lost camera, rain, and worms in the toilet

Days traveling: 9
Spanish fluency: 5% or wretched
overall feeling: meh

So I guess I am starting to get all the bad stuff on my trip out of the way early. Unfortunately, I think I lost my camera at the last hostel we stayed at in Santa Cruz. Lucky for me though, I uploaded almost all the pictures that were on the camera...I think.

The hostel was called La Iguana Perdida. For Q90 a night ($5.75) we got a cute little double room facing the lake. The eco-chic hotel also had all you could ever want: manicures, massages, sauna, SCUBA, yoga sessions, a restaurant, and a big screen with unlimited pirated films. SCUBA and movie watching ranked high on my list. It was so relaxing overall! SCUBA was fun/funny. The instructor insisted I was smaller than I was and made me stuff myself into a wet suit that was 2 sizes to small. The group had to literally shove me into the wetsuit and I waddled around thereafter. First dive was kind of boring, some volcanic rocks, so fish, nothing special. The second dive was much better: touching volcanic hotspots, more fish, and weird algal slimy quicksand stuff that you could literally disappear into. It was really interesting and cheap ($50 for 2 dives).

Also, it rains all the time! Should have figured since I am traveling during rainy season, but now I understand May and June are especially worse because they bring the first rains. Despite the rain, the scenery is beautiful. The mountains hide behind the clouds in the morning and slowly creepy out by noon, only to be covered again by the afternoon showers. We get about one hour of no rain a day and I haven´t seen the sun in 3 days.

Despite all that, I´m feeling pretty good. Well, I was until Evan and I discovered a worm in the toilet last night. It wouldnt have mattered much except I was the only one to use the toilet that night... needless to say I started a de-worming regimen this morning.

We are staying with a couchsurfing friend Ariel, who is a salsa instructor in Panajachel. Last night we watching one of his classes and he and his wife, Karin, did an amazing salsa show that literally had me gasping from amazement. They are planning on competing sometime later this year! I recommend you take a class of his if you can. Q100 ($12.80) gets you an hour of fast-paced dancing and lots of fun, but you have to pay extra for the Cuba Libres and dinner, which looked delicious I might add. Ariel owns La Terreza Restaurant, where the classes are held. Its a bit pricier than what I typically spend on dinner (around Q100). I have limited knowledge on how to dance classy, so these classes were helpful and a lot of fun.

We will stay in Pana another night then head down to San Pedro for a couple nights, then San Marcos for a couple nights. All these town are on Lake Atitlan and all are just a short boat ride from one another.