From Belize, we moved into Guatemala, where I had studied Spanish for six weeks back in January.  We retraced some of my favorite spots and visited a few new ones.  Guatemala is one of the most geographically diverse and friendly countries that we've visited so far.

Flores  

July 29, 2004

Our first stop in Guatemala was in the northeast in the lake-island town of Flores with its red-tile roofs reminicent of Florence, Italy.  We were treated to beautiful sunsets over the lake from the balcony of our hotel each evening.

Lago Itza	Flores from the lake	sunset over the lake
Shannon and a toucan	after an afternoon shower	taking a dip from the canoe

El Zotz  

July 31, 2004

Between Flores and Tikal is an enourmous national park of jungle bursting with wild monkeys, birds, pigs, bats, insects, and the biggest cockroaches you can imagine.  I decided to take a three-day hike through the jungle passing the minor ruins site of El Zotz on the way to Tikal.

...Along the way, we encountered dozens more little spider monkeys. Now, we were down on the ground far below the treetops where the monkeys are born and live their entire lives. But apparently, they found us quite threatening and did their best to scare us away. They would spread out eagle facing straight down at us holding four branches with their arms and legs and a fifth branch with their tails and begin to shake violently in an attempt to scare us away. The sights of this ridiculous behavior by these cute little monkeys only made us want to stay longer and watch. One group of monkeys even resorted to breaking off sticks and throwing them down at us to try to make us go away. This was my favorite experience of the trip....

village girls from El Cruce wishing us off	village boys from El Cruce wishing us off	pack horses and their master
hammocks under mosquito nets	bats racing across the sky	spider monkey frightening us from the treetop
climbing the buried ruins of El Zotz	me, Sonya, and Igal	jungle brush

San Andrés  

August 1, 2004

While I was out in the jungle, Shannon explored a little more around the lake.

...First I visited the market in Santa Elena, the town just at the end of the road leaving the island of Flores. The market runs down a muddy road in the middle of the town and consists of packed, dirty stalls selling a conglomerate of items. The middle of the road is packed with taxis and buses, walking salesmen, and the people of the town, all kicking up the mud. The whole scene was filthy and loud....

santa elena market	launcha for Flores	San Andres

Tikal

August 4, 2004

Tikal is perhaps the greatest Mayan ruins site.  The steep pyramids and palaces jut up spectacularly out of the plush jungle.  Each 70 years, the Mayans built a new structure enveloping the previous structure, thus making the temples larger and larger over time.  This method has aided to protect and preserve some the interior sculptures of the oldest works.

temples poking out of the jungle	Tikal temple-pyramid	plaza
temple	Mayan god face	from atop a temple

Chicacnab  

August 7, 2004

In the cloud forests outside of Copan, I spent two nights in the humble home of a highlands farmer and his family.  This cross-cultural experience is undoubtly the most fascinating of my life, and I even got the most rare opportunity to not only witness, but also to participate in an amazing Pagan-Christian ritual inside a remote cave.

...After a few minutes of elderly confusion trying to identify the right path and spot where he was supposed to make his offering, the old man laid out chunks of raw chicken and beef. As part of the ritual, he doused the meat with alcohol, took a swig for himself, and then set the meat on fire. From the thick layer of soot coating every surface within the cave, I could imagine that these acts had been carried out for many, many years; if the elder was right, perhaps over a thousand years! And, then came the bizarre twist…. Guillermo and the old man started their Christian prayers to Jesus Christ right there in the cave over the flaming offerings in the practice of their ancient ancestors to Mayan deities....

truck taking us to Chicacnab	from the back of the truck	view of the cloud forest from front door
Guillermo's home	Maria in the kitchen	Walter and little brother Wilson
forest clearing for planting crops	view from the corn fields	wild orchids in the forest
hiking through the forest	Guillermo, Walter, Minor, and the town elder at the cave entrance	in the smoky cave
the elder feeding the fire with spirits	offerings of chicken and beef to the Mayan dieties	the elder reciting prayers to Jesus Christ

Antigua  

August 6, 2004

While I was in the highlands, Shannon was anxious to start Spanish language school and moved ahead to beautiful Antigua.

...When I arrived in Antigua at 7 in the morning, I didn’t have a guide book with me, and didn’t remember the name of the popular hostel in Antigua. So I got into a taxi and told the driver I wanted to go to any hostel. When he didn't understand that, I told him just to take me to any hotel. When he still didn't understand, I must have just started muttering a bunch of English phrases at him, and he repeated one of them. "Place to stay?"  Excited that we had communicated, I said "Yes! I need a place to stay!"  I died laughing when he took me to a hotel nearby literally called, "Place to Stay”!  The beds were uncomfortable, the bathroom was dirty, and the front room was in shambles. But the owners were very friendly, and a dorm bed was only $4 for the night. So, I spent my first night in Antigua at “Place to Stay” hotel....

cathedral	arch fronting volcan Fuego	La Merced church and convent
Hotel Place to Stay	Central Park	uniformed girls going to school
girl selling apples		lady selling woven textiles
line of sidewalk sellers

Volcán Picaya  

August 14, 2004

A requirement for all able-bodied tourists visiting Guatemala is to climb the live volcano Picaya, located shortly outside of Antigua, and look over the rim and through the sulfur smoke at its glowing belly.  I had taken my turn back in January, so on this visit it is was Shannon's duty.

