Master of the Guidebook!

In need of a good night sleep we headed to El Remate another town on Lake Peten Itza. And while it may seem silly, the front picture of my guidebook was from a dock in this town and somehow seeing the dock myself made me feel like I had really accomplished something, as I could take the artistic photo of the same thing as the guide book cover.

Swimming in the clear waters of this lake, truly felt rejuvenating after a hot day in the jungle. And the hammocks in our hostel got a lot of use that night.

Tikal!!

Disclaimer: This is a long post so if you don't want to read it all, feel free to look at the pictures:)

Tikal is one of the oldest Mayan cities and is situated in the middle of the jungle! We got there in late afternoon and started exploring the ruins in the middle of a rainstorm - It was incredible!

The stormy skies chased away the tourists and what was left was wildlife and the imposing ruins. The park is full of parrots, toucans, another bird that is black and gold with an amazing sound, oropendulas, and weird shaped animals that look like bears, with a pig snout, and a squirrel tail - coatimundis. And there were spider monkeys playing in the trees!

Back to the ruins, this city started in 700 BC and started getting going around 500BC, its hay day was 700 and 800 AD. There is a main plaza with the huge Great Jaguar Temple that housed the remains of a very famous king, across from that is the Temple of Masks built to honor his wife. On the south side of the great plaza were living areas and offices for the elite and one of the first archaeologists to this area, a man by the name of Moler, lived here while he was excavating the area in the 1900s (an archeologists dream!) And of course ball courts for the famous Mayan ball games. The rest of the city stretched out over a huge area with more temples, market squares, ceremonial areas, and burial grounds. What’s amazing is how well these civilizations documented daily life and history.

Remains of the living areas The sheer scale of these is huge - thats me!





After Tikal’s fall from grace in the late 800s AD, the city was abandoned and it was taken over by the jungle it was only rediscovered in the 1850s. Looking at pictures from the first re-discoverers of the area, the views look the same but the temples are covered in palms, vines, with only some foreboding rocks sticking out. The national park system has excavated some of the areas, restored others, and has left some mounds just as they were found.

View from temple IV - the tallest one



















The jungle is protected rainforest and it is over 222 square miles, further in, there are many more temples and civilization, some require a 3 day hike through the jungle to see (Although Mel Gibson flew his helicopter to one) and they think there could be many more still undiscovered.

Not quite Mel Gibson style, but for a 50Q (6$) “tip” you can go with a guard at night to check out the ruins. We decided to go for it, when else will you have the opportunity to check out ruins with only a few other people, by the light of the moon. Our guide showed us the jungle at night, which is full of snakes (the red and black ones can kill a person in 15 minutes - we saw 1!), frogs, toads, huge spiders that are somewhat sparkly, bats lightening bugs that stay light and don’t flicker, lizards and more. Jaguars exist in this parts of the jungle, as well as alligators, but likely we didn’t see either! I have to admit it was a little scary. In the dark we clambered up Temple IV, the largest temple and sat up top where there w as a strong wind that you could smell the scent of tropical flowers and looking out over the jungle and seeing the other temples lit up by an almost full moon - it was breathtaking.

We made our way down and spent the night sleeping in Jungle Lodge - a lodge in the jungle. Between being eaten alive by mosquitoes (I went with unnatural DEET and wasn’t bitten too bad) and waking up to the sound of howler monkeys! They sound like huge cats wailing - it’s a scary sound and definitely woke me up with a start a few times, but where else can you sleep in a jungle next to World Heritage site?

We started the next morning at 6am - to try and beat the heat and catch a sunrise - while it was a tad cooler, no luck on the sunrise. We explored more ruins, including an area called the lost World (El Mundo Perdido) that was my favorite. They are ruins hidden back in the jungle and were from 500 to 100 BC, while the were shorter and weren’t as well decorated it was just amazing that some of thee structures and carvings were older than Jesus!


After hiking for 5 hours in the heat we stopped for much needed popsicles and salads. Its really amazing the amount of engineering, mathematics, architecture and science that went into creating these structures and they are still around 2500 years later, can we say the same for the skyscrapers and bridges we build?

I have more photos and even a video that I'll post soon!

