antigua to lanquin

February 12, 2011
We are in Lanquin, Guatemala right now and are staying at this great place called El Retiro. We have a loft room that is pretty much open to the elements so after hanging out with a couple of just graduated physicians from New Mexico we decided to start taking our anti-malaria drugs. I actually totally forgot about them and thought that we would only have to take them in deep jungle areas and well....we are actually pretty deep in the jungle. oops! they only take two days to take effect so we should be good. Chad hasn't had any mosquito bites and I've only had one so far. Its crazy out here because just down the road most people don't have power or running water and here at this place that seems like a jungle summer camp for grown-ups we have wifi and crazy amounts of booze and dance parties every night. We are only paying Q35 (about $5ish) each for our room. Probably will stay for a while longer in hopes of getting some nicer weather. Its been misting rain here since we arrived last night. We are right beside a river that is relatively clean and clear for Guatemalan standards! Going for a tube ride and tour of Semuc Champey and some caves in the morning. One of the New Mexican med students I met spent 5 weeks at the hospital in Santiago de Atitlan. Her stories are insane and make me want to go and volunteer at a hospital. It would be beyond frustrating because of language barriers but I would love to be able to do something there.  we take for granted a lot of things we learned that thier nursing education doesn't cover. They have ultrasound and xray in Santiago but at night the gaurd has to run the xray machine (he has a manual). If the doctor orders a medication they have to specify the dose and what to mix it in and how fast to give it over, these are all things that we have to figure out or look up on our own at home. I met another Canadian RN who has been working in the Cayman Islands for the past two years and is loving it. It was crazy at dinner to have two RN's and two doctors/med students sitting around swapping stories and Chad didn't even get grossed out! Our room actually has no door, it only has a curtain so I have to go and lock up our valuables in a rickety old wooden cabinet. We lost our mosquito netting somwhere along the way, chad blames it on me having way too much stuff and so he can't keep track of everything ....ya ya sure!. i am going to send a package of clothes and shoes and other useless items home when we get to Belize so that hopefully i can maybe buy some of these cool things i see and not feel guilty for having to stash it in chad's pack because mine is too full.