Monterrico! (Back to the beach, yaaay)

Friday-Saturday June 24th-25th, 2006
Monterrico, Santa Rosa Guatemala

Going to Monterrico was one of the best ideas of my trip so far, and it was only made possible by the fact that I bailed on Xela. It was a 2.5 hour ride to get to the edge of the mangrove swamp in which the town is situated, and I shared it from Antigua with three lovely girls from Chicago. The ride was pleasant, and I savored the increasing temperature and humidity as I made the rest of my descent from the mountains. I dropped from 8000 feet to 0 feet above sea level this week and I truly am glad to be back out of the mountains. Straight roads and lush fincas prevailed just a short way out of Antigua. I got to chatting with Maria, Christina, and Leslie and found out that they are all my age, and that Leslie has family living in Guatemala joining them at the hotel in Monterrico. The shuttle dropped us off at the swamp and we had to take a boat for 10 minutes to get to the island. Once there we hired a pickup for cheap to take us to the hotel. Their place, Johnny's, looked awesome. Mine, next door, El Kaiman, wasn't quite as nice, but I had a private room and private bath on the beach for less than $6 per night.

We got in around 11am, and I instantly put on my suit and headed for the beach. I appeared to be the only guest at the Cayman so I headed next door to Johnny's place and ran into you know who. Meeting these girls turned out to be a huge bonus. Their family is pretty loaded (by Guatemalan standards) and within a couple of hours I met two aunts and uncles, Leslie's mom, and another girlfriend from Chicago, plus her mom and little bro. The 10 or so of them had rented two bungalos and a private pool and decided to adopt me for the weekend. Aunt Anna took a serious liking to me. She's a principal of a Kindergarden in Guatemala City and old enough to be my mom. The younger girls, on the other hand, were more my cup of tea.

The aunts and uncles (Anna/Jorge, Primo and Prima) were total alcoholics. They would leave every morning to buy 7 liters of beer and a liter of rum, with snacks and cokes, and make the same run around 1 in the afternoon when we had killed the morning stash. The fam took me along for all the meals. I even got to use their hot shower and soak in some of the AC, as well as swim in their pool. As Ferris Bueller would say, it was so choice. I was sad to have to say goodbye but I did leave yesterday (Sunday). Good bye Guatemala and hello El Salvador.

The girls took all the best pics. I'll throw up a picture post for everyone when they forward them along to me.

I spent last night and today in San Salvador and I believe I'll be leaving this afternoon to go surfing on the beach with 3 English guys I met at the Hostel here. I can't wait to learn how to Surf!!!