Another day of travel, we made a long (and hot!) journey sin aire condicionado to the jungle! We drove for 7 hours north to an island city called Flores Flores, situated at the base of Tikal National Park, honestly must be the cutest Guatemalan town. The houses are all brightly colored and situated on Lake Petén Itza.

Again we found another amazing hostel, and Sarah and I were in a room that was above a garden (with a surprisingly yummy restaurant). The room only had walls that came up about halfway in straw, the top part of where a wall would be had brightly colored traditional clothes and at night you could see the shadow of the trees on the walls.

We also finally made out requisite stop to Pollo campero (a Guatemalan fast food chain for fried chicken) even though it looks like a ‘McDonalds’ there are waitresses that take your order, real plates and silverware, and a guard with a large gun!

Hostel Humor

Sha-mook-sham-pay

That’s how you pronounce Semuc Champey. Its national park famous for natural, limestone pools filled with jade-colored water. The day started off with the last official rite of passage for assimilating to Guatemalan traveling standards, we rode with 16 other people in the back of a pick-up truck (standing) for 1 hour. (I have seen others pick-ups with many more people!)














Views from the truck

The pools The Gorge














We arrived amazingly intact and met up with a guide to take us through underwater caves that have been formed over thousands of years in the limestone. Using candles, for 2 hours we swam through caves, walked through underground tunnels, filled wit water, climbed over and under rocks, up water falls down gushing ‘rock slides’. It was truly incredible to see a cave from this perspective with the water, the stalactites and stalagmites, formations, mineral deposits and all by candlelight - in a bikini! Unfortunately water doesn’t like cameras but there's a picture from the mouth of the cave.

Next we hiked up to waterfalls, and the eventually made our way down small waterfalls into the different limestone pools all set among an amazing gorge.


Finally we finished our day of water adventure with another pool, swimming under a warm waterfall. It was an absolutely fascinating and beautiful day!

Mini-Adventure within an adventure

I’m taking a week off of Spanish school to travel around Guatemala a little bit. Its nice to have a mental break from the subjunctive tense!

Friday, Sarah and I headed off on an early system of buses, 5 hours to Guatemala city, 4 hours to Coban, and then a 2 hour mini-bus ride (mini bus ride means a minivan or passenger van designed for 15 people MAX carrying 25 people, including 2 people standing, 5 people in seats for 3 and then another person and dog riding on the roof in the rain! It was bit of a rough ride as the dog on top fell off (it was ok) and pouring rain.




We finally arrived at Lanquin, a small town in Las Verapaces, inland section of Guatemala, that is filled with verdant, lush mountainous, cloud forests. It's alot warmer than Xela and tends to rain in the evenings. I laid in a hammock and listened to the birds and the river, watched a lightening storm come in and then listened to the rain and insects. The scenery was just full of lush hills, and a beautiful river going through the area, and even came complete with a cow!

We stayed at amazing hotel/hostel, El Retrio! For 5 bucks a night we slept up in a thatched loft, accessible only by ladder that had an incredible view! And lots of yummy veggies!!!



















Hanging out on the bar swings and washing my hands from a conch shell

Update

I’m sorry I haven’t posted much the last week and a half, I got a new teacher (because I asked for harder) and I’ve easily had 3-4 hours of homework every night! But its good I’m hear to learn Spanish…and that has been going well, although the subjunctive might just be a deal breaker!

Also, I know many are concerned about Swine Flu, its definitely scary considering I was just in Mexico and I did have a cold which is very uncharacteristic for me, so hopefully I already have immunity;) But don’t worry I’m taking my vitamins, washing my hands and not playing with pigs. Even the pigs are taking it easy;)














So I’ve finished my time in Xela and I’m headed for a week to a place that sounds like Shampoo and Tikal some of the oldest ruins in Guatemala. Not sure what internet access will be like for the next week, but there are a couple of entries up to keep you all busy ;)

Politca Environment

At my school we have had weekly conferences on the economy, political structure and immigration. Its been incredibly interesting. I’ve also been reading the newspaper here (which may explain why I did not have the blissful ignorance I enjoyed in Mexico)

Of what I find to be really interesting is US involvement in other countries (and we still haven’t learned!). In the 1940s and 1950s was considered Guatemala’s ‘Golden Age‘, the Presidents were very democratic and they were instituting work codes (standards to protect workers), education for all, healthcare for all and the government started to work on land rights.

