8: San Andreas - Guatemala

Days 29-36 (11th-18th Nov): Our First week at Spanish School and the Homestay

Written 20/11/12

 

Hello week 5! The week of school and super amounts of Spanish! Although not quite what we expected it has been a really great week and we have learnt so much, not only language-wise but about real Guatemalan life :)

The sunday started with a cold shower and a skype home, as we won't have any internet for the whole week we are in the village =O Also found out about the earthquake further down in Guatemala and the trouble that has caused. We have heard trucks going round with megaphones asking people to donate to the releif effort. We were planning on going to some of the affected villages too, but seeing as they are still having aftershocks and there is a warning on the volcano there, we might have to change the plan!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got a lancha (type of small boat) across the lake with a old and toothless man named Cush, and got taken to meet the family we were staying with straight away. The matriarch of the family was called Martha, and she was about 60, small and very wrinkley hehe! There are 7 people that live in the house; some of her children and then their children, and the rest of her family in the surrounding houses. It seemed a very close knit family with someone always popping over, meals all being shared and cooked for around 15, and about 10 different children in the house at one time. It was quite lovely actually and a really nice way to live. They were very friendly and welcoming, although the first day was hard as we could barely speak any spanish and we were trying to talk to everyone! The house was on about 4 floors of windy staircases and terraces, and our room, although concrete and with no windows, did us just fine. We were stuffed with 3 HUGE meals a day, some examples of which were pancakes, rice pudding, fired bananas for breakfast, chicken stews, all kinds of eggs, casseroles for lunch and a lot of rice and beans for dinner. We also had deep fried cauliflour and sometimes... even Liam got full!!!! =O We realised we were staying with a relitivly well off

 family as the only other non-guatlemalan in the village was one other student (Elise), and she had no TV, and some of her walls were cardboard. Having said that, it really is a different way of life. There is no hot water. Ever. For half the day there was not even any running water full stop, and we had to use buckets to flush toliets and wash. Most of the food is cooked outside where the is a constant fire alite and people wash their clothes in the street. There is no focus on material things, but the children are so happy to just play and there is always someone in the lake.
The women do everything, men will not even look at any type of housework, and when Liam did the washing-up, they looked at him like he was crazy! The children are beautiful and always playing, a few nights we went out and played stuck in the mud with them in the street, coloured in books and taught them tic-tac-toe lol. The village itself is on a massive, very steep slope so our calves got a good workout, but from everywhere there was a gorgeous view of the lake and moutains. Everyone is friendly and stops to talk. It is a really lovely place. Its funny because there are things like pigs just wandering freely around the streets! The only negitive is the noise. There is no regard for noise boundries at 
all, people blare TVs and music so the whole street can hear, people bellow in the streets, dogs bark constantly and firecrackers explode whether its 10pm or 4am, but its a small price to pay lol.

The school, although not always the best organised of places, turned out to be really good. Everyday we had 4 hours of lesson starting at 8am ! =O The teachers ONLY SPEAK SPANISH so you have no choice but to get stuck in, and we had a teacher each too, so it was really one to one. We learnt verbs and tenses as well as useful vocabulary and it was good but really hard! Everyday we thought our brains would explode by the end. It was mostly taught using a lot of mimes, and slow repetion until we worked out what was going on lol. I also leant I know nothing about gramitical English as we were learning reflecive verbs and imperfect past tense verbs and I didnt know what that meant in english let alone spanish! But each day we remembered more and by the end of the week, although far from fluent, we could hold a broken conversation :) Definately enough for traveling though which was the main objective :D

