Kepfram & Ellie's Travel Journal

Lost in Guatemala
Excellent roads, multiple languages, incredible views & volcanoes, I almost had to break out my kung-fu, some people lie, a very long day, not everyone that wants to 'help' you wants to help you, not all outdoor markets are scary, but fireworks are. Needless to say we´ve had a few experiences in Guatemala.

The flight from Costa Rica to Guatemala City was uneventful, but I thought the 4-6 soldiers standing on the other side of immigration were a little less than welcoming. Ellie says there were soldiers in Costa Rica when we came too, but I don't remember them. Either way, something about an assault rifle is just a little unfriendly to me...
Since we've arrived we've ridden a couple busses & the first difference we noticed between Guatemala & Costa Rica is the roads here are so much better! Costa Rica is tiny, you look at it on a map & you think that getting around it would be a piece of cake, but it is not. There are a couple of good road, but most of them are BAD, I'm not sure I emphasized that enough, the roads in Costa Rica are BAD. Because of this it can take far longer to get places than I'd like, you can go most places within about 5 hours, but for the distance you're going I'd expect it to be a shorter trip. Anyway, Guatemala doesn't have this problem. They've got others, but travelling here isn't as painful as it is elsewhere.

We're getting lots of great Spanish practice here, but not everyone understands Spanish or if they do it may not be their first language. I'm told there are over 20 Maya languages & there's a little girl at our hostel who speaks at least 6 languages because of this (making me feel so smart with my 1.5).

Trip pictures will be updated one day... Until then, trust me it's really pretty here: lots of volcanoes, a beautiful lake, lots of old buildings, women in traditional dress (not so many guys though), people carrying things on their heads or packages/babies slung over their backs, we've been seeing lots of people of Maya descent (they're not a tall people, I'm bigger than most we've meet). It's very different from the rest of our trip so far, I'm diggin it.

Recapping: arrived in Guatemala City, went west & stayed in Antigua for 2 days, then northwest to Panajachel to catch the boat to San Marcos [also on the lake, but not bus convienent], another 2 days went by before we spent 10 hours travelling to Xela, pronounced 'shay-lah' aka Quetzaltenango because a driver said a bus was going someplace it wasn't [just a 6 hour detour, but it's ok].
Like I was saying, Antigua was pretty with lots of coloinal buildings & tourist friendly restaurants & businesses, we may go back before we go to Tikal since it's kinda on the way.

We spent a couple days in San Marcos on Lago Atitlan & didn't like it too much. The lake was beautiful, but it was Christmas Eve & Christmas day with not much going on. San Marcos seems to cater to the new-age tourist with lots of places offering massages, yoga, vegetarian food, meditation courses & the like, not much my scene. We did hike to a nearby town where I got harassed by a drunk guy, I couldn't make out why he was pissed, but I understood that he wanted to fight for some reason. Ellie stopped me from finding out if my gimpy ankle style could defeat his belligerent drunken Guatemalan style, so we may never know...

We also got to practice out negotiating skills with the boat captains & the various locals who offer to "help" you find a boat to wherever you're going. Basically the helpers want you to pay them say, 20 Quetzals to go wherever you're going. They then pay the captain 5 & pocket the difference. We tried to avoid this by talking directly with the boat captains, but still found ourselves paying more than everyone else on the boat. We did bargain a bit & one time I stiffed a guy (only paying 5 times what everyone else paid) & thankfully $1US= 7.75 Quetzals, so our most expensive trip, 50 Quetzals was only $4.

Because I'm forgetful, we visited an outdoor food market. Apparently, Nicaragua didn't make enough of an impression. It wasn't that bad. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. Ok, there were live turkeys & chickens, and we've passed by a couple spots with unrefridgerated chicken for sale, but it didn't look that bad. Maybe we're just getting used this sort of thing?

We've seen some fireworks in Costa Rica in the last couple weeks, I hadn't thought anything of it, some bottle rockets at night, a few big displays twice, I didn't know why or really care. Apparently fireworks are part of Christmas/winter celebrations down this way. In San Marcos we heard & felt some of the largest bombas I have experienced. It was scary. For some reason when there are 3 vocanoes nearby I don't want to hear or feel explosions in the distance.

Tomorrow Ellie & I are taking a trip to a natural hot spring (if you can't avoid the volcanoes enjoy them), hopefully the rest of our time here will be full of pleasant surprises...

Kepfram