San Pedro, Guatemala

After two exhaust filled(literally) days in the capital city of Guatemala City, we made our way to the beautiful, lake side village of San Pedro on Lake Atitlan.  It's kind of a backpacker destination so there were lots of travellers and hippie types there.  We just relaxed for a couple of days.  We went on a tour to watch the sunrise on top of one of the very steep hills across the lake from San Pedro.  We decided to make an extended stay and take five days of Spanish classes.  At four hours a day, I speak much better English than I did before!  I can read signs and think "Hmm, I couldn't even read that before I took that Spanish class in San Pedro.  Losiento, Sra. Click, but I think I learned more about verb conjugations in one week than I did in the whole first year of high school Spanish!  Of course, that might be due to a better attention span and willingness to learn.  While in San Pedro, I was able to fit in some early morning runs and even get in some weightlifting at the local gym.  San Pedro is at about five thousand feet elevation so the workouts were definitely harder.  Especially the running!  Nicole was able to find a yoga teacher she liked and start every day with a good yoga workout.  Basically, it was nice to stay in one spot for awhile and kind of get into a routine.  It just lets you reset and regroup.  Being on the road and hopping from bus to bus everyday doesn't allow you to do that.  Nicole and I would go to the same restaurant every night for movie night.  Because the movies were pirated, sometimes they would work and sometimes they would stop before it was over.  We would have a good laugh because everyone else at movie night was older than us.  At least retirement age.  We would joke that we were just another one of the grandma and grandpas at movie night.  Whoopin' it up with all the other grandmas and grandpas.  That about sums up San Pedro.  More updates soon!

Guatemala City

     Guatemala City.  Where do I start?  We’re quickly learning that to get anywhere, you have to switch buses at least twice.  If you ask the bus driver, or his assistant, if a bus goes to a destination, they will just say “Si!”.  What they don’t tell you is that the bus only goes part of the way.  When they drop you off at whatever drop they decide is yours because you have no idea where you’re at or if you’re even going in the right direction, they’ll point you to the next bus that will take you on the next leg of your journey.  Then you ask the driver if that particular bus is going to your destination and they reply “Si!” and you think “Oh thank God.  This bus will take us all the way there!”.  Then that bus drops you off at some other random location that’s not you’re end destination and points you to yet another bus that will take you a little further.  This “game” continues until you’re not really sure you’re actually going to make it to the place you’re trying to get to because the towns, as well as the streets, have no names.  Just when you’re ready to give up……. you see a sign with your destination town on it saying you’re almost there.  On top of that, they pack the busses as full as possible.  I’m not kidding!  Three to a seat plus however many people can stand in the aisles as well as people riding on top of the bus if their happens to be a roof rack.  You don’t pay when you get on the bus, you pay when the busses “helper’ comes around to take your money.  I have no idea how they keep track of everybody, but they seem to do a good job.  I’ve seen these guys(tiny guys) walking on the seatbacks over people to make their way around the bus making change.  It’s pretty ridiculous and insanely dangerous but you just go with it.  That’s how we made it to Coban.  As well as the rest of the towns I’ve been writing about.  However, as luck would have it, there was a straight shot bus from Coban to Guatemala city.  Despite it being packed, we were thankful for the direct route.

Once again, the bus to the capital city dropped us off, at night, in the rough part of town exactly where our travel books tell exactly not to be at that exact time of day.  Luckily, our hotel was literally two doors down from the bus terminal.  We were very happy to get a clean room, a television with some bad English speaking programs, and some hot showers.  Yessssssssssssss!  Needless to say, we slept very well that night.