Some of the afternoons we went out to explore the surrounding area with Elise and the teachers. One, we went to visit an old woman and her family who made herbal medicines and cosmetics from plants in her garden and learnt a lot about traditions, and another we went got a lancha over the lake to visit a NGO wildlife sanctury. We saw a 3 legged ocelot, crocodiles, avaries full of birds and a very chatty parrot. On the way back that day we stopped and had a swim in the lake, it was so pretty and the lake was really calm so reflected everything! One afternoon we spent with Martha and the family

 learning to cook a few things. We practiced making tortillas (which ended up bobbily and not round) and empanadas which are really tastey... tho im not even sure you can get the ingrediants at home. It was rele fun actually. All the food is quite simple really, but cooked for ages and is so flavory! They also use a lot of margarine... :S lol. The rest of the time we were either studying or down by the docks or eating lol. At the house they have a pet parraket which is kwl too, tho it did keep trying to bite Liam haha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the weekend we went to Santa Elana, the nearby town and it was horrible, so dirty and crowed and loud, we ran back to San Andres pretty quickly! Tho we did have our first ride in a Tuk-Tuk :) The bus there was pretty funny as there were only about 10 seats and we counted 21 people on it in the end, we had an old lady pile her shopping on us, and were pretty much sat ontop of eachother, good way to get to know the local haha!

So it has been a really great week and so much more has happened but I can't write it all. It has been great to stay in one place for some time and to be able to communicate is going to help so much. Although not the main purpose of us comming here, just leanring about normal life here has turned out to be the best thing. At the end of the week we found out there is the big annual village fiesta on Wednesday about an old folk tale, so we have decided to stay until then, don't want to miss that!

 

 

7: Frontera Corozal - Mexico

Days 26-28 (8th-10th Nov): Maya Ruins of Yaxchilan, Bonnampak, and Crossing into Guatemala

 

So our trip to the more remote part of Mexico and over the boarder is done, and you'll be glad to know we survived and it was definately worth it, but a lot harder than anything else we've done! We had had the option to do this part with a tour and they sort it all for you... but we decided that was too easy lol, and got local transport and went for it alone!!

The Thursday we got a 3 hour bus to Frontera Corozal, the village on the boarder, and from then on there was no internet and no one spoke a word of English. Definatley a test for the tiny bit of Spanish we had picked up! The hotel was cabana rooms which were ok and basic but nice to stay in something different and funny to look up and see the palapas roof! We went straight out to find a boat to take us to Yaxchilan, a set of Maya ruins you can only reach by boat, 40 mins down the river. We found an old local man to take us and the journey up the river was really pretty, on the way we spotted a giant crocodile and the crazy old man took us closer... to literally 15 ft from this crocodile that was about 15ft long and open mouthed! It was incredible and as we watched it disappeared into the water it brought home that we really were in the jungle! Once we got to Yaxchillan we had to climb up through the jungle on a path that would often disappear under roots and overgrown trees, upto the different parts of the site. Once we got there we were completely alone and it was amazing. We had got to the jungle canopy and could see so many birds and monekys, and it was great to look at the ruins without loads of other tourists there.


















Here, the lintels of all the buildings had incredibily well preserved stucco pictures of the main rulers of Yaxchillan throughout the ages. Plus one of a king blood letting his own penis for the gods that made Liam cringe lol! It was lovely to wander around through the jungle to each different part of aincient city and have it pop out at you from behind trees, and spot lots of ruins that haven't even been excavated still covered in jungle, as well as only comming across a few other people who had made the efffort to come out here. We saw so much wildlife too! One of those bright blue monarch butterflys, frogs, lizards, hummingbirds, 3 species of monkey, and a weird small mammel thing that I have never seen before! It was a really pretty ruin and only not well visited due to its location, but it made it one of our favorites of the trip becauase it seemed really magical and was so quite and hidden, and some of the building were really impressive, when it was a city it would have been a huge feat to build on the mountain. To get out of the site though you have to go through one of the temples into the pitch black and down the narrow stairs into the darkness, feel your way along and out the otherside, quite scary! The boat trip back was lovely in the sunset and we spotted two scarlet macaw parrots flying across the river
too! We were pretty pleased we'd decided to come this way!

