i've spent the past couple days putting pictures online. i took 2008, a perfect number. i probably only uploaded half of those for whatever reason. people don't want to see 20 pictures of the same thing.
Brandi Travels 2008 pictures
you can look at the pictures with a bigger size if you click on "all sizes"
you can click on individual pics or view the slideshow, which i like.
the sets are in chronological order if you want to view it that way.
however you view it, have fun and just imagine being there. it was great!
thanks for reading!!
7.28.2008
7.26.2008
home, finally
i thought i would sleep all day. after such a long journey home without much sleep you would think i COULD sleep all day, but that is not the case. at the first sign of light my body said "get out of bed" but i did not listen. i tossed and turned to find a good sleeping position. finally i just got out of bed because there are things i need to do. i am currently uploading my pictures (yay!) and figuring out how to best present them online. i will probably add a few to the blog but i want to be able to add a lot of pictures (i took probably around 2000), right now i'm thinking flickr.
so i am back in portland, back to the grind. i'll probably have to work monday but i need to get back into the swing of things. of course i have no food and i'm still in my pajamas. i am in serious need of a shower cause i've got my airplane grime on. mexicana airlines is pretty awesome, there is free food (i had chicken and rice, there was also pasta) and it's pretty good. also you don't have to pay for your luggage or headphones. everything is also in spanish and english. =)
i don't even want to think about unpacking and doing laundry, with my room in a crazy state from the packing chaos before my trip. but....i gotta do what i gotta do. first things first, shower. then, download and organize photos! YAY!
so i am back in portland, back to the grind. i'll probably have to work monday but i need to get back into the swing of things. of course i have no food and i'm still in my pajamas. i am in serious need of a shower cause i've got my airplane grime on. mexicana airlines is pretty awesome, there is free food (i had chicken and rice, there was also pasta) and it's pretty good. also you don't have to pay for your luggage or headphones. everything is also in spanish and english. =)
i don't even want to think about unpacking and doing laundry, with my room in a crazy state from the packing chaos before my trip. but....i gotta do what i gotta do. first things first, shower. then, download and organize photos! YAY!
7.24.2008
last day in antigua
i'm catching a shuttle to the airport in about 2 hours. we did a lot yesterday but mostly it was just relaxing and then running around town for last minute shopping and sightseeing. we went out to dinner last night at an italian place called quesos y vino (cheeses and wine) and it was pretty delicious except we got "flan" and it was not flan at all! it was kind of like a soft pound cake covered in liquor-soaked fruits with some cream on top. the cake and cream were good but the fruits...not so much. earlier in the day we sat at a coffee shop and had coffee and shared a yummy tres leches (3 milks) cake. yes, we had two cakes in one day. :)
we went to the big marketplace for the last time. they've got maybe a hundred stalls, some closed but many filled with all the same types things we've been seeing in guatemala. since they all have the same things they really try to sell to you. people have different approaches that work and don't. one approach was to say "wat chu like?!" and i would say that really didn't work. another guy tried to touch arna on the shoulder to get her to look at something. that definitely didn't work. most people say "hola" and then rattle off a list of what they have - bolsas (bags), table runners, coffee, blankets, hammocks (don't think i'll be carrying one of those home) and many other random things. i usually went to the stalls that either had no one in it or didn't say anything to me. i just don't like being harassed. we went into an actual store in town and the lady actually followed me around the whole store offering me everything! it was strange.
here you cannot just waltz into a bank, you have to stand outside and in some banks the guard is inside. you wait for him to open the door and he asks you what you're doing. this guard usually has a HUGE gun. i was kind of expecting that because hey, it's a bank and they have lots of money there. what is even weirder is that other places have guards with guns. big stores (understandable), little boutiques and restaurants. well actually restaurants is not the right description. fast food restaurants! burger king, pollo compero (like KFC) and subway all have guards with guns! why do they need guards? sure, maybe they get robbed but does that mean they need guns to enforce the law? i guess so.
at this point i am getting ready to leave. i packed up all the things i bought and brought. we just had our free breakfast and will probably just hang out for a couple hours. i really enjoyed traveling in mexico and guatemala. it really opened my eyes to different things. i knew that guatemala was not a rich country but i didn't really know much else. in many countries the traditions and culture take a back seat to progress and western industrialization but it seems that in guatemala it is not really the case. they kind of go hand in hand, if that's possible. most people have cell phones, yet wear the traditional clothing of woven textile skirts and blouses. aside from the big cities, food and household goods are purchased at the big markets and there are of course the lack of refrigerated meat and chicken shops.
i guess i learned a lot about what i usually take for granted. throwing toilet paper in the toilet (they use ceramic pipes here that have shifted from earthquakes so TP gets stuck on the jagged edges) and taking hot showers are everyday things i never think about. the fact that i've never had to beg for food/money or sell things at a market as a kid are biggies, as well as sleeping out in the street. of course there are a lot of homeless in portland that i see everyday but somehow it's different here. in the smaller towns it's not so much they are homeless, but have nothing. i've seen more of their country than i'm sure the majority of guatemalans will ever see, and for that i'm very lucky. it's a beautiful country (aside from the traffic exhaust) and i'll probably come back someday, after seeing the rest of the world.
traveling is so much fun and i'm sad i didn't get to keep going. arna is going to spanish school next week then traveling for another two months all the way down to panama. i have school in a few weeks so i must get back to my normal life. i won't have to live out of a backpack and wear slippers in the shower. i've been very lucky and i suppose part of it was being aware of my surroundings but i've never felt unsafe. perhaps it was because there were two of us and we never really walked around at night. everyone was really friendly and they say "hola" on the street, i will miss that. i was able to eat everything i wanted to and not get sick so that was a real bonus. aside from being a little laid up from my sore back in san pedro i have felt great. i ate tacos and fried chicken from little food stalls and a $2 steak breakfast at the market in chichi.
someday i'll get to do the round-the-world backpacking trip that i've always wanted to but this was a good way to whet my appetite for it, i guess. there were so many europeans and aussies traveling, not knowing where they were going next or how long they had. some people were going for a whole year. while it sounds crazy, it sounds awesome! you learn so much about people, culture and yourself when traveling. i will be back soon i hope.
time to go enjoy my last couple hours here. adios!
we went to the big marketplace for the last time. they've got maybe a hundred stalls, some closed but many filled with all the same types things we've been seeing in guatemala. since they all have the same things they really try to sell to you. people have different approaches that work and don't. one approach was to say "wat chu like?!" and i would say that really didn't work. another guy tried to touch arna on the shoulder to get her to look at something. that definitely didn't work. most people say "hola" and then rattle off a list of what they have - bolsas (bags), table runners, coffee, blankets, hammocks (don't think i'll be carrying one of those home) and many other random things. i usually went to the stalls that either had no one in it or didn't say anything to me. i just don't like being harassed. we went into an actual store in town and the lady actually followed me around the whole store offering me everything! it was strange.
here you cannot just waltz into a bank, you have to stand outside and in some banks the guard is inside. you wait for him to open the door and he asks you what you're doing. this guard usually has a HUGE gun. i was kind of expecting that because hey, it's a bank and they have lots of money there. what is even weirder is that other places have guards with guns. big stores (understandable), little boutiques and restaurants. well actually restaurants is not the right description. fast food restaurants! burger king, pollo compero (like KFC) and subway all have guards with guns! why do they need guards? sure, maybe they get robbed but does that mean they need guns to enforce the law? i guess so.
at this point i am getting ready to leave. i packed up all the things i bought and brought. we just had our free breakfast and will probably just hang out for a couple hours. i really enjoyed traveling in mexico and guatemala. it really opened my eyes to different things. i knew that guatemala was not a rich country but i didn't really know much else. in many countries the traditions and culture take a back seat to progress and western industrialization but it seems that in guatemala it is not really the case. they kind of go hand in hand, if that's possible. most people have cell phones, yet wear the traditional clothing of woven textile skirts and blouses. aside from the big cities, food and household goods are purchased at the big markets and there are of course the lack of refrigerated meat and chicken shops.
i guess i learned a lot about what i usually take for granted. throwing toilet paper in the toilet (they use ceramic pipes here that have shifted from earthquakes so TP gets stuck on the jagged edges) and taking hot showers are everyday things i never think about. the fact that i've never had to beg for food/money or sell things at a market as a kid are biggies, as well as sleeping out in the street. of course there are a lot of homeless in portland that i see everyday but somehow it's different here. in the smaller towns it's not so much they are homeless, but have nothing. i've seen more of their country than i'm sure the majority of guatemalans will ever see, and for that i'm very lucky. it's a beautiful country (aside from the traffic exhaust) and i'll probably come back someday, after seeing the rest of the world.
traveling is so much fun and i'm sad i didn't get to keep going. arna is going to spanish school next week then traveling for another two months all the way down to panama. i have school in a few weeks so i must get back to my normal life. i won't have to live out of a backpack and wear slippers in the shower. i've been very lucky and i suppose part of it was being aware of my surroundings but i've never felt unsafe. perhaps it was because there were two of us and we never really walked around at night. everyone was really friendly and they say "hola" on the street, i will miss that. i was able to eat everything i wanted to and not get sick so that was a real bonus. aside from being a little laid up from my sore back in san pedro i have felt great. i ate tacos and fried chicken from little food stalls and a $2 steak breakfast at the market in chichi.
someday i'll get to do the round-the-world backpacking trip that i've always wanted to but this was a good way to whet my appetite for it, i guess. there were so many europeans and aussies traveling, not knowing where they were going next or how long they had. some people were going for a whole year. while it sounds crazy, it sounds awesome! you learn so much about people, culture and yourself when traveling. i will be back soon i hope.
time to go enjoy my last couple hours here. adios!
7.23.2008
pacaya volcano
i climbed a volcano over 8000 ft high. well it wasn't that much of a hike because we drove up a long ways to the trail. still yet we were hiking pretty fast for a big group and it was pretty rocky just to get to the lava fields. we were following a horse as well so we had to avoid lots of poops. it was hard to pay attention to the beautiful scenery because you had to watch your step, and it was raining. it stopped enough to get a few pictures on the way up and when we got to the lava fields it stopped altogether.
i was surprised at the speed with which we walked on the lava fields, especially since we were a varied group with assorted footwear. when you are going on a "hike" to a volcano you would think that wearing actual shoes would be smart, eh? some people wore sandals, i could see their toes. other people wore converse and i couldn't even imagine wearing those to hike. there were sharp lava rocks and you had to climb up, down and over big rocks so i'm glad i brought good shoes.
at the top of the hike we were in the middle of a large lava field. it was pretty gross feeling because the warm volcanic air would blow from below and it felt like a sauna or stepping into a bathroom after someone took a hot shower (something we don't experience much here cause a HOT shower is rare). between blasts of hot, humid air we would get a cool breeze but mostly it felt like an oven. luckily we got to see red hot lava and the guides brought marshmallows and sticks to roast them on! i didn't partake in the volcanic marshmallow fest because she basically caught each one on fire and gave it out blackened, no thanks!
the views from the volcano were pretty awesome when the clouds/fog/vog cleared up enough. there was a pretty tall volcano next to pacaya that i'm glad we didn't climb because i think it was over 11,000 ft and looked like a cone, would've been a 45 degree angle climb! we went on an afternoon/sunset tour but by the time the sun was setting it was all clouded in so no sunset. it was also raining towards the end so it was a bummer but we never let a little rain bring the party down.
going down the volcano was pretty hard, with the sun going down and my knees wanting to give out. it was a long day and by the time we got back to antigua we popped into the first restaurant we passed and sat down. we were both tired and hungry and it didn't matter what was put in front of us, we would've ate it all. i had un-exciting (but nice and warm) spaghetti and arna had minestrone and garlic bread.
i was surprised at the speed with which we walked on the lava fields, especially since we were a varied group with assorted footwear. when you are going on a "hike" to a volcano you would think that wearing actual shoes would be smart, eh? some people wore sandals, i could see their toes. other people wore converse and i couldn't even imagine wearing those to hike. there were sharp lava rocks and you had to climb up, down and over big rocks so i'm glad i brought good shoes.
at the top of the hike we were in the middle of a large lava field. it was pretty gross feeling because the warm volcanic air would blow from below and it felt like a sauna or stepping into a bathroom after someone took a hot shower (something we don't experience much here cause a HOT shower is rare). between blasts of hot, humid air we would get a cool breeze but mostly it felt like an oven. luckily we got to see red hot lava and the guides brought marshmallows and sticks to roast them on! i didn't partake in the volcanic marshmallow fest because she basically caught each one on fire and gave it out blackened, no thanks!
the views from the volcano were pretty awesome when the clouds/fog/vog cleared up enough. there was a pretty tall volcano next to pacaya that i'm glad we didn't climb because i think it was over 11,000 ft and looked like a cone, would've been a 45 degree angle climb! we went on an afternoon/sunset tour but by the time the sun was setting it was all clouded in so no sunset. it was also raining towards the end so it was a bummer but we never let a little rain bring the party down.
going down the volcano was pretty hard, with the sun going down and my knees wanting to give out. it was a long day and by the time we got back to antigua we popped into the first restaurant we passed and sat down. we were both tired and hungry and it didn't matter what was put in front of us, we would've ate it all. i had un-exciting (but nice and warm) spaghetti and arna had minestrone and garlic bread.
