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Published: January 28th 2009
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Sunset in FloresWe made it.., our first border crossing! Not quite as dramatic as I´d pictured in my head. No need for folded 100 dollar bills in passports, no shakedowns, no shootouts...altogether a rather uneventful affair. So, Guatemala. We crossed the border into Guatemala having bussed it briefly through Belize, on our way to meet Emma´s chums Amy (The Inspector) and Cath (Chu-chu) in Flores. I´m told the Inspector and choo choo were wandering the streets bellowing ¨Donde es Roof-rack?¨ in an attempt to locate young Emsy. For those that don´t know, Emma´s nickname amongst the Twyford Massive is ´Roof-rack´, though
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Same sunset! the story behind that one is not for here. (Nor is the story behind the inspector or chu-chu..though re the latter, something about a train I believe.)
So we finally met up with Cath and Amy and a couple of Cath´s friends, Alex and Lou, who were on their honeymoon. The guys had arranged for an overnight trip the following day to the famous Mayan ruins at Tikal. Staying overnight would allow us to join the sunrise tour without the need for a ridiculous 3am start. We stayed at a place called the Jaguar Inn at Tikal which wasn't cheap but the rooms were very nice. We decided to do a canopy tour through the jungle on the first day to get the adrenalin pumping. There was an initial bit of chemistry between Cath and Felix (our canopy specialist) if I recall, impressive guns and perhaps an equally impressive machete? Unfortunately all was lost when his gold plated smile erased any chance of a holiday romance for chu-chu....the train had definitely left the station.
We woke at something like 4am (still very dark) to begin walking through the ruins for one of the tallest pyramids, which we could
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The twyford massive reunited over blood red skies! climb and watch the sunrise over the jungle and ruins. The walk was great as you could hear the wildlife, especially the howler monkeys, very vocal in the early hours. Sitting atop the pyramid was pretty spectacular though the sunrise wasn't as impressive as it could be, as their was a fairly thick fog obscuring a lot of the view. When it did clear a little though it was a pretty good picture - and again for those movie buffs out there, the scene was captured in the original Star Wars IV movie as the rebel base from which the X-Wings leave to take out the Death Star! After the sunrise, we had a guided tour of the Tikal ruins and learned a bit more about the history of the Maya. We saw a family of monkeys moving through the trees and climbed some pretty high pyramids that left Ell's legs a little wobbly to say the least. We were also fortunate enough to have a little comedy on the tour by way of an Australian tourist who was a cross between Rolf Harris, Steve Irwin and... well you get the picture...can you guess what it is yet?
We
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Alex, Emma, The Inspector and Cath got driven back to Flores by our slimey bus driver and had a good swim in the lake before a farewell dinner to send Alex and Lou on their way off to Belize as the furious four ventured deeper into Guatemala.
Next stop was Coban - a jumping off point (in more ways than one) to see the caves at Lanquin and to swim in the pools at Semuc Champey. We found a pretty shocking hostel to stay in where we had to ask them to turn down the Bon Jovi in Spanish CD (I know, I know...Bon Jovi should only ever be turned up!). It would have been okay except that they must have run out of bricks and plaster when building our room as one of the walls only went 3/4 of the way to the ceiling...strange. We dined on some good local tacos the first evening in preparation for the following days tour.
First stop of the tour were the pools at Semuc Champey. Luckily the sun gods were out in force that day and we were all very keen to take a dip in the clear blue water. Our guide, eager to get our
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Big pyramid innit blood pumping, showed us a good jumping point from some of the rocks which Cath and I were eager to get involved in. Sensing our excitement, the guide proceeded to show us an even higher jump which you could easily (hmmm) get to by climbing a tree jutting out from the rocks. It is at this point that Ell become the lion from the Wizard of Oz - in need of some courage. Alas it never came and Ell wimped out. Cath however was not one to lie down so easily and casting aside her apparent slight uneasiness at heights, was first to negotiate the tree of doom! I shall refer our readers to the picture sequence at the bottom of this entry which will show Cath in full flight bombing into the water Unfortunately the entry angle was a little off kilter and Cath jarred her back (which was unfortunatley an injury that woudl last some weeks/months - though much better now I´m told).