     The next day we decided to walk 6^th Ave.  In Guatemala City, 6^th Ave is kind of a promenade, closed off to traffic, full of shops, art, and restaurants.  We walked 6^th all the way to the end where it opens up to Central Park.  This Central Park is nothing like Central Park in NYC.  This one is much smaller and completely concrete.  Turns out, it’s where the city first started.  The “park” is actually more of a square, parade ground where they would do small military exercises.  The buildings surrounding the square are, or were, the capital building, the courthouse, and housing for high ranking military and dignitaries.  All in all, it was impressive in it’s own right.  And…… they were having a Christmas festival!  It was mainly for the kids but still lots o fun.  They had a rock climbing wall, lots of craft and food booths, and even an ice skating rink.  Not something you’d expect to see in the middle of a Central American country.  Heck, we even got to see Guatemalan Santa!

     That night we decided to go to one of the major malls to see a movie.  We hadn’t seen a proper movie in awhile and it’s a small treat that keeps you from getting homesick too fast.  When we got to the mall, it was an even bigger treat than we had hoped for!  Very clean, lots of shops including a book store, and lots of fast food from the good ol’ U.S. of A.  I know, I know.  We shouldn’t be excited about fast food.  But it’s a rare treat to have some food from home when you’re in a foreign country and everything just seems so weird and crazy and, well, foreign. We took full advantage of the situation and even decided to stay another day for another movie and even more comfort food.  Don’t get me wrong, the food here is awesome but it’s nice to take a break from it all with some Quizno’s and Cinnabon!  We stayed the next day taking in more of our new land of milk and honey known as “The Mall”.  However, getting to the mall the next day was a little bit of a challenge that let us know two days in the capital city was plenty.  It’s as simple as this.  If it weren’t for the insane amount of black car exhaust filling your lungs, Guatemala city might actually be bearable.  We decided to save money and take the bus to the mall.  It was a safe decision as it was daytime and we wanted to do the “local thing”.  It took us a couple hours and a little walking to get there but the major hurdle was not suffocating on the never ending black smoke billowing out of every bus(and there are a lot of them), car and motorcycle that passed by.  Seriously, our lungs actually hurt after about an hour.  I think it’s safe to say that there is no DOT or DEQ down here.  That pretty much sums up Guatemala City.  Stroll 6^th Ave., see Central Park, and go to the mall.  The next day we left the capital city for the beautiful lakeside village of San Pedro.

    

Coban

Pools of Simuc Champay

We made our way from Poptun to Coban.  A decent sized town with plenty of day trips available.  We stayed in a cheap hotel with a stinky, cold room that was so damp the paint was seeping off of the walls.  Hey, it was cheap!  The circus happened to be in town so we ended up going to the circus on our second night there.  It was only$2.50 each!  Not bad for some small town circus entertainment.  They had some decent acts.  Juggling, tigers, trained mini ponies, and........ the giant cage of death!  It's a big metal ball that two people ride motorcycles in.  We also did a day trip to some beautiful pools called Simuc Champay.  We decided not to go there with a tour so it turned into quite the adventure.  Simuc is about 8 miles past the last little town on that particular road.  When we got off of the bus, we were immediately bombarded with people trying to sell us hotel rooms and rides to Simuc.  One guy wanted to charge us 200Quetzals for a ride there and back.  We took our chances and started walking, hoping a taxi would eventually come along.  Sure enough, a taxi came along.  Taxi ... meaning a truck with a cattle rack on the back.  You just climb in the back and stand there until your at your stop.  Pay the driver when you get out.  It was only 25Q taking the taxi.  Once at Simuc, it was a short hike to the pools and falls.  We also did a 20 minute hike up the side of the hill to get a great view of the pools from above.  The hike up the hill was actually pretty gnarly.  Straight up.  I definitely got my cardio in for the day!  After hiking back down to the pools, we were ready for some swimming.  We hung out at the pools for about a half hour.  It was starting to get dark so we decided it was time to leave as we didn't want to miss the last "taxi" back to town.

