Flores, Guatemala

July 19 - Lanquin to Flores
We got up early today to catch the mini-bus from Lanquin to Flores which we had booked through Zephyr lodge. Zephyr says that they guaruntee the spots they reserve, so it was slightly annoying when there were 6 spots remaining for 9 people who wanted a ride. No worries, they called for another bus and we were on our way. First stop, Coban, where much to our surprise and delight, we switched to a slightly larger and more comfortable bus! Then it was a pretty smooth ride all the way to some truck stop for lunch (delicious chicken and sauteed beef dish, with beets, potato salad and salad on the side). Afterwards we made our way to Sayaxche, where our microbus boarded a ferry and were taken across the river, and continued our journey all the way to Flores. Here we were dropped of at Los Amigos hostel, which we had pre-booked from Zephyr (its high season now, so pre-booking is becoming more and more necessary). All in all, it was a long ride, about 10 hours or so, but mostly uneventful.

July 20 - Tikal
Today we got up at 4am for our tour of Tikal, along with about 40 other people who were either staying or had booked through Los Amigos. There were probably about 5 buses total in our convoy. At roughly 4:30, we all headed out en-mass and began the 1.5 hour journey from Flores to Tikal. About 15 km outside the ruins, we all stopped and got out of the car to purchase our tickets to the park. At this point it started raining, and we were thinking shit, its gonna be a long day, but luckily it stopped just as fast as it started, we got back on the bus and finished the 15km to the ruins. At the ruins, we stopped for a bite to eat and some coffee, and then were rounded up by our tour guide Boris (from Guate, not Russia) and made our way to the first site, Complex Q. Here Boris talked about how the ruins are stacked on top of eachother, the history of its preservation, and other kinds of background information about the temples like how the royals were treated like gods because they looked like them (they flattened their forheads at birth, made them crosseyed, were super tall and strong, and sharpened their teeth... I guess thats what a Mayan god looks like). After a bit of time exploring here, we decided that it was a clear enough day and headed off to Temple IV. Temple IV is the biggest at Tikal, and much to my excitement, was part of a short scene in Star Wars: A New Hope, where it plays a rebel base on the moon Yavin 4. This probably means nothing to most of you, but if you go back and watch that scene you see the exact view that we had on top of Temple IV, which is basically a jungle with a few temple tops poking out of it. After half an hour here, we headed on to the observatory, where Boris talked about how well Tikal had been set up to align with the summer and winter solstice. Apparently they used the rising and setting sun to tell what season it was (it would rise or set exactly over one of three temples, depending on the season) and based on that what time to plant which crops (pretty clever right?). The whole complex is also set up to look like the Big Dipper (aerial view), which points north and coincidentally, directly at another Maya site El Mirador, from which some of the Tikal people had immigrated. After wandering around for a bit, we were brought through the ball court and into the city center. Here we found the famous Temple I (not allowed to climb) and a number of other temples, one of which included a huge face carved into its side. We finished off our time at Tikal with a quick trip through some of the upper class living quarters, and then had a nice leisurely walk through the jungle back to the bus. Another two hours later, and we were back in Flores. Starving, we began a search for cheap food in Flores and ended up finding a much needed book exchange instead. Picking some books and making a mental note to come back, we eventually found a food cart in the city square. Full, we decided to walk around Flores and meandered back to our hostel. Back at Los Amigos, we grabbed our books for trade, traded them, and then had a much needed marathon internet session. After this, we were pretty much exhausted, so we ate some dinner, took a shower, and called it a night.

Lanquin, Guatemala

June 17: Coban to Lanquin

We woke up this morning, and Phil's fever had broken, so that was a huge relief. He still definitely did not feel 100%, but there was improvement, so we packed very leisurely, and headed our for a quick breakfast at the same restaurant, where Phil was able to secure some delicious chicken soup and I ate some eggs. Also, it turns out the owner is a husky breeder, so we got a sneak peak of one of her recent litters--so cute!!! Then we headed off to find the Maya museum, but it turns out that it is now closed. On our way back, Phil heard some Marimba music, and his ears perked up. Phil has been wanting to see a live marimba band since we got to Guate, so we stood around the entrance and tried to glance inside. A nice Guatemalan lady who spoke great English noticed our faces asked us if we needed some help, so we told her we were wondering if it would be ok for us to go inside and listen. We weren't sure if the place was a nursing school or a nursing home, but she went inside and asked, and apparently it was a birthday celebration for all the elderly people (we were now assuming it was some kind of nursing home, although all the residents seemed to be in quite good health). We walked in, and there was two marimbas, one giant one being played by four guys in camo outfits, and a second, smaller one. We tried to scoot to the side of the giant ballroom-like room , but one of the older ladies started yelling "Baila, baila!!!" ("Dance, dance!!"). So Phil and I obliged, to cheers from the entire room. It was kinda cool. But, since Phil still wasn't feeling so great, we stopped pretty quickly. However, there was no rest for us. At the end of the song, an older lady (just a bit taller than my belly button) grabbed me and we started dancing. A young woman grabbed Phil, and we were off. At this point, the cameras came out, and Phil and I were probably being videotaped by at least five or six people. We danced a couple more songs, and then decided we should probably get on our way, so we thanked everyone and left. We headed back to the hostel, then off to the bus station to grab a bus to Lanquin. A very very bumpy two hours later, we made it to Lanquin, and headed to Zephyr lodge.  

