FIN

Travels in Central America, June - September 2005.

First Month in Guanajuato
Month 1: Living with a Mexican family in Guanajuato, taking Spanish lessons and getting used to Mexican food and culture (i.e. salsa and Rebelde!)

Mexican Travels
Month 2: Bussing and hostelling down through Mexico, via the west coast and across to Cancún in the Yucatán peninsula.

Belize and Guatemala
Month 3: Scuba diving in Caye Caulker, canoeing in the jungle in Belize and live volcanoes in Guatemala.

Lakeside hippies

A lot has happened since the last post, so I'll sum it up a little!

Arriving in Guatemala, we stayed at a placa called La Casa De Don David on the side of a gorgeous blue lake called Peten Itza, which had gardens with bushes in the shape of toucans, banana trees etc. The next moring around 6am, we wnet to the archaeological site at Tikal. Arriving so early, we almost had the site to ourselves, and could wander leisurely in the cool morning temperature. We watched spider monkeys for about an hour around the ruins, and they were great entertainment. A few times, they just jumped from one tree to another, with all four limbs splayed out. We also saw coatimundis, and wandered around in a bat-filled tunnel. The ruins themselves were almost a sideshow to the wildlife, but very impressive still, see Temple I below.

Temple I at Tikal seems to be at the heart of the national identity, every license plate has a picture of it behind the immatriculation number:

From there, we went to a working farm called Finca Ixobel, and stayed in a treehouse. Then on to Finca El Paraiso, where a hot (boiling!) waterfall cascades into a cold pool - pretty weird, and great to swim in and mess around. That day was a nightmare of travel, with the bus arriving two hours late, and driven by a maniac who really had it tipping over when he roared around corners. We had some interesting experiences trying to find accommodation in Antigua, trying about ten in a row without success while travelling around the cobbled streets in a tuc-tuc after dark.

While in Antigua, we visited a coffe plantation (much more interesting than it sounds), and climbing an active volcano. Here's one of the volcanoes near Antigua, seen from within the city before we left for Pacaya, the active one.

Pacaya volcano itself was incredible, thundering and spitting red-hot ash into the air right in front of our eyes, while the rocks around steamed, smelling of sulphur. Wow. The photos of the spitting ash aren't so clear, but this one gives an idea of the smoking rocks:

We've now moved on to Lake Atitlan, a lake surrounded by small villages. Last night was San Marcos de la Laguna, where we stayed at a hippy retreat, did meditation and yoga. Interesting times, it took place in a pyramid, where we had to first descend, and then enter the pyramid through a trapdoor. Plenty of talk of third eyes and finding oneself, but sure we had a laugh...

Talk soon!

Mucked up stuff in the jungle.

We emerged from the jungle yesterday as mucky and smelly and dirty as we've been in a long long time. Not showering in 3 days would be OK if you were hanging around at home, but when you're wading across rivers, pulling canoes up mucky banks, cooking fish you've just caught over a smoky bonfire etc. it's kind of a problem! :-)

The first day we went on an uneventful trip of a reserve, then stayed in a jungle camp where we had to wade across slippery stones with the gear (see below) to the pretty crazy Guacamayo Camp. We had a "tour" of the camp from a 14-year old gangster (beside me below), who mostly told us stories about how insane his family was (threatening to kill each other etc.), and insisting how keen he was on marijuana.

We were a little dismayed to find out that the "here's where the dangerous animals hang out" (tarantulas, snakes) part of the tour took place outside our room, whose door didn't close, and which had no mosquito net. Had an interesting chat with an older guy there, who seemed to have shot and eaten his way through every species of wildlife native to Belize - in fact, now that I think of it, the only topic of conversation besides "things I have shot and eaten" was "things I have caught with a fishing line and/or spear and eaten". I slept a little fitfully because something kept fluttering its wings loudly above my head, but Dad slept like a top.

The next day was an overnight tour into the jungle, so we paddled four hours into the jungle in torrential rain in a leaky canoe, destroying in the process Dad's new digital camera, an alarm clock, binoculars and three books. I'm pretty sure my runners have also made a very permanent transition from "normal" to "stinking". Besides that, it was hardcore dirty, survival stuff but good craic. We caught catfish, killed, gutted, cleaned and roasted them, and sighted all the animals we wnated to, like baby alligators, howler monkeys and an enormous tapir (I woke at 5:30am to the guide shouting "Out of the tents, guys, the tapir might trample them!").

So all in all, it was highly eventful and a real experinece, but we were very happy (strike that, ecstatic) to get back to civilisation, real beds, good food, and cold beer. We grinned like eejits through dinner and managed to find a lot of craic out of the madness of the trip.

Into the jungle

A quick post before Dad and I venture into the jungle! We've come back to the mainland after 3 solid and fantastic days of diving around the islands off Belize. Have finally had a chance to pop up a few photos, so here are two, to prove we're alive and well! :-)

First, the two PADI qualified divers tucking into some juicy watermelon on the boat to a dive:

And this is one of the tropical islands off which we dove, in particular myself and a guy called Mike from the trip, checking out a dead turtle off the coast of Half Moon Cay:

So we're now close to the border with Guatemala, and will be spending the next 3 days, 2 nights in the jungle, trekking around and looking for strange animals!

Diving with Dad

From Cancun, we sped as soon as possible down past the Mexican border and into Belize, where we ferried our way out to the magnificent island of Caye Caulker. Right now we can't get photos up, but wow - this is the tropical paradise you've always imagined (our hotel is actually called Tropical Paradise Hotel!). The food is amazing (cheap lobster, great sauces like Lemon n Lime etc. ), the people are great, friendly and they speak English with a Jamaican accent. Seems like half the businesses on the island are called Ragga or Rasta something (Rasta Pasta, Ragga Gal etc.) - either way, it's all very cool and Caribbean.

The last few days, we've been learning how to scuba dive, doing a PADI Open Water Diver certification course. Hard to describe the experience of diving, though anyone who's done it will know. It's tranquil, beautiful, and generally just feels weird and surprising to be so far under the water and feeling okay. We've swum with sharks (small, harmless nurse sharks), seen rays and parrotfish and generally a pretty bewildering array of coral and aquatic life. Really good times, diving all day til you're knackered, then eating great food for decent prices, having a cold beer and sleeping like a baby. Apologies if I'm rubbing it in, will try and get some photos up soon.