The last latino adventure

We arrived at Oaxaca bus station at about 11am. The posh coffee and cake went down well, but not well enough to ease the blow that my camera purchase had been rejected, due to the same reason as that quoted on most websites – shipping to a different address to that on Paypal. 

Rather than dwell on it, we decided that we’d just have to find a retailer once we’d landed in the States and headed up into the hills as planned. This region is growing in tourism through its promotion of eco-friendly tourism and a chance to see how the indigenous villagers of Oaxaca live. There are 8 little villages in total and hundreds of little paths and cycle routes between them, taking you through hillsides, valleys, canyons and pine forests.

The area is outstandingly beautiful and we treated ourselves to a shared cabana in the woods as it was way cheaper than a private. As luck would have it though, we had the entire cabana to ourselves for the whole 3 nights we were there. We were so lucky. It was bliss. It was like an apartment, with chairs and sofas and our own private bathroom. Being at about 3000 msl it was also cold but we made use of the fireplace, collecting wood to add to that which we bought from the friendly people that ran the place and spent our evenings listening to music in front of the fire.

We couldn't believe our luck. A fire and a shared cabana all to ourselves.

I think I could have actually got lost within these fields of flowers

Even though they gave us wood, you still have to collect some. That's half the fun.

Each morning, we would have breakfast on the little picnic table outside the cabana. Tim would make coffee using the now perfected approach of using an old top of mine as a filter to ensure no bits from the accidentally bought filter coffee didn’t get into the cup, whilst I made friends with lizards, before we then headed out to explore the surrounding countryside. The mornings were always sunny and fresh and our view was either forest or fields of flowers. 

Morning coffee

Morning conversations with the friendly lizards

Notice home made filter out of old top on the left. I thought it looked like a shepherd mug.

On the first day, we explored the area on bikes and the second on foot. Unfortunately, we encountered the same two problems on both days. The first being, there were absolutely no maps for the area but hundreds of tracks. Some would start off wide and appear like a bike trail but within no time would start to narrow and descend steeply down into what appeared to be a ravine, requiring the need to backtrack, back up the really steep hill with the bike. Or they would continue in an expected manner for the majority of the journey and then just end, meaning that at some point in the last 3 hours a wrong turn must have been taken, which again meant walking back the entire way we had come. 

Secondly, and ironically it stormed really badly on both afternoons! They were so bad, that we got hailed on 2 days in a row. In hindsight it was quite funny, but it wasn’t on the last afternoon when we were waiting for over an hour, in the back of a freezing cold van, wet through, waiting for a lift from town back up to the cabanas. 

If you had to get lost however, this was a great place to do it. The area was stunning with long reaching views over stunning countryside, hundreds of lizards everywhere, together with hummingbirds and butterflies, that beautiful mountain freshness and an overwhelming smell of pine. 

Stunning pre-storm mountain scenary around Oaxaca, Mexico

More mother-uckers

Animal friends on route

More animal friends including these cows that have humps like camels

The locals we met were all really friendly too – those that worked at the cabanas, the local shop owners including the woman who made really bad tortillas but really good balls of salty cheese and who found us funny because we were a bit like bumbly tourists not being sure exactly what we wanted to buy (which is actually because there is very little on display in the tiny weeny shop front and we now realise you have to ask for what you want and she will fetch it from one of the more private areas of her house – strange system), through to the emotional alcoholic elderly gentleman that escorted us to the start of our second day hike and told us how he now likes to take mushrooms and meditate on top of the nearby mountain, which he pointed out to us and then laughed as he recounted how he once had to be hospitalised because he was up there dancing and fell off! 

A great place, with great people and in amazingly tranquil surroundings. All they need is a few more maps and it would be a gem of a place to explore and spend more time in. As it turns out the storms weren’t a common occurrence either – looks like they popped up just for us. Perhaps a little taster of what is to come. As for us it’s time to head to the US…

So, for good measure, here's a storm from last year and link to our website where we'll be updating the blog when the stormies arrive. See you all soon folks!

click here for our 2014 storm chasing blog updates and photos

Easter adventures in San Cristobal

San Cristobal is a great city and it was refreshing to base ourselves somewhere for a while, this while being 4 whole days. Arriving a day early, we checked into a hostel and immediately sought out a bar with wifi so we could continue with the search for a car in the US and try to work out just how complicated a process it may be to buy one. In fact, we spent most of the afternoon in Café Revolution doing this and ended up befriending barman Ricardo, who recommended we come back later to check out the live music. Ricardo lives in Tuxtla, a city about an hour’s drive from San Cristobal but he was opting to stay in San Cristobal with his mate Jonathan as the pre-Easter parties were apparently going to be huge!

After his shift, Ricardo and his mate left to search for a hostel but joined us later that evening. Before he turned up we were unfortunately subjected to some pretty none-descript live jazz. It was OK in parts but the saxophonist thought he was a bit too cool and it was all a little loud. Brass in a really small café can sometimes be a bit overpowering. It did become highly amusing however, when an accordion player walked in off the street and tried to muscle in on the action, but really badly! The saxophonist didn’t like this too much!