7.21.2008
more randomness
random things about guatemala that are either funny, annoying, or interesting.
breaking a Q100 here is like pulling out a million dollar bill. it's roughly the equivalent of less than $15 but it's a big deal. you can even be paying for something that is Q40 and they will ask you for smaller bills. unfortunately when you get money from the bank it is usually Q100's and even if you ask for "biletes mas pequenos" they still don't want to give you all small bills. it's less than a $20!
cobblestone is a nice look. it's old and colonial and makes the towns look special but it's annoying to walk on! i've been close to breaking my ankles walking on the cobblestone, and there isn't much sidewalk here either. most of the towns have cobblestone roads and so i'm not sure if any cars last longer than 5 years. the amount of bouncing and wear on the car much be incredibly bad.
pollo frito (fried chicken) is the national dish, i think. everywhere you go there is fried chicken for sale. i even had some for breakfast today cause it was the easiest thing i could grab before taking the bus. someone said that it's pretty safe too because it's deep fried so that's a plus...not that i need an excuse to eat fried chicken! i've had it quite a few times here and it's been delicious.
refrigerator? what's that? to follow up the fried chicken story is the story of meat and chicken stores. they are called carnicerias and polloterias. they are regular stores placed at random intervals next to "normal" stores like ice cream shops or pharmacies. the weird thing is you just see meat hanging from hooks out in the open, flies buzzing around happily. chickens just laying on the counter, all in a row, yellowish skin and all. i guess it's not much different than china town but for some reason i think huge portions (like a leg or back) should be refrigerated properly. i just eat at restaurants naively believing that my meat/chicken came from a proper source, that way i can sleep.
"hello" is how people answer their phone here. i always expect to hear HOLA (silent H) and yet they are always saying hello. i'm gonna have to start answering with "hola" i suppose.
trash everywhere. it is a bit disturbing to see so much trash everywhere. driving along the roads you see trash, plastic bottles, candy wrappers and plastic bags. i think in mexico there was actual recycling cans in places but so far not in guatemala. people just litter everywhere and don't look around to see if anyone saw them. it's odd.
real glass bottles are what coca-cola and other soft drinks come in, especially at restaurants. they save the bottles then the company comes to collect the empties and that's how they get new ones. just like the old days! the bottles are all really old and used looking, it's actually kind of neat. i didn't know about this whole process before and just walked away from a restaurant in mexico with one. i got to my friend's house and he's like "how'd you take that away?" and i had no idea what he was talking about. i ended up returning the bottle so that i could go eat there the next day. :) soda is very popular here and they have plastic bottles at the store in HUGE sizes, like 3L. it's an incredibly big bottle and i'm not sure how they drink it all without losing the fizz. i even saw a 2L bottle that came attached with a bottle of rum! good idea.
breaking a Q100 here is like pulling out a million dollar bill. it's roughly the equivalent of less than $15 but it's a big deal. you can even be paying for something that is Q40 and they will ask you for smaller bills. unfortunately when you get money from the bank it is usually Q100's and even if you ask for "biletes mas pequenos" they still don't want to give you all small bills. it's less than a $20!
cobblestone is a nice look. it's old and colonial and makes the towns look special but it's annoying to walk on! i've been close to breaking my ankles walking on the cobblestone, and there isn't much sidewalk here either. most of the towns have cobblestone roads and so i'm not sure if any cars last longer than 5 years. the amount of bouncing and wear on the car much be incredibly bad.
pollo frito (fried chicken) is the national dish, i think. everywhere you go there is fried chicken for sale. i even had some for breakfast today cause it was the easiest thing i could grab before taking the bus. someone said that it's pretty safe too because it's deep fried so that's a plus...not that i need an excuse to eat fried chicken! i've had it quite a few times here and it's been delicious.
refrigerator? what's that? to follow up the fried chicken story is the story of meat and chicken stores. they are called carnicerias and polloterias. they are regular stores placed at random intervals next to "normal" stores like ice cream shops or pharmacies. the weird thing is you just see meat hanging from hooks out in the open, flies buzzing around happily. chickens just laying on the counter, all in a row, yellowish skin and all. i guess it's not much different than china town but for some reason i think huge portions (like a leg or back) should be refrigerated properly. i just eat at restaurants naively believing that my meat/chicken came from a proper source, that way i can sleep.
"hello" is how people answer their phone here. i always expect to hear HOLA (silent H) and yet they are always saying hello. i'm gonna have to start answering with "hola" i suppose.
trash everywhere. it is a bit disturbing to see so much trash everywhere. driving along the roads you see trash, plastic bottles, candy wrappers and plastic bags. i think in mexico there was actual recycling cans in places but so far not in guatemala. people just litter everywhere and don't look around to see if anyone saw them. it's odd.
real glass bottles are what coca-cola and other soft drinks come in, especially at restaurants. they save the bottles then the company comes to collect the empties and that's how they get new ones. just like the old days! the bottles are all really old and used looking, it's actually kind of neat. i didn't know about this whole process before and just walked away from a restaurant in mexico with one. i got to my friend's house and he's like "how'd you take that away?" and i had no idea what he was talking about. i ended up returning the bottle so that i could go eat there the next day. :) soda is very popular here and they have plastic bottles at the store in HUGE sizes, like 3L. it's an incredibly big bottle and i'm not sure how they drink it all without losing the fizz. i even saw a 2L bottle that came attached with a bottle of rum! good idea.
chichicastenango market
let me just say that the market was way more than i was expecting, and i was expecting a lot! we arrived in chichi on saturday and got a hotel, etc. we walked around the town, which was already getting busy. people were already trying to sell things, but not too aggressively. we walked in and out of the main market, which was right next to iglesia santo tomas, the church of the town. it was a big area, maybe two football fields, side by side. we walked up and down the rows and saw many different things being sold. in the outer stalls you have the more tourist-oriented items and deeper within are the locals stalls and food. we thought that this was going to be the market, and that the vendors would just fill in the stalls that were empty. there was a certain excitement in the air, like christmas! we slept early so we could get an early start on the day.
it rained throughout the night and i woke up worried that we´d have to do our shopping in the rain. i went back to sleep hoping all would be well. when i woke up the sky was clearing and i was ready...for haggling! first we took a quick trip around the market, which had grown overnight to the surrounding streets. what seemed to be confined to the town square grew to several blocks in every direction. it was incredible! all the stalls were still not set up at that time but it was very busy. we decided to get breakfast (for me) first. so we dove into the middle of the market, which was full of the locals. many girls making tortillas around tortilla stoves, a round flat metal piece over the fire. they would scoop up some of the dough, roll it in a ball, then pat it to perfectly round circles, then throw them on the stove. it was very intense. we walked down the middle of the food aisle and i probably looked lost because a lady said sit down and eat. she rattled off a bunch of things and i heard ¨carne asada¨ and ¨café¨ so i ordered that. i got rice, beans, steak, coffee and a nice stack of tortillas, for about two bucks. it was a good way to start the day and gain the energy that i would need.
i don´t quite remember what order we bought things in but i bought a lot of things. some for myself and some for others, but it was quite an experience. many of the stalls were the same, or similar. types of stalls included blankets/other fabrics, wooden or jade carved objects, bags, t-shirts that said guatemala/che, necklaces/jewelry, rocks (i still have no idea what they were selling these for), and crazy pants. this was only on the outer stalls, meant for tourists. as you went deeper into the market you could find traditional woven textiles, everyday household items (plastic piggy banks, hair gel, combs, jeans, telephones, etc), food, interesting herbs/spices, meat, shrimp, chicken, eggs, vegetables and more. it was an overwhelming treat for the senses, to say the least. while i didn´t find the need to buy any whole chickens (not refrigerated or anything) it did seem to be quite popular.
bargaining and haggling for goods is something that i´ve never done and don´t really like. at first it was weird and i didn´t really know what to ask for something, especially since they start at a price like Q90, which is like 13 bucks. so basically i´ve figured that you can say about half of what they quote and get pretty close to what they will sell to you for. i was minding my own business at one time when this lady comes up to me with a stack of fabrics on her shoulder. i see it and it looks nice, maybe something i´d want. so i casually ask how much, she says Q250. immediately i say no gracias, that´s way above my limit. then i just start to walk. i walk slowly at first cause maybe she´ll come down on the price. she drops it a little bit then as she follows me i get annoyed and walk faster. she followed me from one end of the market to the other, dropping the price every few steps. finally when she got to Q60 i agreed. from Q250 to Q60! i was very surprised and i didn´t really have to do much work except look like i didn´t care. the rest of my haggling wasn´t so easy but i got a bunch of deals and had a great time.
at the end of the day we were pretty bushed. we had to make a few trips to our hotel to drop off things during the day and it was located a couple blocks down a huge hill. we didn´t realize how high in elevation chichi was until we had to do this. i think chichi is at over 2000m, which is much more than we´re used to. we must have looked like out of shape gringos because old men carrying huge bundles on their heads would pass us going up the hill. how embarassing! on one of the trips down the hill i was accosted by three little kids. they were each selling something different and for about Q10 or so. it was very funny but annoying and when i got to my hotel they blocked my way. after awhile of playing around, i finally gave in and bought something stupid so they would leave. blah! the kids are all into it and pushy. i guess they have to eat too.
now we´re back in antigua for another three days then it´s time for me to head home. not much planned except a trip up a volcano and seeing lava (hopefully).
it rained throughout the night and i woke up worried that we´d have to do our shopping in the rain. i went back to sleep hoping all would be well. when i woke up the sky was clearing and i was ready...for haggling! first we took a quick trip around the market, which had grown overnight to the surrounding streets. what seemed to be confined to the town square grew to several blocks in every direction. it was incredible! all the stalls were still not set up at that time but it was very busy. we decided to get breakfast (for me) first. so we dove into the middle of the market, which was full of the locals. many girls making tortillas around tortilla stoves, a round flat metal piece over the fire. they would scoop up some of the dough, roll it in a ball, then pat it to perfectly round circles, then throw them on the stove. it was very intense. we walked down the middle of the food aisle and i probably looked lost because a lady said sit down and eat. she rattled off a bunch of things and i heard ¨carne asada¨ and ¨café¨ so i ordered that. i got rice, beans, steak, coffee and a nice stack of tortillas, for about two bucks. it was a good way to start the day and gain the energy that i would need.
i don´t quite remember what order we bought things in but i bought a lot of things. some for myself and some for others, but it was quite an experience. many of the stalls were the same, or similar. types of stalls included blankets/other fabrics, wooden or jade carved objects, bags, t-shirts that said guatemala/che, necklaces/jewelry, rocks (i still have no idea what they were selling these for), and crazy pants. this was only on the outer stalls, meant for tourists. as you went deeper into the market you could find traditional woven textiles, everyday household items (plastic piggy banks, hair gel, combs, jeans, telephones, etc), food, interesting herbs/spices, meat, shrimp, chicken, eggs, vegetables and more. it was an overwhelming treat for the senses, to say the least. while i didn´t find the need to buy any whole chickens (not refrigerated or anything) it did seem to be quite popular.
bargaining and haggling for goods is something that i´ve never done and don´t really like. at first it was weird and i didn´t really know what to ask for something, especially since they start at a price like Q90, which is like 13 bucks. so basically i´ve figured that you can say about half of what they quote and get pretty close to what they will sell to you for. i was minding my own business at one time when this lady comes up to me with a stack of fabrics on her shoulder. i see it and it looks nice, maybe something i´d want. so i casually ask how much, she says Q250. immediately i say no gracias, that´s way above my limit. then i just start to walk. i walk slowly at first cause maybe she´ll come down on the price. she drops it a little bit then as she follows me i get annoyed and walk faster. she followed me from one end of the market to the other, dropping the price every few steps. finally when she got to Q60 i agreed. from Q250 to Q60! i was very surprised and i didn´t really have to do much work except look like i didn´t care. the rest of my haggling wasn´t so easy but i got a bunch of deals and had a great time.
at the end of the day we were pretty bushed. we had to make a few trips to our hotel to drop off things during the day and it was located a couple blocks down a huge hill. we didn´t realize how high in elevation chichi was until we had to do this. i think chichi is at over 2000m, which is much more than we´re used to. we must have looked like out of shape gringos because old men carrying huge bundles on their heads would pass us going up the hill. how embarassing! on one of the trips down the hill i was accosted by three little kids. they were each selling something different and for about Q10 or so. it was very funny but annoying and when i got to my hotel they blocked my way. after awhile of playing around, i finally gave in and bought something stupid so they would leave. blah! the kids are all into it and pushy. i guess they have to eat too.
now we´re back in antigua for another three days then it´s time for me to head home. not much planned except a trip up a volcano and seeing lava (hopefully).
