I´m in Guatemala now

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(I was when I wrote this but had problems getting photos off my memory card and camera!)
We´d booked our bus to go from Belize City to Flores, Guatemala for 9:30am. We turned up about 9:25am as we had in Mexico and thought we´d just get on the bus no probs. Turns out in most places if the bus is fully booked and you turn up late the company will sell your seat to someone else! No matter how much you insist you had already bought your ticket you won´t get on the bus (which was actually a van)! Luckily since English is the main language it was easier to understand that another bus was on it´s way and they would change our ticket for us even though it was our fault for not turning up earlier, which we didn´t know to do! There was another guy as well that had the same problem, and the next bus that came was an acutal bus so worked out better. Lorna had gone to try and buy a stamp and the bus was already to drive off and the driver didn´t speak English so I was trying to say wait my friend is coming, and he was saying you no have ticket, and the man from the other company was nowhere to be seen with our replacement ticket and to top it off my pineapple juice was leaking through my wee backpack over my back! Lorna then casually sauntered out of the shop and didn´t see the bus there and the ticket man suddenly appeared with our new tickets and finally Lorna heard me yelling her name and woke up and ran over so we got on the bus and off to Guatemala!

The border crossing was a lot easier here. The bus dropped you off at the Belize office where you paid 37.50 Bz to leave the country, walked to another desk and got your passport stamped with the exit stamp, walked out the back door, through a gate and over to another building to pay US$2 to enter Guatemala and get your passport stamped and then back onto the waiting bus! Don´t even have to take your bags off the bus. Was a change into Guatemala, lots of paddocks and cattle still but the fields had palm trees scattered through them so was weird to see cows standing under palm trees to shelter from the sun! Was a lot dustier as well and cos the bus had no air con had to keep the window open so was caked in dust when we arrived into Flores. The hostel we stayed in called Los Amigos was really cool, had kind of like a jungle thing going on in the outside courtyard sitting area, amazing food and even better cocktails! Had to have a mojito and was one of the best ones I´ve ever had! Got a feed of vegetarian coconut curry was nice to have fresh vegetables other than the cabbage on the street tacos. Looked up some Spanish schools in Antigua on the internet and founded that they started the courses on a Monday so emailed one of them in the hopes that they were open on a Saturday / Sunday and would get back to us.

The next morning we had booked the 4am shuttle to Tikal which was waaaaaaaaay early! Was worth it though cos it got really hot about 11am later on and wasn´t as busy going around the site. We got a guide included in the tour we´d booked and he spoke english with a mix of various american accents, and his guatemalan accent. He did good monkey noises so when we first entered the park and there were some spider and howler monkeys he made the noises and the monkeys started screetching back at him, was funny - really loud at 6am as well! Tikal is a massive site, so was good to have a guide. The paths aren´t really signposted so not the easiest one to work round yourself. We were there on the summer solstice day so there were celebrations going on at the main plaza bit, but we had to leave before it got started so only saw them getting ready and cleansing each other with a feather on a stick... Was also one of the most expensive sites to visit! Got to see another baby monkey but it was up the top of the trees and it´s mum started throwing plums at us! The guide said that someone a few days earlier had been hit on the head by one and started bleeding. There was another monkey later on that started pooing on us but didn´t hit anyone. Not sure if would rather get hit with poo or a falling fruit which would actually hurt - bit of a thinker. The site had some impressive structures but wasn´t anything really special, I know I´ll probably go to Central American Hell for saying that, but my highlight was the monkeys and the crocodile at the end called Paula that when the guide clapped and said come come, she swam over and then ate the chips he threw in the water to reward / thank her. Was nice walking through trees instead of out in open sun but not my favourite site. Oh watching the dung beetle making his wee ball of poo was pretty cool, as well as the 5 ants that were carrying a piece of chip (crisp) between them - very organised.