United Fruit Company (Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita) had a big stake in Guatemala as they had taken the land to grow bananas, mangos, pineapples, etc. When the government started addressing land reform as UFC was the largest owner and the government wanted a small portion of the unused land to be used for the local farmers. However, UFC had 2 major shareholders: John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower’s Secretary of State and his brother CIA Director, Allan Dulles. As you can imagine the US helped overthrow the democratic president Jacobo Arbenz in ‘Operation Success’ deeming him to be socialist. The country them erupted into 30 years of messy civil war with the majority of the Professors and intelligencia being killed or fleeing.

The civil war was officially over in 1996 and there is still a lot of tension as power is centralized in 35 families that control all business, agriculture and they are rather conservative. The problem is now Guatemala has high unemployment which has lead to increased crime, social problems and migration. Interestingly enough, the government minimum wage which is 48 Quetzals for a man and 47Q for a woman - the equivalent of $6 a day. Of course UFC, who is still around, won’t pay even the minimum wage, instead paying between 18Q (2$) and 24Q ($3) for an entire day of work.

But I’m happy to report everyone here loves Obama since he came down to Central America and met with all the Presidents and has promised to work on immigration, more than his predecessor. So there’s hope!

Guarderia

I’ve been spending most of my afternoons volunteering, which has helped make my experience in Xela good. The Guarderia is similar to a day care center for low-income families, usually the Dad is in America or absent and so the Mom must work here.

The day care center which has a cow for milk, a wood burning stove, dirt floors and with outside bathrooms, (things that I can’t help but think would not fly in the U.S.) Despite these kids being ‘low-income’ by Guatemalan standards are the sweetest kids ever! They are all so well-behaved and eager to learn. First we help with homework and then play outside or teach them English songs.

Edwin, an 11 year boy just blew me away - he needed help on his math homework and I thought I was a calculus tutor of course I can help. It was hard! He was learning binomial numbers, the Mayan number system, some other system based on 8 and then the regular decimal system, yet he and I managed to get through it, then play some soccer and he gave me a big hug for helping him. Do 11 year old boys in the US hug?

Stove Project

I think I wrote about my first day helping out with this project, building wood burning stoves for families in rural Mayan communities. Most use open flame in there huts which are literally just concrete and a metal roof. The smoke is bad for a number of reasons as children end up with a lot of respiratory infections and irritated eyes, its easy for kids to easily burn themselves and it uses lots of firewood.

This people literally have nothing yet were some of the sweetest and most kind people I have met. The first week we started by laying concrete blocks with cement to form the base of the stove.

The second week we laid 3 levels of brick with cement on the outside and clay on the inside to help keep the heat in evenly.


The following week we laid bricks on the inside, tiles on the outside and put in the stove top with 4 burners. It still is a wood burning stove, because there is no electricity out here, but it burns a lot less and it’s a lot less dangerous than open flames. And of course a little smoke stake out the top of the roof.

It was demanding physical work but I couldn’t help but leave smiling.

I didn't have my camera with me but I will try and find more pics, especially the one of me cutting stone with a machete;)

funny video

In this day and age you have to be careful because anyone can have a camera ready…as evidenced by my very ungraceful rope climbing, to me credit I was very scared…enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyUN_QK7oq8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnZMzswXbFI

Water Park - Guate style

Sarah, myself and another student header off very early Saturday morning for Xocomil (pronounced (shock-o-mil) a Guatemalan
water park - and words cannot even describe how much fun this was!!!

The place was gorgeous covered in exotic, bright colored flowers and palm trees. The water slides were fantastic they had these huge inner tubes and slides that were open, others that were in pitch black tunnels, ones with big dips, others that were like toilet bowls and of course a huge lazy river and a wave pool. There was even a huge slide that had an inner tube big enough for 4 or 6 people and a jungle gym too! The whole day we just laughed non-stop and had smiles on our faces.

