First installment of Guatemala pictures.

Here is the link to the page where I have posted the pictures that relate to the posts of Central America so far. Hope everyone enjoys it.

PICTURES

Let me know what you think.

Back from Central America

Well we made it back. Brought few things back. A gift for mothers day, some stone mask carvings, and a head cold that has had me down for a week. Blah! I am on the tail end of it so no need to worry about me, however I am concerned about my office mate who was out sick today. Hopefully the germs did not spread across the room.

As for the trip is was almost two weeks of backpacking through the Guatemalan countryside with a splash of Honduras. We landed in the city and meet with Raul who was Silvia's uncle. We headed for lunch at Campero chicken and then the hot drive out of the city and onto Jalapa. Jalapa was nice but not much to brag about. The people were the nice part with a dinner of chicken tamales and a stroll to the park to see the municipal band play some off tempo songs. After exchanging money and browsing the market the next morning we decided it was time to head out and see some of the country. Silvia stayed back at Raul's house while we got a bus to Esquipulas.

Arriving after dark we took the first hotel we came to and dropped our bags to go see the basilica at night. Lots of people praying and lighting candles which made the walls a dark color. The next day we looked at the building again and then hired a taxi to give us a quick tour of the town before dropping us off at the zoo. This wasn't really a zoo but rather a few cages of animals with a cave in the side of the hill where people played in. The heat and smoke from the candles was so intense that we didn't think that we would make it very far in but we did and took a picture that didn't come out. Walked back to town and grabbed a bus out of town towards Honduras.

Flying around mountain roads at a very high, unsafe speed while packed in a minivan with atleast 20 other people brought us to the border crossing. Jumping out of the van, happy we had made it alive, brought us face to face with a man to change money. The convenience was nice but I had no idea of the exchange rate. Oh well, we were going to a new country, so I only changed enough to pay the fees and get a bus to our destination. The town of Copan Ruinas was a great town. The entire feeling was very tranquil once we found a place to sleep but until then it got to be a bit hectic. We ended up splurging on a room at the Plaza Copan, but it paid off later for us. Throwing our bags in the room and exchanging money at the bank across from the town plaza, we headed off to walk the kilometer or so to the ruinas. The town had built a nice walkway all the way to the ruinas that had stelleas along side the walkway. It caused the excitement to grow as we moved closer to the site!

The ruinas were magnificent. The hieroglyphs were amazing. The ability to climb up and down and through the ruinas was great. And there were only about 25 -30 people in the entire site. It felt as though we had it to ourselves. Taryn felt that we should get a guide to explain things to us but since it was late in the day and the site would soon close for the day, we decided that a guide early the next morning would be more worth it. After visiting the ruinas for about two hours we walked back to town and found a shop where we could site on a patio reading guide books and drinking liquados (smoothes) until the sun set. We then decided to shower and get dinner. That would be a cultural adventure in its own right.

Sitting down in a crowded restaurant that seemed to be hosting every tourist in the small town, we were lucky to get a table on the lower floor. The next guy in the door was not so lucky and so asked if he could sit at our table. I asked if he spoke English or Spanish. He said spanish in an accent that sounded french. Sure enough we would be enjoying our chicken shish-ka-bob with a french man traveling alone who spoke broken spanish and no english. I played translator and arm waver as I tried to interpret and explain all that we had seen at the ruins to him since he had not been yet. It was an enjoyable dinner, if not punctuated by a few moments of silent stares at our plates. But the food was great and they gave us free dessert! So it was nice.

The ruinas were on the agenda the next day and I was again excited.

Honduras to Guatemala

After a nice nights sleep despite an amazingly loud ceiling fan in our room, I was ready for more Maya history. I stepped outside to get some money from the ATM down the street and then knocked on Rich and Lori's room, who we had meet the night before in the lobby. They had agreed to come with us to the ruins in order to save some cash on the tour guide that we were planning to get. We meet in the lobby in a few minutes and then started walking down the street to the ruins.

Rich and Lori had been in Panajachel for the last two weeks learning spanish and then had rented a car in order to see more of the country. They had offered to give us a lift to Rio Dulce but we were unsure if all our luggage and Silvia would fit in a little Mazda. But that decision was to made after the ruins.

We meet a man named Antonio who seemed to give us a fair price for a guided tour with the four of us in english so we set off with him. He talked about the history of the archeology of the site, the former rulers in, most notably 18 rabbit, and the way that the site was constructed. He walked us through the site for about two hours and cracked as many jokes as he could to us. The heat was setting in though and we needed to get into the tunnels of the structures.