Our bus to Guatemala City wasn´t until 8:30 that night so we had a looong wait until then. The hostel let us crash in the common area which was good, so got a huge vege kebab (proper skewer kebab not 4am after a night out kebab) and a banana yoghurt smoothie which went down a treat. We went for a bit of a wander round the shops as well and got a few things, one of which was a water bottle holder to carry your water bottle over your shoulder and it has paid for itself, is so handy. The bus ride went really quickly thankfully, as was a 10 hour journey. I woke up needing the loo and went to go but it turned out the bus had arrived in Guatemala City so we had to just get off. Got given pancakes with a wee tub of honey for our breakfast but was still half asleep and not hungry at 6:30am. There had been an option to get a ticket through to Antigua but we´d thought of staying in Guatemala City for a day first, until we worked out spanish schools started on a Monday, so got a taxi to the "bus station" the chicken buses went from and paid 8 Quetzal for a 45min bumpy windy journey to Antigua. We´d thought we´d get a chance to use a toilet at the bus station before getting on the bus, but it was just a corner where the chicken buses went from so when we arrived the bus was driving off so our taxi parked infront of it and the dude chucked our bags up on top as the bus kept going! They were still there when we arrived so was happy about that.

On arrival on Antigua we couldn´t work out where we were on the map so asked someone how to get to the hostel we wanted to stay in. He suggested another place, as they do, and we said no we really wanted a spanish school but were going to get back up accommodation first. And what do you know, he had a spanish school he could take us to which we could start that day and had homestays. It was cheaper than the one we´d email and not heard back from so we went to check it out. Was next to the central park so better located than the one we´d picked. And the homestay was about 5 min walk from the centre as well so was a good set up. We signed up for our 5 days, with xmas day off, and figured on doing the volcano climb on xmas day, so bought tickets from the same guy which cost us US$10 each. After walking round the park most other companies offered the same tour for only US$5!! Was a bit annoying but oh well lesson learned. The host lady was there to walk us to her house, so we got breakfast and had a bit of a nap before having our first class that afternoon. True to form, Lorna was sick within the hour of eating breakfast! So she went to bed earlier than me and I did some washing since was a nice sunny day, and went for a sit on the roof of the house then a nana nap before the first class at 1pm. The lady we were staying with was great, she spoke nada english which helped us practice our spanish and the food was pretty good too.

My teacher was called Irma and didn´t really speak a lot of English, only what she was teaching me in Spanish, but understood a bit more. She was really cool, we´d wanted to have lessons in the morning about 9am, tho really I´d prefer afternoons so can laze in the mornings. She wasn´t able to do the next morn which was perfect cos was so tired still from the early mornings and travelling. Lorna´s teacher would only do 8am starts so I´m glad I got my lady! I thought we´d been doing ok getting by on what we´d learned from the book, but hadn´t done any verbs and I forgot how much they sucked from french at high school! But there are so handy. By the end of the week could ask for something properly and go a bit further in a conversation. Since was doing class for half a day, just filled in the rest of the day doing my washing bit by bit, having a lie in or wander round Antigua looking at the churches, getting my camera fixed and super glueing my jandal back together so I didn´t have to buy a new pair. I also managed to loose both of my jersey / cardigan things but got them back both times! First time was the second day of school and I was eating my lunch in the park and went to class and about 5 minutes later realised I was missing something so retraced my steps, quickly, and found it lying near the bin where I´d put my lunch rubbish. The second time it took half the lesson before I realised it was gone and asked at the office first and it was there, so I´d only dropped it in the school.

On our day off on Xmas day we acutally went to church in the morning! Just to look at them though : ) In the afternoon we went to the pick up place for the volcano trip as was on our ticket for 2pm. By 2:15 the van hadn´t shown up and there was another company there about to leave that had two spare seats but we´d have to pay again. Not wanting to miss out we paid again and went with the second company (turns out we should have been told it would pick us up between 2 and 2:30, and they recokened the van turned up at 2:20pm and someone saw us go with the other company but there was no one there so was a bit sus and very annoying since they wouldn´t refund us any money - and it was double the price of most other tours so don´t use Manja Blanca expeditions and don´t pay more than $5-7).

We stopped at the start of the volcano area and paid our entrance fee and then the drive got bumpy and dusty and windy, and the pick up in front of us made it more dusty (or is that more dustier Katrina ;-P). Our guide met us at the carpark and was only spanish speaking, but a japanese girl in the group spoke english and spanish so could translate what we couldn´t understand. The start of the walk was through trees and seemed to go down more than up - I managed to ask him in spanish do we have to go down to go up? (thank you verbs) and he said yes cos of where the lava was. We got to try a pink flower on the way that tasted kinda sweet and a purple berry that was nice. Once we got out of the shade of the trees it got hotter, and more uphill. We got to a lava gravel hill bit and when you looked over to the hill where we were walking to you could see the lava going down the side of the hill was so cool. We all stood there figuring how we were meant to get down the hill and the guide said we had to run down it, which we didn´t belive cos sometimes they try and be funny. All of a sudden the guide just bolts it down the hill and was down in like 15 seconds in a trail of dust. The nine of us just stood there mouths opening like no way he just did that and we actually do have to go down it!