 

 

 

 

The next day was more tricky as we had to get further and the language barrier was more of a problem, plus they like to take the piss out of travelers, like our taxi driver who agreed on a price when we left, and then wouldnt take us back at the end of the day unless we paid more than that... hmmm, not much you can do tho, especially if you dont want to be stranded in the jungle!

 

Anyway, after all that and a second trip down a bumpy track into the forest, we got to Bonnampak. It is small site with few buildings, but has the best example of painted murals of any Maya site and it was totally worth making the effort to see. They are hidden in an unsuspecting building and inside they just take your breath away. The colours were so bright and 3 rooms depict a huge battle between two rival cities and Bonnampaks celebrations once they win. You can really see the faces and what they wore (even down to the colour of the Jaguar skin) and the sacrifices they did and things. They are so well kept and lets you see more what it like back then, we really hadn't seen anything like it at any of the other ruins we had been to. You can really see the resemblances between them and the more traditional groups of Mayas today.

 There was a point when the few other people left and we were completly alone at the site, which was amazing and we climbed to the highest point and looked at the surrouding jungle. They also have the biggest preserved stalea here and it was pretty impressive, so this tiny set of ruins must have been very important 2000 years ago! It is quite amazing how what was once a huge, very organised and powerful civilisation just collasped, was abandoned and disssppeared into the jungle, left to ruin...

 

 

 

  

After the ruins we went to the village of Lacondow where we found a trail through into more remote jungle to a small waterfall/pool. We were left to wander it alone and we saw GIANT trees and so much wildlife (including a crab on the jungle floor...??) We were so glad we didn't go for the tour option, even though getting the transport arranged alone was tough, but it was really really worth it to be alone in the sites, and have as long as you wanted, you just saw more and its horrible being hearded in a tour lol. We realised we have taken about twice as long as the time they say you can do each ruin in anyway!

These two days here had to be some of our favorites though and really felt like we were a long way from home and our normal lives and into something completly different that we are very lucky to see =)

The nites without internet were actually really good and gave us a chance to catch up on diaries etc, plus there are less mozzies here so less bites is always nice :)

 

 

 

The next day was boader crossing day! We had to go to the tiny immigration office, hand in our mexican tourist cards and say goodbye to Mexico =( We then crossed the river to Guatemala and had to get the new Visas.

 

Here we were asked to pay to get into the country, and we knew you werent meant to pay anything and tried all the tricks to avoid it , but they insisted and considering they are immigration, and there were lots of armed police around, we had to pay! However that was all there was, and we were offically in Guatemala! It was really easy, didnt even search our bags :) The next bit was worse as we did 70km in a minivan along a very bumpy dirt track and it nearly rattled our heads off! The scenery changed quite dramactically from mountains to lowland/marshland and we drove through tiny villages and past a cemetry that was still covered in brightly coloured streamers and flowers from day of the dead, had weirdly spiced oranges from a market, saw the change in culture instantly, and finally arrived in Flores.

 

The hostel was a more traditional backpacker one like in Tulum and full of more hippies lol. We decided to go out for dinner and ended up sitting on the docks in a lovely little place and it was really relaxing. Also treated ourselves to a hot chocolate (the first choc i've had in a month!) and found a little place where they were making real guatemalan worry dolls :)

So that was the end of the 4th week and our time in Mexico. It was amazing in the Yucatan and it just kept throwing us surprises and new treats all the time. It is quite different to the rest of Mexico from what we've heard from other travelers and we absolutly loved it, from the ruins, cenotes and beaches to tiny towns, jungles and mountains. Our first month-ish has really opened our eyes. It was not quite what we expected but I don't think there is much you can do to prepare back home unless you've traveled before. Definatley a steep learning curve, but a great one! Central America has SO much to offer and we're so glad we came here and are really doing this! It has been a bit crazy not always knowing what your doing the next day, or where you'll be, and going to places you have no idea what they are going to be like. Its a bit strange being in a different bed nearly every night lol and the language barrier is hard, but we've met some great people and seen some amazing things! I'm also very glad I have Liam here with me, and we are doing this great adventure together =) 

Next week we have decided to go to a spanish school for a week to learn the language. Now we're here for another 3 months it makes sense and will make things easier. Should be staying in a village on the lake with a host family so that's something different :)

6: Palenque - Mexico

Days 22-25 (4th-7th Nov): Palenque Ruins, Date Changes, and Giant Waterfalls

(Written just around the 10th Nov, sorry for just publishing!)

