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Published: December 21st 2006
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Had an eventful trip across the border between Honduras and Guatemala. A very nice man gave me a lift in his truck (he had been doing business in Honduras) to the next major junction where I could get a bus (about 30 mins drive).. but unfortunately we omitted to stop at immigration. I didn't worry because I had read there was an office in Puerto Barrios but, having arrived there and traipsed around hot and dusty with ALL my gear to find first a bank still open on saturday morning that would give me some money (and queuing 50 minutes in what they then told me was the wrong queue) I then made it to the immigration office only to be told they only dealt with arrivals from Belize... don't ya just love bureaucracy... so they had a passport entry stamp but they just couldn't use it for me!
They very kindly offered to keep my big rucksack while I took two packed minibuses all the way back to immigration at the border.. an hour later back again to take the boat to Livingston, for which I had to wait about another 40 minutes. Finally got to Livingston about 5pm...
Lago de Izabal
largest inland lake having set off about 8.30am that morning!
Livingston - mellow man...
I like Livingston. A lot. Many people don't; it's rubbish-strewn beaches don't lend themselves well to the idea of a caribbean beach but you don't really go there for the beaches. You go for the Garifuna vibe and watching the very bizarre world pass by... even the pigs are happy in Livingston (and they are not smoking anything!) Not surprisingly eveyone is pretty mellow and things happen slowly.
I spent the evening sitting outside a small refresqueria on one of the main streets with the elderly owners, a pupusa seller and a few of their friends. Drank a beer, ate some pupusas, listened to the Spanish gossip (couldn't understand a word but you know that it's gossip!), drank a local violently coloured soda, chatted to two guys from Guatemala City who had come to buy an american car in nearby Puerto Barrios and thought it would be good to experience Livingston, and watched the world go by. There was a lady in curlers fresh from the hairdresser and ready for the evening Sunday service, with her two immaculately dressed little girls in tow, hair neatly braided with
matching bead designs. Pink features heavily in this town, the brighter the better. Then watched what I thought was a wedding party pass by - the 'bride' in a creamy beige dress and the young men all in tailored brown suits with striped shirts. The 'bridesmaids' were all in brown dresses too and everyone had the most stylish and stylised haircuts. Firecrackers were thrown in front of them as they passed down the street but apparently it was a 'coming of age' do rather than a wedding. As always it amazes me that in hot and dusty places, where people for the most part live in wooden or breezeblock shacks, they are always immaculately turned out.
Later that night go out to a bar to watch a local Garifuna band of 9 men - drummers, singers, one on turtle shell drums and one with maracas. Met Adam and Kate - relaxed Brits and we head down to the disco to try a bit of local jiggy dancing... I just can't manage the hip wiggling well enough though! Next day a trip to the local waterfalls, panoramic lookout and colourful cemetery with our Rasta guide.
From there head up
the beautiful
Rio Dulce by boat, stopping down one of the tributaries to buy intricate jewellry crafted by the local indigenous tribe who live floating on the waterways... incredible to see a girl who looked no more than 5 or 6 years old deftly navigating her full size canoe back to her home while waving at us. Men fishing out of their wooden canoes who patiently wait to bail out their canoes as our wake hits them as we pass by - even going slowly it happens as they are so low in the water, the isla de pajaros alive with cormorants and herons, walls of jungle hanging off the steep river banks like something out of the film King Kong, women washing clothes the traditional way on large stones straight into the river outside their houses, everything close to nature except the lurid pink cement of various evangelical churches. The water level is unusually high at present and presents comedy views... of a shop rising from the waters with the ubiquitous Coca-cola signs on the walls and a duck waddling out the front door....
Memories of Guatemala
*Staying in backpackers under the Central America equivalent of Sydney
Harbour Bridge which I then try to walk over.. big mistake as is very hot! Great view though.
*Weird mix of dusty Guatemala mayhem and seriously smart sailing boats which stop here for repairs on round the world trips.
*Large Mayan mountain towns en route to Lanquin from Rio Dulce - large, bustling, traditional markets
*The beautiful, if very gringo, El Retiro hostel in Lanquin... lying in hammock outside our sleeping hut listening to the sound of the river rushing by
*Mad trip to Semuc Champney pools and Grutas de Kanbo - the water is very high but we still negotiate traversing the waterfall and swim deep into the caves with head torches and candles. There are bats overhead, a strong current and bits in the water. 'Making love' to the waterfall is the crowning piece de resistance... being in the bowels of the earth standing under water which is pouring down on your head so hard you begin to panic that you won't be able to breath enough and then dropping into the swirling water below to be spat out the other side... never in the western world...! Also jumped 10 metres off the bridge into the river Cahabon,
with strict instructions to swim hard for the bank when you hit the water so you don't get swept downstream - not quite like braving it off the school diving board
*Visiting the Grutas de Lanquin - on my own in a huge cave, silent except for the dripping water, with flickering electric light and various stalagmite forms like the Virgen and the Aguila(eagle) - very atmospheric
*Coban - nice town, hectic but friendly. Marimba band playing in the main square in the rain. great and cheap churrasco (BBQ) supper down side street
*Journey across the top of Guatemala to Uspantan - off the gringo trail and 8 hours passing along steep hillsides as the road is reconstructed (yet again - it always disappears in the rains) around us. Reach San Cristobal de Verapaz where some sort of feria on - see diablo (devil) masked dancers and all the school children are dressed in their best uniforms or suits, with drum bands, groups representing all the local business and produce, girls with their hair traditionally braided with red ribbon
*The variety of traditional dress - every few villages the women's shirt changes - some lace tops embroidered with flowers, others
more lacey and fitted, still more the traditional heavy wool with primary colour designs and more flowers. In Chichicastenango you can see how people have adapted the more traditional style to wear as work skirts in offices.
Memories of Chichicastenango
*Smoke wafting off the altars outside the church
*Men as human mules carrying the huge amounts of produce and wares into town to be sold in the market - backbreaking work and they carry it all supported with a band round their forehead
*The lovely twin brothers who ran the art gallery, were training to be Mayan priests and who told me I had a very strong Mayan sign - Ahpu.
*The Mayan ceremony I had up on the hilltop above Chichicastenango done by a Mayan priest in his richly patterned, red clothes and headdress to wish for health and happiness and place my yellow and white candles on the altar beneath a blue sky, pine trees, sunshine and the smell of incense.
*The incredible sights and sounds of Chichi market - colours, smoke, food, gossip, bags, skirts, masks
*My eventful evening going to local art gallery/bar and ending up joining a party of the government tourist board, including a minister, who were in town for a conference - chatting about Guatemalan tourism, and ending up in two of the old guys' room for a nightcap, with one of them offering me a job in tourism and a chance to stay at his house in Livingston...mmm!
From Chichi I make a very boring journey south to Guatemala City, where I spend a few admin days sorting out tickets to fly to Ecuador... the start of my South America adventure!
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JP
non-member comment
Great work!
Hi Becks, just got the Panto photos which had your blog link. Great work! How much more have you got to update! Drop us a line when it's all in. Happy new Year and hope 2007 brings just as many adventures, though more of them likely to be in the UK!