7.19.2008
random thoughts
some things i´ve been thinking about...
driving in guatemala is dangerous. there are cetain rules to the road, like bigger vehicles get the right of way. they tend to honk a lot here, not as a ¨get out of the way¨ honk but ¨i´m coming so watch out¨. mostly it´s a friendly honk. there are stop signs but it seems they don´t always mean stop. as a pedestrian you have to be ultra-careful when crossing the street. luckily a lot of roads are one-way. sometimes there aren´t any lines in the road to make separate lanes but everyone seems to know where they are.
chicken buses are fun. well about as fun as a ride on a greyhound bus, but way cheaper. all buses have two workers, the driver and his assistant. the assistant helps get people´s belongings up on the roof (we keep ours on our laps though), he keeps track of who gets on and where they are going, he collects money, and he climbs up on the roof to get their belongings when their stop is coming up (even if the bus is still moving). people just keep getting on the bus, it´s a regular school but with little people sized seats but sometimes people are sitting three (adults) to a seat. people stand if they have to and i´m just glad we got on at the first stop so we didn´t have to. it is a fun way to travel though and you are with the locals, doing what they do. it was Q25 for a ride here (chichi) from xela and looking at a shuttle bus (no more than 12 ppl) it was over Q100.
eating in restaurants in the states usually means no one will bother you or try to sell you something while you are eating. not the case here. you can be totally eating your meal and someone will come up trying to sell bracelets, dolls or candy. it doesn´t seem to bother the restauranteur at all because they let everyone in. there was someone begging for money once. it´s annoying because you can´t just say ¨no gracias¨, you have to say it a few times. interesting.
haggling is the way. we walked through chichi with a little preview of tomorrow´s big market. many of the stalls are already set up and people are trying to sell some things. i went to look at a pair of ¨crazy pants¨ as i call them, colorful comfortable looking pants, and the girl said Q85 at first. i was sucked in and she was showing me all these different ones. then i said i was just looking and she lowered the price a little and said ¨tomorow it will be more¨ and i said i had to go get money from my hotel. so we started walking away and the other lady, i´m guessing her mom, says Q60. we walked farther and i heard them say Q50 then Q45! i´m definitely going back and naming my price, now that i know how low they will go. i kind of feel bad but i guess that´s what they do here.
driving in guatemala is dangerous. there are cetain rules to the road, like bigger vehicles get the right of way. they tend to honk a lot here, not as a ¨get out of the way¨ honk but ¨i´m coming so watch out¨. mostly it´s a friendly honk. there are stop signs but it seems they don´t always mean stop. as a pedestrian you have to be ultra-careful when crossing the street. luckily a lot of roads are one-way. sometimes there aren´t any lines in the road to make separate lanes but everyone seems to know where they are.
chicken buses are fun. well about as fun as a ride on a greyhound bus, but way cheaper. all buses have two workers, the driver and his assistant. the assistant helps get people´s belongings up on the roof (we keep ours on our laps though), he keeps track of who gets on and where they are going, he collects money, and he climbs up on the roof to get their belongings when their stop is coming up (even if the bus is still moving). people just keep getting on the bus, it´s a regular school but with little people sized seats but sometimes people are sitting three (adults) to a seat. people stand if they have to and i´m just glad we got on at the first stop so we didn´t have to. it is a fun way to travel though and you are with the locals, doing what they do. it was Q25 for a ride here (chichi) from xela and looking at a shuttle bus (no more than 12 ppl) it was over Q100.
eating in restaurants in the states usually means no one will bother you or try to sell you something while you are eating. not the case here. you can be totally eating your meal and someone will come up trying to sell bracelets, dolls or candy. it doesn´t seem to bother the restauranteur at all because they let everyone in. there was someone begging for money once. it´s annoying because you can´t just say ¨no gracias¨, you have to say it a few times. interesting.
haggling is the way. we walked through chichi with a little preview of tomorrow´s big market. many of the stalls are already set up and people are trying to sell some things. i went to look at a pair of ¨crazy pants¨ as i call them, colorful comfortable looking pants, and the girl said Q85 at first. i was sucked in and she was showing me all these different ones. then i said i was just looking and she lowered the price a little and said ¨tomorow it will be more¨ and i said i had to go get money from my hotel. so we started walking away and the other lady, i´m guessing her mom, says Q60. we walked farther and i heard them say Q50 then Q45! i´m definitely going back and naming my price, now that i know how low they will go. i kind of feel bad but i guess that´s what they do here.
colonial church tour
we went on a colonial church tour with ivan. it was just arna and i in the company car. he asked if we wanted the tour in spanish but we weren´t quite ready for that. i had read about this church in san andrés xecul and was definitely curious. i call it the crazy church and had to see it. the tour was a little more than just seeing churches though because that sounds a little strange. who wants to go look at old churches all afternoon?
first we went to the town of salcaja, which was 10 minutes outside of xela. the church there was called iglesia conquistador because it was the first church built in guatemala, by the spanish conquistadors. it was pretty simple and small but old. the church was mostly white with some yellow and red. there were bananas painted on the front to symbolize how they first got people to go to church. the people were all mayan and when the spanish brought catholicism to guatemala they had to bribe the people to church by giving them bananas when they left. i thought that was funny, but it probably would´ve worked on me. ¡) it was built almost 500 years ago and the foundation is still mostly intact and has survived a number of earthquakes and wars.
next to the church was a random door in a building. ivan knocked on it and a lady opened up and we climbed the narrowest stairs up to the textile making shop. a man was working on a weaving machine with these traditional guatemalan/mayan textiles. it is hard to explain but there were maybe a thousand threads on the machine with a certain pattern of black and white. ivan explained the process as starting with long white threads. they tie little strings in certain places to make a pattern and then dye it, like tie-dye. we looked at these so-called patterns and they looked very random. the weaver was showing us a pattern of 3 women that he created by using different colored weaving threads. he even let me try my hand at it! it was hard because you use both legs (to switch from one set of strings to the other) and both hands (to slide the colored thread back and forth). even with the best concentration i messed it up and i let the colored thread slide all the way out of the machine! oops. it was pretty fun though. he said he makes about US$7/day and it takes him 2 months to create a whole roll of the fabric. very monotonous work but in the end it makes a beautiful textile. downstairs we tried some of this fruity rum-liquor made from local fruits. it was good and tasted like dessert wine i suppose.
the next town we visited was san andrés xecul. the church here is called iglesia amarilla (yellow) because it is painted bright yellow with vines, saints, angels and animals on the front. this church is not as old but the story behind the crazy colors is that the catholics let the new mayan church goers paint it to depict heaven. in the mayan culture, nature is thought of to represent heaven. i thought it was a pretty interesting thought, especially since the mayans adopted catholicism pretty widespread throughout. there are churches everywhere and the mayans seem to have integrated catholicism into their own religion and tradition. some mayan ceremonies include the sign of the cross. another interesing thing we got to see was san símon, a religious statue that originated as maxímon, a mayan god of sorts. he is worshipped for many things now and people make offerings of all kinds (money, cigars, clothes, candles, beer) and he is very popular. we saw him after the church and it was a very strange sight. i was not expecting a white man with a moustache but that´s precisely what he was! he was sitting on a chair with a cowboy hat and cigar in his mouth, with different kinds of clothes and some candles burning. around him were pictures of catholic symbolism as well as more offerings. it was cool to see how the mayan and catholic religions merged in this culture.
the last town we went to was san cristobal (saint christopher) who is the saint of travelers. they were setting up for a week-long festival and it seemed the town was very eagerly awaiting it, so much that they started setting up and selling things already. we tried some banana chips, sliced longwise and deep fried. there isn´t much that isn´t better deep fried! the church itself was magnificent, probably the nicest of the 3 and we walked inside as well. it was very large and just beautifully ornate, i guess like most catholic churches.
it was a very fun tour and we could ask ivan anything since we were the only ones on the tour. we took as long as we wanted and took tons of pictures (to come later of course). it was a great way to spend the afternoon, away from the city and learning a bit about the arts and history of guatemala. now i fully appreciate all the work that goes into the making of the skirts that the women in guatemala wear. he said they last for long time and i can guess they don´t own too many but everyone wears them. there are some women in western clothing but that is mostly in the city and still not too many. the men mostly all wear western clothes.
first we went to the town of salcaja, which was 10 minutes outside of xela. the church there was called iglesia conquistador because it was the first church built in guatemala, by the spanish conquistadors. it was pretty simple and small but old. the church was mostly white with some yellow and red. there were bananas painted on the front to symbolize how they first got people to go to church. the people were all mayan and when the spanish brought catholicism to guatemala they had to bribe the people to church by giving them bananas when they left. i thought that was funny, but it probably would´ve worked on me. ¡) it was built almost 500 years ago and the foundation is still mostly intact and has survived a number of earthquakes and wars.
next to the church was a random door in a building. ivan knocked on it and a lady opened up and we climbed the narrowest stairs up to the textile making shop. a man was working on a weaving machine with these traditional guatemalan/mayan textiles. it is hard to explain but there were maybe a thousand threads on the machine with a certain pattern of black and white. ivan explained the process as starting with long white threads. they tie little strings in certain places to make a pattern and then dye it, like tie-dye. we looked at these so-called patterns and they looked very random. the weaver was showing us a pattern of 3 women that he created by using different colored weaving threads. he even let me try my hand at it! it was hard because you use both legs (to switch from one set of strings to the other) and both hands (to slide the colored thread back and forth). even with the best concentration i messed it up and i let the colored thread slide all the way out of the machine! oops. it was pretty fun though. he said he makes about US$7/day and it takes him 2 months to create a whole roll of the fabric. very monotonous work but in the end it makes a beautiful textile. downstairs we tried some of this fruity rum-liquor made from local fruits. it was good and tasted like dessert wine i suppose.
the next town we visited was san andrés xecul. the church here is called iglesia amarilla (yellow) because it is painted bright yellow with vines, saints, angels and animals on the front. this church is not as old but the story behind the crazy colors is that the catholics let the new mayan church goers paint it to depict heaven. in the mayan culture, nature is thought of to represent heaven. i thought it was a pretty interesting thought, especially since the mayans adopted catholicism pretty widespread throughout. there are churches everywhere and the mayans seem to have integrated catholicism into their own religion and tradition. some mayan ceremonies include the sign of the cross. another interesing thing we got to see was san símon, a religious statue that originated as maxímon, a mayan god of sorts. he is worshipped for many things now and people make offerings of all kinds (money, cigars, clothes, candles, beer) and he is very popular. we saw him after the church and it was a very strange sight. i was not expecting a white man with a moustache but that´s precisely what he was! he was sitting on a chair with a cowboy hat and cigar in his mouth, with different kinds of clothes and some candles burning. around him were pictures of catholic symbolism as well as more offerings. it was cool to see how the mayan and catholic religions merged in this culture.
the last town we went to was san cristobal (saint christopher) who is the saint of travelers. they were setting up for a week-long festival and it seemed the town was very eagerly awaiting it, so much that they started setting up and selling things already. we tried some banana chips, sliced longwise and deep fried. there isn´t much that isn´t better deep fried! the church itself was magnificent, probably the nicest of the 3 and we walked inside as well. it was very large and just beautifully ornate, i guess like most catholic churches.
it was a very fun tour and we could ask ivan anything since we were the only ones on the tour. we took as long as we wanted and took tons of pictures (to come later of course). it was a great way to spend the afternoon, away from the city and learning a bit about the arts and history of guatemala. now i fully appreciate all the work that goes into the making of the skirts that the women in guatemala wear. he said they last for long time and i can guess they don´t own too many but everyone wears them. there are some women in western clothing but that is mostly in the city and still not too many. the men mostly all wear western clothes.