Following the jazz, Ricardo and Jonathan arrived. After a drink, we moved to a bar where his friends were, but after deciding it was a bit too pretentious, we returned to Café Revolution, where, the next act, and main draw of the night, were ridiculously amazing. I’m so glad we returned as I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this for the world. The lead guitarist used to sing with the Buena Vista Social Club and the whole band were so tight, so melodic and had an awesome drummer. We got salsa lessons from Ricardo and the little room was packed with everyone dancing and twirling each other around and laughing and sharing beers. It was so much fun and we left the bar with an invite to Ricardo’s house in Tuxtla the next night after his shift.

Pre-salsa-ing tequilas with Ricardo and Jonathan

On returning to the hostel the ringing in my ears stopped me from even being able to enter such a quiet dorm room. So I went to the kitchen and made a cup of tea with the near last of the teabags we have with us from England and attempted to write some of the blog. 

The next day we had to move to the hostel that we had pre-booked for 3 days. Luckily it wasn’t a long walk and on the way we managed to, in a very hungover state, find a new hoodie for Timbo and a great little place that made awesome licuardos with blackberries and strawberries – our favourite now. We’re going to be doing some serious blackberry picking back home this autumn!

The garden of our cute new hostel in San Cristobal

We spent the afternoon eating beans on toast, looking for cars on Craig’s list and sending emails to other non-US storm chasers for advice. Before long it was time to go out again. A beer at Ricardo’s bar soon got us back in the game and after another round together we headed off to Tuxtla with him and Jonathan. It was an hour away by bus and a little walk. His place was cool and he had a roof terrace where we drank porshe, a typical and really gross local spirit made with corn, before reverting back to much more drinkable beers before heading out in a taxi at about 2:00am to a bar in a much more party part of town.

Cheesy music and neon lights gave us a clue as to what the night may hold. The total opposite to the previous night it would seem. I think gangnam style was the most popular track of the night and the crazy frog tune may have been mixed up in their somewhere, but we did our best, considering we both also still had our walking boots on, to dance and arm pump our way through the evening with Ricardo and a mate of his who was surrounded by 4 or so girls. Everyone was very sweet but it was obvious that the trio of 3 or so young Mexican lads that were also with the others weren’t used to having westerners around and wanted to keep touching us and asked us weird questions in Spanish such as ‘what is the difference between American people like us and the Mexican people’? Tim’s previous conversations about where we were from obviously went well! There would also be points where they would be standing very near us and obviously talking about us, coz they would be pointing or gesturing over to where we were standing, but we were only a few feet away. It was a bit weird, but we just danced our way through it, acting oblivious to their stares!

Ricardo kindly offered for us to stay in one of the free rooms in his building that night and we attempted to make our way home the next morning. We grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal which unfortunately then only left us with enough money for one bus ticket back to San Cristobal. It was at this point that the only available ATM for miles it seemed decided to refuse either of us money. We were now stuck and hungover, hot and didn’t really have a clue where we were. We found an internet café and Tim tried ringing his bank who told him there was no block on his card. Luckily I had $20 dollars in my back pocket so we managed to coax one of the collectivo drivers to take us back for $10, which he only agreed to when he realised this was more than the fare in Mexican pesos! 

Yey, we were on the way home! The journey back was pretty dire. We both felt like death warmed up and then to add to our trauma we had to sit separately somewhere toward the back of a cramped little mini-van surrounded by overly made-up Mexican ladies playing games on their phones or texting really loudly. The curves of the mountain road were gut churning and it was stifling hot. There was no escape route to the sliding door at the side, should we need it, and although I had a window seat at the back, the window didn’t open. We took it in turns to clutch our bottle of water, sipping slowly before passing it back to one another!

We made it through though without being ill and when we finally arrived in San Cristobal we were so relieved. We went back to the hostel and made the best ever hangover breakfast of eggs, toast, beans, ham and some avocado for good measure! 

Unfortunately it was at this point we also decided to knock the purchasing of a storm chasing vehicle on the head as both the advice from others and research we had done ourselves showed it was just going to be too much of an expense right now. 

We were a little sad but it was probably for the best. So, with the money saved not buying a car, I finally made my mind up that I was going to invest in a new full frame camera. It was something I’d been thinking about for a while. Although I’m still totally in love with my Nikon D90, the benefits of a full frame sensor and being able to play with such an awesome new toy on the Plains this year, a year when we are privileged to have more time there than ever before was such a tempting prospect. I am going to need to upgrade to a full-frame camera sooner or later, so at that moment I decided sooner was better than later! 

We only left the hostel later that day to get some biscuits and some more eggs for the morning before retiring back to our room and settling down with a film for the night. With absolutely no beer in sight!

The next morning it was Easter. The Easter bunny had left a kinder egg on Tim’s pillow and a packet of Oreo biscuits under mine, together with little bars of chocolate in random places. Kinder eggs are the closest thing to chocolate eggs out here, which they don’t seem to go for in the manner back at home. I had a lovely Easter phone call with Mum, Hols and Mark and heard about their plans for a yummy roast and am so looking forward to my egg that is waiting for me back at home – thanks Mum! I recounted our slight loss of travel lust and was excited talking about what’s been happening and all the catch ups planned for when we get back. After that we made some sloppy scrambled eggs for breakfast and watched the carnival procession as it passed by our hostel. 

