Guatemala

Last week I finally got to do some traveling after not having gone anywhere for over 6 months. Not only did I get to travel, I finally got out of North America (last year my big trips consisted of a snowboarding week in Whistler and a road trip around Utah/Arizona). I decided back in December or so that I needed to get out. I couldn't be the Dancing Nomad and not go anywhere. Unfortunately, vacation days here are at a premium so I decided to do a week long one, which limited me to Central or North America. Had I chosen anywhere else, I would've felt the need to take more than a week. I hate short vacations, but I also hate flying. Long distance flying and short vacations just don't sit well with me. Anyways, I chose Guatemala because I had heard some good things about it, and after doing a bit of research, it seemed like an interesting place to go with a variety of activities. Well, it did not disappoint.

I was already feeling happy happy joy joy once in Dulles Airport. Unlike my previous experiences in the airport - there was hardly anyone there!!! I breezed past check-in and security in no-time. Now this is how travel should be. Boy did I miss those days. With the economy in the shits and all, this is a great time to be traveling... if you can. Anyways, a layover and sometime later, I arrived in Guatemala and hooked up with my friend who was there already. The next morning my other friend showed up and things suddenly weren't going quite so peachy. My friend's luggage didn't make it with him. It would arrive the next day. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait around Guatemala City for it as it would be delivered to our lodging in Antigua. So we hot-tailed it over to Antigua in a cab.

Once we arrived in Antigua, we immediately signed up for the afternoon trip to Pacaya Volcano. The minivan that picked us up packed people in to the max (14 people). On top of that, we had to sit through a scheduled demonstration for about 30-45 minutes in the sweltering heat in a van with no AC. Well, that then contributed to the cause of our next problem: the van overheating as it struggled to go up hill on a full load. We lost another hour on the road side waiting for our replacement ride. We were all getting quite annoyed at losing valuable time on the volcano. Once there, the intial hike through unremarkable terrain was ho-hum, but soon things got more exciting. We came to an open clearing where we could see the sun setting, as well as Pacaya Volcano (we weren't there yet). Even from the distance, we could see the lava flowing from the volcano. The terrain is now all ashes, making the hike more difficult, but now we were all eager to get as close as our guides would allow us. Probably in the US we would be lucky to get close enough to see the lava from afar. In Guatemala, however, we could get close enough to roast marshmallows, which we did :D Of course, the stick we were using was 3 feet long and I could only hold it over the lava for about 2 seconds before my face started burning. In any case it was pretty exciting watching the hot lava flow down the mountain. I was also glad the earthquake we felt that night didn't happen while we were on the volcano....

The next day we arranged a private shuttle to Panajachel. We had no desire to relive yesterday's nightmares. Let me tell you now a little bit about transportation in Guatemala. It sucks. The terrain in this country is very mountainous. Roads wind up and down and are not necessary paved in all places. Therefore, it takes forever to get anywhere. We averaged probably about four hours a day in a shuttle with no AC and no headrests. Sleeping in the shuttle was often difficult, and if you're unlucky enough to be tall and in one of the back seats, I'm not sure that your legs would have fit facing forward. In any case, the less people in the shuttle the better so we were on our way to Panajachel just the 3 of us, and the driver. After a 2 hour ride through some beautiful mountains, we arrive at Lake Atitlán which is surrounded by three volcanoes. While the lake is beautiful, it was mid-day so the view was a bit hazed over. To boot, Panajachel sucks for a lakeside town. There really wasn't much going on there so we decided to hire a boat to take us across to Santiago Atitlán . One of my friends kept telling me that Santiago Atitlán was supposed to be the nicer of the towns along the lake. Well, I soon found out his real motives for wanting to go there: to see Maximón - the effigy of an armless, legless, cigar-smoking, booze-drinking Mayan deity. In the approximate words of my friend, this Maximón was tasked to look after the ladies while the rest of the men went off to fight a war or something. Well, apparently he pissed off the towns people when he took care of the ladies so they chopped off his arms and legs. Then the towns people later found out he was a Mayan god so now they worship him. What makes him more special is that he actually grants wishes of revenge, not a trait found in your usual god. Don't quote me on any of this though. A quick search didn't turn-up anything to collaborate the history behind Maximón. All I can say is that it does exist and I saw it. For more info on it though, do your own research.


Our third day in Guatemala was a painful 5 hour ride up to Cobán. There we sorted out our next day's trip to the Lanquin caves and Semuc Champey. I've seen plenty of caves in my past, but I liked this one because it's not necessarily tourist friendly. The ground and the handrails were often quite slippery increasing the odds that you'll slip and break something. On top of that, the lights in the caves were all hooked up to this one generator. Apparently it's not uncommon for the lights to go out while you are in there. The best part of it all was that I was in the middle of reading a book whose story takes place entirely in caves (Subterrenean by James Rollins). It added a whole new dimension to the story. Anyhow, after the short trip to the caves, we headed over to beautiful Semuc Champey. The river here are cascades of emerald green pools where we swam and had lunch. Our guide even took us on a little adventure down river and to an underground cave where another river flows. I really wish I had a waterproof camera. A steep 45 minute climb gets you to a lookout with the above view of Semuc Champey.

Our fifth day was another 5 hours in the shuttle up to Flores. Now this was a proper lakeside town with the right atmosphere. We had a lovely lakeside hotel with a great view from the rooftop. We enjoyed the sunset from there each night. On the sixth day, we took a morning trip up to Tikal - the famous Mayan ruins. While I have seen a ying yang of ruins, this one was unique in that it was hidden within the jungle. You had to trek through the jungle to get from building to building. What's even more amazing is that they have only uncovered like 5% of all the ruins. It took us 6 hours to walk all around the park. It was that big. The temples themselves weren't too interesting tho, since they all looked quite similar, but it was still fun seeing them. The view from one of the temples (IV) was used as background scenery of the Rebel base on Yavin 4 in Star Wars IV - and we got to see that same view in person.

The last day was pretty much a wash. We did a short hike in a nearby park for the sake of doing something, and then flew back to Guatemala City. By dinner time I was quite exhausted after an activity packed week and many early mornings. It was certainly one of those vacations where you need another vacation to recover. In any case, I got my fix of adventure to hold me over for a little while again.

Pictures are here.