7.18.2008
where, oh where...
have my lungs gone!?
one of the things i´ve noticed here in guatemala (especially xela) is the horrible air quality. while we were driving through the countryside it was beautiful with fresh air but here in the city, black smoke everywhere. i think it´s because all the cars are old and maybe use bad gasolina. i have no idea but it´s kind of hard to breathe here and i´m not sure how anyone makes it past the age of five breathing in this air. all my boogers are black and i feel like my throat and lungs burn. i am really glad i am leaving xela tomorrow so i can breathe a little easier. antigua was also a city with lots of cars but not as bad as here. there are many cars, taxis and motorcycles here and all could use a safety check of sorts. there aren´t many buses in the city proper but at the main bus terminal there were hundreds of chicken buses, all with their engines on, pouring the thick black stuff into the air.
enough about my lungs, luckily i get to leave soon and get back to the clean oregon air. last night we had dinner at tacos no más, a recommended restaurant in the guidebook. i swear some of these places pay the guidebook author to include them in the book. while my burrito was fine and tasty (but small), arna´s enchilada was not so much. the sauce was really gritty and there was chicken but you really couldn´t tell. plus, they added strips of what looked like kraft cheese or velveeta on top. real cheesy. i suppose you can´t really complain for a meal that costs less than $3 but...oh well. i had a pretty good lunch today, went to this little café run by a mother-daughter team and had the menú del diá. it was carne asada with vegetables and veg soup and tortillas. i´m really going to miss the fresh tortillas here! they are nothing like store-bought tortillas.
we found this panadería (bread shop) a few blocks away and went there to get some desayuno (breakfast) and they have pizza! i was in heaven, 2 slices for about $2, awesome. what a genius idea, who doesn´t love pizza for breakfast?! we are about to go on a tour of colonial churches and visit a popular bizarro yellow church. i can´t wait to post pictures. i might have to make two photo albums, one of places and the other of food. haha i am trying to eat as much as possible to experience it all. i always have eaten very fast but here i notice it even more because they eat slower here. i think they really enjoy eating and it´s a real social thing. in the states you get your check as soon as you´re done, or even before. here you have to ask for it, "la cuenta por favor" and even so you won´t get it for awhile. i think people commonly stay at the restaurant for a long time after finishing. i´m trying to eat slower but when it´s good you just want to eat! chewing food more times does NOT make it taste better.
one of the things i´ve noticed here in guatemala (especially xela) is the horrible air quality. while we were driving through the countryside it was beautiful with fresh air but here in the city, black smoke everywhere. i think it´s because all the cars are old and maybe use bad gasolina. i have no idea but it´s kind of hard to breathe here and i´m not sure how anyone makes it past the age of five breathing in this air. all my boogers are black and i feel like my throat and lungs burn. i am really glad i am leaving xela tomorrow so i can breathe a little easier. antigua was also a city with lots of cars but not as bad as here. there are many cars, taxis and motorcycles here and all could use a safety check of sorts. there aren´t many buses in the city proper but at the main bus terminal there were hundreds of chicken buses, all with their engines on, pouring the thick black stuff into the air.
enough about my lungs, luckily i get to leave soon and get back to the clean oregon air. last night we had dinner at tacos no más, a recommended restaurant in the guidebook. i swear some of these places pay the guidebook author to include them in the book. while my burrito was fine and tasty (but small), arna´s enchilada was not so much. the sauce was really gritty and there was chicken but you really couldn´t tell. plus, they added strips of what looked like kraft cheese or velveeta on top. real cheesy. i suppose you can´t really complain for a meal that costs less than $3 but...oh well. i had a pretty good lunch today, went to this little café run by a mother-daughter team and had the menú del diá. it was carne asada with vegetables and veg soup and tortillas. i´m really going to miss the fresh tortillas here! they are nothing like store-bought tortillas.
we found this panadería (bread shop) a few blocks away and went there to get some desayuno (breakfast) and they have pizza! i was in heaven, 2 slices for about $2, awesome. what a genius idea, who doesn´t love pizza for breakfast?! we are about to go on a tour of colonial churches and visit a popular bizarro yellow church. i can´t wait to post pictures. i might have to make two photo albums, one of places and the other of food. haha i am trying to eat as much as possible to experience it all. i always have eaten very fast but here i notice it even more because they eat slower here. i think they really enjoy eating and it´s a real social thing. in the states you get your check as soon as you´re done, or even before. here you have to ask for it, "la cuenta por favor" and even so you won´t get it for awhile. i think people commonly stay at the restaurant for a long time after finishing. i´m trying to eat slower but when it´s good you just want to eat! chewing food more times does NOT make it taste better.
7.17.2008
xelajú
quetzaltenango, aka xela (shay-la) is the 2nd biggest city in guatemala and used to be the capitol. we just arrived and haven´t really explored yet but it´s a pretty popular place. we had our first guatemalan chicken bus experience and it really wasn´t bad at all. chicken buses are old US school buses painted over and put to good use here. each bus only goes between two towns but picks up many passengers along the way. i´ve heard and seen buses being full to the brim but ours from san pedro to xela never had more than 20 passengers at a time. it was painted in bright colors and had sayings all over about jesus and cristo. there was cool red-orange-yellow pinstriping on the inside and it felt all pimped out. the ride was less than the 3 hours we were expecting so it was nice. the only bad thing was a man selling ceviche, which just smelled bad. well it kind of smelled like lomi salmon but stronger.
last night we ate dinner at a place called the buddha. it was a mix of asian, fusion and vegetarian food. there were a lot of curry options but i had to go with pad thai, of course! i got it with tofu and while it was a little different, it had a good flavor and kick. arna got phó with a side of rice because she was still feeling nauseous. there was actually a whole other part of san pedro that we hadn´t explored that i think a lot of gringos hang out by. we saw a gal we rode on a minibus with from flores to lanquin. she was staying at the same hotel as us. the 4th floor of the hotel was like most buildings in the area and used mostly for hanging clothes, but it had an awesome view of the lake so i sat up there quite a bit to relax.
it was nice to get here before noon because we got our room, got some money, ice cream (arna) and lunch (me). i had some kind of guatemalan chicken with mushroom dish. i´m not sure how to describe the taste but it was good, and there was a tiny salad of beets on a tortilla chip with onions, yummy! i also got a pineapple licuado drink, which is like a smoothie.
i write quite a bit about food but i´m trying to eat as much as i can. my spanish journaling is becoming easier and i don´t have to look up as many words. typing on these keyboards is hard because some buttons are in different places and there are other ones like the ñ. my spanish listening skills are getting better, the taxi driver was asking me if i was "japones" and said there were a lot here in xela. then he was pointing this way and tha and saying different things about restaurants and where they live. hmmm...i can seek out more good guatemalan japanese food. so far i haven´t been impressed with guatemalan food itself. i guess that´s why i´ve never come across a guatemalan restaurant before, it´s always mexican. mexican is so much more flavorful and has the picante (spicy) to it. i think we´re getting tacos tonight!
when you say "salsa" here it means sauce, so you have to ask for salsa picante if you want hot sauce. also, all the salsa so far has been smooth. it´s good to try all kinds of salsa! i´m used to the emerald valley organic salsa which is really chunky, which i love, but i´m getting used to the smooth. you really can´t go wrong with salsa! mmm...
last night we ate dinner at a place called the buddha. it was a mix of asian, fusion and vegetarian food. there were a lot of curry options but i had to go with pad thai, of course! i got it with tofu and while it was a little different, it had a good flavor and kick. arna got phó with a side of rice because she was still feeling nauseous. there was actually a whole other part of san pedro that we hadn´t explored that i think a lot of gringos hang out by. we saw a gal we rode on a minibus with from flores to lanquin. she was staying at the same hotel as us. the 4th floor of the hotel was like most buildings in the area and used mostly for hanging clothes, but it had an awesome view of the lake so i sat up there quite a bit to relax.
it was nice to get here before noon because we got our room, got some money, ice cream (arna) and lunch (me). i had some kind of guatemalan chicken with mushroom dish. i´m not sure how to describe the taste but it was good, and there was a tiny salad of beets on a tortilla chip with onions, yummy! i also got a pineapple licuado drink, which is like a smoothie.
i write quite a bit about food but i´m trying to eat as much as i can. my spanish journaling is becoming easier and i don´t have to look up as many words. typing on these keyboards is hard because some buttons are in different places and there are other ones like the ñ. my spanish listening skills are getting better, the taxi driver was asking me if i was "japones" and said there were a lot here in xela. then he was pointing this way and tha and saying different things about restaurants and where they live. hmmm...i can seek out more good guatemalan japanese food. so far i haven´t been impressed with guatemalan food itself. i guess that´s why i´ve never come across a guatemalan restaurant before, it´s always mexican. mexican is so much more flavorful and has the picante (spicy) to it. i think we´re getting tacos tonight!
when you say "salsa" here it means sauce, so you have to ask for salsa picante if you want hot sauce. also, all the salsa so far has been smooth. it´s good to try all kinds of salsa! i´m used to the emerald valley organic salsa which is really chunky, which i love, but i´m getting used to the smooth. you really can´t go wrong with salsa! mmm...
7.16.2008
sunny days,
sweeping the clouds away...
it´s a gorgeous day on the lake and i´m here at the internet cafe. i´ve been up for over 3 hours and already read, wrote in my journal and sat in the sun. it´s not that i´m bored but i feel the need to do something. maybe i´ll rent a kayak today.
my back is feeling a thousand times better and i´m thinking i just needed to rest it. i ended up not eating tacos last night because at about 6:30 or so the power went out. not only in our hotel, but the whole town of san pedro. so we were in the dark and nothing was open. luckily, a lady set up a little grill outside our hotel and was selling bbq chicken or steak for Q7. it came with guacamole, 3 tortillas, salsa and some beans. it was delicious and the chicken was crispy. she made the guac right there and it was fresh as could be. it was dark so i didn´t see any flies around the meat or anything like that. =P
since it was dark our hotel put out some candles and i wrote in my journal by headlamp. it was quite exciting. the power came on again at about 9 or so but i was already heading to bed. early mornings and early nights, what have i become? today will be more of the same and i´m looking forward to those cheap tacos for lunch. it´s all about the food.
it´s a gorgeous day on the lake and i´m here at the internet cafe. i´ve been up for over 3 hours and already read, wrote in my journal and sat in the sun. it´s not that i´m bored but i feel the need to do something. maybe i´ll rent a kayak today.
my back is feeling a thousand times better and i´m thinking i just needed to rest it. i ended up not eating tacos last night because at about 6:30 or so the power went out. not only in our hotel, but the whole town of san pedro. so we were in the dark and nothing was open. luckily, a lady set up a little grill outside our hotel and was selling bbq chicken or steak for Q7. it came with guacamole, 3 tortillas, salsa and some beans. it was delicious and the chicken was crispy. she made the guac right there and it was fresh as could be. it was dark so i didn´t see any flies around the meat or anything like that. =P
since it was dark our hotel put out some candles and i wrote in my journal by headlamp. it was quite exciting. the power came on again at about 9 or so but i was already heading to bed. early mornings and early nights, what have i become? today will be more of the same and i´m looking forward to those cheap tacos for lunch. it´s all about the food.
7.15.2008
san pedro, lago de atitlan
yesterday i kind of tweaked my back, nothing serious but i think it's just my body's way of saying "slow down and enjoy the lake" so i did. i went and got a massage from this french lady. she did these deep breathing things and was very into the massage. it was my first professional one and an interesting experience. it felt really nice and i only got ticklish a few times on the feet. after that we were walking back to the hotel when we passed a sign that said japanese food! of course i'm totally interested and we walk down this path through some coffee trees and around a corner and to this soccer field. there is a game going on and a ton of people watching, all locals of course. we're not really sure where the restaurant is and people keep staring so we pretend to watch the game. of course, it's "futbol" here. finally we see a little sign for the place and go there. it's this cute little japanese lady who lives here and speaks flawless spanish. we sit and i order miso soup and curry with chicken. arna gets ice cream. let me just say that it was amazing! the soup had lots of green onions, carrots and tofu. it hit the spot after that massage. my curry was also muy bueno! it was definitely better than lots of curries i've had and had a ton of veggies. who would've thought, good japanese food in guatemala!
after that we went back and took a siesta. my back was feeling sad and so i had to rest. the bed luckily was nice and firm. you never really know what you're getting when you get cheap accomodations but this one was really nice. i woke up for dinner at 7 and we headed to an italian place (one of two in this small town) for wood fired pizza. it was delicioso! i got a pizza with artichokes hearts, olives, garlic, ham and mushrooms and had a nice bottle of gallo, of course. perfecto! they were playing "juno" downstairs with a captive audience. a lot of eateries around here play movies nightly. "p.s. i love you" is playing somewhere tonight. after that nice meal we pretty much went to sleep. it rained throughout the night and when we woke up it was nice and sunny.
we packed up our things and headed out to san pedro, the next town on the lake. san p is the second most popular town on the lake after pana. it's more laid back with less people and is only really busy right by the dock. i did a lot of walking around by myself today because arna isn't feeling well. so i've seen most of the town and people are really friendly. i've seen the same "pan" lady about 6 times today and she asks if i want bread everytime! in fact, she's right outside the internet cafe right now! haha i've learned to say "no, gracias" really well. there are always people trying to get you to buy something or help you find a place to stay. once you get off the boat it's "hotel ___?" or "kayaks?" or "taxi?". even though most of these towns are so small you don't need a taxi.
