well, not entirely, but certainly less company than last time. i will be traveling alone to cuba on june 5 11:59pm from yvr, then meeting up with cameron mcgimpsey and jamie richardson in antigua guatemala on june 20 sometime in the afternoon... so i will be on my own (kind of, more clarification required still) for two weeks in cuba.

cuba.
in cuba, i will be guided by the lovely grisel araña - a cuban citizen, university student and employee at a hotel in varadreo. my parents met her when they traveled to cuba in april 2008. they got on well and email addresses were exchanged. mis padres had too many good things to say about the beautiful country and its good-natured people; i was easily convinced to modify my plans to include a visit. grisel will be taking time off work to travel around with me, and for that i am extremely grateful. so, i'll be alone in the sense that i'm getting there by myself and meeting up with someone i've never actually met in person.. but i will not be alone in any practical sense of the word.
length of stay: june6-june20

antigua.
cam, jamie and i will be living with a host-family in the beautiful colonial town of la antigua guatemala. we're all enrolled in an intensive spanish course at the 'appe language school,' located a few blocks away from our homestay (appe actually set us up with it). the course is m-f, 5 hours a day, 1 on 1 instruction with a native spanish speaker. we plan to do this for 8 weeks, but i'm thinking that somewhere in the middle i might take a week off to travel to belize and honduras. on weekends we'll be sure to visit tikal, monterrico (on the pacific coast), lake atitlan, livingston, and many other places i haven't even heard of. in belize i'd like to see the barrier reef (2nd biggest in the world after australia's) and the famous great blue hole. not sure what to see in honduras yet. san salvador, capital city of el salvador, will be a likely weekend getaway - assuming my salvadorian friend fernando wyld is around sometime this summer.
with my stay in guatemala, i hope to achieve basic spanish fluency. i've already taken two introductory spanish courses at sfu, and had some experience with it in south america.. also, i've done some audio lessons (pimsleur, learning spanish like crazy) on my ipod while working at faulkner wood specialties to save for my trips (both before south america and before this trip to the caribbean and central america). so...
length of stay: june20 - august21

goals.
-experience the cuban/guatemalan way of life and make some cuban/guatemalan friends that i will stay in contact with, and hopefully return to visit one day
-visit belize (barrier reef if nothing else), honduras, el salvador
-explore guatemala (monterrico, livingston, tikal, rio dulce, lake atitlan, pacaya volcano)
-volunteer in guatemala
-achieve basic fluency in spanish
-don't get robbed or lose my credit card again
-play lots of soccer in antigua
-do something similar to the rafting trip in peru, whether it's kayaking, scuba diving, or even rafting again
-have lots of fun, while remaining budget conscious!