Well, it seems like I have not bloged again for quite a while.
Since the trip up Acatanago, I have been quite a busy boy. So, let me start back in Antigua.

On Tuesday I left Antigua to head towards Lago Atitlan, which is a 4 hour bus drive towards the north west from Antigua. I had booked a bus for Monday already, but due to some intestinal problems that was possible yet.

On the bus to St Pedro de Laguna, I met two girls from England, with who I then went bed hhunting in St Pedro. It turned out that all the nice backpackers had been booked out already and after running around for 1 hour, we settled for a small, dirty and really crappy room somewhere in a ´hotel´. It was very cheap, so it didn´t seem to bad. The plan was to head out to town whole day anyways, so we wouldn´t spend any time in the place.

The town was a bit strange. It is right by this huge beautiful lake, but one cant really see the lake, when one walks around because there are just loads of hotels, restaurants and shops on the side of the lake. It´s not at all like europe, where everything is all fency, but still quite build up. We still had an awesome day, walking around, going to cafes, bars and restaurants. The plan for the next day was still to catch a ferry to another, smaller town on the lake and check that out. The next moring we wanted to take a ferry at 8h. We ended up having breakfast for ages and relaxiing and finally got a ferry at 10h. The other place was called St Marcos de Languna and was really a tiny place by the lake. We strolled around a bit and checked it out. Again, quite strangely the whole village is away from the lake and it doesn´t feel like a place by the water at all, rather like a place in the middle of the rain forest. The girls went to head on to Belize the same day still and I stayed in St Marcos for the night, heading on the next moring.

On Thrusday then I wanted to head back to Antigua, as I wanted to go to Semuc Champey next and it didn´t seem reasonable to do the trip there in one day. On the bus to ANtigua I met Tom from Australia and he booked a bus straight to Lanquin, which is right by Semuc Champey. I decided to try to the same thing and so I booked another bus for the same day once I arrived in Antigua. I so ended up doing an 13 hour trip on Thursday anbd arrived in Lanquin at 10 the evening. Arriving there we luckly were still able to get a room in a hotel , but unfortunately all the restaurants and shops had closed by then.

On Friday we headed out to try and get a bed in the best backpackers in town called El Retiero. We only managed to get a hammock, but that seemed good as well. Really cheap. 25 Rand, 2.5 Euro a night. The place is really amazing. Its right by a river and all the dorms are on very big space in different huts. It´s got a great bar and a good restaurant. Not much one needs... On Friday afternoon, I went on a tubing tour on the river. We drove upstream at the back of a truck for 20 min and then went down the river in tubes for 45 mins. Really relaxing and good fun. The evenings highlite was the buffet at the restaurant. WOW. Finally big plates of food again...

For Saturday I had singed up for a tour to Semuc Champey. That was really an amazing trip. It had so many highlites in it, that I can just really list what we did, as I dont know enough adjectives to descrive how awesome it was.
-Taking a huge swing to swing and then jump into a river.
-Going into caves, with the only light source being candles and walking, swimming, climbing and crawlingly further into the cave, which has a river running in it for about 2 hours.
-Tubing down a fast flowing river
-Jumping off a 8m high bridge into the river
-Walking up to a view point to see the amazing natural stone pools of Semuc Champey
-Swimming in the pools
-Abseiling down a waterfall, going into a cave, jumping off a cliff into the river and going up the waterfall again.
But that was about all already. The best trip ever. We were out for about 9 hours. AMAZING.

Today (Sunday) I went on a rafting trip. Unvbelievebale. Another great day out. Fast rapids, lots and lots of water and cool people. There was soo much water though, that we couldnt do all the radips as one was too dangerous with all the water. We were in one raft with 7 paddlers and one guide and we had a safety kayak with us all the time. The girl in the kayak also did the rapid we couldn´t do. Crazy stuff, really. We were on the tour for 7 hours, with about 5 hours on the river. I only got back from the tour about 30 min ago, so I guess I will be able to tell the whoñe stiry better tomorrow or so, when all the excitement has settled a bit. So much for now then...