         We weren’t sure if we had missed the last taxi back to Lanquin or not. So we started walking just in case.  Nine Kilometers.  That’s a little over five and a half miles.  We knew there was a little hostel we could stay at three Km down the road just in case.  We made it all the way to the hostel and were in the process of asking them when the last taxi came by when…..THE LAST TAXI CAME BY!  Whew!  We hopped in the back of the truck and were very thankful for the rain filled ride back to town.  The next leg of our adventure was hitching a ride back to Coban.  Turns out we had missed the last bus back to Coban so our options were to get a hotel for the night, or hitch a ride.  We sat at the very end of town and waited with another local waiting for cars passing by that were headed to Coban.  After an hour, we were able to get a ride in the back of a small Nissan pickup with some guys that had just sold some pigs in the area.  It was a cold three hour ride back to Coban but, again, we were thankful for the ride.  AND, it only rained the last half hour of the ride.  I’ve got to hand it to Nicole.  She’s a trooper.  It was her Idea to try and catch a ride.  I would’ve been fine getting a hotel for the night.  I think that anyone else would’ve been grumbling the entire cold and windy ride back to Coban but not her.  She never complained once.  Not about the cold and not about the conditions.  I was very impressed with her on that ride.  After arriving back in Coban, we immediately went to the Guatemalan version of Pizza Hut and ordered some comfort food.  Then it was back to our paint leaking down the walls hotel for some much needed cuddling and rest.  We stayed in town one more day and checked out the town a little more then headed to Guatemala City.

On to Poptun!

     After two days of dealing with food poisoning, we finally gathered enough strength to make it to the Mayan ruins of Tikal.  It was, by far, the biggest ruin site we had been to.  We didn't have much energy but managed to see the entire grounds and even climb the largest temple.  There happen to be a Mayan ceremony just starting as we were leaving so it was a treat to see some of the locals practicing their own form of worship.

 The next day we traveled from Flores to Finca Ixobel just outside of Poptun.  It's a reasonably priced, eco--hostel that caters to backpackers.  The food here is awesome and the tours are cheap!  It rained all last night so, once again, we fell asleep to the pitter patter of rain on our tin roof.  The rain had stopped by morning so we went on a two hour horseback tour of the surrounding countryside.  It's interesting to see how the locals live.  Makes me very thankful for where I'm from.  I'm pretty sure some of these kids out in the rural areas will never even learn to read or write.

    Tomorrow brings more cave exploring!

Ciao!

Travel day to Guatemala

Yesterday we traveled from San Ignacio, Belize to Flores, Guatemala.  We took the fifteen minute taxi ride to the border in the smallest van I've ever seen!  It was so cool!  If I could buy one of these in the states, it would be a great little car.  Anyway, once we went through customs... which consisted of paying to get out of Belize, walking one hundred yards, and then paying to get into Guatemala.... we were immediately hounded by all kinds of people trying to get us to buy stuff.  Touts, they call them.  They tout their products.  We were approached by no less than twenty people trying to get us to buy a taxi to whatever town they thought we would want to go to, exchange money with them(at a terrible rate) or buy some kind of tour that they were selling.  It was chaotic and hectic to say the least.  I know they're just trying to make a living but when you have twenty people hollering at you, you tend to start ignoring all of them.  I do, anyway.  With the help of a nice local, we were able to find the correct bus to Flores and exchange enough money into quetzales to get there.  It was a nice, two hour drive through the countryside.  We dropped off and picked up passengers all along the way.  It was much like any other bus system you've been on except it was actually sort of a minivan and you didn't pay until you reached your destination.  Once in Flores, the driver was kind enough to wait until I pulled some cash out of the ATM then took us to our guesthouse.  We read about the guesthouse in our travel book and luckily they had a room for us.  One of the bonuses of this place is that it has a rooftop lounge with a great view of the lake.  Heck, every place has a pretty good view of the lake.  We settled into our room then headed to the roof for some hammock reading time.  After sunset, we found a local Italian restaurant where I had the best steak pannini sandwich ever!  Seriously.  Dear Diary, today I had the best steak pannini sandwich ever.  After dinner we walked around the island.  Literally.  Around it.  It such a small island that it took about twenty minutes to walk around.  Flores is so clean.  And the streets are narrow with cobblestone streets and colorfully painted buildings.  I've haven't been to Italy ,yet, but I've seen plenty of pictures and movies with Italy in them.  This place reminds me of how I think many places in Italy might be.  I'll have to compare notes when I finally make it to Europe.  Today was a lazy day for us.  We took a small "ferry" (read skiff) across the lake from Flores to the peninsula across the way.  We hiked to the other end of the peninsula to a local beach to go swimming.  Then to the end of the peninsula to a platform that allowed great views of the surrounding area.