The view up the street from our hostel

The guy in front had a big stick with a double prong on it to try to hold the power lines out of the way to let the floats through. But they kept going AWOL and the floats would get stuck. Probably off having a tequila somewhere.

I think we may have found our new storm chasing vehicle!

I really hoped these guys kept their distance. I'm so scared of people in masks!

We then tried to make a plan of where we were going to head to after San Cristobal. It was during this that we thought, sod it, let’s just fly to the US now and get ready for storm chasing. It’s what we love and what we secretly both really want to be doing all the time anyway! Latin America and the travelling we have done so far has been great fun, but we both see little point in continuing with something when our hearts’ are not totally into it. It seems a waste of an opportunity. So we decided we’re going to leave the rest of Mexico for another time and instead head to the States. The figures seemed in our favour too as a flight from Oaxaca in Mexico, which was somewhere we decided we’d still go, to San Diego in California was much cheaper than taking a bus from place to place north through Mexico. 

Within an hour we were booked on a flight for the end of the week. On landing in San Diego, we could then pick up a rental car and explore parts of the US such as the National Parks, the Grand Canyon and other places we haven’t yet visited on the way to the Midwest to wait for the storms. 

Although, that said, if said stormies were to appear sooner, the National Parks would definitely have to wait. This would potentially give us 7 weeks storm chasing rather than our usual 3. And perhaps with a new camera too. I was very excited.

We spent the rest of Easter making lists of what we needed to organise prior to our arrival in the States. The day was full of amazing realisations such as… we wouldn’t need to lug our heavy rucksacks around anymore, we could buy cheese strings and red bull for our car journeys, we could play music really loud in a car of our own, we would be able to speak English with people again…

The next morning we then spent about 5 hours searching online to try to find me a new camera from an outlet in the US that would agree to post the camera to a motel without requiring a Paypal account with a US address. A near impossible task, but we eventually succeeded and I became the proud owner of a new Nikon D610! Another extremely happy moment.

New camera grin. This was the moment when I bought my new Nikon D610. Storms, here we come!

So that ended our time in San Cristobal. I realise I have written relatively little about the place itself and the surroundings, the people or any other observations one should make whilst on their travels. It’s been more about boozing, consumerism and storms! I think that illustrates our current state of minds right now.

However, before we head Stateside, as I mentioned, there was one last place we wanted to visit in Mexico. Oaxaca which conveniently happens to be one of the cheapest places from which to fly to San Diego was an 11 hour overnight bus journey away, but we didn’t care as this was going to be our LAST big overnight journey. I even tempted fate that afternoon saying to Tim ‘we’ve only got to make it through 4 more days of not getting robbed and we’ve done it!’ I shouldn’t have tempted fate!

The bus left for Oaxaca at 10:45pm. Unfortunately we couldn’t get seats together and I was sat next to a chap who was carrying a really young kid. I fell asleep quite quickly but was awoken at about 5am as the bus stopped at its first destination as the guy with the kid was clambering over me like the devil was after him. I assumed he had been asleep and nearly missed his stop. Then I looked down and my bag was open with the laptop was missing. I knew something wasn’t right and urgently woke Tim who was 2 rows in front. Within a second I realised the reason why the guy next to me had legged it off the bus so quick. He must have taken the laptop. The bus was just pulling out to leave but I ran down the aisle shouting for it to stop. I garbled something like ‘the other man has my things’ to the bus driver holding out my open bag to which he opened the door. Me and Tim legged it off the bus, in the dark, and me with no shoes on to see if we could see the guy with the kid. I ran out of the station and all the way to the taxi rank in the distance but no one was there. I couldn’t believe he had just taken it like that. The bag had been closed, under my seat with my leg through one of the straps to avoid the whole thing being taken. He must have been so sneaky. 

I also couldn’t believe all my photos had gone and that I was going to have to re-write 3 blog posts that were currently saved just in word! The thief was nowhere to be seen and we slowly walked back to get on the bus, disheartened. This is when Tim pointed and said ‘is that him?’ as a guy walked out of the loo leading a small child. Yes, that was him! He could see everyone’s eyes on him – ours, the driver, the guards at the station and pretty much everyone else who was sitting around waiting for a bus watching the events unfold.

In a state of shock and with what can only be described as a sheepish look of ‘oh, is this yours?’ on his face, he unzipped his rucksack and pulled out our laptop! I strode up to him, glaring and snatched it back off him. He was detained by the guards and we made our way back onto the bus. Before the bus left, we were made to get off again and recount what had happened to some more police that had turned up. They asked if we wanted anything further to happen to the guy, who was now blubbering like a baby, to which we answered no as we had our belongings back and were unsure what they were implying. I’m still not really sure what they meant by this, but thought it best to say no in case they meant beating him in front of us or something. 