As part of the Semuc Champey tour, Emma and I continued down though some of the other pools to the waterfall where with the aid of a rope ladder secured to a boulder at
the top of the waterfall, we climbed down the face of the flowing waterfall to the caves beneath. This is another example of Ell once again conquering his fear of heights...and there was fear!
Cath was still not doing well at this point so we managed to get someone to drive us to the local hospital where through broken spanish Amy and Emma managed to get some help by way of some anti inflammatories. We continued onto the caves at Lanquin and then back to Coban for another night of El Bon Jovi.
From Coban we bussed it down to the country town of Nebaj. Quite a dusty rural town with a bit of character. With the promise of a waterfall a short hike away, Emma and I strapped on the hiking gear and set off. It was a nice walk through the countryside next to a flowing river with the mountains looming around us. We be-friended some pigs, chatted to some horses and tipped our hats to some local cows. All we were missing were the lashings of ginger beer! We made it to the waterfall though not content to admire from a distance, GI-Ell led a
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There it is again...! two man team behind enemy lines, through corn fields to the base of the plunging waters...where we got wet. Well worth it. Seeing a sneaky route through more corn fields (MORE corn fields) we negotiated our way to the top of the waterfall as well...where...we posed for photos.
Having conquered the waterfall, we met up with Cath for a hearty meal. Amy had unfortunately misplaced her appetite after eating a rather interesting collection of meats in Coban. We had some very nice burritos and tired after the hike, tucked in for an early night. And then it began....
The next chapter in this story could be long and painful to our readers...for it was certainly long and painful for the author. I shall however leave all thoughts to the imagination of our readers and say only this...it was the burrito.
So Ell spent the next day confirming that the room with ensuite bathroom was perhaps the best investment of his now to be, short life. Given the choice of comforting her less than attactive boyfriend or wandering off into the countryside with a random Guatemalan, Emma perhaps wisely, chose the latter. I´m told the hike was nice
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Posing in front of yep...that pyramid (there is more to Tikal btw) but a little lonely given the guide spoke no English and Emma´s spanish needs some work. She did get to experience an authentic Guatemalan meal with a local family - corn and sugar soup I believe. (personally, I´d eat the burrito again...but don´t tell her I said that).
So after the mixed success story of Nebaj, it was off to the market town of Chichi famous for its Sunday market of food, textiles, arts etc. We stayed in a wonderful guesthouse complete with a sunny garden out back and friendly owners. We explored the bustling market on Sunday morning and soaked up the atmosphere as well as purchasing some interesting souvenirs like...oven mitts. I´ll say no more.
From Chichi, it was off to Lake Atitlan for some R&R time. We bussed it to the lake where we jumped on a small boat that would take us to the tiny dwelling of San Marcos. The place was literally tiny, but we found a great place to stay. Emma and I were fortunate enough to encounter a scorpion in our room! After the obligatory fear ( I recall using Emma as leverage to make my escape) we naturally took photos
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Photo jacker strikes again before requesting the hostel people remove him. Emma and I decided to make good use of the following day by kayaking on the lake to one of the other towns, which took a fair effort. Failure to apply the necessary sunscreen left Ell with some very red legs..not all over mind...just the front - an attractive look. Whilst we were exploring the lake the inspector and Chuchu made use of the spiritual centre next door with some massage healing sessions. I shall resist the urge to say anything further here.
With Kath´s back responding well to a day of spiritual connectivity, we all decided to embark on a scenic hike around a part of the lake. The views from the path were spectacular and allowed us to see how impressive Lake Atitlan really is. We did momentarilly get lost when we took the more obvious right instead of the (by definition) less obvious left fork towards the end of the hike. We should have realised we´d gone wrong when we had to traverse the steepest cemetary I´ve ever had the pleasure of negotiating, only to find ourselves on private land. But it wasn´t until the slightly put out gardener
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Such form...such grace...Cath in full flight! informed us that we had better get off the land immediately (in Spanish of course - so took a while to work out) that we decided to retrace our steps. Having found the correct path we ventured forth and were justly rewarded with a cool off in the lake before getting a boat back to San Marcos.
