Sunday 26th May
After three days in Guatemala, I am now in Panajachel, about two hours drive west of Antigua. On Friday I arrived in Guatemala city, and discovered why most people tend to avoid the capital when they visit this country. It is a very busy and crowded place, full of poverty and dirt and although the manicness of the place didnt bother me - I can see how many people get overawed or intimidated by the place. That afternoon I headed one hour out of town to Antigua, a much more relaxed and pretty place where I found a nice place to stay and went out for a nice dinner with a nice girl. (nice) All and all, pretty nice! (think "The Fast Show".. right on!) The next morning I struggled back into tourist mode and after brunch in one of the many little places hidden behind the facade of buildings that all look the same, I booked a climb up one of the local volcanos, Pacaya for the afternoon.
As those of you that have been following these pages regularly might have realised, I have not had much luck with volcanos on this trip. In Pucon, Chile I got to within 100m of the summit of Villarica before being forced back by bad weather and in Banos, Equador I made it to the top of the climb in near whiteout conditions seeing a total of nothing further than about 100m off the track. Well after setting off in brilliant sunshine and sweating profusely, I stopped for the opportunity of taking a photo of the peak ahead of us. As I pulled out my camera, one of the guys in our group, Ben - an Australian ski instructor from Melbourne commented on my camera and as we chatted about the various merits of types of camera and lenses, the cloud rolled in and the previous clear view was replaced by a whole lot of white. Yah!
Luckily an hour later, about three minutes before we reached the summit, the cloud and mist cleared sufficiently for about 10 mins for us to peer into the crater and see the huge clouds of sulpherous gas billow up towards us. There was no luck with seeing the live magma bubbling away, but judging by the size of some of the rocks that had previously been spat out, I didnt mind too much. The trip down the mountain was great fun as we bounced down the scree slopes at breakneck speed and got down in about a third of the time it took to get up. I returned to my hostel pretty knackered but happy in the knowledge that there is no Latin American volcano conspiricy.
Today I am chilling out beside Lake Atitlan were the three volcanos that sit beside the lake provide magnificent vistas as you wander along its shores. Im back to Antigua tonight where I will once again fight the hordes of people trying to sell me spanish lessons and then relax in one of the many cafe/bars that this cool place has to offer.
Tuesday 28th May
After my day around lake Atitlan on Sunday I became acutley aware of the "Manana, Manana" attitude prevalent in Central America. The people here are seemingly much more affluent that the people in South America, and dont tend to be as keen as helping you as making more money. The whole service industry is very Americanised, which is not surprising based on the number of American tourists that are wandering around. Still, people are very friendly and after you tell them that you are not interested in them shining your sandles or selling you a bracelet they often stop for a chat anyway. My day on the lake, despite being messed around by these "relaxed" dudes, who cant tell the difference between 1.5 hours and .5 hours, was nice although the writers of the tourist brochures describing "the most beautiful lake in the world" should probably get around a bit more!
|
|
| The pretty Guatemalan town of Antigua |
Friday 31st May
On Wednesday, I clambered out of bed at the ridiculous hour of 4:00am to get the shuttle for my flight to Flores, which is an hours drive from the Mayan ruins of Tikal. Amazingly, everything went smoothly and I arrived on time to hook up with my tour of one of the largest ruins in Central America. I was in a group consisting of Americans, Guatemalans, Japanese and on guy from the Dominican Rupublic. As the only non-Spanish speaker of the tour, the guide although he spoke perfect English, took it upon himself to only occasionally let me know what was going on. Luckily the rest of the group translated for me, and I got a few tidbits about the ancient temples that we were exploring. The Mayans, unlike the Incas whose ruins I have been looking at through South America seem to have built massive structures mainly for ceremonies and worship and therefore lived in much more modest buildings than you would expect, given their constructional ability. As there is so much to see, we whizzed around the ruins for about four hours seeing all the main sights, many poking out of the jungle providing fantastic views of the surrounding area. Running up and down temples in the 35-40 degree heat eventually started to take its toll and after lunch and a short walk back to the tourist centre I found myself in desperate need of a siesta.
|
| The impressive Temple IV at Tikal |
Yesterday dawned fine and sunny and I wandered out into town and found a cafe for a nice breakfast in the sun. By the time I had finished, it was pouring with rain and I got soaked in my mad dash back to the hostel. It continued to rain all day so the Corpus Cristi celebrations that were going on in the main square got a bit dampened, but noone seemed overly concerned. I realised then that I hadnt seen a day of rain like this in about two months, when I was in Argentina, so it didnt concern me greatly either.
As tonight is my last night in Antigua I am going through all my gear packing up, and lamenting the loss of my hacky and trousers that somehow got left on the truck in Quito. I will miss the little cobblestone streets of Antigua and the relaxed way of life here - so shall make the last night one to remember, before my epic journey down under that sees me leave on Sunday morning to arrive fifty hours later on Tuesday. The next update will be from Oz.. see you there!
Click here for the continuation of my trip in Australia
Feel free to send any messages to me at ryananglem@hotmail.com