Zephyr lodge is one of those places you hear about before you even get there, so we made sure to make reservations because it's usually full. Zephyr is set on the top a of a hill, with gorgeous views of the river and surrounding valley. We were briefed on Zephyr's rules, set our bags down and grabbed some amazing dinner, chicken curry and a pizza. We set up a tour to the caves/Semuc Champey, and then we had some drinks and played a few rounds of rummy with a nice pair of sisters from the states before we headed to bed. 


June 18: tour of the caves and Semuc Champey

We woke up, grabbed some breakfast, and we were off! First, a 45 minute super super bumpy ride in the back of a pickup with 18 other people. Then we got out and walked for just a few minutes until we got to the front office desk, where we took off all our clothes and shoes, stuffed them into our bags, and were handed a candle. Then we went up a short set of stairs, lit our candles, and went into the cave. This caving experiences was definitley on the top of coolest things we've ever done. We were at the back of the group, which was rather large, so there was a lot of waiting, but basically, we followed this underground river through its cave system. For the most part, it was either ankle- or knee- deep, but there were lots of parts where we had to swim, with one hand (the other one is holding the candle), and very softly so that you don't kick any random rocks to hard (you kick and punch rocks anyway). There's one part where you have to climb up and down some ladders, another where you climb up a waterfall using a rope (at this point I fell down, but fortunately didn't get hurt too badly). Then you keep going till you get to this one spot, where it is "deep enough to jump into the pool below you." This was definitely the most sketchy part of the tour, because, by this point, basically everyone's candle is out (the guide set up two or three around the pool so there would be at least some light). We climbed up about 10 feet or so, and jumped in the direction the guide pointed in. And we survived! Then we headed back out in the direction we came in, trying to light our wet candles,which turned out to be a bit more difficult than we expected. The last thing we did on our way out (on the way in we climbed up a ladder and around this area), was squeeze through this tiny passageway where the river was flowing, then go underwater with the river under some rocks. The guide was yelling "left, left!!" so you just had to take a giant breath and hope you were going under in the correct direction. Apparently I didn't take a deep enough breath, or maybe I just didn't go "left" enough, but I tried to come up a bit too early, and smacked my head on the rock. Fortunately, the end of the passage (and some much desired air) were close by, and I emerged only slightly freaked out and slightly bleeding. Then it was only a few more minutes to the exit of the cave. We walked back down the stairs and grabbed our stuff from the shack. 
Then we continued our day by jumping off at 12m bridge into the river, which was quite exhilarating. After taking a quick break for lunch, we started hiking to Semuc Champey. Basically you just hike up a giant hill for 15-20 mins until you get to the view point, snap a picture and then head back down the hill to swim in the pools. We spent about two hours swimming in the pools, with our guide showing us various places to slide down and jump off, and even go into a mini-cave that only fits your head. Exhausted, we headed back to the truck for the 45 minute ride back up the bumpy road to Zephyr. Once at Zephyr, we enjoyed a shower, a nap, some dinner, and then bed.


June 19: Hanging out and tubing the river
Today was a relatively relaxed day. We woke up, ate a leisurely breakfast and read for a few hours. Then we scarfed down a quick lunch before heading out to go tubing down the river. We hopped in the truck, with tubes and everyone's pre-ordered beers in a mesh sack. It was a quick 10 minute ride to the river, where we promptly hopped in and cracked a beer. We floated for a few minutes, then stopped for a while to consume some beers, then continued on down the quiet river, with a few patches of "rapids" here and there. After about three hours, we got to giant tree, and everyone got out and we drove back to Zephyr, where we enjoyed our last amazing-view-shower, some dinner, drinks and bed.

