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Published: September 11th 2007
At the border
...colorful! ;)After having such a lovely time in Mexico we were of course a little sad to have to leave that awesome country with the friendly people already - we´ll be back at the end of our trip, though.
The first border crossing of our trip was chaotic, but fun.
From San Christibal we first took yet another comfortable, fully climatized bus to the Mexican border station, filled out our visa-forms there, piled into three cabs, drove to the Guatemalan border (which, weirdly enough, is about 3 kilometers down the road) and got our new visa-stamps there without any trouble, though the border there is certainly chaotic and full with people, all of them busy with selling things, exchanging money (with HUGE stacks of money they cary around in their pockets) or crossing the border themselves. The internet here is pretty slow - as usual -, I managed to upload a couple of pictures of all that bustling and colorful life at the border, set amidst a beautiful landscape, in the middle of the mountains, nevertheless, but the rest of the pictures to my last entry will have to wait, sorry.
Anyway, behind the border we had to hike up
Our chicken Bus I
On top of the hill, we caught the first sight of "our" first chicken bus. the hill for about twenty minutes - which wouldn´t have been so bad, if not for our backpacks, which we had to carry for once. Nevertheless, I didn´t have too much trouble with the hike - there was too much to see; tuk-tuks, street-vendors, baskets with chickens, which were carried up the hills on the heads of women who didn´t even look tired by that - and, of course, a little farther away, the mountains and a huge number of birds circling above it all.
After our hike there was no rest for the wicked - we immediately got onto our first chicken bus, which was quite the experience! Chicken buses are old american school buses which are painted in vibrant colors and which ride all over Guatemala at tremendous and sometimes live-threatening speeds. Oh yeah, and at the same time, they´re filled up with at least six people a row, the luggage (including live chickens and turkeys, thus the name) on top of the bus. What a difference to our comfy mexican ADO-first-class buses! It was tremendous fun at first - especially since there´s so much to see outside and inside (as you´ll see on the pictures) - but
Our chicken bus II
The luggage goes up on the roof. Sometimes, while the bus is moving already. for european legs; especially Hanna´s and mine - it´s not so much fun anymore after more than an hour. The others felt the same, so we opted for private transportation from a gas-station onwards to Panajachel, situated at the beautiful Lago de Atitlan.
Lago de Atitlan
After another xy hours in a van we finally arrived at Panajachel, in the pouring rain, no less. Well, no problem - the rain season has a whole lot of advantages to it, too - less tourists for example. 😉
We were all beat, anyway, so we just examined our hotel rooms, changed clothes, talked to the hotel-parrot (it could say hola!), met up for dinner that night and turned in early.
Next morning we had a boat-tour on the lake, which cost about 60 Quetzales (about 6 Euros) and took us to numerous stops around the lake. First we had breakfast in a beautiful hotel with a great view on the vulcanoes (these onces no longer active) surrounding the lake - I had an awesome fruit salad and a great talk with Helen about her work as a police officer - we really get to meet some great people
Inside the bus
Not yet as crowded as it would become later on, but I didn´t take pictures of that. on this trip!
Our next stop was in San Pedro; a big hippie community between the ´60s and the civil war, which now that the country is becoming peaceful and democratic, slowly becomes crowded with tourists and dropouts once again. We drove up the hill (non-active volcano!) to the market in a tuktuk (finally) and had a look around.
It became apparent fast that Guatemala is a lot poorer than the already poor Mexico - something which I find hard to look on, somehow. We are so incredibly rich compared to the people here, and I´d like to give something back for the awesome time we´re having here! I tried doing that by buying A LOT of stuff that day and the ones following it - expect a lot of authentic presents, guys!
Anyways, after an hour in San Pedro (not my sort of town, I´m afraid - too much ´touristy stuff´ and too much poverty that´s accentuated even more by the many Gallo-signs (the most pupular beer here) and the cheap and unauthentic gift-shops, we hopped into the boat once more. This time I sat up front, next to Tiago - I had to work on my tan, after
Lake Atitlan
Beautiful, no matter what the weather´s like. all, and nobody else had thought to ask about it, so I just jumped in, while everyone else sat in the back, under the roof. I made some beautiful pictures of the lake and the fishermen on it, too, I uploaded two, just to give you an idea of the beauty of the lake.
The next town we visited - Santiago, was poor as well, but the people there seemed more "real", somehow - perhaps, because there were less bars for tourists around, and the people wear the same clothes they sell to foreigners. We bought a nice, handmade hammock there for 70 Quetzales (7 Euros - and I´m sure we could´ve haggled her down even further, had we wanted to).
