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Published: October 17th 2005
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A series of hand gestures from the money changer at the Guatemalan border suggested that we'd have a bumpy ride on our way to the town of Flores. He was right. For about the first twenty miles or so we were thrown around quite a bit on a road that Cambodia would have been proud to call its own. The border crossing was again straight forward; pay cash for fumigation, vehicle and tourist permits, the only difference was that there's no such thing as insurance in Guatemala, and we were off. We were late though and again found ourselves slowly making our way, in the dark, through another foreign land.
After a couple of hours we arrived at Flores, the most convenient town to stay in when visiting the temples of Tikal in Northern Guatemala. Flores is an island on the beautiful Lago Petén Itzá and is connected to its sister town of Santa Elena by a narrow causeway; because of it's proximity to the ruins it has cashed in on the tourist trade, the up-side of this is a great selection of restaurants and hotels the downside a lot of tourists.
The next morning we made our way
to Tikal, touted as some of the best Mayan ruins, and one of the most important of the pre-classic period. They didn't disappoint, we found them more majestic than those in Palenque and despite being busy in the morning (mainly because of a marathon through the site and adjoining jungle - I’ve got no idea how people were able to run in that heat), the early afternoon saw us with the ruins almost to ourselves. There was a reason for that...rain. I'd suggested we try and visit one of the more remote groups of temples that have a dangerous reputation; unfortunately we didn't check the watch and ignored the ominous thunderous warnings. Sure enough, same as in southern Mexico, three o'clock on the dot and it was bath time, the biggest banana tree we could find was no match for this deluge and before we knew it the mud path had turned into a fast flowing river. We gave in and just walked through the rains back to the car. Fortunately, we weren’t the only dozy tourists that day.
One more night in Tikal and then onto another popular town, Antigua, via the outskirts of Guatemala City. The plan
was to really get to know the town before the arrival of Natalie and Alex, so we could sound all knowledgeable about the area and its history - of course, that didn't happen, but we did find somewhere where we could all stay. It's only a half hour drive but Antigua is a world away from dirty and intimidating Guatemala City, set in a valley and overlooked by three volcanoes, the low rise, cobbled streets add to the medieval feel of the town. It is, rightly, the most popular town in the most popular Central American country.
To Guatemala City, Rachel found a respectable hotel for the night and bargained them down to a decent price (she's getting very good at this), we then found a couple of bars that would work for the evening and headed off to the airport to pick up our tour party. The flight was on time but no sign of them for nearly an hour, typical bloody Haddon we thought, she's probably hiding in luggage reclaim thinking this is hilarious...they weren’t hiding, but they were in luggage reclaim and their bags were in, erm, Miami...welcome to Guatemala.
We dragged them through the
mean streets of Guatemala City in the rain to our chosen bar, only to find it closed, finally we found somewhere that was open and the holiday smiles returned back to N + A's faces and we could, at last, catch up properly.
The wayward luggage arrived the following day and it was back to our pre-selected hotel and Antigua, the perfect place for a couple of boozy days relaxing. From here we arranged a trip to the active Volcan Pacaya and, despite the girls' complaints at having to walk anywhere, we had a great time climbing the 2,552 metre tall volcano and would have been more than happy to return after seeing the magma filled vent from the base of the crater. Our guide had other ideas and took us to within 15 metres of the mouth of the volcano as it belched and spat a continuous stream of sulphurous gases and magma, the whole spectacle, sounds and smells included, was fantastic. But that wasn't the end of it, Alex and I then had the hilarious experience of watching Nats and Rachel nervously descend the basaltic scree slopes like a couple of pensioners.
Following a minor disagreement
with a traffic cone, our next stop was Lake Atitlan, "The most beautiful lake in the world" apparently. It is stunning, although I didn't see a great deal of it on the approach as I was a tad concerned that the brakes were overheating on the road down to Panajachel, which drops 550 metres in a little under 5 miles. They did fail but only after we were safely at the bottom...anyway, allowing them time to cool was the perfect excuse to enjoy a few beers and the unreal views across the lake from Sunset Café.
We've since learnt that this area was hit badly by hurricane Stan a couple of weeks ago, Panajachel was completely cut off with all the approach roads succumbing to landslides and some of the surrounding villages were so overwhelmed with mudslides that the government was considering declaring them mass burial sites. We’ve heard back from a girl we met while in the town who is safe but it's getting to be a habit that we're looking back on places recently visited that are now in a state of emergency.
The only way to get to know the lake is by boat so
we took a tour, visiting the villages of San Pedro la Laguna and Santiago Atitlan and the bizarre, get as close as you dare, hot water pools close to Santa Caterina Palopó, all with some of the most stunning scenery we've seen and all under the most amazing, vivid blue skies. Panajachel also saw us getting frisked by the police for no apparent reason, accompanied by classic, Gestapo style demands to see our "papers", oh yes, and Alex had a very brief affair with the hotel's parrot, Paco.
Our last full day in Guatemala and we paid a visit to Chichicastenango and its famous market, it's a hectic place with an interesting mix of tourist and local trade. Much of the surrounding villages' Indian population descend on the town on market days giving us a good opportunity to see the locals going about their normal business, some dressed in their colourful, traditional outfits.
The following day it was a long drive to the border with El Salvador, and good news...the brakes work.
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