Coban, Guatemala

July 14: Nebaj to Coban
Today we got up early to catch the 5am shuttle from Nebaj to Coban, and with the help of some locals, were actually able to find our bus. At first the ride was very good, nice smoothish roads and not too bad terrain, but then we hit the dirt road. Its not that the dirt road was that bad, its just virtually impossible to sleep or read or pretty much do anything but sit there and contemplate why the hell they haven´t paved this road yet. Or at least thats what you think until you hit the landslide. Word on the street is that about a year ago there was a giant landslide, and by giant they mean massive. Basically an entire side of a mountain decided to fall off, which completely wrecked the road and demonstrated that even if they put a paved road here, it would probably collapse sooner or later (sooner). The road had been leveled before we got there, but it was still really steep and slippery and took about five minutes to completely clear the landslide area from start to finish. After another half an hour or so on dirt, we hit pavement again (thank jesus) and relaxed- we were almost there. We arrived to Coban around 10:30 in the morning, at which point we secured a hostel and wandered around the town for a while looking for tourist agencies to take us to Bombil-Pek and the Candelaria caves. Bombil-Pek is this massive cafe turned sinkhole, which is made more awesome by the 70m repel that you do through jungle to get to the bottom. We really wanted to do this and heard good things, so tried to book ahead. Turns out that this adventure would be really expensive ($50-60 bucks a person), and we decided to try to do it ourselves on local transportation the next day. So, naturally, with nothing to do we found an interet cafe and whiled away a few hours. That night we found a restaurant recommended by our faithful guidebook, which was a huge success. We ordered Chile Rellenos, which tasted very, very similar to our NM chiles, and this turkey soup called Kak Iq, which is basically a whole turkey breast on the bone stuck in this absolutely delicious turkey broth, with some sides of rice and tamalitos (what we see as tamales, exept these have no fillings, just the corn-- its great for dipping). Full, we headed to bed to watch Back to the Future (watching TV after a month is very refreshing) before calling it a night.

July 15 : D-Day
For those feignt of heart or who have just eaten, please feel free to skip to the next section of the blog. This could get graphic. For this first bit, the I´s refer to Phil.

So today we woke up chipper and cheerful, ready to get on our way to Bombil-Pek, a cave about 2 hours away by local mini-bus. When I woke up that morning I had some diarrhea, which really isn´t that big of a deal because it happens all the time, didn´t really think much about it, until it happened again, this time with some pretty massive cramping. Ok, no big deal, Steph had this same thing yesterday and it just played through by taking a poop, so I popped a loperamide and Steph and I made our way to the bus station. We grabbed a bus, and started our two hour windy as hell journey to Chisec, all the while accompanied by cramping, and eventually got off at the Bombil-Pek sign on the highway. Here I took a moment for self-reflection. I took a lot of these over the next hour or so. By moment of reflection, I really mean moment of what feels like internal hemorraging in my intestinal track while I grimmace and hold my stomach. Ok, Phil, we can do this, you´re fine, Steph had this yesterday, Iron Gut Moquin just got the best of you, just grit through it you´ll be fine. So I did. Our guidebook said there was a tourist kiosk on the side of the highway, but we didn't see one, so we decided to start walking the 'trail', trying to find anything resembling the hut with information our guidebook mentions. We never found anything, so we followed the trail as best we could, thinking at the very least we could make it to the cave and skip the repel (there are ladders for people who don´t want to repel). Finally, after about 30 minutes of cornfields surrounded by jungle, we ended up at a barbed wire fence. Damn... we really had no clue where we were going... and thats when it finally hit me. KABLAM! Like a wrecking ball to my colon, the cramps came and I knew the diarrhea wanted to escape. So I picked a part of the field that had some amount of coverage, sat down, and let the pipes flow. It was bad. I wanted to go home. We made our way back to the highway and flagged a bus, hopped on and started making the 2 hour journey back to Coban. Along the way, I had to ask Steph ¨are you cold?¨ Now it was about 90 F outside, the window was open, my head was starting to hurt, my face felt like it was on fire, and I started to get the chills. Something was wrong here.When we got back to the hostel, I was super weak, so weak I didn't even want to take my socks off, Steph had to take them off for me. I spend the rest of the day and all night going from the bed to the toilet. I popped some ibuprofin which helped the fever, but really felt like shit (while having the shits-- irony) all day and all night. It was without a doubt the worst and longest day of our trip. Steph, bless her heart, stayed with me the whole time, bringing me cold cloths for my head, buying me quart after quart of water, gatorade, and even finding some turkey broth for me to sip on, all the while telling me about how Cholera and Campylobacter are really cool bacteria. We watched episode after episode of CSI and Law and Order, and finished off the night with good old Scarface (which Steph had never seen). We still have no idea what I had or what random food item that we ate that caused it, but now that I´m writing this on the Friday after, I´m finally having solid poops again. Life is good. Which brings me to this... whenever you think about how crappy your day might have been, just be thankful that you´re having solid poops, they´re really awesome. I used to tell a story to boyscouts about giardia to warn them about drinking stream water without filtering it, and used to describe it by saying it would feel like a hurricane coming out of their butthole. For anyone with or has ever had giardia, I know how you feel.

