viajes

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right now we're on the carribean coast of guatemala, but i suppose this entry needs to start in mexico....

we went to mexico only so that we could stay in guatemala longer. first couple of days there were unremarkable, just lazing about san cristobal, catching our breath, wasting our pesos (mexico is very expensive compared to central america, even though the value of the peso plummeted since the last time we were there). day three we moved up to the jungle near palenque (big maya site). the ruins themselves are very impressive. palenque is one of the most excavated and restored of all the sites, a fact that makes it feel a little less ruiny...the buildings are all sparkling white, perfectly smooth, and so forth. still quite cool. another interesting thing about palenque is that it was where the first discovery of a royal tomb took place. of course the contents of that tomb now reside in museums... i wonder if they would have gone to such trouble with burials had they known their ''eternal'' resting places would really just be resting places until we dug 'em up, tore 'em up, and shipped them far, far away so that hordes of westerners could enjoy looking at them in museums.

while we were in this area we were sleeping in a little cabana in the jungle. i woke up to the craziest noises the first night...figured i must be half asleep, or losing my mind. i decided not to wake ben up, in case there actually were no crazy noises. woke up in the morning not sure if it had been real or not. then later heard it with ben, who said it was monkeys, and i decided he was losing his mind. it didn´t sound like a sound a sweet little mono would make. but then that night i woke up to it again, and this time it was right outside our cabana. definitely howler monkeys, although the sounds are more like what you would expect from a jaguar. pretty scary actually, but perhaps the most incredible thing i have ever heard. they carried on for a while, and i eventually got brave enough to sneak out of the cabana to see if i could see them....never did. ben said ''you still got to experience them''. i continued to pout....i'm a stupid westerner....i wanted a picture.

our last day in mexico we went to this incredible series of waterfalls and swimming holes called aguas azules. it was a great day, spent jumping off falls and swinging on rope swings, taking in all the beauty...

still, we were stoked to get back to guatemala. the machismo was sort of on overdrive in mexico, something i have noticed very little of in guatemala. also, pretty much as soon as we crossed the border into mexico, indigenous culture seemed to vanish. one of my favorite things about guatemala is that the maya people have managed to hold onto their culture and language, even though they've experienced hundreds of years of violence and oppression. the population of the country remains fifty some percent indigena. there are still 26 mayan languages spoken, a few of them actually taught in schools. in many of the christian churches built by the spanish you'll find mayan altars (not to mention the unique religious practices that resulted when the maya put their own spin on the religion that was forced upon them). it's pretty incredible. of course, there are still HUGE disparities between the maya and the ladinos. when you see five year old children doing adult work instead of going to school, you can bet that they aren't ladino...

but all that is for some later entry...

there actually is still quite the zapatista presence in chiapas, though we never really felt it except when we´d cross into a autonomous zone, and only then because there were signs telling us that we had done so. what was very felt were the efforts to keep the zapatistas in their place...in the evenings, a military convoy would take laps through the streets, led by a fully loaded tank, and followed by truckfulls of troops, all bearing assault rifles, fingers on triggers. it was quite obviously just for intimidation, the age ol' trick of using fear as a tool to control people that might otherwise seek a more just world....

like i said, glad to leave mexico.


entered back into guatemala in the north. the customs officer told me that i spoke with a guatemalan accent. stayed some days in a tiny, laid back place on lago peten itza, near tikal. went to tikal. tikal definitely felt like ruins. much of the site is still buried beneath jungle. even the excavated buildings usually still have one side covered. nothing is glistening white. for this and other reasons,ç we both liked tikal better, but we were also getting kind of ruined-out. we probably spent more time looking for wildlife than appreciating the magnificence of an ancient civilization. saw lots of spider monkeys. heard some howlers. and, most excitingly, we saw a toucan!!! a real live toucan!!! but no pictures...sorry.

from flores headed south to rio dulce, a small town on the rio dulce and lago izabal. had lots of fun there. you have to take boats to get from place to place. we did a bit of kayakiendo, visiting an old anti-pirate castle and such. also went to a hot spring waterfall which was brilliant. there is a regular temperature river running through the jungle, and cascading into it is this steaming hot waterfall. heaven. we had heard of a cave upstream and found a guy to take us there. after a crazy hike through the jungle (had i known how crazy i might have opted for more appropriate attire than just a bikini) we get to this place where the river disappears into the mountain. our guide stopped, told us to swim on in, but wouldn't come with us. it was so damn creepy. we swam by headlamp through this huge cave. it went back about three hundred meters, ended at a waterfall. the place was full of crazy colors and formations (both types of mites). it was very very cool, but absolutely terrifying. we got to the waterfall, took a picture, and swam out as fast as we could.

there was a large junky sailboat anchored way out in the water in front of the place we were staying. we met the people who live aboard in passing, and they told us to swim on by whenever we wanted to, probably joking, but one day we went for it. we were welcomed aboard, offered a tour, some beer, and lots of insane conversation. after sharing lots of thoughts and laughs, the couple threw out the idea of us coming back down and staying with them, helping them fix up the boat. not sure that will become a reality, but standing up on that boat, feeling the wind and looking out at the world, i thought that sailing is something i might very much like to try. my life´s to to list keeps getting longer, and the time to check things off keeps getting shorter.

while in rio dulce we were hoping to meet up with a friend of ben's family, but she was in houston. we did get in touch with her husband and met him for a lovely extended lunch one day. had a great time chatting the afternoon away.

two days ago we took a boat ride up the rio to the carribean. pretty boat ride, and now we're in the garifuna town of livingston. it is unlike any other place in guatemala. here there are mostly people of african descent, all of whom speak both spanish and garifuna, and oftentimes english. the town is sort of hyped as being a super chill rastafarian beach town, and it kind of is, but we don´t actually like it much and have spent most of our time here trying our best to get away from here. yesterday that involved spending most of the day walking down the beach, and a bit of time at, surprise, surprise, some waterfalls. these ones were kind of creepy because the water was cloudy, the jungle was very dense, and there were no other people anywhere near us. we completely psyched ourselves out pretty quickly, returned to walking the beach.

one thing to say about this place, the seafood is superb.

we're trying to decide what to do next. within the first day of traveling we slashed our itinerary in half, realizing we were both exhausted and thus our plans were way too ambitious. now we're thinking of cutting out even more...we're still exhausted, plus now we're getting close to broke. that being said, we're very close to the bay islands, and i think are both strongly feeling their pull. with any luck the next entry will document adventures in scuba school.

i´ve been having some trouble uploading pictures, so there are a lot missing. still plenty for now...

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Comments

[anonymous]

this is great.. ben kep this up, miss you bud. come back to ric sometime soon.