Palenque

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Ok. So to elaborate on the past couple weeks. I left the bakery and lived at casa argentina without obligations for a few days. I filled them by climbing the 3,700 something volcano that lurks over the city. This guy named Lance and I took the last bus to Llona de Pinal, the little pueblo at the base of the cone, just a bombed out looking swatch of cinderblock buildings to be brutally honest, and from there we hiked up to the trail. when we reached the sign for the volcano we hiked off the switchbacks a hundred meters or so and hunkered down by a fallen tree just as the sun fell below the horizon. After a dinner of some tortillas and beans and eggs and cheeze, courtesy of the flores market, we realized that A we didn´t bring a whole lot of food, and B we were over 3000 meters and the night was going to be wicked cold. It was. We huddled in a sleeping bag and every item of clothes we owned until 2 am and then set off up the switchback trail, now covered by a glittering layer of frost, until we reached the summit just as the horizon began to glow. The volcanic fault of guatemala stretches roughly from east to west and when the sun finally cast its pinhole rays on our frigid windswept faces it rose behind a rank and file of seven volcanic peaks, Agua and Fuego and Acatenango, to name a few. Sublime.

So two days later on the 23 of december i decided to leave. I don´t know exactly why, i just felt very strongly like moving. I think it was because I have always felt that christmas is a family holiday, and it seemed to me that i´d rather spend it on the move, thinking of my family, than with relative strangers and feel like I was imposing myself or something. Anyways i literally ran out of the city, it was late and I needed to get to a bus fast, and i hopped one to retaluleu and then cuyotenango and got stranded in the post seven o clock darkness. This friendly old guy who worked at the grocery store went with me to Mazatenango where he said there were cheaper hotels, and we set of on a hunt. Eventually i found one and got kicked out by a drunk owner with another client and found a better hotel down the block. the next day I woke up and went to el tulate, my original destination and a sleepy little beach town on the pacific. I found a decent hotel, just a bed in a room, and met a 18 year old hockey player from quebec who was living with guatemalans who work on his dads apple farm. We hung out on the beach most of the day, jumping around in the massive waves and the warm pacific water. it was beautiful there. The next day, christmas day, thousands of guatemalans descended on the beach for a wild day of festivity. all the waterfront restaraunt bars were packed and the beach was a swarming crowd of people for a solid kilometer. when I was in tulate i basically survived on peanut butter banana sandwiches and cocunut water. food wasn´t cheap, i didn´t have a kitchen, and believe it or not a cocont was cheaper than bottled water and with more volume. I don´t know about the health effects.

So as i said after that i went to huehuetenango to visit stef fenelon and her mom claricia and her abuelita conny. They were so hospitable i was shocked and still feel a bit indebted. we went to chiantla one day, a pueblo in the foothills of the cuchumatanes, and the next day we visited zacaluleu, a late classic and post classic mayan site. It was awe inspiring. Then it was off to mexico.

Conny sent me off with cab fare to the bus terminal and a bag of sandwiches. I rode through rainy mountains, a majestic landscape to be sure, on a packed chicken bus to la messilla. i felt it was a fitting farewell to guatemala. I changed Quetzales to Pesos in a western union and emmigrated and immigrated, smooth and no hassle, and took a collectivo to comitan. I didn´t see much there, i´ll admit, just an hour or so walk around the center, and then off to san cristobal. I was on a beeline for oaxaca, trying to get there by new years. I made it to san cristobal and started looking for hostels, but o yeah i traded some kahkis and a lonely planet guatemala and forty Q for a five year old no name guide to mexico and central america thats basically worthless except for a few road maps. So finally i found a hostel and a supermarket and just crashed for the night, i was so dead tired, i made dinner and chatted for a while with these girls from mexico city, then slept. Got up early and took a bus to tuxtla guttierrez, from there to arriaga. In arriaga, a sweltering city near the pacific coast, i got stuck waiting from one to nine at night for a bus to oaxaca, and sat around in the central park and the bus station and got some wicked quessidillas in the market. Then i took a sleepy overnight ride. Got to oaxaca at like five in the morning and sat out the dark wee hours of morning untill dawn, then went into town looking for anywhere to dismount my backpack. I found a little hostel in the center and sprawled out. Then i went exploring a bit. It was new years eve. I hit the markets, as usual, they are always interesting, a human counterpoint to the way architecture defines a certain historical part of a town. I made some dinner and it was like ten and i thought i would just relax until 1130 or so and then walk out on the town and see what was what, but i accidentally dozd off i was soo tired i tell you and i woke to the sound of fireworks at 1155. I ran out into the central park and found a subdued mayhem of folks with wine glasses on parkside cafes and kids with sillystring and honeymooners strolling and smiling and firecrackers banging. it wasn´t the total chaos i´d hoped for.

the next day i really checked out the town. i mean i explored the hell out of it, walked all over it. To be brief, the highlights were the escelaras de fortin, a huge set of stairs that lead to the auditorio, the town stadium, and the church of santo domingo. even thought the cathedral is a deffinite tourist trail item, to the point where a preist has to exasperatedly say, this is a church not a museum shut up and don´t take flash photos, it is pure gold, basically, everything is covered in gold leaf to the point where the surrealnes makes you feal like thiere is something supernatural going on.

the next day i went to a graphic art museum and checked out the library and stuff.

the next day i went to a big market in a little town outside of the city called tlacalula, then to a artesan village called santa anna, then to the next town down the road and ran out of transport and turned back. on the way back i saw the biggest tree in the world, volume wise, in el tule. its large and in charge, no lie, but at some point its just a tree. i thought i was gonna take a night bus and get out but i didn´t find a departure and i went back to the hostel.

the next morning i went to ixtlan, the first town on highway 175, the one that crosses the sierras in between oaxaca and veracruz. it was rainy and cold and mysterious and beautiful, and i was sick as hell. the next days were a blur of digestive agony and dehydration and fever and general feelings of misery, but they were also interesting as hell. I went from ixtlan to tuxtepec and from tuxtepec to veracruz. From mountains to river to port town. Veracruz was the peak of the contrast between mexico and guatemala. simply put, mexico is fully intergrated into metropolitan global economics, and guatemala doesn´t really come close. I mean downtown veracruz is so first world i could see it in europe no problem. The port was cool, tons of huge ships with labels from all over the world, and a free navy museum with a ton of navigation history. i had to ease my way towards the door when an employee started telling me how us worl domination was gods will because the constitution is biblical in nature. After another day to roam around, and a campechana, the best food i´ve yet eaten its a coctail of tangy tomato sauce, shrimp, avocado, onion, and cilantro, by the way food in mexico is really damn good. I went from veracruz to san andres tuxtla, a town of steep streets and green trees, and from there to bahia escondido a hostel on lago catemaco real crunchy hippy type deal but the swiss owner and two other travelers were nice people and i took a layover day. from there i went to villahermosa and now i´m in palenque, i´pulled an all nighter on the road and in a bus station and i´m tired.

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