Well after a bit of a mammoth journey from BA to the airport (I decided to take the local bus to the airport during rush hour which wasn't the best idea I've ever had!), a flight to Miami where I got the worst seat in the house - the one in the middle so you get ignored from both sides!, a quizzing at US immigration as to whether I really was just in transit (as if I want to be in their country!), a 6 hour layover in Miami, a flight to Guatemala City and then a shuttle bus, I finally arrived in Antigua!
I feel like I'm finally experiencing the real Latin America, and even though this place is a bit of a mecca for language students there are still plenty of people going about their normal lives. Antigua is such a lovely place - lots of brightly coloured buildings, cobbled streets everywhere you go, all the women wearing the traditional clothes with babies tied to their backs and baskets on their heads as they walk around, lots of churches and ruins - it just has a really nice atmosphere. Antigua is surrounded by three volcanoes, one of which I walked up!
Volcán Pacaya is 2,552m and is still active. However, it is still very popular with tourists - there
a two trips a day and there were over 30 people in my group! It took over two hours by bus to get there, although that was mainly due to pretty bad traffic and bumpy roads! We then walked up it, which wasn't really that hard, although there were some people in the group that made it look a lot harder than it actually was! We had to walk over what I guess is dried lava from previous eruptions, and as we got closer to the top the path underfoot got pretty hot at times, but I didn't like to think what was underneath, especially as it felt quite hollow sometimes!!It was a good day for lava as there was quite a lot flowing down one side of the volcano, so the guide took us to a good viewing spot (although it was also pretty hot there!) Whilst we were up there it started to get dark so the lava stood out even more which was really cool to see! Then we had to walk back down in the dark! This was quite interesting, and even though I had a torch it was still pretty hard to see so there was a lot of tripping over and sliding around on the way back down!!! It was really good though, am glad I went up!
Took a trip with the tourist police (they have set this up in Antigua so us poor tourists can do things without being robbed which I think is nice of them!) to el Cerro del la Cruz - a cross on the top of a hill that has a good view of all of Antigua and the surrounding volcanoes. It was a bit hazy but we still had some good views of the town. Then wandered round the town, visiting some of the many churches that are just everywhere! Some are just ruins but there are others that are still in use and they always look nice!
Lago Atitlan
Although this journey felt as long as any of the ones I took in Argentina, the Lake is only a couple of hours away from Antigua. And I upgraded to a shuttle bus instead of a normal chicken bus, but we still managed to cram 15 people and their bags in this very small van that chugged it's way up and down very steep roads with lots of hairpin bends - it was quite an experience!!
Panajachel is the main town and to be honest it's a bit of a shithole! There's two main roads, one
of them takes you out of this place and the other is lined with stalls and lots of people trying to sell you things! I'm also starting to experience a whole range of accommodation for single people - one room I looked at was literally a box with no windows, a sponge for a bed and a bare light bulb! OK it was dirt cheap and I know I'm on a budget but even I decided not to stoop that low!!Have finally conquered one of my fears - of eating by myself!! And it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be! I figured out the trick is to eat earlier than everyone else so you don't feel like a complete billy and go somewhere where there is at least one other person eating by themselves so it looks more normal!!! This worked well, until everyone else left and I ended up sitting in a restaurant all by myself!! Oh well, shit happens!
Took a boat over to San Pedro de la Laguna which is supposed to be a nice little town but I didn't think it was anything special!! But I found somewhere to watch the Arsenal vs Reading match (2-1!) so it wasn't a complete disaster! And it meant that I have conquered another of my fears - watching the footie by myself!! OK so it wasn't a bar that I sat in but it's a start!! Wandered around for a bit, well walked round pretty much the whole town I think, and then caught the boat back!
Nearby(ish!) there is a town called Chichicastenango where they have a huge market every Thursday and Sunday so I decided to trot along and see what all the fuss was about! I also thought it would be more of an adventure if I took the chicken buses instead of the tourist buses (that were ridiculously expensive!)... Fortunately some other people had the same idea as me and it was quite easy, although we soon found out that if you ask someone if the bus is going where you want to go they generally say yes, even when they mean not quite as you need to change buses at the next town!! We couldn't be bothered to wait for the direct bus so got on one, changed at the next town, changed again at a junction in the road (I wouldn't call this a town but it seemed to be the place to be if you wanted a bus!) and then we ended up getting the bus we would've got from Panajachel if we had been a little bit more patient!! Oh well, it was more fun our way! The buses are great, I actually quite like them! It always seems to be a competition of how many people can you fit on a bus - seats that would normally sit two actually sit three, plus some children aswell! And then you can squeeze a few in the aisle, even though the aisle isn't actually wide enough for my hips (which really aren't that wide!) so you have to turn sideways and walk down the bus!!
