Leaving San Jose

Made it through another day of classes today and then left San Jose!!!!  This morning as soon as I got to the school - at 8am, when it was already about 85 degrees and 95% humidity (I checked and the weather yesterday was 98 and 95% humidity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - the POWER went off.  Now the school is upstairs in a building with windows, but as I mentioned, no AC and the ONLY saving grace had been the fan (powered by electricity of course).  When my teacher arrived she explained that her uncle had heard on the radio that the city turned off the power for the day.  I was heartbroken at the news and felt like crying (not too much of an exaggeration)!!  I lasted about 2 hours and then took my teacher to the ONLY restaurant in town (after trying to get icecream, but it had all melted and they were closed) - and bought us coca colas and doritos.  The roof in the restaurant is made of a palm leaves, so the restaurant was cooler than anywhere else in the town.

Very glad to have left San Jose today.  I am in a cute little hotel in Flores with a pool, pina coladas, and air conditioning!!  I feel like such an American, but .... at least I don´t feel faint!  :)

I forgot to mention one interesting thing about the family I was staying with in my last entry - they have pigeons for pets (this is very common).  Let me rephrase, they have 26 pigeons as pets!!!!!!!  And their little coops (although they go wherever they please) is right in the middle of the house (which is basically outdoors anyways).  So, literally every time I wanted to go to the kitchen or to the bathroom or to the shower, I had to first brave the 26 pigeons!!And - in San Jose, EVERYTHING is on a hill.  Not really hills, more like cliffs.  To get the house, I had to climb stairs for about 5 minutes.  A good work out, but not so fun.  Of course, this is what gives the house such a fabulous view of the lake!  I spent many an hour sitting on a bench that they have positioned right over the cliff - absolutely gorgeous - and especially wonderful when the wind picks up, which it does every night about 7pm.

Tomorrow morning I am catching a 7am mini-bus to Tikal - really looking forward to seeing it.  Hoping to hook up with a tour when I am there so I can learn a lot about the ruins and the Mayan history.  Then back to Flores tomorrow night and then braving the BUS to Rio Dulce and then the beautiful bus ride to Livingston!

VERY happy this evening - planning to watch a beautiful sunset from the restaurant here at my hotel - and I picked up the 2nd Harry Potter book (the first was not available) and I am enjoying that MUCH more than 100 years of solitude!!!

The other student that was at my school lives in Seattle!!!!  She came to Flores with me today and we had a beer and I made her tell me about how wonderful Seattle is these days :).  Hopefully will get to visit in September - longing for a good dinner at Cedars with the YUMMY chai tea and naan!

All for now.  Please write to me!  Two weeks and I will be home home home with my wonderful little doggy and my pesky cat!!  Can´t wait.  (Nothing like having to defecate in a hole in the ground to make me LOVE my apartment and all of its amenities (including little Rowan and Gertie)).