Antonio bribed the doormen to let Rich and Lori in since they didn't buy tickets earlier in the day. We entered in and walked all through the tunnels seeing first hand how they structures were built and some of the living standards that were in place there. It was cool and dark inside which made a nice break from the sun outside. After taking as many pictures as we felt was needed we walked back to the hotel and tried to figure out where Silvia was. Our lift to Rio Dulce was in jeopardy of leaving without us if she didn't arrive in time.

We sat by the pool and sipped on fruit juices while waiting for Silvia and Rich and Lori went out for lunch. It was cool in the courtyard and we didn't mind just sitting. Luckily, Silvia showed up with her cousin Ariel in time for us to leave in the car. We sat four in back with luggage at our feet and on our laps as we rode in air conditioning listening to music from an iPod. It was a strange mix of Guatemalan travel and American travel. But it was good conversation and so it worked out.

They dropped us off at Rio Dulce, right on the highway. You can't really think of it as a highway though. More of a road pressed on each side with stands selling clothes, fried food, and lottery tickets. We said our goodbyes and began walking down the street to find a hotel. Air conditioning and hot water were in need since the temperature difference from Copan to Rio Dulce was incredible. The humidity shot straight up and we were sweating pretty bad. Finding a hotel is always easy to do but finding a decent one can be tricky. We got luck though and took the first one that we went to. Then we were off to get our first meal of the day, which would be dinner.

Eating tortillas on a patio hanging over the lagoon seemed an idyllic way of having dinner. The problem was though that once the sun began setting, the mosquito's decided it was also time to eat. For me, my hairy legs shielded me from the little beasts but for the girls, with their shaved legs, it was a torture chamber! So we got bags half way through the meal and ran back to the hotel to finish our meal. It was the tropics so we could only complain so much.

Rio Dulce to Tikal

Rio Dulce was an interesting town with an enormous bridge connecting the two sides of the town but there was not a whole lot to do on a day to day basis so we had to get out. We hired a boat that took us down the river one two hour trip to the town of Livingston. This was a town that felt different from the rest of Guatemala. The reason for this was that the people who settled in the town were the descendents of African slaves who have developed their own culture. They called themselves Garifunos, which was also a language that was spoken in the town. Arriving at the docks and freeing ourselves from the constant people trying to get a cheap hotel for the night, we headed up the main road and began to see the town.

Other than the classic shops for people like us to buy things in, we didn't see what the appeal of the town was. We walked over to the beach and tried to walk down the beach to the Caribbean sea on the other side but that was a failure. We waded through knee deep water until reaching a small beach that was covered in trash. We turned around and walked again down the main drag until we meet Phillip.

Phillip was a man who was resting on his door step and began speaking to us in english. He decided he needed to show us the 'real' Livingston. We weren't sure but he wouldn't leave us alone and so we headed down a beach as he explained all about the town and hurricane Mitch a few years ago. He took us to a small house that had hammocks on the patio and a young man cutting the grass in the backyard with a machete. I wasn't sure why he brought hear but he seemed to give us the impression that we needed to chill out and sit for awhile. Listening to his CD, playing his maracas to the beat of the CD and watching the man swing the machete was a nice diversion to the shops on the main road.

Phillip walked us through the town where he explained to us that we were able to walk through that area of the town because he was with us. He took us through the cemetery where he showed us a huge tree that he called the vampire tree, being called this because it thrives off the dead bodies. I noticed as we walked past the tree a grave stone with the sole name of P. Diddy on it. I hadn't realized that he was from Livingston and had passed away while we were traveling. May he rest in peace under the vampire tree.

The ride back to Rio Dulce was cold and rough. The afternoon winds had kicked up the water on the river and made the trip more interesting. We tried to buy some shrimp from some local fishermen along the way but the catch was not good and our driver continued with the shrimp buying lady deciding to take a nap on the floor of the boat.

Transportation in Guatemala is unique and our next trip would be no different. We found an express bus right away from Rio Dulce that claimed to be air conditioned. When we stepped onto the bus, which was an old Greyhound bus from the states, we quickly realized that we had stepped into a central American sweat house. The sun was beating down and the humidity was high and the windows were shut and the air conditioning was off. Everyone was sitting with sweat dripping down their faces waiting desperately for the bus to move. It took it a half hour to began moving, but the situation was not improving. I tried to open the emergency window next to me which helped a little but everytime we took a turn at a high speed, which happened at every turn, the window would fly out wide and then slam into the side of the bus. The conductor yelled at me but I was in no mode, more was Taryn, and so we yelled back. I think we might of had the backing of the locals in our fight for air circulation since others had begun to open their windows. Finally when some police officers got on the bus did the driver begin to drive more responsibly and turn on the air conditioning. From then on in the 6 hour drive to Flores I could watch the forests out the window in comfort and wonder why the land was being burned and deforested so much.

