07 de Enero 2011

Mari and I are now in Honduras. After much deliberation and arguing while reading our guidebook and scanning our bedspread size map of central america, we finally came to the conclusion to head east out of Guatemala and into Honduras. We had many wonderful options as to the direction and type of activities we wanted to persue, so it was a difficult 2 day decision making process.

Thus......we are now in the city of Copan, 1 Km away from the Copan ruins. We took the bus out of Antigua at 1 pm on what we thought would be a five and a half hour shuttle ride, which quickly escalated into a seven hour plus shuttle ride. Rule number one about central america, never trust an estimated word of mouth time schedule from the people selling you tickets. Always try and find a traveler who has actually made the trip.

Rule number two, never trust the prices given to you in the travel agencies sprinkled around town. We have come to find that there is usually one principle agency, and many more secondary agencies. These secondary agencies inflate costs to make a profit. After checking prices today for our voyage, prices fluctuated from $8 USD to $20 USD. Outrageous. Its difficult to take some of these places seriously when you look straight in their eyes and know they are ripping you off. Anyway, we paid 68 Quetzales ($8 each) for our long voyage. If you find yourself in this area, I recommend using Plus Travel Agency.

http://www.plustravelguate.com/

They have low, affordable prices - and they are not trying to rip you off. Their ad says it straight up - Dont Pay More. And I have to agree. There are several locations in both Antigua and Copan, and most likely other cities as well.

Okay, now onto the actual ride. Our driver was sorta insane. There were 12 of us inside, where 4 of those were a father, mother and two young children - while the rest of us were normal traveling personas. The driver kept passing cars on curves, hills, and any other location deemed impossible as a passing lane. But to his credit, it was happening all around us. When a car trying to pass finds itself face to face with an oncoming vehicle, plenty of frantic horn honking gets them back into the lane in the knick of time. Plus, around 6 pm the sun sets. This makes for an unusually frieghtening time. Curvy roads without street lamps in the dense mountains and high speeds. Its jaw numbing. Mari and I have sworn to never travel after dark again.

When arriving to a location I used to say LLegamos (we have arrived), but lately due to all our death defying traveling I have taken to saying Vivimos (we´re alive).

Okay, now its time to refer back home. What is going on in Seattle? Mari and I have both received news reporting pregnancies back home during our absence. Anyways.... congratulations to Michael and Olivia for their future offspring, and we would like to extend this same congratulations to Louisa and Jed as well. We cant wait to see these beautiful mixtures in baby form in the near future.

As for Copan, the guidebook really lead us astray. We checked out the suggested hostel here - Hostal en la Manzana Verde - and were highly disappointed. Althought the structure was nice, with a beautiful kitchen, the woman working the shift was rude and shifty. Anyways, we found a wonderful place called Hotel Mar Jenny, or perhaps Marjenny. I have seen it both ways. Private rooms, internet, hot shower - the works. And for cheap. We paid 190 Honduran Lempiras for our room. There are roughly 19 Lempiras in 1 USD, so its about $10 bucks. Not too bad.

Its now 10 PM. Mari started to get a headache during the trip so she is in the room trying to sleep. I just walked down to the town center and bought some local beer named Salva Vida. Hmmmm, just googled it, and although it got a C grade on the beer advocate, it tastes mighty fine to me.

Although its sad to cut the Guatemalan tour short, its nice to be in the 5th country of this trip so far. I hope Honduras is as wonderful as all the other places we have visited.

T

Happy New Years - 31 de Diciembre 2010

It has come at last, the final day of the year. We are now in Antigua Guatemala, after taking an 8 hour minivan ride from Lanquin. We are staying at a place named Antigua Orquideas, placed adequately between the major plaza and the giant market. We came yesterday 9 strong off of the microbus. We are staying with 3 germans (Jonathon, Eva, Hannah), 2 from Denmark (Simon and Maya), 1 guy from Spain (Alex), 1 girl from Holland (Annamikea), and Mari and myself.

Tonight we plan on cooking a large meal together and spending the New Years night on the outdoor terrace upstairs. Simon already told me they bought rum, vodka, and two bottles of wine. Plus, I am sure there will be plenty of beer. We are ironing out who is making what, but i plan on making a giant vat of veggie soup. I heard pasta salad, guacamole, chips, spanish style tortilla, and a few more things still being worked out.

In the central plaza there will be music, dancing, fireworks and more festivities. I think this will be a great place to be for New Years. Mari and I wish everyone a happy New Year. Take care, be safe, and see you soon.

I also want to wish my father a belated Happy Birthday. Sorry I wasnt home to give you a call and say it in person. Hope 64 is the best one yet.

28 de Diciembre 2010

We arrived safe and sound from our 7.5 hour trip from Flores to Lanquin, and I have to say it's quite amazing here. It's mountainous, jungly, vibrantly green and lush. On the trip out we passes green mountain sides with farm plots And small villages and houses interspersed. It's by far the most beautiful bus trip we have taken to date. We are staying at a hostel named Zephyr, set on a mountain side with amazing views in each and every direction. There are several people here from Flores that makes traveling feel somewhat like an ever changing family packing from place to place. Friends come and go, but they are all interesting and from all over the globe. We are sitting outside on a terrace talking to A guy from Spain, two girls from Holland, and a couple from Germany. Plus there are more than 30 more people sitting at other tables around us. It feels lively here, and the surroundings and atmosphere are awe inspiring.