The market was huge and full of clothes, textile things, wooden things, jewellery, food, fruit and animals apparently although I didn't see that bit, just a few women walking around with
chickens!! All the locals seem to come here as well although most of the stuff is really just for tourists. I even managed to bargain a bit, not much but enough to feel like I got myself a bargain!!After walking around for a few hours I decided that was enough so caught the bus(es) back. The first one I got one was already completely packed but they figured they could fit a few more on! I had to squeeze down the aisle and then wedge myself in between some legs so I wasn't going anywhere!! It was quite amusing really as every time we went round a really tight bend (and there were lots of them!) people kept falling off their seats! One kid was sleeping on his brother and kept sliding down - I think if my leg hadn't been there to prop him up he would've been on the floor!! And then as the guy came to collect the money I had to lean to one side so he could get money from the people behind me and so one lucky guy had my arse in his face for a good 5 minutes!!! I know this is not very ladylike but I had an overwhelming urge to fart in this situation just to see what would happen, but then decided against it as the smell in the bus wasn't that great to start with so I didn't want to make it any worse!!!
Decided to go and watch the sunset over the lake as it was a nice day and not as hazy as the day before. It was really nice and peaceful, except for the people who insisted on ruining this and trying to sell me things I didn't want!! But apart from that it was nice, I always like the way that the sunset brings a kind of calmness over the day, perhaps because it means people start to pack away their things and therefore leave me alone!!
Another day, another trip across the lake to another town - this time it was Santiago. It is actually an OK place, more markets and people trying to sell you stuff though, and not much more! It was really windy last night and for a lot of the day so the crossing was quite rough. I managed to turn up just in time for the public boat across which left at 10.30 and returned at 13.30. I was told it took 30 minutes to get there but they were clearly lying as it took over an hour and we were late setting off! But still, after about an hour's wandering I was done and so walked up and down the same two streets about five times just to make certain that there wasn't anything I wanted to buy! After a while I started to convince myself that I needed more tat for my flat and textile things I would clearly never use but I remained strong and resisted the urge!
Whilst waiting for the boat to go back I got accosted by a guy wanting my custom on his boat, fortunately I had a return ticket so had no need for his services! However, after chatting for ooh about 10 minutes and answering the usual questions of why don't I have a boyfriend and why don't I have any friends here, he started asking me if I wanted to go out in the evening - apparently after this fantastic conversation we had it turned out that he thought I was beautiful and his heart was mine if I wanted it. Well I didn't really so broke his heart and go on the boat. I'm sure he was gutted for oh about 2 minutes until he found his next SWF to pester!!!
Quetzeltenango (Xela)
Thought I'd chicken bus it again as Xela is only 100km away from Panajachel - how hard could it be...?!!! So I got up early, walked down to the main road and hopped on a bus that said Xela on the front. It was facing the wrong way which initially confused me but then some other people got on the bus too so I figured it was OK! They also threw my bag on the roof which I did have some reservations about but there wasn't that much I could do so figured it would probably be OK too...! But then the bus went on a little detour to where some of the boats come in so we waited there for a while for some more people, and then drove round the town and back to where I originally got on, 40 minutes earlier! So I could've had another half hour in bed! Oh well! And then off we went!
We had the obligatory crazy bus driver and the obligatory religious knick knacks on board to help us on our way, so I thought we might get there in record time. However, there was some construction stuff going on which was causing some pretty horrendous traffic jams so I figured we'd be there for a while. But no, we sat there for maybe five minutes and then the driver obviously got bored as he drove to the front of the queue! Coming from a culture of people who love to queue I was quite shocked at this! But then a few other buses did this aswell and then there was lots of beeping at each other and trying to squeeze past each other which was quite amusing! So after this temporary obstruction we were on our way again!
I got to Xela and found my way to the hostel. I decided to opt for the 20+ bed dorm room. I have no idea why I did this, other than it was very cheap! But it was really horrible - just one big room with loads of beds all lined up next to each other round the room. It smelt really weird and the first night there was a Guatemalan woman in there that kept shouting at me for having the light on - it was only 9pm!!! There was only half a dozen people or so in there when I was there thank god, don't think I could've coped if it was full!! And the bathrooms were pretty manky aswell! I only came here to climb a volcano at the weekend and seeing as it was only Tuesday, I had been here 10 minutes and already hated the place! I was not overly enthused by the idea of staying that long!