...On the way down, Chelsea and I were taking our time, watching our steps on the lava rock, when Emily ran past us downhill. We still walked along slowly until several more people passed us running down the hill, and we decided to try it ourselves. It was like moonwalking! We would leap into the air, come down several seconds later farther downhill, and then we would slide down some on the lava rock before we leapt up again. It was so much fun! We ran all the way down the lava rock, and had to stop at the bottom and take off our shoes to empty out the rocks....

view of volcan fuego	peak of Picaya from first plateau	sulfur steam from the rim
the red glow down inside	Shannon at the peak	the quick route down

Lago Atitlan  

August 20, 2004

San Pedro La Laguna is one of the most peaceful, laidback places on earth, so I was anxious to return when it came time for me to go back to school to continue developing my Spanish.  Shannon and I stayed with a wonderful and accomidating family.  Following my visit here back in January, I warned Shannon of her alligence to a bread girl, but she had to learn the hard way:

...Apparently, a local woman makes the bread which she sells to the children. And then these little entrepreneurs resell the bread to the tourists for a profit. They can be heard shouting throughout the town, “Pan de banano, pan de chocolate, pan de zanahoria, pan de coco!”  One day I promised a little girl I would buy bread from her later in the day, and then absent-mindedly bought it from another girl that afternoon. The first girl found out and was very upset with me. She came to me and repeated over and over “Me dijiste, me dijiste!”, or “You told me, you told me!” She was so persistent that after a while I asked her if I bought a second loaf of bread from her, could we be friends again? She giggled. So I bought a second loaf of bread for about 70 cents. And for the rest of the week I made sure I only bought bread from my assigned bread girl....

shannon and her bread girl	bread girls on break	enjoying my favorite fresh fruit smoothie
sisters of our home		shannon and the girls
assembling a new TV antennae	i never felt so tall before!	view from my room
man in a window (50 cents for a picture)	my classroom	me and Chica
Shannon driving the boat from Panajachel	Panajachel	me in front of volcan San Pedro

Chichicastenango  

August 22, 2004

Another favorite tourist stop in Guatemala is the Thursday and Sunday market at Chichicastenango.  It's most interesting for the people-watching opportunities.

soda and bread hawkers selling through the bus window	flower sales on the church steps	flower vender
vegetable market	dried fish	lime for washing beans
peanuts, cashews, etc	weight-and-balance	shoe shine

Semuc Champey  

August 26, 2004

One of the most amazing natural sites in Guatemala has to be the cascading lakes called Semuc Champey.  I had seen them in January and was happy to take Shannon back to this magical spot.

...The van was full of very talkative Italians. But one time when they all started shouting at once, I looked up to see that my backpack had fallen off of the roof rack of the van, and was rolling through the mud and cement of the construction on the road behind us. Yes, I could hardly believe it! My deck of playing cards had been in the side pocket, and when the driver went back to retrieve my backpack, he had to gather the playing cards that had scattered! Vince later tried to clean my backpack, but the mud and cement is embedded in the cloth. Oh well, it now looks well-travelled....

Rio Dulce  

August 30, 2004

...From Rio Dulce Town in Eastern Guatemala, we took a Catamaran sailboat trip into Lake Isabel and down the Dulce River to the Caribbean coastal town of Livingston.  The cruise left on a Friday afternoon and returned Monday morning.  Shannon and I were accompanied by a couple from Spain – about our age, the laid-back Captain, and a young cook.  Along the way, we slept in a hot little cabin below deck and ate all of our meals seated on the deck floor.  Our eighteen-year-old chef prepared pretty decent meals of fish, chicken, and spaghetti....

....Rather than trudging around from tourist spot to tourist spot on bus packing all of our gear like usual, we laid out on the deck under the sails, snacking on fresh fruit, until our captain would anchor the boat and tell us to take a swim, eat, or go look at the next spectacle. At one stop, we hiked about 15 minutes to swim in a river. The fascinating thing is that the primary river flow is cold, but from a cliff above a hot waterfall pours down creating a steaming shower and a cool pool before the river flows on. We swam in the pool, feeling the water get warmer as we approached the falls, and then hot underneath the falls....

our catamaran for the cruise	relaxing on the bow	bathing in the hot waterfalls
old spanish fort guarding the river entrance	lake home	me paddling on the lake

Livingston  

September 1, 2004

...One morning, we arrived at the mouth of the river flowing into the Caribbean Sea, and anchored at the small town of Livingston, Guatemala. The town itself is unappealing and a bit dirty, appearing something like a small Belize City with its wooden houses with large porches. The interesting thing here is the people. The locals are Mayans, Ladinos, Garifuna, and every mix in between, living in amazing harmony. The Mayans are short, and the women stout and many continue to wear traditional dress. The Ladinos, as they are known in Guatemala – Mestizos in Mexico – are mixed race of the Mayan and early Europeans, and generally appear taller and have Hispanic features. Finally, the Garifuna are descendents of Blacks who migrated from the Caribbean islands at the end of slavery....

...Sunday appeared to be lottery day, and there were card tables set up in all the streets with women scribbling numbers in their notebooks.  The tables were manned by Mayans, Ladinos, and Garifuna alike with customers crossing all race lines to try their luck.  Among the other great people watching, was a stroll off the main street into a neighborhood where the elderly were rocking on their porches, and a group of kids were dancing and jumping rope in the middle of the street to the groove of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”....

typical home	fishing boat with man sewing his net	parrot who says 'hola'	lottery sales on the sidewalk