It's times like this that make me thoroughly enjoy what we are up to right now. Sometimes I question the travel bug, but today I can embrace it and accept the joys it can bring. We arrived a little too late for exploration so I can't wait till we can get out and about tomorrow. We will be exploring some local caves, and visiting a local river that looks similar to aqua azul in Mexico. I will be taking photos.

Ciao for now.

27 de Diciembre 2010

Today we visited Tikal. I must say, its a pretty amazing ruins site stuck right out in the jungle. For the first time in our trip, we had a tour guide - and I found him pretty amazing. He was full of good information and he had a great charismatic and energetic way of talking. Tikal differed from the sites we visited in Mexico by the expanse and breadth of the site, as well as the density of the jungle between temples. Tikal is spread out, and has the feel of a days nature hike out in the jungle as we walked between locals and not just a parking lot leading into a site of ruins. Not to belittle the other ruins, they were all great, this one just had an air of mystery a bit more. The guide said that 80% of Tikal is still untouched in the jungle, but it looks to my untrained eye that all the major buildings have been unearthed.

I have provided only a few photos here, and most likely not the best of teh bunch. But enjoy.


Welcome to Tikal - great list of prohibited items



Tikal Temple - Mari near opening on top



Tikal Temple - Close up of Mari near opening


Tikal Ruins - Travis in the plaza on top of temple seen above



One great thing about traveling is the signs you see everywhere. This one is supposed to mean do not sit on certain ruins, but looks more like no pooping on the ruins.

We met a great girl from New York on this trip named Stephanie. We hung out all day today, but she took off tonight headed to Antigua. Mari and I purchased tickets to head out at 9 am to Lanquin. The asked some people staying at our hotel how long it took to get there and they said around 3 hours. Then we hit the first ticket office to check on ticket prices and times, 100 quetzals (Q) each and 5 hours. We hit another ticket office to compare, and they told us 130 Q each. After talking to a woman at an information booth, we hit still another ticket off. Here we bought tickets, 75 Q each, and the trip is 7 hours. Now I know what you are thinking, we bought the cheap tickets that take longer to get there. But you would be wrong. Welcome to the wonderful insight of Central America, where its hard to get good information. After purchasing our tickets, we finally went out to have a beer with Stephanie and send her on her way, when we saw a board advertising trips all over Guatemala - which said our trip would be an 8 hour bus ride. Luckily, we ran into two Germans just arriving from Lanquin today that verified this info. We paid 75 Q each and the 3 hour trip we were hoping and expecting, miraculously turned into an 8 hour trip. Shitty for us. But oh well, Lanquin here we come.

By the way, we are staying at an okay, mediocre at best hotel Doña Goya. Not great at all. We stopped by Los Amigos Hostel to pick up Stephanie, and were blown away by how cool that place was. If anyone is coming to Flores in the future, check out the Los Amigos Hostel. It is beautiful. I kick myself for believing advice I recieved to not stay there without checking it out myself. By far one of the coolest looking hostels I have seen in Central America.

T

26 de Diciembre 2010

Well, last night was quite a Christmas. The hostile sorta banded together later in the evening and had some fun together. We played several rounds of a game called Werewolves, a murder mystery type game where a group of 8 or more draw cards and play against each other, werewolves vs. villagers to see who will survive. As people got bored and left, we adapted into another group game called Assessin - sorta along the same principle, a group has one assassin and one cop and as people die in the group the cop needs to figure out the assassins identity. Anyway, it was pretty fun, especially considering the motley crew assembled in Caye Caulker on Christmas night.

As little groups took off to bed or headed to bars, there was a small bunch of us who stuck around to play a bit of cards. Because we all didnt understand the rules 100%, we played one open hand to illustrate the rules before setting into the real game. Just as we were starting the game, a massive wind swept through - overtaking the island and gaining in intensity. The problem is the hostile wasnt equipped with real walls, they are constructed out of chicken screen and mosquito netting, so when the wind picks up its more like a wind tunnel. Seeing as cards was out of the question, I stepped outside just in time to feel a few rain drops coming down. I ran to the clothes lines, grabbed the freshly washed (and dried) clothes, just as it started to unleash a massive downpour - dumping rain. I ran back to my shack listening to the rain and wind howling and wondering if my little structure would sustain the force.

Mari and I packed our bags that night during the storm in preperation for our early morning departure, and laid down to sleep just after midnight knowing we had to be up before 6 am to eat and catch the 7 am ferry. Inevitably, it was a restless, sleepless night as the rain and wind pounded and tortured our little structure. It was a beautiful display of force, and an interesting insight into island weather.

In the morning, we:

• Caught the 45 minute ferry from Caye Caulker to Belize city ($10 each)
• Then split a taxi with another Seattlite towards the Belize City Bus Terminal ($1.50 each)
• Bought tickets for the 3 hour bus ride from Belize City to the Belizean border town called Benque Viejo del Carmen ($4 each)
• Crossed the border - (Belize exit fee = $20 each) (Guatemala entrance fee = $2.50 each)
• Caught the 2 hour shuttle from the Guatemala border to Flores ($3 each)

We are officially in Guatemala! We rolled in after a long day of traveling with little sleep. Found some food (Burritos and Enchiladas and beer), and are getting ready for bed. We have an early morning scheduled for tomorrow as well. At 4:30 am, a shuttle is scheduled to whisk us away to Tikal first thing in the morning. Hopefully we can catch a sunrise, and if that fails at least we beat the crowds. It wasnt my prime choice for a departure time, but it didnt seem like we had a ton of options.

Wishing the best to you - Travis