From San Marcos we decided to head across the lake to San Pedro for a night where there was the promise of a few bars to liven up the evening. We were encouraged to try a local drink that consisted of beer, tomato juice and some pepper/spices in a very very large bowl glass. Having left his Del Boy hat at home, Ell decided a straight beer would suffice but the girls decided to brave it. I´d like to say Ell made the right decision though I think Emma actually managed to finish hers (something that may just come back to haunt her). We kicked on to another couple of bars and finished the night bellowing "The Final Countdown" as the last stragglers left in the small pub we´d claimed as our own.
Now it´s never sensible to schedule an early
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What a palava!! morning bus mission after a night out. It´s outright foolish if your name is Emma and you´d drunk a pint of beer, tomato juice and ´spices´the night before. So yep, Kath and Amy caught the early bus whilst Ell was left to tend to the patient. After several hours, Emma felt well enough to order some food (and leave it) so we headed to a cafe when we felt it....an earthquake! Okay, perhaps a small tremor better describes it but it was quite exciting and everyone stopped what they were doing so it wasn´t merely my tummy rumbling. Emma missed it all of course or at least the earth wasn´t moving as much as she´d experienced all morning. We managed to get a chicken bus shortly afterwards and Emma endured a 3 hour journey, emergency bag in hand, splayed across a double seat while bemused onlookers queried who the rude girl taking up two seats was (until they saw the bag of course).
So we finally made it to Antigua and managed to locate Amy and Cath. Antigua was completely different to the rest of Guatemala and had a very cosmolitan feel. Posh restaurants and bars are in abundance
and everything is very clean and well maintained. One of the main tourist attractions from Antigua is a visit to the Pocaya Volcano. What makes Pocaya special though is that you can get to within centimetres of flowing lava (closer if you desire but not adviseable). The trip involves hiking through some jungle until you get to the volcanic rock closer to the summit. It then becomes a scramble over the rocks and onto some older lava beds where you then get to see the lava flowing through gaps on the surface (see pics). It was very difficult to breathe the closer we got to the lava and the old lava beds we were walking on were not the safest - as Ell was quick to find out. Whilst others posed for photos and Emma and Ell were admiring the view, the ground beneath Ell suddenly gave way and our hero plunged to what could have been his doom. In truth the plunge was a mere half metre or so but enough to change his skin colour from a lovely rouge (huffing and puffing I was) to a sheet of white! Now you´d expect Emma to be concerned at witnessing
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Nutter Cath preparing for glory (that fine physique in the background should get a mention too) this near fatal event. A look of horror perhaps, a scream, a reaching arm to potentially save Ell from fatal injury....no. She creased herself. Absolutely broke down in tears of laughter. I thought it only fair that she be ignored for the remainder of the day.
Antigua was also the venue selected for a night out on the town. Having been far too responsible over the last two weeks or so, it was decided, unanimously, that Antigua needed an injection of party time....Twyford (and Oakwood/ Singapore/Sydney) style. So the party dresses were donned, stilleto´s strapped on, perfume was in the air and Ell was ready. The girls looked ok as well. After what can only be described as a slow start to the shenanigans, the furious four found their way into Antigua´s hippest nightclub....and left two songs later. I´m embarassed to admit that we left the club and walked straight across the road into an Irish bar! Yep...embarrased. We drank til closing (an extremely dissapointing midnight!) and retired to our hostel. As I recall, the inspector was left to so some last minute ´inspecting´ but my knowledge of this little twist ends here.
So it was with misty
eyes and heavy hearts that we finally bid farewell to Amy and Cath. After a whirlwind two weeks in Guatemala, it was time to send them back to blighty with oven mitts, a depleted bank balance and a sore back to remind them of their Guatemalan adventure! The furious four was no more.
For Emma and Ell, it was back on the bus heading north once again - destination Belize.
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