After getting back to Flores we took a walk across the bridge to Santa Elena.  That's when you realize you're in a third world country.  Garbage everywhere, uneven and broken streets as well as sidewalks, tons of mangy stray dogs and..... markets.  The hustle and bustle of a busy little town.  Even though it was dirty, there were plenty of smiles and everyone was very friendly.  We mad it back to Flores just in time for sunset and ice cream.  That pretty much ended the day.  Now we're facebooking, blogging, and studying Spanish and reading.  Tomorrow is Tikal.  Another Mayan ruin.  Ciao!

Yesterday we took a tour to the Mayan ruin of Caracol. Despite the rain, it was a great trip and a great day. We left early and spent about three hours on a bumpy, unpaved road. After about a half hour you get used to the van rattling and the crazy driving. Because of the rain, we only slid a little on corners along the way. Once there I was able to get the full effect of fire ants! Didn't even know I was standing on a patch of them until my foot felt like it was on fire! I looked down and the front half of my left foot was covered with red fire ants. They weren't much worse than stinging nettles back home. Burned for awhile, then itched for awhile, then went away altogether in about an hour. We learned a lot about the local flora, as well as Mayan history for that region. One of the cool things about visiting these ruins is that you get to climb all over them. Back in the states there's no way you would be able to climb on stuff like this. We were all over these things! On the way back we stopped at a waterfall for a short swim session. It was a nice break from the jostling of the van on the ride back. Today we went independent. We took the local bus to the Mayan ruin of Xunantunich. Actually, we took the bus to a little village, took the hand-crank operated ferry across the river, then walked about a half mile to the ruins site. I couldn't believe how many kids were there. Must've been national field trip day. It was a nice site as the view from the top of the main ruin showed all of the surrounding countryside. Tomorrow takes us into Guatemala and the city of Flores. We'll be visiting Tikal from there. Another Mayan ruin. I think, after that, we'll be ruined out. Then it's on to spelunking and cave tubing! Ciao!

I'm going to keep this

post short and sweet as it's been a couple very long days. Yesterday Nicole and I took a tour to a cave where ancient Mayans would give up offerings to their gods. The name of the cave is Actun Tunichil Muknal, or ATM for short. The cave was made due to a creek cutting away at limestone over a long period of time. So..... we hiked, upriver, through the cave. Sometimes swimming! Pretty cool. We went about a quarter of a mile into the five mile long cave. It turns out that no Mayan artifacts have been found past the quarter mile mark. That was about the extent of their venture into the "underworld". For them to go that far in was risking death. If they lost their torches, or the torches ran out, they would never find their way out. I mentioned that the Mayans left offerings for their gods. Some of the offerings that Mayans left were human sacrifices. The picture above is the most intact sacrifice found to date. It's been on the cover of countless magazines and news articles. I stole the picture above off of the internet. Unfortunately, we weren't able to bring cameras into the cave. They were banned a few months ago because somebody dropped their camera on a two thousand year old skull and broke a big hole in it. Not cool. Here is a link to more info on the cave if anyone is interested in more info. Today we got up early and went for a quick run. After breakfast we hiked to a Mayan ruin near the town of San Ignacio where we are staying. The name of the ruins is Cahal Pech. As far as Mayan ruins go, it was small but still seemed pretty cool to us. Here are a couple pics of the place and a link to some more info on Cahal Pech.