This yellow and green one was a little scary!






























From there we headed to the beach, Champerrico. The beaches here have black sand because of the volcanoes - which gets hot!!! We were definitely the only gringos there so we got lots of stares, but had a relaxing morning in the hammock and got some yummy fried fish and ceviche!















View from my hammock










Its important to note that all of these travels out to the villages, Guarderia and even to the beach involve chicken buses - old US school buses that are brightly repainted and lack of personal space doesn’t even describe the experience, 3 people easily sit in the seats that were designed for 2 kid bottoms, people sit in the aisles and there is tons of hawkers, livestock, and other going-ons - I actually rode all the way to the beach with eggs above my head, hoping that the crazy bumps wouldn’t break them on my head.

And they drive crazy, I tell myself every time its like a roller coaster - its definitely not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.

The key to surviving Xela is fulfilling volunteer projects and good weekend trips. (I’ve been continuing with the stove building project in the rural Mayan village and volunteering at a day care enter for low-income kids, I’ll write more about those soon!)

Last weekend I headed with a few other students to Lake Atitlan - it suppose to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the entire world and it really is quite spectacular Its at 5,000 feet, which is low compared to Xela at 8,000. The main town of Panajachel is a little touristy but has tons of local crafts, a chocolate shop (yum!) and even a bakery with warm bread (super yum!). Its also known for their outdoor activities. This is a picture of San Pedro Volcano, like SF it was very foggy...This is what its suppose to look like and what it looks like on the cover of my guidebook...

My friend Sarah and I started off the morning paddle-boating (like the ones we did in the Baltimore harbor when I was little) once we figured out the steering it was great! We saw a baptism happening on the beach. Winds pick up quickly on the lake and we were happy to have gone the paddle boat route (despite the laughs we incurred) because some of the kayakers incurred a personal baptism in the lake.

















Next on to a Natural reserve where I saw real monkeys!!!














It was absolutely gorgeous, super lush, waterfalls, and tons of flowers in every color you could imagine! The plants were really spectacular, we hiked up to waterfalls over suspension bridges and eventually zipped lined down, which was a lot of fun! Besides the views we also got to go through the trees which was a really neat perspective - I felt like the monkey now! There was even a little obstacle course over the waterfalls, walking over suspension bridges with no railings or having to get yourself over the waterfalls over a set of rope swings - don’t worry Mom and Dad I was harnessed into another rope! Although it still was pretty scary and I got a little stuck when I realize my short legs and sort arms physically could not reach the next swing. So eventually I had to swing myself over to the next one. But it was not graceful as evidenced by the crowd of people gathered below me to laugh. I had a good laugh at myself too though!


To get around these towns most people ride in Tuk Tuks, little red three wheeled vehicles with a bench in the back...we piled 4 people in although the driver said he had piled in 7 before. I was sitting in the front, but then we saw a policeman and the driver told me to quickly jump in the back, so while the tuk tuk was moving I pulled a Tom Cruise move (at 2mph) and hoped in the back while it was moving, quite the invigorating experience!

Saturday evening we took a boat to another town on the lake (its 8km by 18km the lake), which was another seemingly death-defying experience, as there was no room left on the boat, so they crowded Sarah and myself into the helm and took off at what felt like 100 mph (it usually takes 1 hour to cross the lake - it took us 20!)




View from our hotel Santiago













Santiago is situated in an inlet between 2 volcanoes - its gorgeous and completely un-touristy! The men still wear traditional dress there, bright white woven shorts, embroidered with flowers, animals and other designs. Sarah and I ended up stumbling upon a mini luxurious vacation. We rented a little cabin in a gorgeous garden full of sweet smelling, colorful flowers and a hammock. In addition we were able to use the hot tub (that sat on cliffs overlooking the lake) and the swimming pool and sauna, which was built into the mountain accessible by a hobbit door. And the best part at night out came the fireflies, which I haven’t seen since I was a kid visiting my grandparents in Jersey in the summers!















It was really spectacular to see the tress and volcanoes sparkling with the sweet smell of flowers (if only Brian was here to enjoy this with me too!). And it turned out to be just what I needed and I returned to Xela, refreshed and ready to take on another week.