i sat outside on the deck of our hotel overlooking the water for awhile this morning. i started reading david sedaris "naked" and it's hilarious! a lady was standing in the lake washing a bunch of clothes by hand. she rubbed soap on them then scrubbed then rinsed about 3 loads worth of laundry and it took maybe 2+ hours. all the while her kids were playing in the water. all along the lake shore people were doing the same, even bathing in the lake. i can't imagine having to do laundry like that. i would probably never wash my clothes! :) for lunch i walked around a lot and didn't find much that interested me. i ended up at a place near the dock which was fusion food and settled on thai green curry with chicken. i guess i'm in a curry mood. it was really amazing actually and hit the spot. i'll probably go for tacos tonight at this place down the street, 3 tacos for Q10 (about $1.50). i'll probably end up eating 6 or so. we're staying here in san pedro for two nights so a lot more relaxing, reading and eating to do. what a life! i'm loving guatemala.
after that we went back and took a siesta. my back was feeling sad and so i had to rest. the bed luckily was nice and firm. you never really know what you're getting when you get cheap accomodations but this one was really nice. i woke up for dinner at 7 and we headed to an italian place (one of two in this small town) for wood fired pizza. it was delicioso! i got a pizza with artichokes hearts, olives, garlic, ham and mushrooms and had a nice bottle of gallo, of course. perfecto! they were playing "juno" downstairs with a captive audience. a lot of eateries around here play movies nightly. "p.s. i love you" is playing somewhere tonight. after that nice meal we pretty much went to sleep. it rained throughout the night and when we woke up it was nice and sunny.
we packed up our things and headed out to san pedro, the next town on the lake. san p is the second most popular town on the lake after pana. it's more laid back with less people and is only really busy right by the dock. i did a lot of walking around by myself today because arna isn't feeling well. so i've seen most of the town and people are really friendly. i've seen the same "pan" lady about 6 times today and she asks if i want bread everytime! in fact, she's right outside the internet cafe right now! haha i've learned to say "no, gracias" really well. there are always people trying to get you to buy something or help you find a place to stay. once you get off the boat it's "hotel ___?" or "kayaks?" or "taxi?". even though most of these towns are so small you don't need a taxi.
i sat outside on the deck of our hotel overlooking the water for awhile this morning. i started reading david sedaris "naked" and it's hilarious! a lady was standing in the lake washing a bunch of clothes by hand. she rubbed soap on them then scrubbed then rinsed about 3 loads worth of laundry and it took maybe 2+ hours. all the while her kids were playing in the water. all along the lake shore people were doing the same, even bathing in the lake. i can't imagine having to do laundry like that. i would probably never wash my clothes! :) for lunch i walked around a lot and didn't find much that interested me. i ended up at a place near the dock which was fusion food and settled on thai green curry with chicken. i guess i'm in a curry mood. it was really amazing actually and hit the spot. i'll probably go for tacos tonight at this place down the street, 3 tacos for Q10 (about $1.50). i'll probably end up eating 6 or so. we're staying here in san pedro for two nights so a lot more relaxing, reading and eating to do. what a life! i'm loving guatemala.
7.14.2008
lago de atitlan
we took a bus to lago de atitlan from antigua. it wasn´t a very long trip and we arrived in panajachel yesterday. pana, aka ¨gringotenango¨(land of the foreigners), is a popular place on the lake but really nothing special. we hung out around town and at the lake most of the afternoon. we stayed at this really cheap cute place with a nice old lady owner. she had a bunch of silver teeth and smiled a lot. there were a bunch of kids and chickens running around all the time. one cute little boy said ¨hola!¨ to us all the time. there were people selling all kinds of goods along the streets at almost identical stalls, kind of like the swap meet. there are a lot of cool guatemalan looking stuff but i´m definitely waiting to the big market in chichi later.
we took a little boat across the lake to san marcos today and are staying in a little place with a thatched roof! way cool. the town is pretty tiny and has a definite hippie vibe. there is a meditation center and holistic center, as well as massages and yoga everywhere. peace man.
we took a little boat across the lake to san marcos today and are staying in a little place with a thatched roof! way cool. the town is pretty tiny and has a definite hippie vibe. there is a meditation center and holistic center, as well as massages and yoga everywhere. peace man.
7.13.2008
muy bueno desayuno!
we just ate the best free breakfast ever! we stayed at a hostel for Q65 ($9) each here in antigua. they include a free breakfast and internet so it's a pretty nice deal! i had a dream that the breakfast was going to be only toast and jam since that's what we had at another hostel. i woke up around 6 and breakfast wasn't served till 9 but i saw them preparing it in the little kitchen and was anxiously awaiting it. i took a shower, got online and basically wasted time till breakfast.
let's just say it was a little more than just toast. hot scrambled eggs, boiled new potatoes sauteed perfectly with onions and red peppers, delicious black beans, an assortment of fruits, two different types of bread, coffee and spectacularly creamy oatmeal (i think steel cut oats cooked with coconut and banana). it was amazing and definitely hit the spot. i'll have loads of energy today for sure!
we're coming back to antigua for 3 more days and you can be sure we'll be staying at this hostel again. i love food/eating!
let's just say it was a little more than just toast. hot scrambled eggs, boiled new potatoes sauteed perfectly with onions and red peppers, delicious black beans, an assortment of fruits, two different types of bread, coffee and spectacularly creamy oatmeal (i think steel cut oats cooked with coconut and banana). it was amazing and definitely hit the spot. i'll have loads of energy today for sure!
we're coming back to antigua for 3 more days and you can be sure we'll be staying at this hostel again. i love food/eating!
7.12.2008
lanquin and semuc champey
after a mysteriously long bus ride to lanquin we arrived in one piece. lanquin is not a very exciting town, nor is it very modern. one thing that i've noticed is that even if a town seems not modern or doesn't have much money, everyone still had cell phones. they may carry baskets on their head and walk everywhere, but with a cell phone. another thing about guatemala that i've noticed is that they say "bueno" for you're welcome. =)
our stay in lanquin was okay but mostly we were there to get to semuc. the park is at the rio cahabon, a raging river in a valley. we had to go up and down this pretty much gravel road 9km to get there, in the back of a pickup. there were maybe 20 gringos in the back holding on for dear life. well it wasn't scary, it was just a very guatemalan way to get there. on the way back we actually took a mini bus with seats and other guatemalans. i think they do the truck thing for the tourists. who knows.
so first we climbed up 1.2km to a lookout point. the climb was pretty hard and slippery everywhere. we got a bit muddy and very hot. the view was magnificent though, you could see the river flowing down into the many pools that the limestone created. it's hard to explain but the heavy rushing water goes under the pools and then comes out at the bottom as a little waterfall. this makes the water in the pools very calm and like swimming pools. the colors are just amazing, mostly blues and greens and the brown of the slimy stuff. of course it is surrounded all over by greenery. we hiked back down and jumped into the nearest pool we could find. the water was very cold and refreshing but we were careful not to swallow any! we swam a bit then went to the next pool up with a better view and more people. the water was just perfect. little fishes kept biting (nibbling) our legs and it was very annoying. eventually we got out and headed back into town.
i've been writing a lot about food but in guatemala we haven't eaten that much interesting or really awesome food yet. i am hoping that will change soon. we went to this shop in antigua (where we are now) called dona maria gordillo. it is a little guatemalan sweet shop. we got a bunch of different little sweets, not really knowing what anything was. i had one that was kind of coconutty on a thin cookie and also a meringue type puff. we got a whole box of different things for about $7, mmmm...sweets! i also got some pollo compero, which i guess is like KFC. i've been seeing signs for it all over and just needed to get some fried chicken. it was delicious but not so nutritious. we might get some tacos or italian food tonight. there are a lot more options here than in lanquin. i am always happy when there is food around!
tomorrow >> lago de atitlan!
our stay in lanquin was okay but mostly we were there to get to semuc. the park is at the rio cahabon, a raging river in a valley. we had to go up and down this pretty much gravel road 9km to get there, in the back of a pickup. there were maybe 20 gringos in the back holding on for dear life. well it wasn't scary, it was just a very guatemalan way to get there. on the way back we actually took a mini bus with seats and other guatemalans. i think they do the truck thing for the tourists. who knows.
so first we climbed up 1.2km to a lookout point. the climb was pretty hard and slippery everywhere. we got a bit muddy and very hot. the view was magnificent though, you could see the river flowing down into the many pools that the limestone created. it's hard to explain but the heavy rushing water goes under the pools and then comes out at the bottom as a little waterfall. this makes the water in the pools very calm and like swimming pools. the colors are just amazing, mostly blues and greens and the brown of the slimy stuff. of course it is surrounded all over by greenery. we hiked back down and jumped into the nearest pool we could find. the water was very cold and refreshing but we were careful not to swallow any! we swam a bit then went to the next pool up with a better view and more people. the water was just perfect. little fishes kept biting (nibbling) our legs and it was very annoying. eventually we got out and headed back into town.
i've been writing a lot about food but in guatemala we haven't eaten that much interesting or really awesome food yet. i am hoping that will change soon. we went to this shop in antigua (where we are now) called dona maria gordillo. it is a little guatemalan sweet shop. we got a bunch of different little sweets, not really knowing what anything was. i had one that was kind of coconutty on a thin cookie and also a meringue type puff. we got a whole box of different things for about $7, mmmm...sweets! i also got some pollo compero, which i guess is like KFC. i've been seeing signs for it all over and just needed to get some fried chicken. it was delicious but not so nutritious. we might get some tacos or italian food tonight. there are a lot more options here than in lanquin. i am always happy when there is food around!
tomorrow >> lago de atitlan!
tikal (9 july)
let me first say that nothing i write can really capture what tikal was like. it was awesome! we decided on the 5am shuttle and skipped the sunrise tour because a friend did that and all they got up early for was a lot of fog. so we woke up early, hopped on a little mini bus and headed to tikal. it wasn't too long of a ride and we got to see the sunrise on the way there. we entered the park and most of the other people went on a tour or some sort. they took one path so we took another.
you start out by walking through the jungle! the smells and sounds really make it eerie. they say the jungle smells musty. sure, that and like dirt and poo. there were birds, monkeys, other weird animals and all sorts of bugs. we heard what sounded like roaring and they said there were jaguars in the area. it was pretty scary thinking that maybe it was an unhappy (or hungry) jaguar in the area. then i read that they hunt at night (whew!). we were still hearing the noises though. i know i was not able to capture the right colors of the plants and didn't get a good close-up picture of any monkeys but i'm sure i've got something. we watched monkeys play in the trees a lot, they are really funny and seem to just live for fun! they would jump from tree to tree chasing each other and "laughing" all the while. i certainly had my feelers on. growing up in japan we traveled around a lot and i learned to use my "feelers" to notice things around me. i was able to pick up on little mushrooms, caterpillars and butterflies hiding all around the jungle.
it would be cool enough just to hang out in the jungle all day but there were ruins! more ruins from the mayan civilization, and in the jungle. too awesome. one man said that one of the tikal temples was the highest one of the mayan temples. i think it was 44m, however tall that is. all i know is that we climbed up it and it was way up there! that was another awesome thing about tikal, compared to chichen itza, you could climb up and down the ruins. it is less popular and many areas haven't been excavated yet so i guess there are less people. eventually i am sure the wear and tear of all the people climbing up and down will force them to stop that. for now it's awesome! some of the ruins you just climb up the steps, which sometimes were about 1.5ft high. other ruins had stairs, and i use the word stairs really lightly. it was more like a ladder with handles. i think that was temple 5 that it's a very vertical stairway and at the top your legs just wobble. it feels like you're sitting on top of the jungle. sitting on top of the temple really helps to appreciate the beauty of the area and jungle. you can see for miles in all directions and other temples sticking out of the tops of the trees. it gives off so much energy and makes you feel awesome!
i was reading "the celestine prophecy" at the time and i had read it before but i could really relate it to tikal. being surrounded by beauty and energy really makes you feel good. it's a great book if you want to check it out. just sitting in the middle of a large lush jungle makes you think a lot too. not deep thinking but just reflecting maybe.
as with our visit to chichen itza, at about 1pm it started raining a bit. we ran into a ruin to escape what we thought would be a momentary downpour but ended up being a monsoon. it lasted for close to an hour and it was buckets of water falling on us! it reminded me of hawaii downpours, unlike in oregon where it just rains lightly all day. nice warm tropical rain! we left the park at 2 soaking wet but very content and were able to see everything. it was wonderful.