/s320/_MG_6319.JPG" width="213" /> Tomorrow we visit a bigger Mayan ruin named Caracol. Should be a good day! Ciao!

Diving the blue hole!

Yesterday was amazing!  I went scuba

diving at the big blue hole off the coast of Belize. Here's an aerial shot of the hole that I stole from the internet. The trip was actually an all day, three dive trip. We left the dock around 5:45 AM and had a two hour boat ride to the hole. On the way there, a pod of dolphins decided to try and race the boat for a short time. It was so cool! I've always seen that on movies and wanted to experience it. This was my first time. There must've been around twenty of them on the side of the boat. We were going pretty fast so after a few minutes they stopped racing and let us be on our way. Once at the hole, we were briefed on the dive site then geared up. After we were in the water, we did a quick safety check then started our descent. We went down to 150 feet, which is fairly deep for a regular dive. At that depth, we were right next to some giant stalactites on the side of the hole. They were huge! At least thirty feet tall and three to five feet wide. Huge columns. The entire dive was about forty minutes long but we were only able to play at that depth for about ten minutes due to descent and ascent times. On the way back up to the surface we had four reef sharks circling us. They weren't that big but..... big enough. They were all bigger than me, anyway. I think that some dive companies bait them in for an added feature to the tour. So, when they see divers they know there might be easy food available. One of the bigger ones passed within ten feet of me. Pretty cool and a little scary. Now I can cross diving with sharks off of my list! The second dive was a multi level drift dive. We drifted at about fifty feet four about twenty minutes then up to twenty five feet for another twenty minutes. Right off the bat we say a turtle hanging out on the side of the cliff we were drifting along. Right after that we passed two leopard rays going the opposite way. About fifteen minutes in we had a barracuda that decided to join our group. He was interested in the camera that one of the other divers was carrying. More than once he passed by me close enough for me to touch him. I thought about it but then I'd take a look at those sharp teeth. No thanks! We ended the dive ascending out of an area of conch beds. I didn't notice them at first. I wasn't looking at the big picture. I just noticed one. Then a couple more. Then I started looking around and realized there were hundreds, if not thousands of conchs everywhere! After the second dive we had a lunch of curried chicken, rice and beans. Typical meal in that area. And...... Goooooood! Then we stopped at an island where the Audubon Society has set up a bird preserve and viewing platform. We were able to view Frigate Birds and Red Footed Booby's. The Frigates are in mating season so the males are puffing up the red air pocket they use to attract females. Also, we had a young Booby take a liking to one of the girls in our group. He landed and sat on her head for a good five minutes!

Our last dive was another drift dive similar to the second dive. There wasn't much excitement(other than being 50 feet underwater) for most of the dive so I concentrated on the little things. Details in the different chorals and fish. Stuff like that. We did come across two lobsters hanging out. Pretty cool to see them in their natural habitat. They look even better on my plate! And.... near the end of the dive, we spotted an octopus! That's a rare treat! He wasn't even hiding. Just hanging out in the open. Changed color a few times to blend in with the background and let us take a pretty close look at him. After that dive it was a long two hour ride back to Caye Caulker. I slept really good last night! Today was a travel day. We took the ferry from Caulker to Belize city then the local cheap bus to the other side of the country. Four dollars for a four hour bus ride to the other side of the country! That's cheap travel. We are now in San Ignacio and ready to do a cave tour tomorrow morning. Night, all. Ciao!