Anyway, we went to bed that night with me feeling like total shit, breathing really hard, fever soaring, and both of us praying that the fever and chills would go away overnight so we wouldn't have to find some Guatemalan hospital the next day.

Chichicastenango and Nebaj, Guatemala

July 11: Phil´s Birthday! and Xela to Chichicastenango, Guatemala

Chichi is basically the most famous market in Guatemala, and a big stop on the tourist track. At first we decided that we didn´t really want to go (especially after seeing much more authentic markets like the one in Solola), but then we changed our minds and decided it would be a great place to do some souvenir shopping. But before we headed off to Chichi, we decided to spend the morning in San Andres Xecul, a small town outside of Xela, which has one of the arguably most famous churches in central America (or at least one of the most colorful). Either way, the church was on the cover of our guidebook, so of course we had to go. It took 3 modes of transportation to get there – first a minibus to La Rotunda, then a chicken bus to some random place on the side of the highway (the fare enforcers are always super nice and let you know where to get off), and then a pickup truck through the countryside to San Andres Xecul. Lucky for us, the pickup stopped right next to the church, so we snapped some pictures. Unsure of exactly what to do next, we hiked up some very steep streets to the top of the town (Steph keeps telling me these steep streets are practice for SF), where there was another colorful church and some great views of the valley. Then we decided to pay a visit to Maximon (or San Simon). Basically Maximon is a scarecrow-looking thing with a legit plastic face that looks vaguely like Elvis, and he always has a cigar in his mouth. During the day, he sits in a chair, and at night, they put him in bed. People come in, and light candles and do all kinds of ceremonies while praying to him. We got to witness a couple of these when we went into a back area, where there were a couple of fires lit, and a man and woman were praying. The woman was mumbling prayers and tossing various things into the fire, including candles, salt, and other things. The guys put two cans of food into the fire (we are guessing jalapenos), and then started clearing things from in front of the fire. The woman next to him started backing up, which made us very suspicious, and they kept giving us glances and saying "cuidado", so we backed into a corner also. A few minutes later and -- BOOM -- the first explosion, followed soon by another -- BOOM -- and pieces of can were flying everywhere. And then we started coughing (which is why we think it was jalapenos). 

Having seen just about enough and wary of what other miscellaneous items these two might throw on the fire next, we decided it was time to go. After a smooth ride back to Xela, we grabbed some lunch and began our quest to find much needed contact solution. After checking at a local pharmacy, we were directed to the right place and headed back to our hostel to grab our bags. At somepoint in the van on our way to the bus stop, Steph asks "did you grab the contact solition?", to which Phil responded "no, I thought you had it". Crap. Well, too late now. After being dropped off at the end of a giant market outside the bus station, we started making our way towards the buses, stopping at every pharmacy on the way to see if we could find any. About 10 later, we were directed to a Walmart (yeah, you read that right) that was really close by. Walmart saved the day, and with renewed energy we grabbed a bus and made our way to Chichicastenango. Once there we grabbed a hostel (a little splurge, but it had hot water showers and we think most places were booked) and scouted out the market before settling in for bed.


July 12 -- Chichicastenango to Nebaj 

Today was market day. At the advice of some blogs we had read, staying the night in Chichi really paid off. We got to the market at around 6:30am, when most of the stalls were still setting up and before the big tourist buses from Antigua and Xela come. This was just about the perfect time, since we were able to get "early morning" deals, which were probably the same as "morning deals" and likely just as good as "afternoon deals". Either way, we bought some stuff, bought some fried chicken and caught a Chicken bus to Santa Cruz del Quiche. Here we transferred to a micro-bus which took us all the way to Nebaj, which turned out to be a pretty long day. Nebaj is well of the regular "tourist trail", but not so far off to be uncomfortable. After picking a hostel and booking a guide for the next day, we headed out to find some street food and ended up eating some of the best tacos we've had in Guatemala. About 3/4 the way through our tacos, it started pouring outside, so we stayed under the tarp by our food stand and ordered a torta from a cart nextdoor. This was also pretty delicious. We sat and watched the rain, listening to the Claro booth nearby (a cell phone company) battle with the Tigo van (another cell phone company) that kept driving by. They were both blaring top 10 american pop music hits, which was quite entertaining. After a while, the rain started letting up and we made our way back to our hostel's office, where they had internet connections and a restaurant. The internet here was sloowwwwwww. Painfully slow. So we didn't last long on it, and instead decided to read, order some food, and play a few rounds of chess before going to bed.


