I decided after my volcano adventure to head up to Coban, which meant changing buses in Guatemala City. The bus ride to Guate was pretty uneventful besides observing the bus helper load bags on top of the bus through the back emergency exit door ladder (which functions just as another door to load people and stuff onto the bus in Central America) while the bus was going at about 40 mph. I made it to Coban at about 8 PM and stayed at a bed and breakfast that served banana pancakes (it is amazing the things you crave being on the [View Full Entry]

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The highlight of my stay in Antigua was by far the day trip I took out to Volcan Pacaya (2550 meters)- the active volcano located approximately an hour drive outside of Antigua. After hiking up the dense forests at the base of the volcano on a cold, overcast day for about two hours our adventure turned a bit crazy. We finally arrived to the dried up lava portion from the eruption in 2006 and had to traverse some really jagged rocky terrain through some extremely dense fog (at one point I could only see a couple of feet in front of [View Full Entry]

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I decide to alter my route and make my way to Antigua after a hurricane left much of central and northern Guatemala with many anticipated rain storms, as I was originally going to Coban to explore some of the many outdoor adventure circuits they have to offer. Nestled between three volcanoes, Antigua is well known for its many colonial churches and cobble stoned streets (see pictures). Most of Antigua's buildings were constructed during the 17th and 18th centuries when the city was a rich Spanish outpost and the Catholic church was coming into power. The city served as the capital for [View Full Entry]

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As soon as I got off the bus from Xela, I went to go find the school where I wanted to try my luck at teaching English. One of the kids at the school led me to Oseas' house, who was the contact I got in Xela from a friend. I found Oseas and he filled me in on the situation at the school. Basically, the government wanted to tear down the school (which is built adjacent to a small market) to expand the market which would supposedly bring in more tourism and money to San Pedro- a decision in which [View Full Entry]

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My Adventure Crossing The Border Into Guatemala After a great evening of sharing travel stories with my friends Monica (Spain), Haus (Turkey) and Claudias (Italy) and listening to music by candlelight I decided it was time to say goodbye to Mexico for now and cross my first border to Guatemala. As I woke up early to catch the first bus to Comitan- little did I know I was about to endure one of the most difficult days of my trip. While waiting for the buses I stopped at the comedor (restaurant) in town to hang out and get some breakfast. I [View Full Entry]

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La Realidad (the reality) is a famous Zapatista pueblo about an hour camioneta ride from Guadalupe, my last stop. Learning from my previous experience in Guadalupe, as soon as I arrived into town, I immediately went to look for someone to get approval to stay in the pueblo and help out with any work that needed to be done. I was eventually led to a small wooden house where I met with a guy who was volunteering to check visitor information etc. He asked me for my passport and wrote down my info and asked me why I wanted to stay [View Full Entry]

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My French amigos Jeremies, Amelie and I boarded a two hour camioneta ride that we originally intended to take to the Zapatista pueblo La Realidad. However, we spontaneously decided to check out Guadalupe upon hearing it was also Zapatista affiliated. I did not know what to expect as I had only seen video images of the masked guerrilla fighters in the pueblos of Chiapas and here I was staying in one of their towns- after my previous experience at Laguna Miramar, I wanted more adventure! We got off the camioneta and relaxed for a bit as we arrived at the hottest [View Full Entry]

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For my next destination I decided I wanted to challenge my comfort zones even further. I had grown accustomed to arriving at places that were used to seeing tourists and that I had heard about from other travelers. I felt like I was ready for the next step- checking out the more remote jungle pueblos of Chiapas. I decided my next destination would be Laguna Miramar, which is only a few km away from the Guatemalan border. Ringed by the jungles of Chiapas, Laguna Miramar is regarded as one of Mexico's most remote and exquisite lakes. The 16 square km lake [View Full Entry]

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San Juan Chamula is a town of about 3,000 located about 7 miles outside of San Cristobal de las Casas. The Tzotzil tribe that resides in town is the only indigenous group in Mexico that truly rejected Spanish Catholocism and fully preserved their own religious practices. I decided to check out the colorful church located in the center of town to witness their customs first hand. As I entered the church I saw hundreds of flickering candles, gigantic clouds of incense smoke with worshipers kneeling with their faces to the pine-needle carpet floor which made an extremely powerful impressio [View Full Entry]

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After the twelve hour bus ride from Oaxaca I arrived at San Cristobal de las Casas at around 7:00 AM and could immediately feel the unique ambience that was so characteristic of the city. San Cristobal is at the heart of one of the most deeply rooted indigenous areas in Mexico, surrounded by dozens of villages where old customs coexist with elements of modernity, thus it is also Mexico's poorest state. Also, San Cristobal is one of the four cities that the Zapatistas (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional) took in its uprising in 1994. One of the things that really attracted [View Full Entry]

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