So now its the start of the 4th week and time to do things again after having a couple of days not doing a lot!

 

 

The sunday (4th) we went to Palenque Ruins. We started off in the museum where a lot of the artifacts now are and saw the jade death masks and jewelery that they put over their dead royals, and some amazingly detailed carvings and hieroglyphs. Their hieroglyphs are really crazy and weird looking, to write anything must have taken ages! We then had to climb through the jungle up a path to get to the ruins as they are ontop of a mountain. The walk was beautiful through the trees and past waterfalls and we had our first encounter with howler monkeys! They are SO loud and sound more like dinosaurs then monkeys. There was a large group of them in the trees above us and some of the smaller babies climbed down to get a better look at us, they came so close and it was a great! Didn't want to leave them but we got to the ruins and they were quite grand with a large multi-layered palace, a well preserved huge pyramid (where they found the only Maya sarcophagus) and an unusual pagoda looking tower. We spent the afternoon clambering around them and looking in all the buildings at the carvings and finding secret passageways and it was lovely to be surrounded by mountain jungle. This one seemed to have a different/more ancient air about it and we really loved it, maybe its the setting. We also saw some Maya villagers dressed in traditional clothing and all the men grow their hair long. We rounded off the day with the biggest meal we have ever eaten and Liam could hardly walk so it was a brilliant day and made up for the previous week :)

 

The Monday started off badly as we called about changing our flights and found that without paying £450 each the only flights we could have from end Dec through January was the 9th Feb!! So we had to change all our plans and stay in Central America for another 3 months!! It really wasn't what we planned and were a bit miffed but after thinking about it we realised it was probably a good thing as there is too much to see here anyway and we love it! Though it does mean Christmas in Honduras...?

After that fiasco the day was really good as we went off to see our first big waterfalls of the trip. The first one was a huge 45ft single cascade named Miso-ha. It was really beautiful with serveral more small trickily ones and moss covered rocks and ferns, very fairy tale. We walked behind the waterfall and got misted all over, and into the caves there too which were dark and spooky. It really was very pretty place. We then went somewhere where there is a 5km stretch of river that is just waterfall after waterfall, all only a bit smaller than Miso-ha and the number of them is immense. We walked along the river bank for hours coming across new ones and wading into the pools at the bottom of each one (I actually slipped over in one of them fully clothed and got soaked haha!) One the way back we found a mirrador (veiwpoint) over the whole valley and it was gorgeous. This part of Mexico is lovely, being more mountainous and a lot less busy. After an hour and a half in a minivan along incredibily narrow windy roads and a sick Liam, we cooked vegi rice and had yummy sugary rolls from a bakery, as well as watching one of my favourite films (Muppets Treasure Island!) so what started as a bad day turned out pretty good!

The next 2 days we had picnics on the grass, lots of tacos, ice cream and fried bananas in the plazas, did a bit of shopping and sorted out our new plan for central America. Once we wrote down all we wanted to do it was actually too much even until Feb so it is a good thing we have that long! We also saw a crazy tattooed group of men doing stange dancing and drumming around a fire one evening.

And then it was time to leave Palenque and hopefully all the problems we've had lol. The next part of our trip gets more tricky though as we go to a really remote part of Mexico as we want to see more of the jungle and maya village life, and we cross the Guatamalan border.... fingers crossed it'll all go to plan!