July 13 -- Acul

This morning we got up to take a day hike to some of the surrounding small villages near Nebaj. This Ixil territory--apparently an area that suffered greatly under the Spanish, and then during the Guatemalan civil war as well. After a delicious breakfast of amazing coffee, grilled chicken, beans, the best tortillas we've eaten so far, tomato-cucumber-onion salad, and macaroni salad (the macaroni salad is our main suspect for the cause of Phil's massive food poisoining episode, but more on that later...) we went to meet our guide at 9am. He did not speak a word of English, but we were able to understand some of what he was saying. We started by hiking relatively leisurely (at least compared to some of the other hikes we've done), and were accompanied by a super cute yellow lab with semi-bad hips (which didn't seem to stop her from jumping into every single rushing stream), who we promptly named Dog. We took a break with a nice mirador (view) of Nebaj. At this point, the guide explained some of the history of the area, which I will not repeat here because we probably didn't understand it correctly. Then we went up for a bit longer (uphill for about an hour and a half total), and then started heading down into the village of Acul through the cornfields. The whole hike was simply beautiful--some people have apparently compared this area to the swiss alps. We took another break overlooking Acul, where the guide explained some more history, and we semi-understood. Then we headed down, walked through Acul, and up into the neighboring village, where we ate luch with a local family (some spaghetti with some kind of chile sauce, a hard boiled egg, tortillas, and some hot lemon and honey water). We paid, said "thank you" in Ixil, and headed to the next village and looped around to a cheese farm, where we sampled some delicious Queso Chancol, and headed on our way. At this point, we lost Dog (she got really excited/distracted by a particularly beautiful stream, and couldn't find us at the cheese farm). This was probably for the better anyway, since we took a micro bus back to Nebaj. Back in Nebaj, we grabbed a delicious dinner of Lan..... (sausage) and roast chicken. Then we stopped for one last taco on our way back to the hostel, where we promptly showered and hopped into bed, since our shuttle was leaving at 5 am.

Xela, Guatemala

July  8: San Pedro la Laguna to Xela (aka Quetzaltenango), Guatemala

This morning we woke up bright and early (which was rather fortunate since Phil had set the alarm to pm instead of am), packed our bags and headed for our mini bus. Along the way we grabbed some freshly made carrot-orange-ginger juice and some still steaming banana bread. After about an hour or so, Phil and I got off the bus (we were going a different direction from everyone else), expecting to get into a second bus, but since there were only two of us, a taxi ended up taking us the rest of the way to Xela. Once in Xela, we scoped out a couple of hostels and ended up at Hostal Don Diego, a very cute little hostel near the center of Zona 1. After getting settled, we decided to check out the town. Fortunately, it was Sunday afternoon, so there was a plethora of food cars surrounding the main square, and we gorged ourselves. We started with some tacos de rez, then had a few tostadas (one pollo, one rez). We also decided, to our detriment, to try a beverage that we had seen many people consuming. It turned out to be some type of corn-custard beverage. We had a few sips and decided it wasn´t for us. Next, we moved onto the ceviche stand, where we had some absolutely amazing shrimp ceviche and a few cracked-open-in-front-of-us mollusks of some sort (conchillos?), which were sprinkled with hot sauce, lime juice and something that resembled Worcestershire before consumption. We finished off with some ´´nachos,´´ or tortillas chips covered with chopped onion, tomato and cilantro and some tomato sauce. That was probably our least favorite thing besides the corn beverage. After exploring the city a bit, we interneted for several hours, and headed to the tour office to book some hikes in the area. Our main goal was to see the volcano Santiaguito, aka the ’old faithful ‘ of the volcano world, since it erupts every 30-40 minutes. The Danish couple before us booked a similar trip, not sure if they were going to go all the way to the top of the neighboring volcano (Santa Maria, apparently the hardest volcano to climb in central America, or so our guides told us) or just go around the side of Santa Maria for a much more relaxing hike and a nice view of Santiaguito (El Mirador). They had 2 kids, 10 and 12, so the booking lady assured us that they would almost certainly not going to climb to the top of the volcano, so we went ahead and joined their group. Excited for the next day, we went back to our hostel  for some rest.

