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Subject: Floods, chicken buses and volcanoes!
Date: Sat, 05 April 2003 01:09:57 +0000
Hi everyone,
How's things? I hope you're all well!
As I come closer to the end of this trip, it seems that the pace has picked up a tad! Tomorrow, at the usual time it seems in Guatemala of 4am, I will take the bus to Copan (Honduras)
Guatemala is a colourful place with kind and helpful people and where traditions are well anchored. It's a place I woudn't mind coming back to, if only to stock up on them amazing materials and wood handcrafts ;)
In my stay here, I experienced yet more Mayan ruins in the north of the country - Tikal - whilst staying in the tranquil semi-island of Flores.
I came close to the Caribbean (I think that's finally the right spelling! :) sea visiting Livingston on a cruise from Rio Dulce. As the stretch of water narrows, the jungle rises on each side and it makes for a near-Amazon feel to it (well what I imagine the Amazon to be!). As for Livingston, it might as well be part of Belize - man!! :)))
Then, I carried on to Coban in the centre of the country, in the hpoe of seeing the scenic spot of Chemuc Champey (A waterfall dropping into caves and then gushing back out as a fast running river) but I hit 2 days of incessant rain and floods so I made for Lago Atitlan where I got treated to a scenery of comparable beauty to some places I visited in New Zealand!
The huge lake is overlooked by 4 volcanoes, one of which has shown signs of a comeback! I treated my poor little legs to a hike up Volcano San Pedro and they haven't been the same since! :) It was worth every painful steps though, the view was fantastic!
If it wasn't for the over-concentration of baggy clothed, dred and plates headed, pierced, vegetarian, Hippies looking people swirming around the area under the false pretences of being open minded and tolerant or whatever other politically correct, cool or far out behaviour is in fashion now, this place would be close to perfection! A lot of them seem to have settled here not to embrace the culture but to better forget theirs.
I also strolled through the huge market of Chichicastenango, refraining any buying impulses! (Agony!)
Transport is a challenge in Guatemala! And it's one of the things I will remember the most about the country! I thought I had tested my personal space to the full in trains in China but here, if there is no more space in
a 'chicken bus' to the European eye, to the Guatemaltec eye it is only half full! The key is that you can still wedge people at the end of each row so they sustain each other in the middle alley, half hovering, half seated. At least it gives you something to hold or squeeze onto at every curve taken. Cos here's another thing, I have the sneaky suspicion that bus drivers are Formula one drivers in disguise! I'm telling you folks, F1 testing takes place on the roads of Guatemala! :))))
Anyway, I have left the small mountain villages of Lago Atitlan to arrive in Antigua where I am today. This German colonial town is full of charm, although it lost most of it when I smelt that distinctive Mc Donalds smell and felt the air conditioning blitzing out of the main door with Ronald grinning straight at me! If only we could just visit McDonald in his home country as opposed to him visiting us everywhere else in the world! :(
Still maybe he hasn't sprouted in Honduras yet! I shall go and see! In the mean time I hope you are all well. Thinking of you all lots!
Love
Little Mendez xxx
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