The town itself is not that nice, there's a main plaza to sit in, which is what I did for most of the day, and I tried to go exploring but there didn't seem to be much about. Everything is a bus ride or a pick up truck away apparently! Fortunately the next day I met my friend from Antigua so I had someone to hang around with which was slightly better as I feel slightly safer going places with someone else!
We went to Fuentes Georginas which was some sort of hot springs up in the mountains and it was lovely - like getting into a bath (which was good as I still hadn't braved the manky showers yet as there was no water for 1 1/2 days!)! Had to get a bus to Zunil and then someone was handily waiting by the bus to offer us a lift up the mountain in their pick up truck! After relaxing for an hour or so we decided to walk the 8.5km back down into the town as it was a nice day and the scenery was really nice - lots of fields with people working in them. Kept getting really nice smells of coriander, and then not as nice smells of onions as we down!
In Zunil we found the San Simón - this is basically some sort of shrine that people come to see and pray with. San Simón moves around the town each year and they dress him up in clothes and offer gifts. It was quite amazing to see him and see how the people react to him, but to me it didn't really mean much.
We also went to yet another market at San Francisco el Alto. It was market day but not really geared up for tourists so we didn't get hassled and it was nice to walk around and not cause too much fuss. The market was full of cloth that the women wear, other more western clothes like jeans and t-shirts, shoes and lots of fruit, beans, eggs and other food stuff. We wandered round for a while and visited the church and then hopped back on the bus back to Xela.
The bus journeys still make me laugh - I just try to picture what people in the UK would say if there were two people on a seat and then someone comes along and tells them to shift over so they can squeeze on aswell - there would be uproar!!! There are also signs in some of the buses that say 'Your Children's Safety is OUR Business' - I presume this is leftover from the days when the buses were school buses in the USA but it makes me smile when I see that sign and then look around and see the bus completely overcrowded and kids sitting on adults laps or squashed in the aisles - I don't think their safety, or anyones really, is of any concern!!
Volcàn Tajumulco
So this is the highest volcano in Central America, at a mere 4,222m. So I figured I would give myself a bit of a challenge and climb up it at the weekend for something to do!
We met at about 4.30am on Saturday morning - there was 6 of us in the group plus three guides. As there were so few in the group (the last few weeks there have been over 20 people in the group!) it meant our packs were heavier than normal which was not a great start! Also I was feeling slightly ropey, thought it may have been something I ate the night before or just nerves as I wasn't sure I was really up to it...
So we got on a pick up truck at 5am and then got a chicken bus to San Marcos. We had breakfast there - fried plantains, scrambled eggs, refried beans and tortillas - after eating all this I still wasn't feeling much better! Then we got on another chicken bus to take us to the start of the hike, at 3,000m.
It was pretty full on from the start, and with 5 litres of water, sleeping bag, roll mat, extra clothes (it gets pretty bloody cold at the top apparently!) and my share of food and equipment, my bag was super heavy! I was slightly disappointed to find out the hike up was only about 6-7 kms - the amount of pain we went through it felt like at least double that! Anyway, I plodded onwards and upwards, grateful that there was always a guide at the back and also that one of the other girls was just as slow as me!
However, I wasn't feeling any better, and after a couple of hours I threw up everywhere which was lovely! But after that (and to the surprise of the guide!) I felt a lot better and carried on walking! But also I had turned into a slight hypochondriac after a friend of mine telling me lots of stories about people getting sick, and as I was having all sorts of nasty smells coming out of me from both ends I started panicking that I had parasites!!! Just to make it all better I then just felt really weak and dizzy for the rest of the hike, and had visions of passing out and falling down the mountain!! I guess most normal people would give up at this point but being as stubborn as I am I decided to keep going, although offloaded 3 litres of water to the poor guide, and then let another one carry my bag every now and again when they all got to a rest point before us lot at the back!
I felt really bad as I'm never normally this pathetic, and I guess if I was feeling bad to start with I never should have done it as was putting other people at risk etc etc if one of the guides had had to take me down... But I really wanted to do it and I made it so all's well that ends well! And one of the other guys started to feel ill as well which made me feel a lot better!!