July 9: Hiking Santa Maria
If you haven´t guessed by the title of the day, we ended up hiking Santa Maria. Our first sign that the day was not going to go according to plan (a nice easy hike around the side of Santa Maria) was when we got on the bus at 5 am, and the nice couple asked us ‘’Oh, which hike are you going on?’’ and I responded with ´´Same as you: maybe El Mirador, maybe to the top of Santa Maria, but probably  not to the top,’’ and they just laughed and said ‘’oh, well we are probably going to the top.’’ Phil and I glanced at each other, a bit apprehensive since both of us are in terrible shape, and we knew that we would start around 8,000ft and end up at 12,000ft. Anyway, we silently hoped that the two children would change their parents´ mind when we got to the turn-off. Little did we know the kids were quite experienced climbers, and were actually even hopping around basically the whole hike (his mother accurately referred to him as a mountain goat). Anyway, we got to the turnoff, and there was no question, we were headed to the top. Since there was only one guide for the group, Phil and I just gritted our teeth and went with it. At first the climb wasn´t too bad, not that steep and we stopped every half hour or so for a break. But as we went further along (and eventually lost sight of the dad and the two kids) it got really really steep and we literally had to stop every 10 steps to catch our breath. Ridiculous. Anyway, we made it to the top to find some cows chilling and enjoying the view as well as several local Maya, who had made the hike (in flip flops) to do some ceremonies.

We walked over to the other side of the crater to find that – lo and behold – our view of Santiaguito was blocked by clouds. We were able to catch an occasional glimpse of the ash coming from the top, and hear the rumbling, but that was it. We also caught a couple of glimpses of the Pacific ocean, which I guess was pretty cool. So we sat for 30 minutes or so, enjoyed a sandwich and the most delicious box of orange juice we´d ever had, and fed a few scraps to the brave dog that followed us all the way up (apparently it always follows the groups  up the mountain). Then we headed back down. We got back to the hostel around 1pm, and needless to say, we were exhausted. We heard that there were some hot springs nearby, so we booked at 2:30 shuttle there, and headed to grab a quick bite beforehand. Then we changed into our swimsuits and hopped on the bus. The hot springs were not quite as nice as the ones in Copan- there were only 3 large pools, and they weren´t hidden in the forest, but we enjoyed it anyway. The first pool was ridiculously hot, and we could barely stay in for more than a few minutes (apparently there was a huge storm/landslide and when they rebuilt the pools, they got it wrong), so we spent most of our time relaxing in the second pool. Then, back home, some dinner at a local restaurant, Utz’ something, and had some delicious chicken soup (we asked for seconds), and a plate of creamy chicken, and a plate of mole chicken, all while watching a very entertaining episode of Caso Cerrado (the Spanish version of Judge Judy). Then, BED.

July 10- Laguna Chicabal
We decided that the day after our hellish hike up Santa Maria would be the perfect day for another hike, so we decided to go up the volcano Chicabal to see the lagoon now residing in its crater. We got to sleep in, since we only got picked up at 6am. We rode for about 45 minutes in the van to a small town near the volcano. This hike, it turns out, was much easier than Santa Maria, with the hardest part right in the beginning with a steep climb up a road. Once at the top of the road, we had a nice casual walk down to some cabins and the entrance to the park. From there, it was about a 40 minute hike up the mountain (again, much easier than Maria) to a mirador overlooking the lagoon.  It was very pretty, and we took a moment to take a few pictures before we heard a reasonably quiet rumbling in the background. It was Santiaguito!! We quickly ran to another mirador platform, and even though the view was mostly covered by
 trees, we managed to catch a glimpse of Santiagito erupting by standing on a bench and sticking our heads out of a part of the roof that was missing.

Victory at last! After that excitement, we walked down 583 steps (our guide had previously counted) down into the crater and to the shore of the lagoon. 

Here we sat down for about 15 minutes, enjoying the peace and tranquility of the lagoon (as opposed to Santa Maria, where we could hear bus horns honking almost to the very top). The Maya consider this lagoon a sacred place, and its not hard to see why; they still conduct ceremonies here all the time. The lake itself is extremely still, with no waves or wind to speak of. The Maya believe this is a miracle, since nearly all water they encounter moves (like the ocean, or Lake Atitlan, which both have waves and whatnot). In 2012, this lagoon is sacred probably because it is just about the only place in Guatemala you can get away from the honking and loud music heard every where else in the country. The lagoon is also always full, since it goes about 1000 feet deep down into the volcano itself (and is apparently fed by streams there). It was a really cool spot. After our 15 minutes were up, we walked around the lagoon, looking at the many altars locals use for prayer. Once we completed the circuit, we walked up the hill (using a different way, the stairs were crazy steep) and back to our van for a ride home to Xela. The rest of the afternoon was spent mostly napping and relaxing, before wandering over to a local coffee shop for a short internet session. Right after we paid for our internet session, the power went out, and we eventually found a nice little café to eat dinner by candlelight before settling down for bed. 

