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Published: November 3rd 2007
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A taster of Pacaya near Antigua.
Ill have more pictures and the story up untill now in the next blog. Have to go now but it was fairly class...I mean lava like!!!!!! Heh everyone,
First of all thanks to everyone who dropped a line, its fantastic to hear from ye so keep it up! I'm sitting here smiling my head off, Westpipe to the Pudding, the Spiddal crew and cuzzy wuzzy Dave....word! Joe and Mick! Keep it between the ditches and mother you can stop worring for at least 2 weeks becuse I am now travelling with a girl from Switzerland called Camilla, so at least someone has my back, and shes a nurse so I'm covered! And the rest of the family...you rock and Ive been showing the family picture to everyone!
So anyway, the last time I wrote I was in San Marco on the lake and now its Saturday and I'm back in Antigua again. It's a little weired being back in a tourist town after spending the last 10 days sleeping on a mattress in a loft under a roof, made from banana leaves, in the middle of a forest!
The last couple of days in San Maros were fairly chilled, lots of swimming and having the craic. I'm doing my best to spread the Irishness everywhere I go. 'Whats the craic?' has now reached at
Our dorm "Room"
All you need is some wood and banana leaves and you have a house...eassssyyyyyy least 30 people who inturn will spread it to the ends of the earth! HA! I have a aquired one phrase from the 3 amigos from Madrid, Yo Flipo, Ill explain ot later. I learned spanish for the week, went to Pana a few times, which is the main tourist town on the lake and has a bustling market. I'm now almost a master in the art of haggling! The key is to half their price, they come down, I go up, pretend to walk away and then you get your hippie pants for the right price! EASY! At the start I was rubbish though. I went kayaking on the lake one day with Camilla for 3 hours around noon, forgot to put sunceam on my legs and got toasted rather nicely (It was a case of 'spot the Irish guy' for about 4 days with my illuminous red legs). So that put a stop to jumping off cliffs for a couple of days. We had a big night out for halloween. It was fancy dress and I feel I did myself proud, Daithi the Irish pimp! Ill throw up photos later because I left my lead in the hostel!
Surprise surprise!
So during the week, Camilla and I decided we would travel together for a couple of weeks. Shes great craic and we get on famously so it should be fun. She is flying to Cuba in 2 weeks and a bit from Mexico, so it looks like I'm going to Mexico...woooooooohoooo! We left San Marco yesterday for Antigua because although we both been there already, neither of us had climbed the volcano (Pacaya) which is active! You can toast marshmallows over the lava, so they say! So we are doing that tomorrow evening. The Elections are tomorrow so theres no alchohol being served anywhere till after it and that includes today. But, our hostel is having a lock in all day! Feels like home eh!!
On Monday we are head north east to Lanquin and Semuc Champey, near Coban. Its a limestone reagion withs tons of caving. It all so has a limestone bridge. The river drops under the bridge and flows for a couple of km's under the rock. The river has created lots of pools in the limestone wich are fed by the river below. These are ment to be class for swimming and
chilling! All this is in the middle of the rainforest so it should be a good couple of days. After that we are heading to San Cristobal in Mexico and then north east toward Cancun. I wont be going all the way though, as I will turn south half way up and head back to Guatemala and the Mayan ruins of Tikal. So thats the next two weeks anyway and I have no plans for after that, we will just see who we meet along the way.
All I know is that I'm going to stay in Guatemala untill maybe the middle of Jan, then I'm planning to hit El Salvador for a months surfing. I met 2 lads from Amsterdam last night who have spent the last 6 months travelling up from Panama in a van on a surf trip. So I have all the class ones marked on my maps so I'm really looking forward to that.
And finally a little on the people of Guatemala who I am slowly falling in love with as well as the country. The people are amazing and everyone says hello all the time. My spanish in a little limited
Pary in Antigua
With aussie Magda, and Dutch Joost(sorry if I spelt it wrong but I lost all my contact man so drop me a line) and Florien. Good times! at the moment but even so, everyone takes the time to find out about you, even if its only with pidgeon spanish and lots of sign language!! The country is amasing, volcanos, proper mountain regions (elv 5000m +), the carribean, Mayan ruins, rainforest. Its cheap, beautiful and has an amasing history. I never really knew about latin america and its history but its pretty intense. Guatemala has not has a progressive government since the 50's. At this time the then popular peoples president Arbenez was in power. He set about taking the land back off the foreginers(who own more than 80% of the arable land, mainly american plantation owners) and dividing it back between the poor of Guatemala. He instituted social and political reforms that strengthened the peasantry and urban workers at the expense of the military and big landowners, like the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company. In 1954 he was ousted and forced to flee to Mexico by a US backed millitery coup. Since then a number of repressive regimes followed, and in 1960 the country decended into a civil war between military governments, right-wing vigilante groups, and leftist rebels that would last nearly 36 years, the longest civil war
Jason and Cathy
You guys rock and if that boat had not been late, and we hadn{t missed our bus we would have never had breakfast! Everything happens for a reason they say! in Latin American history at the time (today only beaten by the ongoing civil war in Columbia). Death squads murdered an estimated 50,000 leftists and political opponents during the 1970s. In 1977, the U.S. cut off military aid to the country because of its blatant human rights abuses. The indigenous Mayan Indians were singled out for special brutality by the right-wing death squads. By the end of the war, 200,000 citizens were dead. The mountain regions of the Mayans were the worst affected as this was the base for the gurellia struggle. The army signaled out this area to mount their offensive and as a result mush inocent blood was shed. The fight continues today but on a lesser scale (A peace agreement was signed in 1996) In 1999 a Truth Commision was established to investigate the massacres of the 100's of thousands of people which took place during the course of the war. The US backed army were found to be guilty of 97% of the killing with the rebels being blamed for 3%. The rebels have nationally appologised for their part as has President Clinton for the US baking of the military. However the army have never acknowledged their part(ref: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107596.html) Well thats enough for now and I hope I haven't bored ye to tears but its a facinating country.
So Ill post again soon, take it easy and I miss ye all but not so much that I'm comin home any time soon!!! Ha!
Love always (because there isn't enough of it in the world!) 😊
Adios
Daithi
P.s (Kevin you need to get your ass over here)
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Maureen Donaghy
non-member comment
David, I am enjoying the stories of your trip. You write well, lively stlye and interesting content. I hope you are keeping a record of all this. Keep up the craic. God Bless, Maureen (yes you have met me!).