The remaining 5hrs of the bus journey went by uneventfully and I made sure that even when asleep, I was still clutching my bag. When I woke, the whole event had seemed like a dream and it all felt a bit surreal, so we decided before heading up into the hills of Oaxaca, a big coffee and fat slice of cake was needed at the seemingly posh bus terminal we had arrived at. Everything’s better after cake!

And into Mexico...

Considering it was a Mexican border, our crossing into Mexico was pretty uneventful. I wouldn’t say smooth as it did entail a small bus with no suspension for 5 hours on an unpaved road, but, we neither got held up, chucked off the bus nor refused entry through various protests going on in the local villages due to an extortionate hike in electricity prices. This is what a couple of our mates went through, so we had by the looks of it been incredibly lucky. 

After the bus, we were ushered into a boat to cross the river, squished into a small taxi and driven to customs, sung at by an insolent Mexican official, then roasted for a further 2 hours in another minivan to Palenque. This is the base town for the famous Palenque Ruins, which we were hoping to squeeze in that day but given the time taken to get there, was better saved for the next day.

We only stayed in Palenque town long enough for me to satisfy a slight consumerist craving and buy a hat (I wanted a cap for the US!) before we headed up the road by bus, again, and towards the ruins. The accommodation was much more appealing outside of the town as there were a number of chilled out camping places, including Mayabell. 

The beautiful complex of Mayabell, El Retiro, Mexico

My new hat!

The absolutely amazing swimming pool!

This has got to one of the best places we have ever stayed. Not far from the road but hidden in amongst lush jungle was an amazing open sided wooden bar and restaurant kitted out with tons of fairy lights, serving amazing food and playing really good music. With this as the centrepiece the grounds also housed a number of cabanas, pitches for tents, a huge swimming pool which was surrounded by jungle and where you could spot toucanettes and other ‘exo’ birds (now classed as ‘exo’ birds rather than exotic, as there has to be some difference between these and pretzals / full on toucans!) God, we’re so spoilt now with seeing such amazing birds all the time. There was a pool bar and laid-back atmosphere and that night there was some seriously amazing live music with drums, bongos and some other crazy instruments, incense burning everywhere and fire dancers!

Evening entertainment

Unfortunately there were also some pretty big spiders around and for us, our extremely hot, humid really small tent to try to sleep the night in. It seriously was indescribably hot. In fact, it was probably the hottest I have ever been. Definitely the hottest night of our lives. I had to check with Tim there was enough air in the tent and I wouldn’t die in my sleep. We are never sleeping in a small tent in the jungle ever, ever again. We couldn’t even open the door as there were too many bugs. We were stuck. Taking long breaths and trying not to panic, I managed to get to sleep. Luckily we had also got in without any bugs on us and made it through the night unscathed! I love the jungle, but only during the day and without any tents in sight.

The next day we headed off to the Palenque Ruins. Built again by the Mayans but different to Tikal as many more of the buildings have been restored and although covering a similar area they seemed a lot more intricate – more palaces, small rooms and temples that you could walk around. There was also more information on display on small plaques so we could learn a little more about why each was built. I loved the fact that they painted many of the temples red and blue. It must have looked so colourful. And there was a cool party area. There was also a temple with a carving very much like Frank, the rabbit from the film Donnie Darko which was pretty cool. But for me, I can’t get over the tops of the Tikal temples poking through the jungle canopy, so would have to give preference to Tikal. 

The ruins at Palenque

This was the outside party area!

The face of Frank from Donnie Darko

On the way out we came across some absolutely stunning waterfalls. Although not accessible to the public, I found a way off the bridge and past the ropes to get a shot in the falls. The photo has not been touched up at all but I just can’t believe how surreal it appears. Perhaps it was a dream…

Dreamy waterfalls (with no HDR - they were really like this)

We stayed in the town of Palenque the next day where we found a nice place to order a litre of milkshake. They make them with whatever fruit you fancy, or concoction of fruits and call them ‘licuardos’. They are absolutely delicious. 

Getting stuck into a litre of amazing strawberry, banana and kiwi milkshake

Although we hadn’t wanted to leave the stunning location of where we were camping, staying in town was more convenient for our bus south the next day to the Lagos de Montebello. This is a series of lakes, still in the state of Chiapas where we were planning a bit more camping before heading into San Cristobal de las Casas – a large town famous for its crazy Easter parades and celebrations, which were nearly upon us. We were also looking forward to 3 days of going nowhere and hopefully just eating a lot of chocolate!

We got to Lagos de Montebello by 2pm but it was raining and we couldn’t really see any of the lakes in their full glory. Unfortunately really high prices for cabanas meant we still had to camp and it was very cold and damp. 

Some unappealing lakes in the rain

Luckily the campsite had a common room so we spent most of the day sheltering from the rain, surfing the net and talking over the options of potentially buying a car in the US for our yearly storm chasing adventures. The more we talked, the more excited we got. We really can’t wait to be out in the States and if we’re honest, we are feeling a little travel jaded right now. It’s probably due to having crammed so much into such a short time frame recently. This, together with all the early rises and cramped bus journeys, made the option of having our own car and the prospect of storm chasing even more exciting than it usually is.