you start out by walking through the jungle! the smells and sounds really make it eerie. they say the jungle smells musty. sure, that and like dirt and poo. there were birds, monkeys, other weird animals and all sorts of bugs. we heard what sounded like roaring and they said there were jaguars in the area. it was pretty scary thinking that maybe it was an unhappy (or hungry) jaguar in the area. then i read that they hunt at night (whew!). we were still hearing the noises though. i know i was not able to capture the right colors of the plants and didn't get a good close-up picture of any monkeys but i'm sure i've got something. we watched monkeys play in the trees a lot, they are really funny and seem to just live for fun! they would jump from tree to tree chasing each other and "laughing" all the while. i certainly had my feelers on. growing up in japan we traveled around a lot and i learned to use my "feelers" to notice things around me. i was able to pick up on little mushrooms, caterpillars and butterflies hiding all around the jungle.
it would be cool enough just to hang out in the jungle all day but there were ruins! more ruins from the mayan civilization, and in the jungle. too awesome. one man said that one of the tikal temples was the highest one of the mayan temples. i think it was 44m, however tall that is. all i know is that we climbed up it and it was way up there! that was another awesome thing about tikal, compared to chichen itza, you could climb up and down the ruins. it is less popular and many areas haven't been excavated yet so i guess there are less people. eventually i am sure the wear and tear of all the people climbing up and down will force them to stop that. for now it's awesome! some of the ruins you just climb up the steps, which sometimes were about 1.5ft high. other ruins had stairs, and i use the word stairs really lightly. it was more like a ladder with handles. i think that was temple 5 that it's a very vertical stairway and at the top your legs just wobble. it feels like you're sitting on top of the jungle. sitting on top of the temple really helps to appreciate the beauty of the area and jungle. you can see for miles in all directions and other temples sticking out of the tops of the trees. it gives off so much energy and makes you feel awesome!
i was reading "the celestine prophecy" at the time and i had read it before but i could really relate it to tikal. being surrounded by beauty and energy really makes you feel good. it's a great book if you want to check it out. just sitting in the middle of a large lush jungle makes you think a lot too. not deep thinking but just reflecting maybe.
as with our visit to chichen itza, at about 1pm it started raining a bit. we ran into a ruin to escape what we thought would be a momentary downpour but ended up being a monsoon. it lasted for close to an hour and it was buckets of water falling on us! it reminded me of hawaii downpours, unlike in oregon where it just rains lightly all day. nice warm tropical rain! we left the park at 2 soaking wet but very content and were able to see everything. it was wonderful.
7.11.2008
only a few minutes
i´m waiting for a truck to take me to semuc champey and it should be here in 15 minutes. tikal was AMAZING! ruins in the jungle with monkey and jaguars. it was totally awesome and beautiful. i don´t have time right now to write about it now but i definitely will when i can get online again. yesterday we spent about 9.5 hours in a minivan on the way to lanquin. it was amazingly hot, although not too bad when we were moving. we stopped in this town called sayaxche which is basically a small town on a river. we were there for about 2 hours because we needed to cross the river. there is no bridge there! so there were two lines - cars/little trucks and bigger trucks/semis. we were in the latter. they have this little ferry that can carry one big truck and maybe 8 other little cars but most of the time it was less. when someone asked why they don´t build a bridge they said the toursists like it. NO WAY!! we wasted 2 hours there! it was very hot and probably the dumbest thing ever. i better go outside to wait for my truck. swimming in a river awaits!
7.08.2008
flores, guatemala
we left mérida at 2315 on domingo (sunday) on a secondo clase (2nd class) autobus. we brought our huge backpacks on the bus and slept with them on our laps. although it wasn´t very comfortable, it was nice to know that it was safe. it would suck if we lost them. although i slept a lot, it was a pretty light sleep and i woke up a lot. at one point we stopped at some fiesta with loud music and the driver went in and changed his shirt and came back a little later. odd. also even though most people were trying to sleep, he had loud musica blaring. it sounded a lot like rammstein (german industrial metal/rock). i really am not sure how i slept through that! eventually we arrived at chetumal, one of the last towns in mexico.
from there we were planning on catching a bus to flores via belize city but when we went to get tickets the mean/unfriendly lady just said ´cinco y seis mañana´. so we´d have to wait till the next morning. we consulted our handy lonely planet and found out about another bus station. so we took a taxi there and hopped on an old american school bus painted green with a sign saying ´belize´. it started out with just a few other people (some mexicans and two gringos) but eventually kept filling up. we got to the belize border and it was the quickest thing but we had to pay 100 pesos ($10) to get out of mexico. the bus picked up a bazillion people along the way to belize city. the bus was so full (and we had our backpacks on laps the whole time) that people had to stand in the isles. when we got to belize city we had to get on a different bus to venque the border city. i slept some, people watched and listened to music. when we were about 10 minutes away from the border the bus stopped and they couldn´t get it to start again for about 15 minutes. we were worried and a lot of people got off and caught rides with people. it did start up again and we go to the border. it took forever to get through this one cause they only had one person working the counter. 30 belizean dollars ($15 us) here to get to guatemala.
once we got into guatemala a boy probably about 12 came up and asked if we´re going to flores and we said yes. he said we can take a van with AC for US$30 and we´d read that buses would be $5 to flores so we said no. we were again consulting the book later when he comes and said there were three guys wanting to share the van and it would be US$15 each. we thought about it cause it´d be nice to have ac but it was still a rip off. we talked to this german guy who was traveling and he said we could find something better. we took a taxi to the bus area, which was only 1km away. ´¿cuánto cuesta?´ Q40. Q7=US$1 so almost $6. ¡SI! we got in and drove around looking for other passengers. eventually, about a dozen other people got on besides the driver and assistant, plus a few babies. i´m not talking about a bus here but a passenger minivan with all kinds of extra seats that fold down. we were packed in like sardines. the road to flores was straight and pretty wide with no other cars so it was a nice, safe ride. we got to the first hostel we wanted to stay at but it was all full so the driver took us to another place that is a hotel. instead of being in bunkbeds we got a double room with a fan, own bathroom and a balcony for US$10! what a steal. i´m liking guatemala lots.
i didn´t eat much yesterday because we were traveling in buses but we did have a dinner at a yucatec-peten restaurant. i had pollo con chaya (local plant) which basically made a salsa verde y arroz y yuca. i was starving so i could´ve eaten anything but it was pretty good. i also had a gallo cerveza, which is THE guatemalan beer. they are very proud of it and there are signs for gallo everywhere. gallo means rooster so there are pictures of it everywhere as well. it was decent and better than corona. maybe similar to XX.
today we are just walking around the town and hanging out. i had a huge burrito con pollo y palta (avocado) y arroz y muy picante habañero salsa. this habañero salsa was very spicy but it had such a good flavor, i´m hoping to find some to buy. it was actually from belize. last night i had the flores habañero salsa and wasn´t that impressed. this morning i had some more of the flores one with breakfast (huevos con tomates) and it was a little better. so i´m thinking the quality of flores salsa is not very regulated. this will be an early sleeping day, as we are heading out at 5am to tikal. i´m pretty excited because it´s HUGE and in the jungle! plenty of bug spray for sure. i heard that part of star wars episode VI was filmed there. cool!
alright, it´s siesta time. hasta luego.
from there we were planning on catching a bus to flores via belize city but when we went to get tickets the mean/unfriendly lady just said ´cinco y seis mañana´. so we´d have to wait till the next morning. we consulted our handy lonely planet and found out about another bus station. so we took a taxi there and hopped on an old american school bus painted green with a sign saying ´belize´. it started out with just a few other people (some mexicans and two gringos) but eventually kept filling up. we got to the belize border and it was the quickest thing but we had to pay 100 pesos ($10) to get out of mexico. the bus picked up a bazillion people along the way to belize city. the bus was so full (and we had our backpacks on laps the whole time) that people had to stand in the isles. when we got to belize city we had to get on a different bus to venque the border city. i slept some, people watched and listened to music. when we were about 10 minutes away from the border the bus stopped and they couldn´t get it to start again for about 15 minutes. we were worried and a lot of people got off and caught rides with people. it did start up again and we go to the border. it took forever to get through this one cause they only had one person working the counter. 30 belizean dollars ($15 us) here to get to guatemala.
once we got into guatemala a boy probably about 12 came up and asked if we´re going to flores and we said yes. he said we can take a van with AC for US$30 and we´d read that buses would be $5 to flores so we said no. we were again consulting the book later when he comes and said there were three guys wanting to share the van and it would be US$15 each. we thought about it cause it´d be nice to have ac but it was still a rip off. we talked to this german guy who was traveling and he said we could find something better. we took a taxi to the bus area, which was only 1km away. ´¿cuánto cuesta?´ Q40. Q7=US$1 so almost $6. ¡SI! we got in and drove around looking for other passengers. eventually, about a dozen other people got on besides the driver and assistant, plus a few babies. i´m not talking about a bus here but a passenger minivan with all kinds of extra seats that fold down. we were packed in like sardines. the road to flores was straight and pretty wide with no other cars so it was a nice, safe ride. we got to the first hostel we wanted to stay at but it was all full so the driver took us to another place that is a hotel. instead of being in bunkbeds we got a double room with a fan, own bathroom and a balcony for US$10! what a steal. i´m liking guatemala lots.
i didn´t eat much yesterday because we were traveling in buses but we did have a dinner at a yucatec-peten restaurant. i had pollo con chaya (local plant) which basically made a salsa verde y arroz y yuca. i was starving so i could´ve eaten anything but it was pretty good. i also had a gallo cerveza, which is THE guatemalan beer. they are very proud of it and there are signs for gallo everywhere. gallo means rooster so there are pictures of it everywhere as well. it was decent and better than corona. maybe similar to XX.
today we are just walking around the town and hanging out. i had a huge burrito con pollo y palta (avocado) y arroz y muy picante habañero salsa. this habañero salsa was very spicy but it had such a good flavor, i´m hoping to find some to buy. it was actually from belize. last night i had the flores habañero salsa and wasn´t that impressed. this morning i had some more of the flores one with breakfast (huevos con tomates) and it was a little better. so i´m thinking the quality of flores salsa is not very regulated. this will be an early sleeping day, as we are heading out at 5am to tikal. i´m pretty excited because it´s HUGE and in the jungle! plenty of bug spray for sure. i heard that part of star wars episode VI was filmed there. cool!
alright, it´s siesta time. hasta luego.
7.06.2008
merida, yucatan
the internet at the hostel has been busy day and night so i am just now able to write. yesterday we went to chichen itza! it was one of the most amazing places and felt like a mayan disneyland, without rides. it felt like another planet actually, the ruins were so awesome! it's really hard to put into words how i felt when i was there. the ruins are a bunch of old buildings/structures from the height of the mayan empire. the main one is a giant four sided pyramid with 364 stairs called the kokulkan temple. there are many other temples used for different purposes. there was even a hot steam bath, not that you need it in this weather. there was a cenote sinkhole of limestone. a pool of green water lay 60 m below the edge of the round hole. it was pretty amazing. one of my favorite parts was the ball court. they used to play a game with a ball and you hit it with your hips and the goal is to knock it into a ring that is high up on a wall. i'm not sure how it would've worked, maybe like basketball-soccer. at the end of the game someone would have their head cut off as a sacrifice to the gods, a real game of life and death. they seemed to be kind of a brutal civilization and were pretty sophisticated at one time. they have an intricate and very accurate system of time and had their own calendar. i definitely need to read up more on the mayan people. also, i can't wait until i can upload pictures. it may not happen on this trip because i looked for it here in merida. it's the biggest city in the yucatan but i didn't see any electronics stores.
today we walked around the town and it was very very humid. it's raining now so that's probably why. we didn't do much but it was nice to see the city by foot. the main street we walked on was paseo montejo, which is such a cool sounding name! there are pieces of art on every block of this street, many with recycled goods and interesting motifs. one was a vertical corn cob and each kernel had a clear bubble in the center, in which a bunch of real kernels were. another was a futuristic robot/astronaut looking man.
about food - i've been trying everything here. so far i've been very lucky! merida is in the yucatan state, they have many specialties like panuchos and salbutes. here are some descriptions of things i've eaten:
-panuchos - they cook a tortilla until it puffs up, then put some refried beans inside. it closes back up and then they fry it. you eat it with regular taco toppings.
-salbutes - same as panuchos but no beans inside. so basically it's a deep fried puffed up tortilla taco. mmm...
-tamales - usually tamales are made with a corn husk on the outside and is steamed, here they wrap it with banana leaves. (will eat tonight for dinner)
-lime soup - exactly what it is. i believe there are chicken and tortilla chips in this soup, and i am having it tonight also.
-flautas - i guess it's like a taquito, a rolled up taco and fried. i had it at a little market and didn't know what it was but it was tasty. the inside was kind of potato-ey and maybe had beans.
