is a sweet little town in Guatemala on Lake Peten. Literally on. It´s an island, but it seems to be somewhat of a peninsula. I´m not sure which it officially is.
Anyway, we stayed in a little hostel with Annie. The beds are big and comfortable, and only 25 Qetzales, which is a little over $3 US. We got ther Monday. Tuesday was a super fun filled day. We slept in (always a pleasant experience), and ate brunch at our hostel. Who knew that eggs, beans, toast, and coffee could be so deliscious? Yup, I said beans. Did I spell deliscious correctly? Whatever.
We took a walk down the shore after stuffing ourselves and hanging out. We were on the hunt for Kayaks. Eventually somebody noticed a beautiful, fancy hotel with a waterfall and pool (n.b. remember this hotel for later). The hotel rented kayaks, so we got ourselves some paddles, gave them 100Q, and went off on our adventure. With a bit of yelping and a lot of giggling, the initial awkwardness and fear of falling in quickly passed. Kayaks go fast! Lake Peten is huge, and we thought it would be a good idea to try to paddle all the way around the edge. That obviously didn´t happen. Instead, we went exploring along the shores. I should mention that I successfully peed off the side of my kayak without actually fully entering the water. It was an impressive feat and worth mentioning. These sun starved California girls then headed for the middly of the lake where we baked in the sun for about an hour. We just lay down on the backs of our kayaks and let ourselves drift in the gentle waves.
Oh no, there´s more to this story, but the internet place is closing in a few minutes.
I´ll get to the really good stuff tomorrow. This will just have to wet your appetite. Stories about fish, monkeys, pyramids, and toucans await.
Signing off before they sign me off.
Love,
D Rizzle, the bad blogger
p.s. mom, your hints got through. i promise to write more tomorrow.

We arrived!
It's been ages since I last wrote, but here's a mini update for you.
Carlin, Virginia, and I arrived in Belize yesterday and made our way to a farm just south of the capital, Belmopan. It's super jungley around here. Everything is lush and green. There are rivers and streams, gorgeous trees and vines, and botless flies. The bot fly lays it's eggs in mosquitos. They then bite you and insert the eggs under your skin. People that get bitten by these mosquitos develop a worm under their skin that eventually pops out. Fortunately, there are botLESS flies, so they don't have the gross wormy yuckyness. Instead they bite, and draw blood. Their bites really itch, but they aren't disgusting (silver lining).
The people we're with are awesome. The "farm" is a cooperative community owned by 22 Americans that are slowly but surely putting it together. Two of them are here now, working to set the place up. They're two baby-boomer guys that live in Chico, but visit Belize. Their wives and kids are in Chico and they visit Belize once or twice a year for as long as possible, trying to put things together.
Yesterday they finished building the composting toilets, and this morning they put latches on the doors. It doesn't smell great in there, but I can handle it.
The scary part is the snakes. Apparently lots of rodents live in the high grasses. So snakes (highly poisonous ones) like to hang out in the high grasses/bush to find dinner. Everything around the house is trimmed back and low, so it's safe, but, I have no desire to go into or near the bush. They found and killed a freakishly large snake 2 weeks ago. It was 8 feet! People hunt for years to find snakes like that in the wild. It was so big that before they killed it, they had to wack it with a two by four to paralyze it. Then they killed it with a machette. I promised my mother that I would not use a machette on this trip. As promised, I have not and will not use a one. In fact, I told them that I would be happy to dig holes, fill holes, pull weeds, plant plants, wash dishes, whatever, but that machettes were not in my repertoire. They responded by telling me that machettes were off limits to WWOOFers any way, since they don't have the experience and skill to use them properly. Some guy came here, tried to sharpen one, didn't know what he was doing, and cut himself badly. Too dangerous- I agree.
Well friends, the time has come for me to sign off. I've got to go buy some delicious food.
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Danidoooo

It's been a long time since either Daniella or I have updated this. Ah, the stories to tell. Yesterday we went to a place called Celestun. Celestun is on the northern coast of the Yucatan and is home to mangroves and hundreds of flamingos. We took a small one hour tour of the place - we even got to swing like Tarzan into the salt water swimming hole shaded by gigantic mangrove trees. It was beautiful. After that, we ate fish and went to the beach. It took a bit of walking to get away from all the dead fish and guts that the fishermen were discarding, but once we did, it was quite a sight. We went swimming in the ocean and the amazing thing was that it was shallow for a very very long time. It was beautiful.

We've been following the World Cup very closely, but Daniella and I will unfortunately have to miss the final in favor of seeing Chichén Itzá. We all have soccer player boyfriends - mine is Lehmann, the German goalie. I've given him my treasured name - sticky fingers.

Tomorrow we are embarking on a journey down the coast to Belize. We will be stopping in Chichén Itzá and staying in hammocks for the night. People actually sleep in hammocks here! And there is something called the hamoca sutra! Haha! In any case, we will also be staying on the beach in cabañas for 2-3 nights.

I´m having a really wonderful time. :)

Check out my pictures at: http://mexico2belizeladies.shutterfly.com

Okay. I'm off to watch a soccer game.

I am an official Oberlin College graduate!

Daniella and I went to a sushi restaurant in Malinalco with Carlos, Mandy, Kian (their baby), Pau, and Al. The food was incredibly delicious and filling. I tried an appetizer that had Marlin in it - I felt vaguely like I was eating myself. (By the way, I taste really good! Haha). We got fortune cookies at the end of the meal with fortunes in spanish. Mine said that a big weight I had been carrying would be lifted by a phone call or a letter. Well, that weight was anxiety about not graduating and it was lifted about 20 minutes later when I logged onto this here computer. Yay for fortunes telling the truth!