That evening we decided that we’d give the weather here a chance the next morning and if it was nice, get some bikes out and explore the numerous lakes, trails and pine forests. But whatever happened, the next evening we were going to head to San Cristobal, this being a day earlier than planned, to start the storm chasing planning, including checking out the possibility of getting our own chasemobile!

The next morning was a bit grey so we knocked up some coffee and beans and headed off to San Cristobal to find pre-Easter celebrations and a faster internet connection for some serious storm chasing planning!

It's f*ckin cities of gold man - Guatemala part 2

The rest of Guatemala...

Semuc Champey

The next stop on the Guatemala Gringo trail was a spot much further north near a town called Lanquin. The place of interest itself is called Semuc Champey and it is a series of natural pools created from limestone and is said to be ‘the’ most beautiful place in the whole of Guatemala. Unfortunately such a reputation draws a considerable crowd and with the crowds comes the hawkers, opportunists and tour companies.

Knowing that Easter was approaching and that the whole of Mexico and Central America goes crazy for Holy week we had pre-booked a couple of nights at one of the hostels in the area way in advance. It was one that Verena had recommended having been to Semuc Champey herself. It was beautiful and a haven from the hawkers. Set near a river, the hostel has its own sprawling restaurant and bar that reaches the edge of the water. We had booked a semi-private room but were actually given a full private on arrival. It was one of a group of little rustic buildings, raised up on small stilts with a thatched roof made of palapa and with a hammocks on the small terrace in front of the hut. It overlooked the grounds which were well kept, colourful and full of flowers. With a glance up to the sky you could see hummingbirds and toucanettes flying about. It was bliss. 

The hostel El Retiro in Lanquin with little palapa huts

What made it even more authentic is that there was no electricity when we arrived. It sounded like they too had been at the mercy of the storm that had passed over us further south a few days back. In fact, it never came back on for the 2 days we were there, but this only added to the rusticness and charm of the place.

With only one full day here we headed to the pools the next morning. To avoid the crowds we attempted an early start but with this being on our terms rather than with the need to make a bus, dawdling and faffing was inevitable and after having to return to the hostel for forgotten bug spray, we didn’t really start the 11km walk to the pools until about 8am. 

The 11km walk to Semuc Champey from Lanquin town - really, really hot but worth it for the views

There was the option of riding in the back of one of the many hundreds of jeeploads of tourists, but we thought the walk would be good exercise and we’d see some local sights rather than just whizzing past with a bunch of other squawky people. It wasn’t long however before we regretted that decision, dripping in sweat, battling the climb in the humid heat of the mid-morning. Other jeeps hurtled past leaving us in a cloud of dust but we persisted and eventually got to the pools.

I was initially concerned given the sheer number of people we had seen drive past us that it was going to be a little like the Guildford Lido on a hot summers day, but somehow the park managed to hold all these people whilst still maintaining a degree of tranquillity. In fact, it was absolutely gorgeous. The colours were fantastic and we wandered around, firstly climbing up to the mirador before descending and cooling ourselves off with a dip in the pools. 

Semuc Champey itself from the mirador in the park

Guatemala's answer to Frensham ponds

We had made a little picnic and sat eating our sandwiches lapping up the ambience of the place. Unfortunately this came to an end quite quickly when I stupidly offered a small piece of bread to a really cool and quite big dinosaur looking lizard who then thought my finger was a bit more bread and bit me. 

The little blighter before he bit me. I should have been wary of something with such a Chelsea smile

I didn’t think lizards had teeth, but this one did. Little razor sharp ones that had managed to draw blood. Shit. I turned to Tim, with the colour draining from my face as I held up my bleeding finger. ‘It bit me’ I quivered, feeling stupid and scared all at the same time as thoughts of rabies and needing to be hospitalised and how this was going to be possible from such a remote location, started flooding into my head.

Luckily though we had the first aid kit to hand, so Tim cleaned up my finger, which to be honest was only a little cut, but the fact that it came from this potentially diseased lizard added gravitas to the situation. I looked at the lizard and he didn’t look rabid and I also took solace from the fact that the first piece of bread I had offered which he had successfully taken from me without biting me had perhaps cleaned his teeth up a little.

Anyway, we thought it best to leave and get back to town where we could wash out and clean my finger properly. I monitored myself on the way back for any signs of dizziness but all seemed ok and no one was looking at me like I was frothing at the mouth. In fact, I rode up front in the back of the jeep and started talking to a really friendly lady from the US called Clover. We chatted all the way back, which took my mind off my potential rabies.

When back in town, we bought some really cool oxidised antiseptic wash which squirted little bubbles out of my cut when I washed it out. It fizzed and hurt a little, so it was definitely doing its job. When back at the hostel, we perched ourselves at the water’s edge with a couple of beers. I decided to give the free yoga session a miss and have another beer instead, especially after my near death experience! 

Chilling with a beer and a dog friend back at the hostel. This platform is actually built on the river.