-tacos - i love tacos! i had a taco with probably chicken on it today. i'm really not sure what it was, i kind of just pointed at one of three or four toppings, it was a good choice
-pinada jugo - for breakfast i had a pineapple and coconut juice at the market.. it was refreshing and cooled me off quite a bit. they had all kinds of fruit there to have as juice.
we are leaving soon for guatemala! i am excited. we bought some quetzales (their money) and it is very pretty. money in other countries is so colorful and interesting looking. i don't think that i'm just used to ours, only now we're getting colorful money. so i've got some dollars, pesos and quetzals right now. we are taking a bus through belize to guatemala and hopefully it is not as humid there. i think i am acclimating to the weather but it's still not very comfortable. walking today we had to stop every few blocks and sit in the shade. i drink more water here than ever before too.
today we walked around the town and it was very very humid. it's raining now so that's probably why. we didn't do much but it was nice to see the city by foot. the main street we walked on was paseo montejo, which is such a cool sounding name! there are pieces of art on every block of this street, many with recycled goods and interesting motifs. one was a vertical corn cob and each kernel had a clear bubble in the center, in which a bunch of real kernels were. another was a futuristic robot/astronaut looking man.
about food - i've been trying everything here. so far i've been very lucky! merida is in the yucatan state, they have many specialties like panuchos and salbutes. here are some descriptions of things i've eaten:
-panuchos - they cook a tortilla until it puffs up, then put some refried beans inside. it closes back up and then they fry it. you eat it with regular taco toppings.
-salbutes - same as panuchos but no beans inside. so basically it's a deep fried puffed up tortilla taco. mmm...
-tamales - usually tamales are made with a corn husk on the outside and is steamed, here they wrap it with banana leaves. (will eat tonight for dinner)
-lime soup - exactly what it is. i believe there are chicken and tortilla chips in this soup, and i am having it tonight also.
-flautas - i guess it's like a taquito, a rolled up taco and fried. i had it at a little market and didn't know what it was but it was tasty. the inside was kind of potato-ey and maybe had beans.
-tacos - i love tacos! i had a taco with probably chicken on it today. i'm really not sure what it was, i kind of just pointed at one of three or four toppings, it was a good choice
-pinada jugo - for breakfast i had a pineapple and coconut juice at the market.. it was refreshing and cooled me off quite a bit. they had all kinds of fruit there to have as juice.
we are leaving soon for guatemala! i am excited. we bought some quetzales (their money) and it is very pretty. money in other countries is so colorful and interesting looking. i don't think that i'm just used to ours, only now we're getting colorful money. so i've got some dollars, pesos and quetzals right now. we are taking a bus through belize to guatemala and hopefully it is not as humid there. i think i am acclimating to the weather but it's still not very comfortable. walking today we had to stop every few blocks and sit in the shade. i drink more water here than ever before too.
7.05.2008
on the road to mérida, yucatan
¡buenos días! estoy en mérida. we left isla mujeres after a visit to el banco to cambiar un cheque de viajero. we took the same ferry back to cancún and caught a little "bus" towards the town center. it was no bigger than a japanese mini van. there is available sitting for probably a dozen people though. it only cost 45 pesos ($.45) but then dropped us off not exactly where we wanted to be. so we looked confused for about 5 minutes, tried to figure out where we were and walked in the direction we thought we needed to walk. when we walked for probably 10 minutes and didn´t see anything we recognized we turned around. we got back to the intersection we were dropped at and consulted our book. then this cute little (i mean really tiny!) guy comes up to us and asked where we were going. we said autobus terminál. so of course he rattles off a bunch of directions in spanish, none of which i understood. we probably looked flabbergasted (however you spell that). he told us again with hand signals and a little slower and it turns out we were going the right way, just not far enough. so we took another bus to the bus station. thank god for nice people!
getting our bus ticket to mérida was another test in the patience of the friendly mexican people. the bus ticket lady was busy making some little dolls that looked like they were wrapped in tortillas. serious. she had a glue gun and everything. we asked her for dos boletos a mérida. then of course she answered with a long sentence spoken too fast. after several tries i asked her if she could write it down and we figured out we were being asked if we wanted 2 tickets, 2nd class at $162 pesos each, to leave at 11:30. enthusiastic YES! turns out it´s a 6 hour bus ride. 1st class was about double the price and 2 hours less. i wondered what a 2nd class ticket meant. after the bus started going i figured it out. this bus stops EVERYWHERE and for EVERYONE. while we got numbered assigned seats, people who randomly got on just filled in the seats and eventually had to just stand in the aisle. there were hombres, mujeres, abuelos, abuelas, niños y niñas. the bus was a huge tour bus and con aire acondicionado. so it was a comfortable-ish ride. only it was 6.5 hours. very long. the bus driver made a couple random personal stops and we must have gone through a hundred towns that looked exactly the same! okay, there were two types of towns we passed through. the first was an actual town with a parque centro y iglesia. these mostly all look the same. some churches bigger, different colors, different layouts of the park but similar. also all towns have a cemetary. these cementarios are so cool! they are mostly católico and are so colorful. headstones and graves are yellow, blue, red, green, white and are clean too. we passed one close up in isla mujeres and there were lots of flowers as well. the second type of town was more a long row of houses/dwellings than a town. perhaps their town center was away from the main road but it was like you´re driving through trees and then all of a sudden, houses on either side of the road.
most of these houses were no more than a 10x10 structure of either cement or sticks. the roof ranged from sticks/thatched leaf to actual shingles in the bigger towns. they were very simple houses and i believe the whole family lives in these rooms. they put up their hammocks or all sleep in one bed. the floor is probably dirt in many. most people would say this is ghetto or they are impoverished. i am sure they don´t make much money and i´ve heard survive on less than US$3000/year. while i can´t imagine living like that now, they seemed to all be smiling and enjoying life. i guess it´s simpler.
driving for 6.5 hours i saw a lot of plants. it totally reminds me of hawaii. i saw coconut trees, mango, papaya, palm trees, hibiscus, bouganvilia, kirei kiroi ki (these trees in mililani that have beautiful yellow flowers), another tree along meheula blvd with the red/orange flowers (forgot what they´re called), and a protea looking plant. i guess the weather is a lot like hawaii, only hotter and more humid.
well eventually we got off the bus at mérida and called my friend jose. he used to go to PSU and i met him through work. anyway it took awhile to figure out the phone, first i had to get a tarjeta telefónica at this shop next to the bus station. so we met up with jose after finding our hostel and he took us around to several important places. we got our bus tickets to chetumal (connecting stop to flores, guatemala), got bus tickets to chichén itzá (mayan ruins) and told us where to buy quetzales (guatemalan money). he took us to this place to eat nachos, but they weren´t any ole nachos. it was chips with cheese and then a HUGE pile of meat. i got a 1/2 order of pastor (pork) nachos for 55 pesos and it was DELICIOUS!! there was an assortment of things to put on the nachos - two salsas, sauteed onions (yum!), limes and this garlic cream sauce. let´s just say it was good to eat nachos with the garlic cream sauce. mmmm.....
i am being eaten alive by mosquitos right now so i better go put some bug spray on. free internet at this hostel so i´ll probably write again soon. i realized i forgot my camera-computer cord so unless i can find one here (which is possible because there are 4 wal-marts, office depot, and all kinds of american stores) no pictures on the road. i am taking plenty of good stuff and seeing many things. eventually i will share them. time to go practice some español.
getting our bus ticket to mérida was another test in the patience of the friendly mexican people. the bus ticket lady was busy making some little dolls that looked like they were wrapped in tortillas. serious. she had a glue gun and everything. we asked her for dos boletos a mérida. then of course she answered with a long sentence spoken too fast. after several tries i asked her if she could write it down and we figured out we were being asked if we wanted 2 tickets, 2nd class at $162 pesos each, to leave at 11:30. enthusiastic YES! turns out it´s a 6 hour bus ride. 1st class was about double the price and 2 hours less. i wondered what a 2nd class ticket meant. after the bus started going i figured it out. this bus stops EVERYWHERE and for EVERYONE. while we got numbered assigned seats, people who randomly got on just filled in the seats and eventually had to just stand in the aisle. there were hombres, mujeres, abuelos, abuelas, niños y niñas. the bus was a huge tour bus and con aire acondicionado. so it was a comfortable-ish ride. only it was 6.5 hours. very long. the bus driver made a couple random personal stops and we must have gone through a hundred towns that looked exactly the same! okay, there were two types of towns we passed through. the first was an actual town with a parque centro y iglesia. these mostly all look the same. some churches bigger, different colors, different layouts of the park but similar. also all towns have a cemetary. these cementarios are so cool! they are mostly católico and are so colorful. headstones and graves are yellow, blue, red, green, white and are clean too. we passed one close up in isla mujeres and there were lots of flowers as well. the second type of town was more a long row of houses/dwellings than a town. perhaps their town center was away from the main road but it was like you´re driving through trees and then all of a sudden, houses on either side of the road.
most of these houses were no more than a 10x10 structure of either cement or sticks. the roof ranged from sticks/thatched leaf to actual shingles in the bigger towns. they were very simple houses and i believe the whole family lives in these rooms. they put up their hammocks or all sleep in one bed. the floor is probably dirt in many. most people would say this is ghetto or they are impoverished. i am sure they don´t make much money and i´ve heard survive on less than US$3000/year. while i can´t imagine living like that now, they seemed to all be smiling and enjoying life. i guess it´s simpler.
driving for 6.5 hours i saw a lot of plants. it totally reminds me of hawaii. i saw coconut trees, mango, papaya, palm trees, hibiscus, bouganvilia, kirei kiroi ki (these trees in mililani that have beautiful yellow flowers), another tree along meheula blvd with the red/orange flowers (forgot what they´re called), and a protea looking plant. i guess the weather is a lot like hawaii, only hotter and more humid.
well eventually we got off the bus at mérida and called my friend jose. he used to go to PSU and i met him through work. anyway it took awhile to figure out the phone, first i had to get a tarjeta telefónica at this shop next to the bus station. so we met up with jose after finding our hostel and he took us around to several important places. we got our bus tickets to chetumal (connecting stop to flores, guatemala), got bus tickets to chichén itzá (mayan ruins) and told us where to buy quetzales (guatemalan money). he took us to this place to eat nachos, but they weren´t any ole nachos. it was chips with cheese and then a HUGE pile of meat. i got a 1/2 order of pastor (pork) nachos for 55 pesos and it was DELICIOUS!! there was an assortment of things to put on the nachos - two salsas, sauteed onions (yum!), limes and this garlic cream sauce. let´s just say it was good to eat nachos with the garlic cream sauce. mmmm.....
i am being eaten alive by mosquitos right now so i better go put some bug spray on. free internet at this hostel so i´ll probably write again soon. i realized i forgot my camera-computer cord so unless i can find one here (which is possible because there are 4 wal-marts, office depot, and all kinds of american stores) no pictures on the road. i am taking plenty of good stuff and seeing many things. eventually i will share them. time to go practice some español.
7.03.2008
isla mujeres day 2
we get 30 minutes of free internet at this hostel. rock on! last night it was so hot and it was basically like bathing in your sweat all night. i tossed and turned but slept a pretty long time. i had some strange dreams, one about maui (the dog) and hector. i miss those doggies! woke up, went to the beach and stayed there awhile. despite slathering on the sunscreen i still got a little burnt on the shoulders. the water is so blue and clear! it was like going to waimanalo in the sense that the sand is super fine and you can walk out really far cause it´s super shallow. i took two siestas today cause it´s hard to do anything else. i´m having a really nice time though. the island is so small, it took maybe 30 minutes to do a little loop, walking. everyone rides around on golf carts and mopeds but you really don´t need them to get around.
one of the interesting things is the bathroom. you have to put your toilet paper in a little waste basket when done. no flushing it down the toilet cause the septic system can´t handle it or something. i mistakenly flushed a few pieces down this morning when i wasn´t quite awake yet. shhh...don´t tell.
i´ve been eating a lot here, and good stuff. i was going to get a fish special today because it is an island specialty but then i think it was a full fish with head and everything. not quite ready for that. so instead i got a yucateca style chicken with mole sauce. i´ve always heard of mole and didn´t really know what it was. it´s a sauce made from chocolate and it was really good! the first bite was strange and interesting but as i ate the rest it was muy bien! we had a late lunch so dinner was a small pizza. a perfect little thin crust pizza. mmm...
we went to the supermercado (supermarket) to buy some snacks and spent about 10 minutes in front of the chips-snack row. i decided on one package and as i was leaving this local guy saw me put a different one back and said, ´no, i´d definitely go with that other one. much better!´ so i took his advice. we´ll see how it is mañana! there is a special key on the keyboard for the ñ. all the special keys are all in different places as well. my 30 minutes is up soon. gotta go for now.
one of the interesting things is the bathroom. you have to put your toilet paper in a little waste basket when done. no flushing it down the toilet cause the septic system can´t handle it or something. i mistakenly flushed a few pieces down this morning when i wasn´t quite awake yet. shhh...don´t tell.
i´ve been eating a lot here, and good stuff. i was going to get a fish special today because it is an island specialty but then i think it was a full fish with head and everything. not quite ready for that. so instead i got a yucateca style chicken with mole sauce. i´ve always heard of mole and didn´t really know what it was. it´s a sauce made from chocolate and it was really good! the first bite was strange and interesting but as i ate the rest it was muy bien! we had a late lunch so dinner was a small pizza. a perfect little thin crust pizza. mmm...
we went to the supermercado (supermarket) to buy some snacks and spent about 10 minutes in front of the chips-snack row. i decided on one package and as i was leaving this local guy saw me put a different one back and said, ´no, i´d definitely go with that other one. much better!´ so i took his advice. we´ll see how it is mañana! there is a special key on the keyboard for the ñ. all the special keys are all in different places as well. my 30 minutes is up soon. gotta go for now.
