Slices of Guatemalan Paradise

From Lanquin we took a shuttle north. A days worth of brake trouble made for an interesting trip. The pic below shows the car ferry we went on which was powered by two small outboards.

Further down the road we saw a lot of smoke billowing from the bush. We slowed a little to establish if we could pass or of this would be one more drama to add to the day. Turned out it was an organised burn off to clear land for crops.

The van dropped us in Santa Elena as a collective taxi drove past. Our driver waved them down and we ran from one van to the next. We drove off into the darkness to find El Remate.

We found a place recommended by some locals in Coban. It was the last room they had and it was Easter holidays so we took it.

In the morning we woke to a little slice of paradise. A little dock to sit or read or lie on, a clear blue lake to swim in and days of bright blue skies.

A dug out canoe peacefully waiting on the shoreline.

Beautiful sunsets watched over a cool beer.

The days however, were stifling. Some of the hottest weather I've been in, reaching 40 deg C. I struggled to eat in the heat and spent most of the time in the lake.

After a day of rest we took the 5am shuttle to Tikal National Park; one of the largest archaeological sites of the Mayan civilisation (a world heritage site). On the road out there we saw the following signs:

Look out for Jaguars
Look out for Snakes
The park was basically a huge jungle with these pyramid temples sticking out above the skyline and other ruins scattered about. We were there just before sunrise, but missed it due to too much cloud. This turned out to be a good thing as it kept temperatures bearable til 10am.

If you look carefully at the next picture you will see Ken standing in the square window near the top. Gives you a feel for the size of these monstrosities.

And this one shows the steep stairs we had to climb to get up them.

The views from the top were surreal.

These ruins were pretty impressive

Ken taking a breather

Irresistable vine swinging.

I took the time for some yoga at the top of one of them.

We also saw a few animals, including this one which we dont know the name of because the locals could only tell us in Spanish...

More ruins in a jungle setting

And we did some bird watching, spying woodie pecking holes in the tree for bugs.

A few days later we headed south again to Rio Dulce (a town on the river Dulce). From here we took a day trip on the local collectivo taxis to a jungle waterfall. This waterfall, shown in the picture, was sourced from a hot water spring, so the water falling is boiling hot. The hot water falls to a cold water river below, creating pockets of hot and cold water in the pool below. Behind the curtain of hot water is a natural sauna. We got there pretty early so had the place to ourselves. Had to share it with a snake though that banged into my arm while frantically swimming across the pool.

Back at Rio Dulce, we visited a castle equipt with canons, a dungoen, a 1/2 moat and stunning views of the river. We spent the remainder of the day chilling by the water.

Next day we jumped on a boat and headed down the river toward Livingston, a port town only accessible by boat. The boat trip took us through attractive canyons and natural jungle.

We stopped the night at Finca Tatin, a small hideaway just off the river. Our room was up in the jungle in amongst the creatures of the night. Mosquito nets a must. I woke and was greeted by a massive spider waiting for me on the toilet paper.

We took a kayak out for a paddle on the water. Tropical jungle scenes all around.

The trees roots/branches reaching down to get water.

Beauty all around us.

The young locals in their wooden canoes showed us how it was done. This girl wouldnt have been more than 6 or 7 years old.

Our Guatemalan experience ended at Livingston. We stayed one night to save up our memories and rest before taking starting out on our carribean adventure......

Lakes, Rivers, Coffee and Caves

A tip from another Kiwi helped us to find beautiful San Pedro, a quiet, laid-back village, lake side of Lago de Atitlan (a 340 m deep lake which is the result of an eruption thousands of years ago). Lake side breakfasts were a great way to ease into the day.

All the villages surrounding the lake are Mayan (indigenous people of Central America), with each village wearing their own weaved patterns on their traditional dress.

A trip in a chicken bus round to the next village we found our way to the base of Mayan Nariz (indian nose). The hill in the picture given the name as it supposidly looked like a nose. Halfway up we found this cross and statue. Stifling hot and me pretty sick after a day on the toilet the day before, it was quite a struggle. Rewarding views at the top though.

We stumbled upon a local artist and decided to get a textured oil painting depicting a chaotic guatemalen market.

San Pedro also had little mayan ladies carrying large bowls on their heads selling delicious cakes and buns. Nice and sugary just what a funny tummy needs for dessert.

