Guatemala

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hello,

Arrive on 10/17. Sorry the last Europe updates sucked, but I was burned out on it and just looking forward to Central America. As you will see by the pictures, Guatemala was incredible. Just to guide you spatially, we arrived in Guatemala City (in the South pretty much) and went further south to Sipacate, then back to Guate City, then in a counter-clockwise loop to Rio Dulce, the ruins in Tikal, and Semuc Champey. We ended in Antigua before heading to Nicaragua. I chose to tell the stories under the appropriate pictures hoping it would be more interesting. Scroll down for the other pictures on this page and then hit next for further pages of pictures...you can just click the picture or "more" to view the rest of the narrative for a given picture.

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Photos

On the bus to Sipacate
On the bus to Sipacate from Guatemala City. Before this we took two other local city buses and were the only white people throughout all the throngs of mini guatemalans. Had we known how dangerous parts of Guate City can be, we would not have down that. There is no aisle when it gets full and Guatemalans have no concept of personal space, it does not exist. Various vendors come on the bus during stops and sell things. Performing clowns also periodically board and ride with you for a half hour so that they can perform skits and hope to collect some money. Everyone in this part of Guatemala was in awe of our appearance, especially children who challenged my beliefs about how long it is possible to stare at someone continuously.

Sipacate
We arrived at night and it was a bit sketchy looking. Luckily we met a local on the bus that took us to a restaurant/hotel. Craziest room ever, not a single window and inside a sort of cell block that gets completely locked up at night. Early in the morning a rooster (Gallo) was just going at it...I couldn´t believe how loud he was. When we did get out of bed at 6am(the Gallos start at like 3am), sure enough he was inside this cell block of a hotel, right outside our door looking sheepisly back at us. I decided to take a picture with our buddy.

Sipacate
To get from the town to the beach you have to cross a little mangrove river in a plancha. Claire nearly got eaten by a wild dog (dogs and gallos own the streets) just before this but it got called off of us by its owner.

Sipacate
On the plancha through the mangroves.

Sipacate
Our place on the other side of the mangroves. Very nice spot with great beach breaks...and hardly a soul surfing here. I got two days in and warmed up my surfing muscle memory. We were the only white people staying here. We were the only white people in the whole town of Sipacate but I thought maybe we´d see some at this nicer place on the ocean...nope, no one comes to this part of Guatemala and the waves are great.

Sipacate
Same place in Sipacate, the eating/drinking area built right into the water...seemed a bit unsustainable to me as it got pounded twice in every 24 hours by the high tide.

Leaving Sipacate
Waiting for the bus driver to make some last minute repairs under the bus (sure, why not).

Rio Dulce
My bed up in the bamboo hut elevated on the boat dock. We stayed at a place on the river where boats stay during hurricane season and met some very interesting people who had traded their former lives for ones at sea.

Rio Dulce
On the way back from Cinco Paraiso. Just stand on the side of the dirt track and wait for someone to pick you up. We got in a beat down minivan that seats eight. Eventually we had 15 people in the van including a lady breastfeeding partially on me to the right, hilarious.

Rio Dulce
Local girl paddling around in a dug out canoe.

Rio Dulce
On the dock drinking with Jefe ("boss").

Rio Dulce
At the fort used to protect the lake (which flows into the Rio Dulce) from invaders.

Rio Dulce, Cinco Paraiso
Beautiful place where two rivers come together. One cold, and one heated by a volcano which flowed via waterfall into the cold water river. There was a cool mud that you could put all over yourself and then bath in the hot waterfall...awesome.

Livingston
Rio Dulce is just inland from the Caribbean while Livingston is a town located where the river meets the Caribbean. Had some seafood stew here with a whole crab and whole fish tossed in.

Livingston
Livingston is known for its Garifuna culture. There is a large population of blacks that came when a slave ship became stranded here. Garifuna provides some excellent beats-based music and we bought some cd´s off this guy. He´s apparently one of the originators of the music and a friend of Jerry Garcia. Jerry actually helped him get to the states and study music at the University of Illionis because he recognized his talent. We were also sitting with a Canadian girl who was familiar with the Garifuna music and corroborated his story via friends and relatives of his that she has seen in concert at other places in the world. Very very interesting lunch conversation to meet this educated and talented guy that DID NOT initially look the part in this very rural and frontier town.

Tikal
Ruins at Tikal. They have only uncovered 15% of the ruins here (they can tell affirmatevely via satellite images but you can also tell by the naked eye because uncovered ruins look just like big hills with jungle growing all over them). That´s incredible because the 15% is a large nominal figure to begin with. In addition, we were told there is a place to the north that has not be uncovered at all and that it makes the whole of Tikal look like a pebble in comparison...pretty incredible. I think something like 200,000 people once lived here and then just disappeared for reasons not known. All of the buildings are constructed in accordance with crazy measurements signifcant to the lunar cycles and stars and there was insane acoustic effects depending on if you were standing in special spots....pretty cool they could do what they did considering they had the wheel in form but never actually used it as a tool!

Tarantula at Tikal
Not me though as you can tell by the dude´s accessory. I´d have done it but only one guy got to :(.

Tikal
We saw ants like this a lot, moving along in a huge lines carrying bits of plant, pretty cool looking when they are carrying the equivalent of little houses on their backs.

Comments

[ben follansbee]

amazing pics
wow guys, those pics were an amazing recreation of your journeys! The volcano pics were intense and something you'd see on postcards. same with the pics of those sweet infinity pools and waterfalls. Seems like an incredible central american adventure so far- good job recapturing it all.

[eric raymond]

nice
very nice you two...appreciate the breaks from work to soak in your adventures. these pictures definately told a good story of what looks to be an amazing trip!

[Drew]

Back to form
Glad to hear about fun non-human friends (rooster, ants, dogs) and I was getting concerned that I hadn't heard about Claire sweating. Thank god for that volcano.