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

July 5: Antigua to Panajachel

Today we woke up at Earth lodge and decided to take a short hike through the surrounding farmland. We had a map, but got a little confused with which turn to make, since there were branching trails about every few hundred feet (most of these go to people’s houses, but it gets confusing). Even still, the land was beautiful and we had a good time. After taking the shuttle down to Antigua, we decided to take another short walk up a hill to Cerro de la Cruz, which is basically just a cross on a hill overlooking Antigua. The view was pretty amazing though, since you could see all of Antigua with the volcano Agua in the background. We walked back down to Antigua with enough time go munch on a sandwhich at a local café, where we met this Guatemalan who gave us lots of (hopefully) awesome advice on things to do in Guatemala. Then began the waiting… and waiting… and waiting for our shuttle to Panajachel (it felt like a long time to Phil at least), until finally this guy shows up and says “¿Panajachel?”. We walked outside and get into his car (which was a shock, we were expecting a shuttle), after which we enjoy a 10 minute drive through Antigua to meet up with our real shuttle, which we can only assume forgot to pick us up.  Otherwise, the ride to Panajachel was pretty nice and was the first and probably only shuttle with all Americans on board (two from SF, one dude from North Dakota, and this missionary from Florida).  Arriving in Panajachel, we went to our chosen hostel for the night and took a walk through the town. Much like Antigua, Pana seems to be set up for tourists, because you see the same types of goods in pretty much every store. After a while, we got hungry, and ate some street tacos followed by some “Pho” from a Vietnamese-mayan fusion restaurant. At first we had our doubts, but it was actually pretty decent considering we’re currently in Guatemala.

July 6: Panajachel to San Pedro la Laguna
We woke up early this morning so that we could go to our first Guatemalan market in a town just north of Pana called Solola. The market was pretty awesome, full of almost entirely Maya in traditional dress, from all around the area coming to do their weekly shopping and pick up fruit, veggies, meat, fabrics, etc. An hour or so later, we caught the bus back to Pana, packed up our stuff, and headed to a coffee shop called Crossroads Café. We meant to only spend less than an hour there, but ended up staying for over two. The main reason is Mike, the owner of the shop, who was all over the place helping customers, talking to us, packing up coffee orders, inspecting beans being roasted on site, and in general just being himself.

For a bit of background, Carlos, from Finca al Cisne in Copan, Honduras, recommedned we go to this café. Mike goes all around Guatemala looking for the best beans he can find so that he can roast them himself and produce some of the best coffee in the region. One of his specialties is called the peabody roast, which is very unique. Nearly all the coffee anyone drinks comes out of the fruit in pairs of beans, 2 beans for one fruit. What makes peabody so special is that only one bean develops in the pod instead of two, which apparently makes for an awesome and unique cup of coffee. We didn’t get the chance to try this at the shop, but are coming home with a whole pound, so stay tuned. While at the shop, we also got the chance see the roasting process, which was also pretty exciting. Having (again) learned about as much about coffee as we could stand, we made our way to the dock and caught a boat across the lake to San Pedro la Laguna. After we got there, we had some much needed help finding our hostel, booked a hike for the following morning, and then settled down at our hostel to relax and eat some middle eastern food.

At some point that night, a local walked on by and asked if we wanted to book a tour. Stupidly, Phil decided the best way to wave him off was to tell him, “No thank you, because we’ve already booked a tour”, to which he responded, “with who? What time? Where are you going? How many people are in your group?”. Phil, again like an idiot, responded quickly and truthfully to all the above. This then caused about 3 hours of freaking out, using the internet to read horror stories about people being robbed on Indian Nose (our planned hike), and in general thinking “holy shit, we’re going to get robbed, stabbed, and then have our kidneys removed”. Eventually, we decided that either way, we’d go into it with a guide and figured whatever happens happens.

 To be continued….

July 7: Indian Nose and San Marcos la Laguna

*Continued from July 6

We woke up this morning after a pretty shitty nights sleep, at about 3:30am. Our guide came and got us at 4 am, at which point we caught a chicken bus up to a town high above the lake called Santa Clara. Here, we began a 30 minute assent of the nose, all in all uneventful with no robbing, no stabbing, and no kidneys removed. All that freaking out, and nothing happened… Whew!!!! Anyways, the view at the top was pretty spectacular and watching the sun rise above the mountains and light up the entire lake was incredible. After a while, we were cold and made the hike down, arriving just in time to see Santa Clara setting up their weekly market. We bought some strawberries, and then hopped into the back of a pick-up for a ride down the mountain to a town called San Juan la Laguna, where we caught a tuk-tuk back to San Pedro. If at this point your starting to get confused with all the names of the towns, don’t worry… we’re confused too… the point is, there are tons of small little towns surrounding the lake both on the shore and on the mountains above. After arriving back in San Pedro, we were exhausted and took a nice long nap. When we woke up, we caught a boat across the lake to San Marcos la Laguna (if you’re coutning, that’s 4 modes of transportation in one day! I think that’s our record—bus, truck, tuk-tuk, and boat!).