We took a 10 mins boat trip around the lake to San Marcos. As we were strolling along the lake side, we were suddenly aware this dog was eating something. On closer inspection we saw it was a fish. We then found fresh wet dog footprints leading from the lake and the wet hair of the dog indicated that this dog had just been fishing... for its lunch.

A few days later we found ourselves in the small town of Coban. The main attraction in the town we visited is the german initiated, Dieseldorff Coffee plantation. Here we were shown the whole coffee producing process from the growning and pruning of the tree (see pic below), to the picking, selecting, drying and roasting.

Unknown to Ken and I.... coffee beans are actually a creamy white colour (see pic below). They only get their brown colour after being roasted. I now have a great appreciation for the coffee I drink as the coffee bean selection process is laboursome and done by hand. One bad bean in a handfull of 50 beans will ruin the coffee.

A crazy bus trip, squashed in amoungst the local which took an hour longer than it should, due to a break down on the windy one lane gravel road, took us down to Semuc Champey. A great little get away after the hussle bustle of Coban. Our place was river side thankfully as the temperatures here were still very hot. Rocks and bridges to jump off.... Ken was happy.

We ventured into the Semuc Champey park not real knowing what we would find. Turned out it was pretty impressive. There were a stepped series of turquoise pools great for swimming in.

Then to our amazement we found the pools were actually a natural 300m limestone bridge, as the river Cahabon paseed underneath the pools.

After a fairly steep climp up the surrounding cliff, we were able to appreciate the entire site from above.

And then at the base of the pools was a large cascading waterfall with dark caves under neath. A desperate swim against the current and a tricky climp up the waterfall and down into the caves turned out to be worth it as it enabled us to jump off the waterfall to get back.

Just back down the gravel road 11km we stayed the night at Lanquin to visit the caves. Probably the biggests caves we've seen. They just went on and on with some pretty impressive stalictites and mites.

Antiqua, Guatemala

The first task in Guatamala was to learn some spanish....thus we signed for some lessons.
Ken gave up half way through once he learnt the words for food, beer and free.


Antigua was a nice little spot, cobbled streets, colonial town shadowed by volcanoes. We lived of fresh food from the markets most days.....can you ever get sick of 30c mangos.


The town is famous for its religious momuments....


....some of them have not stood the test of time.....



As it was approaching easter, the town was gearing up for big celebrations, church interiors were decorated...the picture on the floor is made from coloured saw dust.


On sunday, a religous procession marched around town for 16hrs. All the locals made carpets on the cbbled streets....pretty impressive sites....


After all the hard work, the procession (brass band, people dressed in all sorts of old school costumes and bout 100 people carrying float like structure of religous scenes) walk right over them and destoy all the hard work!


I was impressed with this one made of vegetables.....that could of made alot of stirfries for all the hungry people begging on the streets?


After a few days in the town it time time to concur our first volcano....Payaca. Wonder how close we could get to that lava?

The volcanic rock was like a fibreglass layer, hard work on the way up .......however the scree slopes were fun on the way down.

Srouting lava 10m away was very impressive......

Flowing lava under my feet even more impressive (apprently i got ripped off for buying my stick for a dollar.....so i made sure i got my monies worth!)

A beautiful sunset completed the trip.

Hondorus

After a couple of months in the mountains and desert.....the Caribbean was calling. We flew into San Pedro and made our way straight to the Bay Island of Utila.

With a coral reef surrounding the small island, diving was the main activity....so we went diving. After two dives, we managed to see most of the interesting species...eagle ray, turtle, lobster, kingfish......however, we where there to see whale sharks. Unfortunately sightings had been rare and thus we gave up hope of seeing them and saved our money and went snorkling instead.

The snorking was just as good as the diving, the large coral trees and the soft blue coral fans being the highlight of this particular area.


....and what else is there to do on an island in the Caribbean....drink beer and watch sunsets of course!!!The island and surrounding waters was nice, but did not have the x-factor we had found in other locations around the globe...so it was time to make ourway inland to the highlands of central america and look for adventures......first stop, the Mayan Ruins of Copan.

We spent the day exploring the site, the museum and surrounding nature trail.
As with ancient ruins, we learnt some token history and observed the marvels of the past.

Rachel was very good at finding wildlife to photograph.....


Fellow backpackers instructed us to head straight to Guatemala and spend the majority of time there.....so off we went....first stop, spanish school!