Flores & Tikal Ruins, Guatemala

Flores is a sleepy little town on an island in a lake in Guatemala. There are amazing sunsets over the lake, and this was our base for our trip to the Tikal Ruins. Because of an accident on the road into Flores, we weren't able to leave in time to watch the sunrise over the ruins, but the sunrise the following morning (available from our balcony) was beautiful.

The Tikal ruins will be a familiar sight if you've watched Star Wars, but if, like me, you haven't, they are most famous for the jungle that surrounds them. Unlike the ruins we had seen earlier in our trip, these ruins are in the middle of a very green rainforest, filled with birds and animals. The Mayans cleared the land surrounding their buildings, and most of the ruins we visited had been cleared again, but Tikal is completely different.













We were lucky enough to see a bird in the Quetzal family - which includes the national bird of Guatemala (and the bird their currency is named after). Our guide was extremely good at hearing the birds (we also saw toucans, although not the most familar 'banana beak' toucans), and could hear the monkeys many minutes before the rest of our group. He also took us to some tiny monkeys, a crocodile trained to come at his call, and we could not avoid stepping into the path of hundreds of fire ants.


















The ruins are also quite different to some of the other ones, as you can walk freely on them, and even climb up to the top of several - although one in particular was an extremely steep climb, with extremely small steps. A challenge if you're not keen on heights.


















Tikal was a little surreal, and a really interesting place to walk around - having a guide was especially helpful as he was so informative about the land, the plants and the Mayans. A great way to finish our time in Guatemala!

Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua! Not as in 'and Barbuda', but Antigua, Guatemala, the UNESCO-declared World Heritage Centre, the city where the bars close at 10pm, the city surrounded by volcanoes, and our home for the next few days.

Our hotel came with a roof-top garden and several swing seats and an amazing view across to Volcan de Agua. Antigua is a really beautiful town with a lot of narrow streets and hidden shopfronts, with much of the city built in a very Arabic/Baroque style - lots of intricate window and door metalwork coverings, tiles, and brickwork. It's also home to the largest fountain in Latin America, and some really interesting little museums about the history of the town and Guatemala.


















Antigua has a unique liquor licensing system - all bars are to close at 10pm, unless you are a business owned by the Mayor. This means that we were drinking our mojitos very early! Our local was a small bar just off the main square, and it also doubled as our salsa club. Unfortunately, Hamish had to miss our first class as he was asleep in bed with a fever and feeling very ill, but he was completely better the next day - and ready to dance. Salsa is such a fun dance, and we all had a great time...














(photo from Victoria Clench)

Antigua has three volcanoes that surround the town, but there are many more nearby, and it was one of these, Volcan Pacaya, that we climbed during our stay. After an early start, we collected our climbing sticks from the young boys at the base of the mountain, and followed our guide up the mountain next to the volcano. This was a long, steady climb, on very dusty paths, and soon we were all very, very dirty. Once at the top of this mountain, we crossed over into the cooled lava at the base of the volcano and made our way towards a large group of people gathered around the area where the lava is flowing.

We had come prepared for this, and set up our frozen pizza (to be cooked in tinfoil), and marshmallows to be roasted on sticks collected on the way up. This was a delicious lunch, and just what we wanted after the morning's exercise!

Chichicastenango, Guatemala

Chichi is a major market in the Guatemalan highlands. They have two market days, Thursday and Sunday with people from all around the area coming to sell all sorts of goods, from fruit and veges to tools, clothing and other handicrafts - as well as catching up on news and gossip. We were told that apart from those two days, and the setup day before the market, the town is completely dead, with nothing at all going on.

We arrived in Chichi and spent a little time walking through the markets, though there were a massive number of people milling around, so we tried to walk the side streets as much as possible.

The first spot that Andres took us to was the fruit and vege market, which was on an indoor basketball court, it took some time to move from the bottom floor upstairs to where we could have a look at all the action.

























From here we went back out to the streets, and made our way to one of the two churches that face each other in the town. From here we got a good view along the lanes.













We felt it was far too crowded, so found a nice little side street that still had a great selection of things to buy, and took our time walking down there.

We spent most of the time there sitting on the steps of the church people watching - there was a little kid throwing a tantrum for a good period of time and a man building wooden chairs right in front of us.













After looking round the markets, we all met at the church and made our way to a big food hall type thing, where we had a tasty lunch of fried chicken, rice and beans.

After Chichi, we got back in the minivan and made out way to the town of Antigua, our next stop.

Homestay, San Jorge La Laguna, Guatemala

While at the lake, we spent one night with a local family in the village of San Jorge La Laguna. We knew that this would be an 'experience' and we were more than a little worried about communication. The first language of the people in this village is Kaqchikel, one of the Mayan dialects, with most people being able to also speak Spanish.