To put it bluntly, San Marcos is a big hippy town. Think Taos or Santa Fe, but on crack. We walked around for a while looking for a massage, but it was too exensive so we gave up. Then we decided that a sauna would do, and walked around looking for one.  Eventually we found one, which was amazing. Its basically a cement hut built around a small (30 gallon? Not 50 for sure) oil drum lying on its side. They build a roaring fire in the drum, you climb inside, and then pour water over the metal to make the steam. The first two steams were really good, but on the third one some of the leaves (local leaves? Not sure what they were, really interesting smell when they’re just wet and steaming) started catching on fire and that smoked us out. Super relaxed, we caught the boat back to San Pedro, showered, and called it a night.

Antigua, Guatemala

July 2: Copan to Antigua

We got up this morning fairly early and decided to go check out the local bird sanctuary, Macaw Mountain. They have about 50 or so Macaws there, many of which are rescued or old pets. It was really cool to get to see some of the birds of the area up close, even getting to hold some macaws and parrots. Macaw Mountain also has a breeding program, which is super cool because supposedly macaws used to be everywhere around Copan. After trying in vain to catch the museum in Antigua once more, we gave up and ate some lunch before catching our shuttle to Antigua. The shuttle ride was fairly uneventful, as was the border crossing into Guatemala (no exit fee from Honduras! sweet!). Arriving in Antigua, we eventually found our hostel of choice, ideally named "El Hostel", ate some dinner, and settled in for the night.

July 3: Exploring Antigua and Volcano-roasting Marshmallows
Antigua is a beautiful city, with cobblestone streets (pretty, but super impractical), colonial style architecture and is surrounded by volcanoes (1 active, Fuego, and 2 inactive, Acatenango and Agua). Agua is the volcano that is literally right next to Antigua. There are TONS of church ruins from the 1700s here. Apparently there was a huge earthquake sometime in the 1700s, and instead of rebuilding old churches, they just build new ones, which makes for some interesting sightseeing. After seeing just about as many ruined domes and arches as we could handle, we went back to our hostel and relaxed for a bit before our tour bus picked us up go hike El Volcan de Pacaya.  On our way, we ran into some pretty massive traffic and were delayed about an hour, so we didn't start hiking up the mountain until about 4:30ish. To top this off, there were some pretty ominous clouds and thunder lurking around the top of the volcano. We began our hike, which was pretty steep and reasonably strenuous. The hike is only made worse by the local with a horse following you nearly all the way up asking you "taxi, taxi?". Apparently our bargaining skills aren't up to scuff (and Phil's butt probably couldn't take another horse ride), because we ended up hiking the whole way. After making it up to the lava flow, we followed our guide out to a heat vent to roast some marshmellows. Its hard to compare roasted marshmallows, but these have to be somewhere at the top. By now it was getting kind of dark, so we snapped a few pictures and started down the mountain. Before long, it was dark and started sprinkling, but the walk down wasn't too bad.  Once at the bottom we had a much deserved beer, after which we boarded the van and made our way back to Antigua.









July 4th: Happy 4th at Earth Lodge

This super hippy art teacher staying at our hostel had told us about a 4th of July BBQ at this place called Earth Lodge, so we decided that was as good as place as any to spend the day. It was a good decision.  Earth Lodge is a sweet little hostel set up and away from Antigua on an avocado farm. The views are spectacular, including 3 volcanoes in the background (Agua, Fuego and Acatenango) and a ton of farmland. We spent pretty much the entire day just relaxing, reading, drinking beer (they had beers from Brooklyn Brewery, how crazy is that?), playing some cornhole, and chatting with other travellers. The food was amazing. For lunch, we had a pulled pork sandwich and a bacon cheeseburger, and then for dinner we had 2 bean chili (really good), homemade beer bread (really good), along with a few sides. After dinner, the whole place pretty much shuts down and everyone generally goes to bed (which is awesome). The hostel had made a mistake in their booking and apparently only had one bed available in their dorm, so Steph and I ended up saving some money by squishing into the same bed (which was fine for one night... and it was cold up there, so even better).