Snorkeling Day

Today we went snorkeling!  We went on a full day snorkeling tour with a company called E Z Boys.  There were three snorkeling stops throughout the day with a lunch break in between stops two and three.  All of the stops were along the inner edge of the barrier reef that runs along the Eastern edge of Caye Caulker.  The first stop was called Hol Chan.  This trip was pretty cool as the "captain" was also our guide.  He hopped in the water with us and pointed out the various fish in the animal preserve.  Among my favorites were two types of rays, turtles, and moray eel!  Our second stop was called shark/ray alley.  Aptly named as there were at least six sharks and five rays hanging out.  The biggest shark was about six foot long and the biggest ray about five foot in diameter.  Our guide brought them in closer by chumming them with herring and sardines.  Again our guide hopped in the water with us and made sure we got the full experience.  At one point he baited a smaller shark in, flipped it upside down, and started rubbing it's belly.  You would think that the shark would freak out but it actually just relaxed and let us all pet it like a puppy getting it's belly scratched.  The guide also baited in the biggest stingray there and kind of "hugged" it to keep it in one place while we were able to pet it.  It was more slimy than I thought it would be.  The last stop was called Coral Garden.  Basically, we were on our own to explore the area.  Not too many bigger fish here.  More of the little guys.  Aquarium fish is what the guide called them.  After a long day on the water, a great dinner(Nicole had lobster again), and a few quick errands, we're doing our nightly ritual of blogging and reading then off to bed.  Tomorrow......Blue Hole!

Ciao!

Lazy day in Caye Caulker

Due to torrential downpours last night and possible rain today, we opted to have a "lazy day" today and push back the snorkeling trip to tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a rough life. After breakfast, we

made good use of some waterfront hammocks. Reading and napping in the ocean breeze was just what the doctor ordered. After a couple hours of hammock time came lunch. Then a power nap through another tropical rainstorm. Like I said, it was a lazy day. In our defense, it was pretty easy falling asleep to the rain on the tin roof covering our little cabana. Something about that sound just sends a person drifting off. After a typical meal of curry chicken, rice, and beans, we planned the next week of the trip. Snorkeling, diving, Mayan ruins, and the zoo! Still having problems getting pics off of my camera. Once I work out the bugs, I'll have more pics to post. Ciao!

Second day in Belize! After a sleepless Monday night and two, thankfully, uneventful flights, we landed in Belize City, Belize. We opted to save some money by not taking a taxi from the airport to the main town and took a local bus instead. The only catch is that we had to hike a mile and a half to the main road. Totally worth it. Not only did we save twenty dollars each, we jumped right into the local culture. Of course, we stuck out like sore thumbs but everyone was very polite and helpful. Once we got into town we realized that the bus had taken us near the "shady" side of town and it had just gotten dark. We weren't too worried as there were plenty of police around. Also, as soon as I made a comment that I wasn't sure where we were headed, a local military guy walked us almost all the way to the guest house we stayed in for the night. We tipped him a few bucks for being a good guide. We checked into a place called Smokin' Balam and headed out to eat dinner. We ended up at a place recommended by our host called Nerie's. Chicken, rice, and beans. Five bucks. Not bad. That night something happened that I thought wouldn't happen during this whole trip. I got cold! I thought it would be hot the entire time we were here but it cooled off last night and we actually pulled out extra linens. Tonight is looking to be about the same. Today, after a breakfast of a couple quick croissants, we hopped a water taxi to Caye Caulker(Caye pronounced Kay). After lugging our backpacks down and up the Island for an hour, we finally found a cheap place that had a vacancy. We jumped on it for twenty US dollars a night. The room is ten by ten feet with a fan, a light, and a shared bathroom. Pretty standard if you're in Southeast Asia. Not so standard here. It's called Tropical Oasis for anyone looking it up on a map or heading this way. After settling in we went to the lazy lizard for some rum punch and curry chicken. So good! after a quick dip in the warm, emerald green water of the Caribbean Sea, we came back to our room for a cold(no hot water) shower and are now heading out to dinner. Tomorrow, we have a snorkel tour planned. Shark/ Ray alley is on the list as well as a couple of reefs. Ciao!

Central American PrePost

So, this is a blog to keep track of our adventure to Central America. We leave in two days(11/13/12) and am frantically running around getting all the last minute details done. Just writing a short entry to get this thing going. More entries to come. Next entry...... Belize!! Nate