Santa Elena sits outside of the island town of Flores. Santa Elena did not look nice so we tried to get a bus straight away to Tikal. The trouble was that we arrived late in the evening and the buses had stopped running. We took a taxis drivers offer of driving us to Tikal which was within a national park. This was an hour drive from Santa Elena which had small towns along the way and jaguar crossing signs. We felt like we were really out in the country side now. Arriving at the Hotel Tikal and speaking with Richard who ran the place, we discovered that Rich and Lori were enjoying a nice dinner in the restaurant. We took a room which included a flashlight for when the generator shut off and the hotel went dark.

The next morning we were getting up at 4 am to see the sunrise over the ruins with Richard as our guide.

Tikal and a bus ride

The sound came through the darkness of the night. A knock on the door followed in a couple of minutes by electricity that only last 15 minutes. It felt different than waking up in a nice hotel with a swimming pool and restaurant, however in these jungle the need to conserve electricity brought the hotel to a unique way of operating. We gathered as a group of about 15 people and walked to the gate of the ruins with the moon lighting the way down the path. All the animals were still quite and there was a hushed tone in everyones voice. The guard had over slept and so we had to wait longer than we had planned but did finally get into the ruins.

We walked up small paths seeing stones and mounds on either side of us. We came to a clearing with a huge structure before us. It was temple 4 of the Tikal ruins. We began climbing the wooden ladder on the side of the stairs that ascended by atleast 150 ft to the top. We all sat down on the ledge of the temple as the mist was rising from the forest canopy. We walked around to the back of the temple to see parrots fly from tree to tree and sat with our feet dangling over the edge waiting for the mystical city of the Maya to appear before. us.

After an hour on the temple we climbed down and began walking through the site. We passed the seven temples, mundo perdido and climbed to the top of the temple of the sun. We saw woodpeckers, parrots, tuscans, wild turkeys along the way. Our guide Richard gave us leaves to eat and explained the herbal benefits of different plants. Walking through the jungle under the canopy on our way back to the hotel we saw a few howler monkeys in the trees and much of our group set off in the jungle to track them down. Myself and another guy from Broklyn stayed behind and investigated some tunnel openings along the trail that archeologists had made.

After the morning tour and eating a nice breakfast with the rest of the hotel guests which included Rich and Lori from Honduras, a man who was a geocacher, and a couple from the chech republic, we decided to take a private tour of the ruins with a man who spent most of his life studing the maya. He worked as a guide for guests of Francis Ford Coppala's resort in nearby Belize among other distinctions. He was a great asset to have walk through the site with us for 4 hours. The only problem with the time there was the incredible heat og the region. That was most likely the hottest place we have ever been to.

After the tour, which emphasized the spirtual relm of the Maya, we grabbed our bags from the hotel, showered in a room even though we had already checked out and waited for the bus to Santa Elena that would serve as the transfer point to buses to Guatemala City. The driver awoke from his nap and put our bags on the top of the minivan, and we climbed in with a bunch of American college students packing through central america and the couple from the chech republic. No sooner than leaving the gates of the national park then the engine in the minivan overheated. We pulled over and stood around as the driver and park officials looked over the problem. They decided that pouring some water in the radiator of the diesel would fix the problem. About 5 kilometers later of very slow driving landed us on the side of the road again, the driver pouring more water into the radiator. The sun was setting which was giving us some relief from the heat and a wonderful orange glow through the fields of the Peten province farms. Another slow leg in the minivan put us at a gas station where it was decided by us the passengers that it was now night and we were not even half way to Santa Elena. We needed to get another bus to town.

I spoke with the driverof the overheated minivan and he agreed to let us jump on a bus that would be coming in about a half hour on its way to town. As we waited the college students thought it would be fun to try to get a ride sooner. The few cars that stoppped for them were being driven by drunk people which gave us an indication of the safety on the roads in these rural parts. They decided to wait for the real bus.

The bus came and agreed to help us out. We rode smoothly along the road stopping only once for the driver to make a call on his cell phone. We were actually surprised that he pulled over to do this, but then figured it was because he could hear from the wind blowing through the window. Either way, we were making progress.

I gave the couple from the chech republic bad advice to stay on the bus as it went to Flores, and about an hour later aftergoing with Joe (one of the american guys) in a taxi through town to find a working ATM while we left the girls at the bus station, did we see the couple show up at the bus station saying that that was the location the needed to be at. I felt bad a so paid for their taxi over to Flores to eat dinner. The food made us sick but we wouldn't find that out for a day later. First we had to deal with an overnight bus ride for eight hours to the capital with windows shut and the air conditioning not working very well at all. It was a misrable night. Atleast we made it to the capital and saved a nights expense on hotels.