It's finally time!

I've been talking about this for months now, but the time is finally here! Tuesday morning I'm going to get up at 3am (UGH) and take a twelve hour bus ride to Peten, in northern Guatemala. Here's where that is:

I haven't gone anywhere north of Antigua during my trip here and I'm super excited to see a different side of Guatemala. We live in the mountains so we have relatively cool, arid conditions. Once you start going north it becomes a much more tropical climate. Peten is entirely rain forests and is famous for Tikal, a huge Mayan ruin (which some lucky visitor will get to see with me. Mom, Tracey, I'm looking at you).

I'll be spending three or four days up there with Ezekial, Tia Rosa's husband, helping to bring in his harvest on his farm and build some new fences. Details are kind of shady at this point. We're staying in the house of some dude who lives nearby? Maybe there's electricity? Maybe we'll just be eating corn from the farm for three days? Who knows, all that Tia Rosa keeps telling me is to bring a sombrero (which I'll be buying this weekend) and cowboy boots because the place is crawling with snakes and crocodiles. I asked her how cowboy boots would help me with crocodiles and she just laughed at me which was a little disconcerting...

Despite the possible killer animals, this is going to be an awesome trip. Do you know what lives there?! MONKEYS!! Naturally this calls for a goal list:

1) See a wild monkey
2) Take a photo of said monkey
3) See a poisonous snake from a very safe distance, like maybe from the bus window as we're leaving
4) I don't need to see a leopard, but if I do I hope it's while I'm taking a photo of the monkey or snake
5) Learn something about farming corn!
6) Get huge muscles from doing farm work
7) Don't die

I would actually love to be camping out in the rain forest (another life goal of mine) but since I don't know much about identifying hazards there, I'm ok with waiting until I have a guide. Besides, Ezekial doesn't seem to be the camping type, and I don't know about doing that myself. Tarantulas and scorpions scare me a lot more than bears back home. Oh yeah, there are tarantulas and scorpions too.

I'm going to take a million photos! I can't wait! I only wish that Tia rosa was coming with us, but it'll be a good bonding experience for me and Ezekial.