7.02.2008
isla mujeres
i am sweating and miserable in the heat and humidity of mexico. well, i´m not miserable but having a grand ole time. we are on isla mujeres (island of women) and basically just laid on the beach and took siestas today. it´s been quite the journey so far. my last two nights in portland i didn´t get much sleep because i was so excited. usually i can sleep on planes when tired but i just could not this time because i would get so wound up. we left portland at 6am and didn´t get to our final destination of cancun until after midnight. by then we were pretty wrecked. long layovers and flights but nothing bad or interesting happened. ´customs´ was a joke, they didn´t even look at my bag, and immigration was a breeze as well. lots of lines and people but smooth sailing all the way. couldn´t have asked for anything better really, besides airport beds. that would´ve been nice!
in cancun we visited a supermarket, which was pretty neat, we got some mexican granola bars and i got some fried rice type thing you pay by the kilo. it came out to US$.60 or something like that. things in mexico aren´t all cheap though, i am finding. it´s not expensive, but just like at home. i went to the bank and exchanged some traveler´s checks into pesos. they have really pretty money, i am jealous. basically, US$1=MEX$10. it´s an easy conversion. i took two separate siestas today in the dormitorio. we´re staying at a really popular hostel and have an 8-bed dorm. haven´t met many people yet cause i´ve been sleeping so much. we also hit the beach called playa norte. i guess the north shore. :) the water was so warm it was kind of gross, but it was still better than frying in the sun or bathing in the air. arna said it feels like ´walking through a cloud´ and i´d say that´s pretty accurate. the humidity here is unreal. it´s a thousand times worse than hawaii and even worse than singapore. it is almost 10 and i´m sweating without even moving, with a fan at my side. i am not a heat person. still, it´s nice to be on vacation with no worries. i´m drinking more water than ever, all bottled of course. you just don´t know here. at lunch i got a ´agua melon´ with my pollo which was cantaloupe water. it was soooooooooooooo good, with little pieces of melon in it! yum!
i´m trying to learn spanish as i go. i´m keeping a journal and writing in it in totally broken pidgin spanish with no conjugated verbs. it´s getting easier, i´m learning many new words and i don´t have to look everything up. i ordered some food in spanish and little things like asking for a room at the hostel. i am just very happy and excited to be here because it´s a totally new experience. when i try to find a word in my head in spanish, i actually run through japanese and german first. haha as we were walking through a market i heard a guy say ´japanese?´ and then say ´takai´. i wanted to tell him that it meant ´expensive´ and he should not say that but it was too funny so i couldn´t. while we were at the beach i went to get a cerveza and the bartender said no, it´s happy hour, you get 2 for 1. okey dokey, dos cervezas then. i felt like a corona commercial. the water was so shallow, i walked out probably 50 meters and it didn´t even reach my butt. i just kept going in and out because it would get too warm.
this was probably a pretty scattered post, my brain is kind of scrambled with all the lack of sleep and travel. i am pretty sure i will sleep well tonight, if i can stand the humidity anyway. tomorrow is another day at the beach and i´ll live it up. so far i´ve had really good food and i´m looking forward to much more. buenos noches!
in cancun we visited a supermarket, which was pretty neat, we got some mexican granola bars and i got some fried rice type thing you pay by the kilo. it came out to US$.60 or something like that. things in mexico aren´t all cheap though, i am finding. it´s not expensive, but just like at home. i went to the bank and exchanged some traveler´s checks into pesos. they have really pretty money, i am jealous. basically, US$1=MEX$10. it´s an easy conversion. i took two separate siestas today in the dormitorio. we´re staying at a really popular hostel and have an 8-bed dorm. haven´t met many people yet cause i´ve been sleeping so much. we also hit the beach called playa norte. i guess the north shore. :) the water was so warm it was kind of gross, but it was still better than frying in the sun or bathing in the air. arna said it feels like ´walking through a cloud´ and i´d say that´s pretty accurate. the humidity here is unreal. it´s a thousand times worse than hawaii and even worse than singapore. it is almost 10 and i´m sweating without even moving, with a fan at my side. i am not a heat person. still, it´s nice to be on vacation with no worries. i´m drinking more water than ever, all bottled of course. you just don´t know here. at lunch i got a ´agua melon´ with my pollo which was cantaloupe water. it was soooooooooooooo good, with little pieces of melon in it! yum!
i´m trying to learn spanish as i go. i´m keeping a journal and writing in it in totally broken pidgin spanish with no conjugated verbs. it´s getting easier, i´m learning many new words and i don´t have to look everything up. i ordered some food in spanish and little things like asking for a room at the hostel. i am just very happy and excited to be here because it´s a totally new experience. when i try to find a word in my head in spanish, i actually run through japanese and german first. haha as we were walking through a market i heard a guy say ´japanese?´ and then say ´takai´. i wanted to tell him that it meant ´expensive´ and he should not say that but it was too funny so i couldn´t. while we were at the beach i went to get a cerveza and the bartender said no, it´s happy hour, you get 2 for 1. okey dokey, dos cervezas then. i felt like a corona commercial. the water was so shallow, i walked out probably 50 meters and it didn´t even reach my butt. i just kept going in and out because it would get too warm.
this was probably a pretty scattered post, my brain is kind of scrambled with all the lack of sleep and travel. i am pretty sure i will sleep well tonight, if i can stand the humidity anyway. tomorrow is another day at the beach and i´ll live it up. so far i´ve had really good food and i´m looking forward to much more. buenos noches!
6.30.2008
my precious
this is the one bag to rule them all. it's my precious. i'm gonna be dragging this thing all around, picking up knick knacks everywhere, i'm sure. thank god it expands. somehow i managed to pack light for the first time in my life. (i used to always have overweight baggage even when the limit was 75 pounds!) this bag can't be more than 30, and i'm carrying it onboard. i just don't want to lose it. i feel like i am forgetting something but i'm sure i could buy it in mexico, cheaper. some clothes, meds/vits, toiletries, and spanish phrase book - what else do i really need? i'm in the process of burning some cds for the long travel day and have about 6 hours till i have to leave for the airport. i will probably sleep a wink or two before getting ready. fortunately i am built to sleep on planes and can do pretty well. there isn't much to do anyway. they did not specify the movie on the website so it will be a surprise and i will probably do what i always do...say "that looks dumb" and not start watching it, then get sucked in because i watch it anyway without the sound and it looks good. so it goes.five hours till my ride to the airport.
tomorrow, tomorrow
i'm leaving tomorrow. i've got a short list of things to get from the store. i am a night person so i see myself staying up late tomorrow, not getting much sleep and trying to catch up on the plane ride. it's going to be one long day and i will need that mexican beach to lay on.
usually i am not a person to talk to random people but today this older guy started talking to me about getting his license and how he loves his buick and people who buy small cars are silly cause they are dangerous. but he was trying to convince me to get a kia because they are cheap. we were both riding max with our bikes but he is sick of all the waiting. i didn't want to get into all the benefits of it so i just let him talk. then he mentioned something about all his traveling and i heard "blah, blah, blah, guatemala" and i was like "whoa, i'm heading there soon" and he told me about all these places i should see. he was back and forth between guatemala and mexico for 3 years teaching english. i'm not sure i would've liked to learn english from him, but he seemed like a good guy. he was telling me the differences in spanish between mexico and guatemala (yikes!). when we got off at our stop he insisted i get a shot of gamma globulin for hepatitis because "if you get it, you can damage your liver" (uh-huh) and i said, "yes sir, have a good night". it was a nice conversation and he was a funny guy. someday that might be me.
in 28 hours i will be on the plane, ready to take off. between now and then...lots of chaos and hopefully some sleep. i am ready though. i am almost there!
usually i am not a person to talk to random people but today this older guy started talking to me about getting his license and how he loves his buick and people who buy small cars are silly cause they are dangerous. but he was trying to convince me to get a kia because they are cheap. we were both riding max with our bikes but he is sick of all the waiting. i didn't want to get into all the benefits of it so i just let him talk. then he mentioned something about all his traveling and i heard "blah, blah, blah, guatemala" and i was like "whoa, i'm heading there soon" and he told me about all these places i should see. he was back and forth between guatemala and mexico for 3 years teaching english. i'm not sure i would've liked to learn english from him, but he seemed like a good guy. he was telling me the differences in spanish between mexico and guatemala (yikes!). when we got off at our stop he insisted i get a shot of gamma globulin for hepatitis because "if you get it, you can damage your liver" (uh-huh) and i said, "yes sir, have a good night". it was a nice conversation and he was a funny guy. someday that might be me.
in 28 hours i will be on the plane, ready to take off. between now and then...lots of chaos and hopefully some sleep. i am ready though. i am almost there!
6.26.2008
dejar las cosas para más tarde es vida
rough literal translation: procrastination is life!
i'm still in oregon with a few days left before the trip. i am not quite ready (physically) but i am ready (mentally). i've been waiting so long for this trip and i'm excited as can be! all the reading of travel books and dreaming of places to visit is coming together.
july 1 - 6am flight out of PDX, many hours later arrive in cancun
july 2,3 - lay on beaches of isla mujeres (island of women)
july 4,5,6 - merida, chichen itza
july 7 - head to flores (guatemala) via chetumal
july 8,9,10 - flores, el remate, lago de peten itza, tikal
july 11,12,13 - coban, lanquin, semuc champey
july 14,15,16 - lago de atitlan - panajachel and san pedro
july 17,18 - xela
july 19,20 - chichicastenango
july 21,22,23 - antigua
july 24 - bus to guate, flight to cancun
july 25 - fly back to PDX
going with a backpack, some clothes and camera and will come back with much more. i've got a ton of info on hostels, sights to see, things/places to eat and random tips from strangers. my goal for this blog is not to write every detail of my trip down as i go. i will probably post every few days to say where i've been, maybe post a picture or two and any funny/interesting/crazy stories i may have been involved in or heard. i'm also keeping a paper journal of sorts to go along with the pictures i will organize when i come back. no one really wants to see a zillion pictures of their friend having fun in another country anyway. i just don't want to spend all my vacation time online when i could be meeting people and eating. i'm sure i'll be posting a lot about food cause i'll be eating lots. =) maybe if i come down with some intestinal thing i'll blog a bit. i hope not but i hear it's inevitable.
i'm still in oregon with a few days left before the trip. i am not quite ready (physically) but i am ready (mentally). i've been waiting so long for this trip and i'm excited as can be! all the reading of travel books and dreaming of places to visit is coming together.
july 1 - 6am flight out of PDX, many hours later arrive in cancun
july 2,3 - lay on beaches of isla mujeres (island of women)
july 4,5,6 - merida, chichen itza
july 7 - head to flores (guatemala) via chetumal
july 8,9,10 - flores, el remate, lago de peten itza, tikal
july 11,12,13 - coban, lanquin, semuc champey
july 14,15,16 - lago de atitlan - panajachel and san pedro
july 17,18 - xela
july 19,20 - chichicastenango
july 21,22,23 - antigua
july 24 - bus to guate, flight to cancun
july 25 - fly back to PDX
going with a backpack, some clothes and camera and will come back with much more. i've got a ton of info on hostels, sights to see, things/places to eat and random tips from strangers. my goal for this blog is not to write every detail of my trip down as i go. i will probably post every few days to say where i've been, maybe post a picture or two and any funny/interesting/crazy stories i may have been involved in or heard. i'm also keeping a paper journal of sorts to go along with the pictures i will organize when i come back. no one really wants to see a zillion pictures of their friend having fun in another country anyway. i just don't want to spend all my vacation time online when i could be meeting people and eating. i'm sure i'll be posting a lot about food cause i'll be eating lots. =) maybe if i come down with some intestinal thing i'll blog a bit. i hope not but i hear it's inevitable.
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