Later that night, we had dinner at the hostel and I toasted still being alive a good few times before hitting the hay, ready to face yet another epically long bus journey north to the Mayan Ruins of Tikal to search for a golden condor. 

Italian themed food night at the hostel, with lasagne and pizza and all those other things we've missed

Tikal

The estimated 7 hour journey took an uncomfortable 9, squeezed into a minivan with absolutely no leg room alongside amongst others, 6 horribly hungover loud welsh guys. One was proud to be carrying one of those old-school ‘satchels’ rather than a standard backpack, didn’t we know it. He was one of those short, loud, attention seeking whiney guys and he kept having hissy fits because his mates would hide his satchel whilst he was sleeping. Unfortunately I was next to this one and had to use my day pack as a buffer to stop him falling onto me in a hungover slumber. The only consolation for such a horrendous journey is, I think they found it worse!

Having finished my last great book ‘Marching Powder’ a true story about an English guy, Thomas MacFadden’s life in the unbelievingly corrupt San Pedro prison in La Paz, I was stuck with nothing to read either. Bad timing. 

The journey was slow, but eventually we got to Flores – a beautiful town set on an island in a huge lake and connected to the mainland only by a narrow road over the water and we found a great hostel with a view over the lake. Once we had shrugged off all the hawkers that rapidly surrounded us on arrival, we explored the place, bought some bits for lunch the next day at the Ruins and found a great place to eat called ‘Cool Beans’ which overlooked the water. We also coincidentally bumped into Clover, the lady we had met a few days ago in Semuc Champey, so we decided to eat together.

The next morning was an early 4:30am bus to the Ruins which were a couple of hours away. We turned down doing the sunrise tour which had left even earlier and instead opted to get there just after sunrise as this would allow us to go independently and be allowed to walk around at our own pace, not being part of a big group. Even though this was our plan, our bus load of people were still ushered into a group on arrival and were then assigned a person to take us around. We would then be expected to tip at the end. Sick to death of such tactics, we marched off at our own pace and left them to it.

Our early arrival meant that we did in fact get much of the place to ourselves. We had breakfast in the main plaza which had 2 spectacular temples at either end and ate our yoghurt to the sounds of monkeys and parrots. I even ate mine with a little flat stick rather than a spoon, partly because I’d forgotten one and I thought it might be more fitting of the ancient times!

I'm sure I saw Esteban hiding in the top of Temple 1 (C of G ref)

Temple 1 before anyone really got here

Eating breakfast in the Grand Plaza

Parrots and monkeys all around. This may be Coco Petal's descendent (C of G ref again)

Tikal ruins consist of 6 spectacular temples, each of which is just visible above the jungle canopy. It’s an absolutely stunning view from the top of the temples – in the words of V ’it’s fuckin Cities of Gold man’. 

In between the main temples are other smaller buildings, plazas, areas that either were used for sleeping, shopping or other religious purposes. You can walk through much of the old crumbling ruins and really lose yourself, but the pinnacle for me had to be looking out across the vast swaths of jungle from the top of Temple 4. Being able to look so far into the horizon at landscapes that have probably changed very little over 1000s of years gave me a sense of scale on the world that I have never really felt before. I then imagined us as this rock floating in space for billions of years, making the buildings of these temples and the Mayan civilisations, although obviously awesome also seem like such a tiny fragment across all of time. A proper ‘lunchbox’ moment as you say. I loved it. I could have stayed on the top of the temple all day.

Tops of the temples peaking through the dense jungle canopy

Tops of the skyrises peaking through the dense jungle canopy - Trivandrum, India where Allianz are based! (any resemblance?!)

Another favourite part was Temple 5. It was enormous, grand and quite overwhelming. I first saw it up ahead in the clearing lit up by the sun as I approached walking along the jungle path. It completely took my breath away. 

My beloved Temple 5. Absolutely stunning.

After 6 hours of temple gazing we headed back to the hostel for some lunch and a snooze. Although still early in the afternoon, we’d had a full morning. Later that evening we headed out for a few sunset beers at the water’s edge, which then turned into a few more before we eventually decided to eat out. The opportunity for garlic prawns in this cool restaurant we were in was so much more tempting than a baked potato with bearable beans back at the hostel. A much better way to toast our last night in Central America. Tomorrow it was our penultimate border crossing and across into Mexico.

Bye-bye Central America - last sunrise before Mexico!

There can never be too many volcanoes - Guatemala Part 1

Although we still have a good amount of time left out here, unfortunately it’s not enough to see and do everything. Being keen to leave sufficient time to explore a good proportion of Mexico, we decided to skip through Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador and head straight into Guatemala. We are in fact in Mexico now and I realise I’m a whole country behind in the blog, so I’m going to attempt to summarise our 10 days in Guatemala…

Antigua

Our first stop was Antigua, a beautiful colonial town with cobbled streets situated in the shadow of 3 looming volcanoes. After nearly 2 days of buses, the sight of the town and the warmth of the people that live there was really appreciated. So was the bar that had 3 shelves of sauces that you could choose from to accompany any one of the many sandwiches they offered. This is where we chose to replenish our hungry bellies and relax for our first afternoon. The music was authentic and the décor rustic with lots of terracotta walls and crumbling plaster. 

