Lago Atitlán and Chichicastenango: local markets and crowded chicken buses

From Antigua we took a shuttle to Panajachel a town on the shore of Lago Atitlan. Do you know who we met in the bus? We met Danny, the orthodontist from NY, and his wife! What a coincidence! But he was not going to the same town as us.

When we arrived to Panajachel we decided to leave our bags at Mario's rooms and we went to have lunch in a restaurant in front of the lake. It was very cheap, only 35Q. We couldn't finish all our food and when we were about to leave, an old indigenous man, who we already meet earlier in the day, sat at our table with us(without asking for permission) and ate our leftovers of bread and coke. He was trying to make some money by selling cashews (the only word he knew in english) and since then we called him the Cashew. Despite he was starving he was not eating the cashews he had to sell. We met this guy again in very different places in town at dinner and at lunch the day after. No wonder why he was so hungry! He was walking all day long!

After having lunch at the cheap place, a big storm surprised us in the middle of the street. In less than ten minutes the street became a river! We couldn't cross the street because the level of the water was so high! We sheltered in a street store and we talked with the old indigeneous lady and also another old man who who claimed he was from San Juan and needed money as his town was very poor.

Due to the storm we didn't have any other option than spending the evening in the room watching TV. We learned a bit more about the Guatemalan elections, and we also saw the US news in spanish from Univision. We discovered that the reporters like to dress provocatively and they publish their facebook accounts ;)

Luckly the next day was shiny! We visited San Marcos, San Pedro, San Juan, Santiago and San Antonio by boat.

San Marcos is a very nice small town full of hippies and places where you can retreat, meditate and do yoga. Quite interesting!

San Pedro is more prepared for regular tourism. If we had more time we would have stayed there instead of in Panajachel. From there we took a tuk-tuk to visit San Juan, where we met, guess who... Danny the orthodontist.

In san Juan we visited the local market and the meat shop shocked us wuite a bit. They had all the meet hanging, not refrigerated, full of flies and the smell was veery strong...

We also saw that there are a lot of Barça fans! We saw a lot of people wearing t-shirts, stickers everywhere and even a tuk tuk painted with the colors of the club.

Santiago is the largest town. Since we didn't have a guide we used the dirty trick of following a couple that had one ;) Quite effective if you don't have time and want to see the good spots for free. Without this trick we wouldn't have discovered the hidden textile factories and we wouldn't have entered the market. This market was huge, full of women selling fruits, crabs, smelly meat (again) and stinky fish from the lake.
The last stop was San Antonio. This town doesn't have anything to visit so we decided to talk to the local people there. We met Maria and Olga, two very funny sisters, who were trying to sell bracelets and scarfs, without much luck. Maria was obsessed with the hairy men and she was promoting free love among all tourists. I had to promise that I would kiss Laura a lot everyday.

Victor and Maria

Overview of San Antonio

The next day we went to Chihicastenango because every Thursday and Sunday there is a big street market. We decided to go by public transportation. We took our first chicken bus of the trip, an old US school bus  painted with bright colors. It was really fun! They play music as if it was a music club and they fit seventy people where there are only forty seats.

When we got to Solola we found a hospital demonstration and we had to get off the bus. We crossed walking and at the other side there was a guy with a pick up who offered a ride to the town for 1Q. On the pick up there were 20 people standing and grabbing whatever they could.

Riding on the pick up

The trip was not over as we still had to jump into another chicken bus and a mini van.

Again the mini van was suuuuper crowded! At one point about 7 kids got in when the mini van was already full.

We finally arrived to Chichicastenango. The market was nice but the ride was much more fun.

We spent our last two days in Guatemala resting in Antigua. To avoid the demonstration, the driver decided to go through las Trampas. With that name, the bumps and holes in the road and the water that was pouring we were a bit scared, but we survived!

In Antigua we discovered two very nice restaurants. Sabe Rico is a restaurant and chocolate store where all food is organic. We met one of the owners who explained that the building was the place were they used to keep the horses in the old times. And there were two really cute dogs! Another good recomendation is Las Palmas: good food and live music.

NEXT STOP: Costa Rica!

Antigua, the colonial city, and Pacaya, the active volcano

After our 20h layover in Florida we finally arrived to Ciudad de Guatemala. We took a shuttle from the airport to Antigua. During the drive we met Cecilia, a chilean girl who was travelling alone. She explained us the wonders of using couchsurfing. She was supposed to stay with a couchfriend in Antigua but she couldn't contact him. She decided to stay at the same hostel as us, Hostal Antigua.