More to tell!
We went on a gorgeous hike Sunday up to an Aztec temple. Carlin and I met a guy who gives speeches there about the historical background of the area and culture. He was totally cool and a little crazy. We went back to where he lives and he showed us around. He has 5 bungalows that are all made of bamboo and mud, and are thatched with palm. They're similar to some of the buildings at Yolitia. He made them himself. He's cut rock steps into the mountain, and climbs up to a line of caves where he sometimes sleeps. We went up with him and saw such an amazing view. No bats, thankfully... Eventually the three of us went to a restaurant owned by a friend of his and chowwwwwed down. yummmy!
Today will be filled with weeding and gardening. Lots of seedlings to plant.
ok, enough computer. We need to find some food.
D Rizzle signing off

We're in Malinalco, the closest town to the place Carlin and I are staying. Our ¨farm¨is mor like a cross between a tropical paradise, a commune, and a fledgeling resort. It´s in its early stages of business. Most of the buildings are extremely new. We helped paint the communal eating structure yesterday and today. It´s a giant round open building made of dirt bricks (unfired) and held together with dried mud. The roof is supported by thick bamboo and is thatched with woven palm. So pretty. I´ll take lots of pictures, because the descriptions I can give online fall sooo far short of the reality. I´ve worked a lot harder in the last 2 days than I was expecting too because there was a group of 18 gnostics (spelling?) that was staying at Yolitia (this healing, meditation, farming, educational, vacation, retreat center). We had to prepare their rooms on top of finishing up projects to make the buildings habitable. Carlin and I were responsible for pulling 4 matresses out of the shed and carrying them together across the farm. This seemed like a simple task when we accepted it... not so. When we went to the shed, the matresses were dirty and piled densely. We were being very careful of spiders and other critters, thank g-d, because when we pulled out the first mattress, we discovered a scorpion along the seam. After quite a bit of screaming and laughing, we got a jar and Carlin scooped it up. Mandy, the owner of Yolitia, keeps them, puts them in alcohol, and makes a tincture for drinking in case of scorpion stings. Two minutes later, it was my turn. Our second scorpion of the day inspired more screaming and nervous laughter. I caught him in the same jar with the other one. yuuuuuuck! enough scorpions already! That was quite an introduction to Yolitia... Another girl that is staying here, Larissa has been here 2 weeks and has only seen 2. Not fair.
two nights ago it rained. Apparently scorpions don´t like rain. When I came inside to go to bed, I found a little one about 3 feet above my bed on the wall... fun. I was not happy. I couldn´t catch him because I was chicken, so I took my flip-flop and squashed him. He´s still there, as a warning to the others. About 10 feet above the bed on the wall was one huge enormous incredibly scary gross icky ugly monster scorpion. We couldn´t reach him even standing on the bed. I was freaking out and unwilling to go to sleep until he was gone, so Larissa gave me her aerosol can of bug spray with Deet, and I went at him. He didn´t die. I used half a can of Deet, and he didn´t die. My head hurt, my eyes stung, and my mouth felt bitter, but he didn´t die. He crawled away though. I woke up twice that night totally freaked out. This morning I found a scorpion under my bed. Out came the flip flop and squash he went. Close encounters of the fourth kind will likely continue, but maybe I´ll learn to not scream... it wakes up the neighbors.
More to come,
Love,
Daniella

Hi all,
We are in Mexico! We arrived on Thursday and took a long bus ride to the place where we are staying: Yolitia. It is one of the most beautiful places Í have ever been. Yolitia is a center for organic farming (a project that is just beginning), healing, and communing with nature. It is being run by Doctor Carlos and his wife, Mandy. The adobe buildings are all beautifully crafted and designed to promote connection to the outside world and to self - heart speak, really. We have encountered several SCORPIONS since we have been here. Last night, Daniella killed two that were in our room above her bed - quite the dramatic affair. There is so much to tell and to share that I can´t possibly do all of it here. I´m happy and feel as if I was led to Yolitia - it´s quite perfect.

I hope all of you are doing well. :) I´ll write more when I get another chance.

Carlin

It's three in the morning. I've been packed for hours, but there are still so many little things to do...
Keep an eye out for picture posts. The new digital camera arrived and I am a compulsive picture snapper. Now if only I was good at putting them online. If anybody wants to email me, your best bet is to write to me at Daniella.risman@gmail.com.
I'm excited!!!!
Daniella
p.s. I took my first malaria pill yesterday. yummmm!

Hi All!!!
I'm sitting in fabulous Nashville Tennessee with Katie Studley (yes, that's her real name). The countdown to Mexico has begun. There's so much to do between now and then. Shopping, packing, shopping, unpacking and sending all that crap I don't need home, re-packing, and lots and lots of planning. I'm soooo excited! Between now and the 15th (four days) some of my best friends from Oberlin are coming to visit Nashville. It's going to be a serious reunion! The five of us, Me, Katie, Lilly Copeland, Marie Masters, and Evan Few, are all going to be house-sitting for a friend in a G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S woodsy house in the suburbs of Nashville. Katie and I are already here, taking care of the pups and lolling about the house like bums!

Anyway, you have now experienced my very very very first foray into live journal territory. Did I spell foray correctly? I hope you have enjoyed and will enjoy in the months to come.
Love to all,
Daniella

p.s. did i do a good job Carlin? I looooooooove you! Can't wait to kiss you. a million bazillion times!