Hundreds and billions of sauces to try out on fried crispy plantains - heaven!

Volcan Agua, visible from Antigua's cobbled streets (and some very handy cloud passing by!)

The hostel was beautiful too with a great terrace over-looking the street that was filled with sofas and hammocks. That’s where we met Laundrie and Joela, from France and the US respectively who were taking Spanish classes in town. In fact, we joined them in their linguistic efforts and attempted to only talk in Spanish with each other. Amazingly, we managed to keep this up all evening, including over dinner too. It’s amazing how you can draw out conservations about what you are going to eat for so long!

The next day was another early start as we had booked ourselves onto a trip to climb Volcan Pacaya. This is the volcano that hit the news with its eruption back in March. Although now safe to climb, it is still massively active and some parts are hot enough to roast marshmallows over which I took full advantage of, and ate about 20. I never want to see another marshmallow again!

Gandalf pose

Marshmallow gorging pose - I think this may have been number 20 or so

Later that afternoon we took a trip through some of the amazingly colourful markets. Sprawling for what seemed like miles, ramshackle stalls, some of which are in the open air, some of which are undercover work together to form a labyrinth of different colours and smells. It took us 20 minutes to find the area where the vegetables are sold and then a further 20 minutes to find our way out of there! Everything you could ever need is sold here. I found a cage full of budgies and fell in love with one in particular, really wanting to take him with me! Sellers shout out their wares but are rarely pushy. The women are all really small but can amazingly carry such huge baskets of produce on their heads. I couldn’t even see one lady’s face as she was covered from head to toe with beetroots.

We picked up some veg for dinner but after a few beers back at the bar with the sauces, abandoned plans of cooking at the hostel and opted to eat out as it really is so cheap. We found a bar with some live music and without the accompanying xylophone which is played everywhere out here, being their national instrument. We ordered some food and over a few more beers decided that when we got home we were going to buy a budgie and called it Pretzal.

It was a great last night out but stupidly, not wanting to waste all the fresh veg we had brought earlier, opted to make our packs even heavier and carried it all the way to our next destination. 

Lake Atitlan

Lake Atitlan really was a whistle stop tour. This was mainly for the reason that we had booked in advance an excursion to climb Tajumulco, dormant volcano and highest peak in Central America in 2 days’ time not realising we’d have to be in the town nearest to the volcano a day earlier for a group briefing with the guides. To add to this, we had a bit of trouble getting our slightly hungover selves up and out of the hostel in Antigua in good time. 

This lack of foresight resulted in a 4 hour bus journey to the lake, getting there just as it got dark and the mosquitos came out, to then spend the night and the next morning there before having to jump on either a bus or a bus-boat combination for another 3 hours to get to Quetzaltenango (Xela for short) to make the briefing. 

To make the best of the logistical challenge we now faced, we decided we’d try to get up super early in the morning and get kayaks out for sunrise on the lake. We should have realised by the name ‘Mr Mullet’ that we’d booked a party hostel, but luckily it wasn’t too mental and we had a sober night in with the £1 of veg we had carted with us all the way from Antigua. A seriously amusing hostel though with the famous (or perhaps infamous) deal of your second night free, if you let them cut you a mullet. I have never seen so much bad hair about a place!

We were up at 5:30am and out on the lake by just after 6. It was so tranquil and although there was no spectacular sunrise, the early morning light and mist made everything look beautiful. The lake is surrounded by 8 unique little villages and we opted to paddle our way across in the kayak to San Marcos from our base of San Pedro. All the towns are very picturesque but unfortunately tourism has taken its toll on many, resulting in an alarming amount of hawkers and tour companies grappling for your business as soon as you arrive or in the case of San Marcos, the town has transgressed into a retreat for new age travellers and is a little too full of people in tie dye drinking carrot smoothies. I’m sure if you dig deep, you can find some genuineness to the place, but it did feel a little superficial in places. 

We had great fun in the kayak though and took some cereal and biscuits with us for a breakfast on the other side of the lake. The return journey was much harder as the wind had picked up, but biscuit power got us back. We had just enough time to shower, make a coffee and pack before it was back onto the bus and off to Xela. The 3 hour journey went by in a breeze on a very uncramped chicken bus, made even better by the most delicious milkshake I’ve ever had, prepared by a little Guatemalan lady with a blender at the roadside, and in the company of Behr from the US, a guy we made friends with on the bus and who must be related to Jim Carey. In fact, we’re still not convinced it wasn’t him!

The powerhouse at the rear!

Atmospheric jetty pose at Lake Atitlan

Trying to blend in at San Marcos

Beautiful Lake Atitlan in the morning

Quetzaltenango (Xela)

We got to Xela well in advance of our briefing and in enough time to grab lunch at a place called the Maya Café where a set lunch of 2 courses, a drink and a coffee put us back a whole £2 each! Still can’t get over how seriously cheap Guatemala is.