So we started down the hill, taking our time, picking our routes. The stones were quite small and there were LOTS of them, was kind of like walking down a sand dune but not as nice to walk on or if you fell not as soft! Your foot would pretty much disappear into the stones if you stood too long on in the one place. All was going to plan until I took a step that was slightly too long and then that made me take another long one cos was going forward too much and then it was literally all downhill from there! Managed not to fall until nearer the bottom, tried to head towards a ditch so didn´t end up landing in the rocks and next thing my foot caught in the gravel, I flew through the air, went face first into the gravel, did a good faceplant (but shut my eyes), a full somersault and a perfect landing on my back in the ditch!! Kinda lay there for a second to make sure I wasn´t still falling and that yes I did just ass over tit down a volcano hill in front of people. Apparently the guide, who had just been sitting at the bottom waiting for us, bolted over to me really fast, I´m not sure how I didn´t break my neck but won´t dewll on that! Was wearing trousers so my legs were ok, had grazings only on my right elbow and on my forehead and along the hairline. Lorna kindly took a photo of me after I got up - I didn´t realise just how black I was until saw it later on. She said all she could see was two white eyes and then my teeth when I smiled! So wish I could have seen the fall. Washed myself up as best could, had stones up my nose, in my ears, in my eyes and in my mouth was gross. Blew my nose and it was just stones that came out! Was getting stones out of my ears the next two days which can´t be too good! The shower that night was magic!

Back to the volcano. We carried on walking up and the rocks started getting bigger so easier to walk on. The further up we went the sharper the rocks became and also they started feeling hotter. Was a bit scary when you´d stand on the edge of a rock and it would crumple beneath your feet though! And then the rocks were a bit too sharp to be grabbing onto to stop falling down. The guide stayed close to me for some reason on the way up! We stopped by a lava flow about 5m from us and got to watch a massive lump of lava roll down. The view from up there was amazing, could see several other volcanoes too but they weren´t doing anything. Everyone did the photo bit, and then we scrambled up a bit more, me taking my time, and then you go over a rock onto a flat area and the lava is like a meter from you! Was so hot, wish we´d brought marshmellows!

Was unbelievable being that close to real flowing lava coming out of a volcano! Not sure how it would work in normal countries what with Health & Safety and all that! We didn´t even have to sign disclaimer forms and I don´t know if they´d even have had insurance for the company! Not that was thinking about that at the time cos was too busy enjoying the lava and making sure my shoes weren´t melting on the rocks. The sun was starting to set as we started our descent so got some good views of that too. Glad we went down when we did, as it was more gravelly bits with the hard sharp rocks, which in the day light were hard enough but try doing that in the dark and holding a torch - I don´t think so! The guide kept holding my hand on that bit down, which was good cos was not enjoying the down bit so much. When we all got to the flatter bit I had my xmas dinner, which was a vegemite and mexican hot sauce sandwich and some nz jet planes, while the sun finished setting. There were no incidents on the return walk, but some people hadn´t brought flashlights so it was harder to avoid the horse poo along the tree bit. I had my wind up torch which was wicked cos didn´t need batteries so was sweet all the way back.

Took the jet planes to school with me the next day and shared some with the teacher, she liked them but then how could one not like jet planes! Ended up eating too many of them tho so donated the rest to a kiwi guy I´d met along the way, after I´d eaten my favourite ones of course. Ran into a few different Gringos we´d met in various countries, was walking along the street one day and heard someone go Rachel and turned around and it was the aussie guy I´d spoken to in the Mexico City hostel and we´d seen again in the Flores hostel. Ran into the kiwi guy from Belize hostel at the internet cafe and saw the dutch girls from the flores bus there as well, is a small world.

We had a 4am shuttle to Copan Ruinas, Honduras booked for the Sunday morning (28th) but got told it will come some time between 3:45 and 4:15am so knew to wait for that!

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Photos

Temple IV
with tiny little people on it

another of the temples
can you tell i wasn´t paying attention to the guide!

Temple V
my camera doesn´t do so well in too much light!

Comments

[Bro]

Awesome
That was a good read, would have been great if someone recorded your fall, would have won America's stupidest home videos for sure! Cool drawing of homer too. I'm finally catching up on your blogs, we have internet now!