Another hour passed and we hopped on the boat once more, on to a third village, the name of which I can´t remember (which I´m really sorry about, since it was very special) - could have been San Lucas or San Antonio. The women of the village have set up their own weaving projects, which are periodically visited by GAP-groups and other tourists, making them able to send their kids to school. Great project, great women, great prices and
Hanna in a hammock
at the restaurant at the lake. Very nice place. great merchandise! I promptly bought a scarf and one of those nice woven pullovers there - they might look weird in Europe, since they are so colorful, but here they are very common and very nice - I´ll make sure to wear them often, even at home!
After all had completed their shopping (we did a lot of that that day - the people were so nice and their merchandise so beautiful!), we went back into the boat and onto the lake - and promptly were surprised by HEAVY rain. We hid under the roof, but the poor guy steering the boat got soaked to his very skin in the half hour we needed to get back to Panajachel. He got a big tip, though, since we all felt quite sorry for him.
The rain didn´t stop once we were back, so we got soaked after all, not just once, but twice that day, since we made our way to the place we wanted to have dinner at in tuktuks and, though there´s a lot to be said in their favour, they´re certainly NOT watertight.
Election-day, Chichi, landslides, Antigua and food-posining
Next day - sunday, Sept. 9th
Women´s weaving project
They have machines there, something most indigenous women don´t have access to. They also weave in the traditional way, though. - was election-day here in Guatemala. Don´t worry, there were no riots towards tourists this time and we had a lovely time in Chichicastenango (called "Chichi" by the locals), since there´s a big, authentic and very nice market there, as bustling with life as the rest of the country we´ve come to love almost as much as Mexico (and that certainly stole my heart!) by now. Hanna and I had lunch at a big local hotel that had parrots, very high prices for the region and under-average food and licuados (freshly prepared fruit-shakes, made either with water or with milk), a big mistake as I would realize the next day.
From Chichi we hopped into our privately hired van once more and went on to Antigua - at least that´s were we wanted to go. The most common and fastest route turned out to be blocked by a landslide, so we planned at first to take an alternative road. Shortly before the turn we asked, though - and it seemed to be open, so we stayed on the main road, after all. Just to get stopped by a landslide after all - a big one, which had occured due
The Lake
View from the front of the boat ;) to the heavy rain of the day before 5 minutes before we got to the spot in question. If you call that lucky, listen to this: we retracked back to the other road - past ANOTHER landslide that had happened in the ten minutes between our first and our second passage there! Anyway - we got through safely (if a little shocked). On we went, past a couple of villages in which there were LONG lines in front of the voting-stations, with a lot of indigenous women as well, which is a very good sign for democracy finding its way here, I guess, and coming into Antigua in the late afternoon.
Antigua is a very nice, colorful colonial town with tons of chicken buses, tuktuks, pedestrians, indigenous people and tourists. We had a nice walk around and met up for dinner that evening; which was very nice, but which I couldn´t fully enjoy, because my stomach was acting up a little already. I made the best out of it, though, and joked around a lot with Tiago, Hanna and Wayne, who were sitting next to me.
That night, my troubles really began. We were scheduled to leave at
5.30 a.m. for a hike up an active volcano, something which I had been really looking forward to. Around 1a.m. though, my stomach started really acting up and it didn´t take long for me to start throwing up and having severe diarrhea. The next day - yesterday - I stayed in bed, curled up in a ball, hoping for it to be over and, more than anything, too sick to go out and see a doctor. A piece of advie: rather eat street food here than an expensive chicken sandwich at that fancy hotel in Chichi!!
Anyways - I started feeling better in the afternoon and now, after a good night of sleep, I´m not yet a hundred percent, but a whole lot better and the food seems to stay down, so I just missed one day of activities in a city where we´ve got two days of roaming about for once. Yay!
We had a great breakfast today, but my internet-time is up once again, so I´ll tell you about that the next time I´ll hit the internet. Goodbye for now!
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Olli
non-member comment
Wünsche, Kommentare und Fragen
Hello Love Line and dear Hanna, Aaaalso, zunaechst mal meine Praesentwuensche: ich haette gerne eine niedliche, handliche Schildkroete, eine der netten Palmen, eine Fototapete des Strandes, etwas mexikanisches zu Essen, Ruinen und Tempel zum Nachbasteln oder einen knuffigen Mexikaner, der mich mag. :) Ansonsten haette ich nie gedacht, dass es in Mexiko und Guatemala so herrlich gruen ist. Und die Aussichten sind ja wirklich atemberaubend. Schoen, euch in guter Gesellschaft und in wunderbaren Laendern zu wissen! ABER: Hanna, was ist mit deinen Haenden passiert? Sie sind doch hoffentlich noch dran, oder??? Halte dich besser vom Pudel fern. Noch ganz viel Spass und viele besondere Eindruecke wuensch ich euch. Gros Bisous, L'Olli