See ya Antigua

So not so much ressurected, but at least returned...we´ve made our way safely back from Santa Cruz. Hangovers not withstanding, it was a pretty cool time. We basically spent the last few days practicing the fine art of just chillin in one of the most laid back and lax places in the world. If the random dogs wandering around the hostel wasn´t enough to let you know the lay of the land, the local hippie artist slash writer hanging on the front porch in a t-shirt barely there and kept together by colorful string, brought it all together. Welcome to Santa Cruz, where those with nothing to do, go to escape, finding even less to do. Well, not less to do so much, just nothing more productive than the well being found after a day spent lounging around in the hammocks and swimming in the lake

The Iguana Perdida was cheap and had a nice family atmosphere, although it was a little hard to break in with the staff. Dinners are served family style though, so its great to hang out and drink a Cuba Libre while meeting all sorts of travelers from around the world. The most fascinating had to be this couple from Isreal who spent most of the first afternoon practicing some sort of wierd improv jewish wailing or singing whatever you want to call it, with acoustic guitar. The guy is a writer for the major news mag out of Tel Aviv and his girlfriend and he just sorta bounce around the world! They ended up putting on quite the show the next evening at the bbq party, as a bunch of local gringos brought out the bongos, and this spontaneous drum circle just sorta broke out. Tommy and I tried our best to do a little noodle dancing, but at that point in the evening it was pretty much just a goat rodeo. The Iguana for some reason themes the Sat night party to be cross dressing, and although we didn´t really get a chance to show off some upper thigh, Tommy somehow managed to end the night with a facefull of gold glitter. (Don´t worry Julia, not from making out with anybody, but rather from a goffy kid from Alaska who was wearing fishnets and daisy dukes...I hope that makes it better) He´s still sporting random glitter everywhere. Everything was just peachy though until about 2 in the morning when I decided to roll over, and the random wooden slats that held up my mattress decided to give way with a cacophony that must have woken half the village. A few random WTF´s and some flashlight reconstruction, we finally put the thing back together and made it through, though the sleep was more than shallow, as I kept wonderig at any given moment if the thing would crap out again.

This morning was filled with a super speedy trip back to Antigua with a shuttle driver that reminded me of the bus driver in Harry Potter. Pedestrians, animals, road laws, all were treated with reckless abandon as we played a two and half hour game of try not to squash your neighbors face into the window. A little more market shopping, and tomorrow we are off to Lanquin, starting the eastern journey towards Belize.

Hope everybody is doing well!

We updated some photos, you can check them out here.Just keep working through them to see the new ones.

Alan´s
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116311&l=3bcf0&id=5609966

Tommy´s
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015707&l=9c9f9&id=122802302
and
http://usu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015711&l=cb970&id=122802302