So anyway, I finally made it up there to base camp at 4,000m. We had a bit of a rest and put the tents up etc then climbed a little bit more to 4,100m to Cerro de la Concepción, which is where we watched the sun set. It was really cloudy so didn't see too much but it was still good to see. After that went back down to camp for dinner round a camp fire and toasted marshmallows! the cloud disappeared for a while and we got to see a dark sky full of stars which was amazing.
After a few hours of broken sleep as was still feeling pretty ropey we got up at 4am and started the climb to the top of Tajumulco to watch the sun rise. It was freezing cold so we had all our layers on and sat in our sleeping bags to watch it! It was excellent - as we were so high up we could see all the other volcanoes around us. It was really bizarre to think we were so high that we were above all the clouds! The sun rise was amazing, and as it rose there was a really good shadow of the volcano in the sky behind us.
We went back down, had breakfast, packed up camp and then started the walk back down. I finally started to feel a lot better so all thoughts of parasites were gone from my mind and I really enjoyed the walk back down - it was sooooo much easier with less weight too as we had eaten most of the food! It took less than three hours to get back down and then got the bus back to San Marcos, had lunch and then got the bus back to Xela. I found out the hard way that the worst seat on the bus is right at the back! I have never been thrown around so much and nearly fell off the seat when we went round really tight corners! A woman also brought some chickens on with her so I had the pleasure of having those under my seat for most of the journey!!!
When we got to Xela they said we were walking back to the hostel - I thought they were joking as I always thought the hostel was miles away from the bus terminal but apparently it was only about 20 mins - that was nothing after everything we had done and it was flat so quite easy too!!! And that was it, job done! I got myself a nice single room, took a long hot shower and then collapsed!! Apparently Brent, the guide who watched me throw up!, said he suffered too the first time he went up there but then it got easier. Hmmm, as much as I would like to believe him I don't think I'm going to try and attempt it again to prove that point and make myself feel better about the whole thing!!!
Back to Antigua
It really amazes me still how easy it is to get around in this country! I hopped on a bus to the Terminal and then some guy walks up to me, asks me where I'm going, finds me the right bus, takes my backpack off me and puts it on his head as if it weighs nothing and climbs up the ladder at the back of the bus to tie it on the roof! At first I didn't think it was very secure so he used the ropes to tie it on properly and that baby was going nowhere! I'm so impressed!!!
However, after this great start I think I had possibly the scariest ride so far in my travels! Basically to get back to Antigua I had to go to Chimaltenango and then find another bus to go to Antigua. Simple you would think... However, George W Bush decides to make a flying visit to Guatemala and is visiting Chimaltenango the same morning that I want to get there, which I think is a bit inconsiderate really!
So after getting stuck in lots of traffic jams due to road works of some sort (although I didn't see much working going on so have no idea what they're doing!), and taking a few 'alternative' routes, we hit another traffic jam and the bus conductor guy starts talking to everyone. I had no idea what they were talking about at first, but then got the picture that the main road was closed (due to the bloody US President I'm guessing by the amount of police!) so there was a debate about what to do next. And the general consenus was that we take another 'alternative' route, although we all had to pay an extra 5 quetzales but I have no idea why!! Anyway, off we went up and down extremely steep mountains with very tight hairpin bends that sometimes meant we needed a few goes to get round! What made it slightly more interesting was that a lot of other people also had the same idea, and in both directions too!, so in some places there were police stopping all traffic one way so the traffic the other way could get by! Also at times we could see old vehicles that had crashed down the side of the road, which the people in the bus took great delight in pointing out!! I couldn't believe everyone was so happy and smiley about all this, perhaps it was just another great adventure, or maybe they were just used to it! But everytime we had to stop, people got out the bus to have a look at what was going on, chatting and laughing to each other, pointing out car wrecks - it was all so much fun!!!
We eventually got to Chimaltenango and I got thrown off the bus in the middle of the road which was nice! But I'm quite used to this now so it doesn't really phase me! And luckily enough a bus drove straight past me that was going to Antigua! Unluckily though about 80+ people were already squeezed on it but I managed to fight my way on aswell! I don't think I have ever seen a bus so crammed (the most people someone else has seen in one of these buses is 104 though so there was clearly plenty of room for more!) and as I was right at the front I was always in everyone's way when they wanted to get off! But no matter how packed it gets the overweight bus conductor can always manage to squeeze past everyone to collect all the money!!! But eventually I got a seat, which I then shared with a woman, her child and someone else!!! So I made it in the end, 6 1/2hrs later - sometimes it's more fun to actually get somewhere than just be there!
