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Published: September 7th 2008
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27th - 29th August- Nebaj
Arrived in Nebaj late lastnight after a series of tightly packed buses. Nebaj is a small town with a large population of indigenous Mayan people. As we had a walk around the market we noticed all the women were wearing traditional dress which consisted of a colourful poncho tucked into a deep red skirt with a brightly patterned belt and blanket flung across the shoulder. Most intruigingly they all had their hair wrapped up and decorated with pom poms. We were ushered into an indoor market and swiftly dressed up by some nice ladys who then tried to sell us their entire stalls claiming ´my ill sister made it!' about everything. We did end up buying quite alot.
After a failed walk because of torrential rain we went back to the hostel and put on our new outfits. Luckily Sam is a fancy dress enthusiast as well. We found some plastesine in the corner shop and made an animation of our trip. We each made a character and they danced under the sea and in the jungle..
coming soon to a youtube near you..
The next day we decided to attempt the walk up the
mountain again. It was like a muddy English walk. So muddy that we came straight back down again after only getting half way in our broken flip flops.
I sat next to two poo-ing puppys on the bus all the way to Xela which is where we said goodbye to Sam.
30th August - Xela
Quezaltenango (known as Xela to the cool kids) is quite a built up town with a large plaza and some real shops. We stayed here for a night before Harriet and I moved little Tashy into a nice hostel in preparation for her trek starting early the next morning. We felt like worried parents checking she had sensible shoes and a decent waterproof.
Harriet and i then waved gooddbye from the bus and went on our winding journey to San Pedro on Lake Atitlan.
31st August - 4th September - San Pedro la Laguna
Feeling slightly like we´d lost a limb we moved ourselves into a hostel. We were soon ambushed by a group of drunken Guatemalans. Without Tash to protect us we had to fend for ourselves and explain in our awful spanish that we both had boyfriends, to which
they said ´what happens in guatemala stays in guatemala' and we swiftly escaped to go and meet up with Sam. We had a good night exploring the town, which has lots of hippy-ish bars and reataurants and a very chilled out atmosphere.
We spent a day exploring the lake on Kayaks and i got stung by a wasp. The lake is apparently the most beautiful in the world and was described by Aldous Huxley as ´too much of a good thing´. It would be hard to disagree - it is pretty amazing and photos don´t do it justice.
The next day we sunbathed on the roof of our hostel which has the most magnificent view of the lake and in the afternoon did a hot air baloon making workshop! After spending ages picking coloured tissue paper Harriet sam and i sucessfully created three big hot air baloons which we set off later that night off our roof. The weather was perfectly still after a big downfall and they looked amazing as they glowed and floated up into the sky.
On Tuesday morning Harriet and i were wondering around town when when Tash popped up, looking suprisingly unscathed after her
trek. It felt good to be reunited.
We decided to get a boat over to another lakeside village called San Marcos. It was beautifully peaceful and we followed a collection of paths with signs like ´Flower rooms healing centre' and decided that we (well Tash) deseved a massage. Harriet had Reiki and a Tarot reading with special blessed water and hug at the end. Tash had a peaceful bra-less french lady who did shiatsu and i had a full body massage but unfortunately had dogs licking the nice smelling oil off me for the rest of the day.
We went out to a cool restaurant with Tashs new trek friends but all ended up nearly falling asleep on the comfy cushions on the floor after too much amazing chocolate souffle.
Spent another day on Kayaks before saying a sad goodbye to Sam and heading off to Chichicastenango.
4th - 5th September - Chichicastenango
Thursday is market day in Chichi. We arrived and bustled ourway past people to have a very typical breakfast in the smelly food court. Each stall was filled with colourful ponchos, belts, rugs, blankets, hammocks of all different varieties. As the day wore on our
haggling abilities vastly improved and we were shouting ´No! Mas Carro!´ at everyone. We came away with so much stuff we had to buy bags to carry it in. Later on, our room in the hostel exploded with stuff and looked like a market in itself.
We woke up early the next day in the hope of getting a direct bus to the Mexican border, but apparently not early enough as the only one leaves at 6am. We tired to start our long long day of chicken buses but got delayed by about 25 school marching bands parading down the street.
We survived the journey thanks to trusty Ipods and are now in San Cristobal Mexico! Had our first taco and went to bed.
Roya x
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Alicia/Muj
non-member comment
I laughed till I cried reading this - what is it with you and dogs. Also loved the pom pom look - its very fetching and as Roya's grandma would say those skirts make you look very tall around your middle.