The last 4 days of the trip I was unable to post. There is so much to tell so I will try and do it by day.

On Saturday, we all packed up into a van and headed north. After 4 hours of driving through the Mountains we stopped for lunch at "Bruno's" in Rio Dulce. This restaurant was right on the river, and there were sail boats lined up along docks making the view from our table beautiful! The weather was hot and humid but the view took your mind off the fact that you were sticking to your shirt. After a refreshing lunch we got back into the van for another 4 hours to Flores. We only spent one night there but we made it count! Before the sun went down we took a boat tour of Lago (lake) Peten Itza. The view of the sun setting over the lake was beautiful! That night we ate dinner on the roof of a restaurant. From there you could see the reflection of the moon on the water. The only light they had was by candle, although it was beautiful, it was also hard to see the menus and the food!

On Sunday, we got back into the van and made our way another hour north to Tikal National Park. We picked up a tour guide on the way there and he showed us around the Mayan Temples. We climbed up to the tops of some of the temples and enjoyed the views. On temple number four you could see over the tree line and see mountains that were miles away! On our way down, we started to here a noise that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. The sound reminded me of T-rex on Jurassic Park! Come to find out that dinosaurs had migrated north for the winter and were no longer in Tikal and it was just the howler monkeys. ;) By the end, everyone was tired, sweaty, and covered with bugs spray. When we got to the hotel in Rio Dulce everyone was ready to take a shower and just relax. The room that Cassie and Jessy were assigned to had an A/C problem so Rina and I ended up sharing our room with them because luckily ours had a great working A/C.

Monday was a long, unforgettable day! It started with a boat ride to breakfast. The restaurant was part of a hotel called Hotel Kangaroo. It was probably named that because the owner sounded like he was from Australia. This hotel was in a secluded area of the river where all the summer homes are. The coolest part of this hotel was the bathroom. It had a shell as the faucet and the sink was a canoe! After breakfast we took the boat to a tourist attraction called Castillo de San Felipe. We walked around inside and of course took lots of photos. We then got back into the boat and headed to Livingston. On our way there, we stopped at a hot spring. I only put my feet in but the water was so hot I couldn't leave them in for very long!! They rest of the family got all the way in and consistently had to stir the water around to cool it off. After about 20 or 30 minutes we all got back into the boat and continued our journey to Livingston. When we got to Livingston we picked up a gentlemen who looked like he was from Jamaica. I didn't know until afterwards that he was just coming with us to watch for big waves as we went along the ocean. We stopped at a place where we would hike along a river in the middle of the jungle! The sites were, once again, breath taking!! We only hiked for about 10 minutes crossing the shallow river a couple of times. Dan and Brian had warned us to wear shoes that we didn't mind getting wet. I am so glad I took them seriously because by the time we got to our destination my shoes had been completely under water several times. The waterfall was where we would be swimming. The water felt amazing and we even climbed up to the top of the water fall and jumped off. The waterfall was probably just 10 feet above the water but once you got to the edge of where you would be jumping off it felt like 30 feet. Sadly we had to leave this beautiful place and headed back to Livingston where we had lunch. I ordered the shrimp and when I saw that the heads and tails were still attached I was a little nervous. This Kansas girl is not used to the meal looking at her while she is eatting them! After lunch was done we all climbed back into the boat and headed back to Rio Dulce. The water coming back was very rough and the boat had to slow down a little bit so the ride seemed a little longer. When we got to the hotel it was later then we expected so we all just changed our clothes instead of showering and got into the van and headed back home to Antigua. This ride home felt like the longest ride of the trip. Everyone was tired and ready to be in bed. As we pulled into Antigua the feeling of home sweet home rushed over us. We all went straight for to bed knowing that we had a big day ahead of us.

On Tuesday, we hiked up Volcano Pacaya! The journey was steep, but our guide stopped several times so we could rest and take pictures. There were some tourist that rented "taxis" up. These taxis were not Fords or Toyotas. These taxis were horses! The paths were narrow so we had to stop and move over whenever the "taxis" needed to pass us. Like all the other views, the view from the Pacaya was breath taking!  We climbed down to where the lava rock was and roasted marshmallows! I couldn't stand in one spot for very long because my feet would start to burn! The hike down did a number on our hips and knees but we all made it down safely! The rest of the day we spent relaxing and spending the rest of out Q at the market buying souvenirs for family and friends. Not a bad way to spend our last day in Antigua!