We spent the whole day with her. We had lunch in a very cheap place (our lunch cost Q40 for both, $6!!!). We visited the Mercado de Artesanías and we had a hot cocoa at Cafe Condesa. The guatemalan chocolate is delicious!

Antigua is a colonial city with cobbled streets, colorful houses and lots of churches in ruins due to the earthquake in the 18th century. Most of the city has been restored and it is very well suited for tourism.

The day after we hiked the Pacaya volcano. Antigua is surounded by four volcanoes and Pacaya is the most active. Its last eruption was on May 27 2010! You can still see the smoking lava that is covering part of the fields in the valley. The holes were so hot that we were able to cook marshmellows!

While hiking we met Danny, who was an orthodontist from NY. He had a really interesting personal story as he had lived in Israel and Valencia for quite a long time. In fact he was translating what the guide was explaining in Spanish to Hebrew and English. Now we know where to go if we have a tooth problem in NY!

Next Stop: Lago Atitlán

Relaxing in Tulum and Cancun

Here we are, in our relaxing days at the caribean coast!

We stayed two days at Tulum in the Om Tulum cabañas, a nice place right on the beach. We spent the first day relaxing at the beach.

The second day we rented two bikes to go to Tulum ruins that are 6 km away from the cabañas. The ruins are very unique because they are next to the beach.

While Laura was relaxing at the beach, Victor went to the town (40minutes by bike) to do the laundry!

After Tulum, we took a bus to Cancun! We spent 2 nights at a Resort with All Included! We met Nuria and Agustí, a nice couple from Vic. Our activities were sleeping, eating, drinking and suntanning. Well, Victor and Agustí played a tennis game!

The resort has a program for taking care of the marine turtles nesting. We were lucky to see them just minutes after breaking their eggs at night. The picture is not very good because we couldn't use flash.

Next stop: 20h layover in Florida and Guatemala!

Yucatan - caught under a tropical storm in ruins

Our trip to Guatemala, left us very tired, and we were in the mood of relax for some days in Merida. The first night we stayed at Hostal Santa Lucia. Don't go there!!! The private room had to fans that connected the restrooms with our room. Every time somebody goes to the restroom the stinky smell stays in the room.

The next day we moved to a much nicer hostel: Zocalo and we had a balcony with views to the main square. We were lucky because it was sunday and there  were traditional music and dances.

The next day we went to swim in the Cenotes. The trip was a full value experience! We took the public collectivo, then we took a mototaxi which is a motorbike with a cartseat attached. 

When we arrived at the Hacienda we took a cart running on train trucks pulled by a horse. The first 5 minutes were fun but after that we got tired because the road was very shaky and there were a thousand bugs trying to eat us!

The swim in the cenotes was amazing! It is better an image than a thousand words...

From Merida we took a bus to Piste, the town next to Chichen Itza, and we booked a room at Chichen Itza Mayaland hotel. It was the first time we had time to swim in a swimming pool.

After refreshing in the pool we went to visit the mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. They are the most restored ruins but we didn't like it so much because of the heat and it is full of tourists from Cancun.

With the day ticket we could access the night show at the ruins. The multimedia show was cool and it was full of sparkling flying bugs that looked as part of the show.

Right before finishing we were caught in a tropical storm!!! We run in the dark in the middle of the ruins with lightnings and thunders falling next to us. Laura was a little bit scared...

We were so wet that we decided to have a soup at the resort next to the ruins. The funny note of the night was a french guy who was trying to go to the bathroom but hit a glass window next to us. The entire restaurant is still laughing at it.

Next stop: Tulum and Cancun!

Tikal - the greatest mayan city

Our next stop was Tikal, Guatemala. We looked for the cheapest tour operator that would bring us to Flores stopping one night in LaCanja, but we learned that "lo barato sale caro" (the cheap stuff turns out to be expensive). The tour operator forgot to write Flores in our voucher and the bus driver didn't want to bring us there. Moreover, the tour agency didn't have their own buses and we had to travel in the public colectivos. After arguing for the entire day with the bus driver, we finally managed to get to Frontera Corozal, the mexican side of the border with Guatemala. However, once we got there they wanted to make us pay 15 pesos that the zapatistas charge to get into Frontera Corozal. That was supposed to be covered by the agency, and we had to argue again... After all this we crossed the river and then catched a bus in Bethel that took us to Flores through a dirt road during 3hrs.

Boat from Frontera Corozal to Bethel

During the trip we learned about the sad history of Guatemala, which has been in war for more than 30 years until 1996, and the experience of Mynor, our guide, who fled to the US after being persecuted by the militars who shot him when he was leaving.

