new years in Ixobel

Jeremiah arrived in Guatemala city on the 28 where I picked him up and we went to rio dulce, a jungle river that connnects to a big lake and the carribbean, it is home to many sailers and rich guatemalans who have their weekend houses... We stayed and swam one day on the river and then went to Finca Ixobel, a beautiful 400 acre farm in the Peten jungle where they have horses, vegetables, and a big resort like feel....We took a full day horse back trip with some friends from seattle and Switzerland.. .it was such a blast galloping through the pine forests then slowing down through the bush and the mud which was everywhere in the amazingly lush place... We all had a blast except for the 100 or so ticks that were smaller than deer ticks and very difficult to remove, I am still suffering from the bites and some other poison ivy which got my legs and arms pretty good..But it was worth..
For New Years we had an awesome dinner of american meats and vegetables which I have been craving for a while now.. At night they had a big show of fireworks, dances,and some torch shows which made great fun for the new year...
They had a nice natural pool that they made which was great for swimming and frisbee especially in the hot sun of the tropics.... After New Years we went to Tikal and had a amazing time trying to sneek into the pyramids at 4am and go around the guards and around the crocodile pond then through the jungle and finally we made it. .There were like 4 guards which couldnt find us.. but then it came back to haunt us as we turned on our lights later and found a guard in the dark who busted us.. .we really wanted to see the sunrise and the awesome calls of the jungle so I paid him 12$ and he let us in without giving us much trouble at all. Later on in the day after taking lots of good pictures of these enormouse mayan ruins built in the sweltering jungle, we took a break to play and take pics of the always playful spider monkeys, and we also found some nice vines to cut and swing on just like in Tarzan.......very fun!!!! At the end I found some Coatis or wierd looking coon-like animals and fed them some bread... then i had a wild idea to see if I could get them to drink my coke out of my bottle... TO my amazement, the first one almost broke his teeth on th botttle but the others were drinking right out of the bottle which was sooo coollll.. then thers was about 30 of them around me and I had no food so we took offf...Welll so much has been happening I just cant write about it all so ADIOS:::until next time