The family that we stayed with had 7 children, with a little baby (Ronaldinho who was the son of one of the daughters), and another little one Stefanie - about 5 years old.

We managed to introduce ourselves (Ruth much more successfully than me), and hung out with the kids for a little time.

We had some time with the family and to settle in before we were due back in the village plaza for a tour of the village by Daniel, who was the contact in the village.

After a tour, a short one as it was a small village, we returned to the house for dinner. Dinner was chicken with veges and tortillas. It wasn't ready when we arrived back, and the girls were making the tortillas, so Ruth asked if she could help make them which proved a very difficult challenge.



















I watched for a while, and held the baby, before also giving it a go. They make it look a hell of a lot easier than it was.

The general idea is that you start with a ball of dough, and moosh it into a flat disk before passing it from one hand to the other which in theory makes it thinner and bigger - a little like you see the pizza chefs with the dough.

This didn't take too much talking, though we learned the word for difficult quite quickly.

We sat down to dinner where we tried to have some very awkward conversation, though it turned out that we didn't quite have enough so it often broke down into an awkward silence. In the end, we didn't talk too much at dinner.

Before we went to the house, we were given a sheet that had some basic questions which the family also had - so after dinner that came out, and we managed to do a lot better with the conversation after that.

It was funny though, we would go along for a while understanding enough to keep talking with them, then we would get to a word that we couldn't work out, and that our phrasebook didn't have so the conversation along that topic would end.

It was really hard, though we probably only had about 2 or 3 hours that night with them, and by the end of dinner we were ready for bed.

In the morning, we got up, and breakfast was good - though we didn't help too much with the tortillas - which was probably a good thing. The speed we made them meant that we probably would have missed our bus out of town!!

One other thing - sitting having breakfast, I noticed a string of what I thought were dead crabs on the wall. I had seen them the night before, but didn't think anything of them. It turns out that they were actually live crabs, hanging on the wall like a string of onions.



















We really enjoyed the experience, though knowing more Spanish would have been hugely helpful.

From here we went to Antigua, Guatemala.

Panajachel & Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

San Christobal had been a perfect town to explore, but once again we were leaving too soon. At least this does give us a reason to come back!

Our trip to Guatemala was a long one, and the border crossing between Mexico and Guatemala is very interesting. A huge and busy market, it was easy to see why Andres was so keen to keep us all in sight - it would be too easy to wander off and get lost!

Guatemalan local transport is often in old USA school buses. Called 'chicken buses', because they often have people carrying livestock from markets, they are pretty wild. They are all owned by the driver, and so many of them are decorated according to the driver's personal taste. Jesus was a popular image and it was often written in pretty, circus-style writing. Although our itinerary said that we would ride these, our guide decided that buses that overtake on blind corners were not how we would be travelling.

Instead, we all piled into a minivan to drive down to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. This lake is huge, and surrounded by steep hills and three volcanoes. It is incredibly beautiful and restful. In the 60s and 70s many hippie Americans came either to live or just to soak up the good vibes (I'm guessing). Many of them stayed, and now run small businesses or have set up organisations to facilitate the export of the local craft (weaving).



















Our only full day in Panajachel was spent on a tour in three different towns. Although the towns are so close to each other (and there is plenty of interaction between them), each town has its own traditional dress and weaving style. Some of these were really dramatic and beautiful. However, we had been asked not to take photographs, so the best I can suggest is that you check out http://www.rutahsa.com/traje.html for some links to photos.













We visited Santa Catarina Palopo first, and spent a great deal of time looking at the beautiful silk scarves made by the local women. From there, we went (by boat) to San Antonio Palopo, which is a little bit bigger, and were lucky enough to walk past the church while a wedding was going on. The small towns around the village are grouped together through language and other cultural similarities, and the marriages are often within the group (which would be just a few towns). It's a way of expanding their population, but in a way that keeps their language and heritage strong. The female congregation were wearing white shawls covering their heads - interesting to see that white is part of the Mayan marriage ceremony.



















Finally, we went to Santiago Atitlan, on the other side of the lake. This town is much bigger and tourism is a much stronger part of their livelihood. There are markets along the streets selling the weaving and jewellery made by the women of the village. Our guide Daniel introduced us to Maria, who showed us some weaving techniques and traditional dress. We also visited a home where, for a year, a statue of Maximon is in residence (each year it moves to a new house in the town), along with religious attendants. The home is open to all who wish to come and worship, and offerings, including cigarettes and alcohol, are made.


















That evening we went to San Jorge La Laguna, where we would be staying with a local family for a night. We will talk about this in a separate post, but it was a really interesting and sometimes challenging experience.

The following morning, we spent an hour climbing up over the lake just outside San Jorge, and admiring the incredible view. This place was beautiful, and we all thought that if we lived here we would have to come up every day. It would be the perfect place if you had anything on your mind...we just enjoyed being quiet and still for a while.