We decided to stay at Posada del Cerro in el Remate, instead of Flores, because it was a quiter place next to the lake and closer to Tikal. We felt like at home in Posada del Cerro! It is a very nice hotel with huts and it is managed by a German guy and his Brazilian wife.

Tikal are definitely the most spectacular ruins we have seen so far. Actually after seeing them, the other ruins feel more like an amusement park. To avoid the crowd and the heat, we took the tour that picked us up at 5:30 am. The ruins are in the middle of the jungle and most of them are not restored. The guide claimed that there are about 18,000 mayan structures in the entire area.

We felt like Indiana Jones, hiking through the jungle looking for pyramids and also observing the animals. We saw tarantulas, snakes, howling monkeys (monos aulladores) and pizotes, which looks like a mix of dog and monkey.

When we came back from the ruins we went to swim in the lake.

We were totally alone but after a while a 12 year old kid came to our dock. We started to talk to him and he claimed that he was selling handicrafts, however we didn't see them. Our conversation went more or less like this:

We - Do you go to school?
Kid - Yes, but it ends at 12 pm and then I have all my afternoon free.
W - And what do you want to study after you finish school?
K - Mmmm I don't know, I don´t know if I will ever go to university
W- But don't you have a dream?
K - I only have bad dreams.
W - But what do you want to be when you grow up?
K - I want a job where I can earn a lot of money working very little
W - But this doesn't exist!
K - Yes, drugdealer! They make Q500 a day

This is a very sad story but might reflect a reality of how kids can adopt as role model what they see on the street.

The following day we came back to Palenque through the same road, and again we find issues with the bus drivers and immigration. We had to wait for 1.5 hrs in immigration because the officers wanted to do a backgroud check of a tourist from Israel, but the internet conection was not working. Victor even had to work as a translator between the oficer and the tourist.

After this intense trip we decided to rest for a day in Palenque.

NEXT STOP: Merida

Palenque, Yaxchilan and Bonampack

We have already been two weeks in Mexico but we still haven't seen anybody wearing a typical mexican hat. However we have seen lots with cowboy hats. Weird!

After our visit to San Cristobal we had a 4.5 h bus ride to Palenque. We went from 2200 meters to sea level and we had to go through a very windy road, full of bumps and full of kids who were stopping the bus with a rope across the road to sell fruit.

In Palenque we had to wear short pants for the first time, as the weather here is very hot, humid and its full of mosquitoes. The town doesn't have anything special, but the ruins are spectacular. We also went to Misol-Ha and Agua azul waterfalls but we didn´t swim because it was too crowded.

Fresh mango lollipop

Palenque was our start point to our trip to Tikal. On the way there we visited two more Mayan sites: Yaxchilan and Bonampak. Both are very special. Yaxchilan because it is in the middle of the jungle, you need to take a 50 min boat ride through the river and also there are buildings that you can enter and it is completely dark. We saw bats in there! Bonampak, is the Mayan site with the best preserved paintings.

Victor and bats!

Bonampak is inside the Lacandon indigenous reserve and it is all managed by them. We spent the night at one of the cabins in Lacanja and we were able to see how these people live. Men dressed with a with a white robe and women with a flowered one. It was surprising that there are some people that speak spanish with a very hard Mayan accent as the latter is their native language. We also learned two ways of saying hello in Mayan: Bakaurik and Dieneix.

And next stop: Tikal, Guatemala

San Critobal de las Casas

Our next stop was San Cristobal de las Casas, a small town where we slept in a nice hostel called Iguana Hostel. We took our first salsa class and we met interesting people. There was a korean girl travelling alone, an italian cook and photographer and a guy from Sevilla who wanted to go to Brazil last December but his flight was cancelled and travelled to Mexico instead. He has been in the conuntry since then. The hostel was decorated with an intense green which matched our camping gear. The only drawback was that there were the local festivals and in front of our hostel, they were celebrating the "mañanitas" with fireworks, a music band and bells every 20 minutes, even at night!

We took a colectivo to San Juan Chamula, a town with a peculiar religion a mix between catholic and indigenous religions. They didn´t let us take pictures of them because they think that if you take a picture of somebody you are stealing his soul. Inside the church they put pine leaves and candles on the floor and they drink coca-cola and posh, a local spirit.

We also took a two-hour boat trip through el Cañón del Sumidero where we saw alligators! It looks like El Capitan in Yosemite but even bigger.

And NEXT STOP: Palenque!