Fluent Spanish Tim reading the daily noticias antes de almuerzo

We found the tour company’s headquarters and met the guides who outlined what the 2 day trek would entail. The company is called Quetzaltrekkers. It’s a non-profit organisation and all the money goes towards helping under-privileged kids in the area. All the guides are volunteers and survive on tips alone. At the meeting we got to meet the other 9 people coming on the trek and organise loaning any equipment we may need such as head torches or extra warm layers as the trek was going to involve another sunrise mission to the summit. We were also all given some things that we’d have to take for the benefit of the group – parts of tents, poles, shit-kit etc. Together with this there was also food to share out and each of us had to take 5 litres of water. It was going to be a heavy pack!

We expected at the company’s office by 5am the next morning which meant yet another early start. We all arrived there bleary eyed and jumped in the back of a box van which took us to the bus terminal. It was then 2 buses to the start of the trail. The packs were seriously heavy, but I can’t complain as Tim, bless him ended up carrying a 6 man tent as his extra item and on top of that another 4 man tent because whoever was responsible for that had either managed to shun their duty or hadn’t been aware that this was the case. To lighten his load, I took the 2 kilos of Guacamole that was needed as part of the group lunch. Seriously, it weighed nearly as much as our tent! In fact, when we trek alone, due to all our research into finding such lightweight gear, our packs are usually less than half what they were for this trek. Oh well, we saw it as a challenge and a way to earn a good meal!

Off to climb the highest peak in Central America, but granted we started from quite a high altitude

Luckily the climb wasn’t too strenuous, partly because the start point was also at quite a high altitude. There were also a couple of people who haven’t trekked much so the pace was fairly laid back and we stopped often for breaks. 

The views over Guatemala were stunning

As the day progressed however, there was more and more cloud building and by the time we reached our end point for day 1, we only had 20 minutes to get the tents up before the heavens opened and we were hit by a pretty big storm. 

There was not much wind, but there was an awful lot of rain which started to pool on the top of the 6 man tent we were in. Fortunately a very waterproof outer shell kept us mostly dry but it was cold and dark and any plans of heading out to the craggy outcrop for sunset were abandoned! The thunder was intense and often the inside of the tent was lit up by lightning. It was exciting but I was also a bit scared, much to the amusement of the others seeing as though I had spent most of the day explaining my love of storms and trips out to the States!

The people we shared our tent with were really good fun and we managed to amuse ourselves for 6 hours straight, chatting, eating chocolate, sipping liquor and listening to a bit of music. The guides looked after us well and even managed to cook us all up some pasta which they served to us all inside our tents. Eventually we all decided to hit the hay. It was still raining a little and we hoped that when we were called upon at 3am for the climb to the summit all remnants of the storm would have passed.

We all managed to keep warm that night, snuggled up together and when the wake-up call came we were relieved to see that the sky was clear. In full auto-pilot mode we trudged up to the summit in convoy and all managed to all get up there in time for sunrise. 

Waiting for dawn to break on the top of Tajumulco, with Ben and Lizzie

It was one of the best sunrises I’ve ever seen. The view from the top was spectacular. You could see so many of Guatemala’s 36 volcanoes looming in the distance and the clouds made it look even more magical. The morning light was dazzling and it soon warmed our very cold bodies up allowing me to shed some of the many layers I was wearing including 2 coats and 3 pairs of gloves. We could even see the shadow of our volcano to the west. I tried to jump high enough to see my own, but couldn't quite make it that high!

Sun rising over layer upon layer of volcanoes - still can't get over this sight

Beautiful still...

The 'I'm on top of a volcano as the sun is rising, I'm so happy' dance

Aaarrrghhhh... time for a selfie... arrrrrggghh

Guess the real volcano? The other is our crazy arse shadow!

Walking around the rim of the crater back down to 'basecamp'!

When the sun was fully up we headed back to camp for a laid-back breakfast and hot drinks, before packing up and heading back down the volcano, where we ate lunch and a had well-earned beer at a local comedor. All the way down we chatted amongst ourselves. 

It was a really varied and interesting group. There was another English couple. She was lovely but he was a little overpowering and talked like Alex Winters; tall lanky Ben from Manchester who although he didn’t look it was a cage fighting vegetarian, a really sweet couple from Belgium who live in a squat and who find seasonal work such as picking fruit or cleaning that then allows them to travel for the remaining half of the year, a winey girl from Washington who had a really squashy face, a lovely Canadian girl who works as a biologist tracking animals in the forest, a Dutch guy and a guy from Mexico City who looked just like Rob from the Slug and Lettuce and was training to be a guide. 

I can’t recommend the company enough. We were really looked after and it was for such a good cause. Before we left, we donated a few bits of kit – my silk liner and Tim’s waterproof trousers. These are things we can pick up again if we need them in the future and Quetzaltrekkers are so grateful for any hand-outs. And hopefully, fingers crossed we shouldn’t be doing anything that cold again, although I’m sure we say that on a weekly basis!

Right, I’ve spent too long on the above, so the remaining Guatemalan wonders coming in the next post.