My normal hostel was full so stayed in one called the Jungle Party Hostel... As you can probably imagine, it's not really the place for me! Fortunately I met up with fellow ex RMer Rich in the evening which was a bit bizarre but great and I managed to escape the place for the evening!
Antigua to Flores
Another day, another bus ride! Was up and on a bus at 4am this morning, and got to Guatemala City about 5.30am. After all the stories I had heard about Guatemala City I didn't really want to go there, let alone be there at that time of day! We pulled up to this dodgy looking bus station and as a guy on the shuttle bus said I hope we don't have to get out here, the driver calls out my name, fantastic!!! But he walked in with me to the bus station, bought my ticket and then put me on the bus so I was quite glad that when I bought my ticket it included a bodyguard for 5 minutes!!!
The bus was 'economic' obviously seeing as it is me we're talking about, but it was one up from a chicken bus as it had proper windows!! And when it got busy people actually had to stand in the aisle rather than squeeze more people on a seat, it was all very bizarre! It was a very long journey though (about 8 hours) with a particularly bad Mexican film that seemed to go on for hours and had people wearing huge sombreros, lots of cock fighting (of the bird variety just to clarify!) and people shooting each other!!!
Flores
Am staying at a really cool hostel that is really chilled out and there are lots of people around so it is quite sociable, although am now getting slightly bored of having to explain to everyone why I am away for so long and where I'm going etc etc!! I'm in a posh dorm room too, for 4 people, although they have a double bed and a bunk bed which I find quite bizarre, I'm not overly keen on sharing with a couple, I have enough of them during the day ramming my singleness down my throat!, but the beds are more comfy so I'll have to grin and bear it!
Decided to do a sunrise trip to Tikal as some people at the hostel recommended it. I got attacked by someone trying to sell me tickets as soon as I walked through the door and he offered me a 'special price' and he was in the hostel so I presumed it was all OK and legit. Stupid assumption really which I realised soon after! But at 3.30am the next morning there was an initial problem but in the end they decided to take me so it was all OK!
We got to Tikal and it was still dark so walked for a while to get to Temple IV and then climbed up it to watch the sunrise. It would've been fantastic if the weather had decided to co-operate but it didn't and so it was really cloudy and we couldn't see a bloody thing! But we could hear a lot - birds and monkeys waking up and that was pretty cool! And then we had a tour round the place before all the other tourists got there which was really good, and we could climb up some of the other temples without lots of other people there! Some of them were pretty steep and had lots of stairs but as the clouds liftd the views were stunning. I think a lot of Tikal has still not been uncovered and it is in the middle of a rainforest so there are just loads of trees around with temples and other buildings sticking out through them which looks really good.
The guide also freestyled a bit and took us into the forest on a search for some monkeys! He starting making very strange noises to mimic their noise they make to mark their territory, which obviously pissed them off so they started calling back and after a bit of running around we managed to find them!! They weren't as big as I'd expected after hearing the noise that was coming from them, but they were still pretty impressive to see!!
After that bit of excitement we spent a good few hours walking around all the different areas, having a lot of the history explained, which was really interesting but don't remember any of it!, and then had a little time to walk around the Grand Plaza by ourselves. There was so much to see though that I went back the next day to see the bits we had missed and to just take it all in again! It was nice to go around again and spend some time just sitting and looking at everything, and it was quite quiet aswell which was good, it felt really peaceful there.
The Road to Mexico
I was slightly concerned as to whether I was ever going to get to Mexico with this dodgy ticket I bought. I called the company and they said they would pick me up at 5am but I wasn't holding out much hope. But then in the evening I found the guy I bought the ticket from, and after he scrutinised it and asked me if it was him I had bought it from and had I paid him, he relucantly handed over an authentic ticket which I was very relieved about!!!
So up early again (I have got up around 4am for 5 out of 7 days, I got a longer lie in when I was at work!) and waited for the bus... It finally turned up about 5.20 and then sat there for a good 1/2 hour before it decided to leave! The road to the border with Belize was extremely bumpy so it was impossible to sleep, read or do anything except sit there! But exited Guatemala and got into Belize with no problems, although the guy only gave me a one day permit to stay in Belize which I thought was very generous of him!
Then spent a few more hours on the bus, over to Belize City and then up to the Mexican border. We were told it would take about 7 hours but after two border crossings and picking a few extra people up on the way it took about 10 hours altoghether to get to Chetumal! Marvellous! But finally I made it, and after carrying a huge doorstop of a Mexico Lonely Planet (LP) for nearly three months, I finally get to use it which is quite exciting!!!
