Alone again

Briony left for Mexico today and I decided it would be a good day to take a trip to the yoga farm I've been thinking about doing an apprenticeship at. First I had to take a boat to Santiago Atitlan and ask around about Finca de Yoga Mystica. After wandering the town a bit I found someone who knew what I was talking about. I got on another boat and the man took me across the bay to the property. I didn't realize it was going to be so expensive, 80 quetzales with return! That's like 10 dollars. Plus when I got picked up it was by a different boat and that boatman was trying to get me to pay him 40 more. It was a bit of a scene and I ended up not paying him and telling him he needs to figure it out with the other dude because it wasn't my problem he didn't get paid. That, and the fact that I had over an hour and a half wait until the next boat back to San Pedro, put me in an irritable mood. I forgot how difficult it was to get around with my embarrassing Spanish skills, I was so spoiled traveling with Briony ;)
So, anywaysss.. Finca de yoga was alright. Kinda pointless for me to have visited because they were in the middle of a teacher training so no one was available to chat with me about the possibility of an apprenticeship. I did feel like I could spend some time there though. Its in a very secluded location, one of the most beautiful spots on the lake, on the eastern slope of San ¨Pedro volcano where its all a protected park. The side of the lake with San Pedro volcano is obviously a protected site because compared to the other mountains, it is mainly forested, where as the remaining mountains are pretty sick looking. They have lots of landslides because they farm on the steep slopes year after year and add more and more fertilizers. From a distance you can see the square corn and coffee crops and then many plots with no vegetation whatsoever. Close to the lake shore are many small scale vegetable gardens with much more variety in plant species.
Santiago is a small town, much less touristy than San Pedro. I was thinking I would change locations for my last couple days on the lake but I'm pretty content with my spot and now that I've been to 3 other towns I enjoy the variety of things to do in San Pedro the best. You can have all the meditation, yoga, eating, social life you want here, a little bit of everything :)

I haven't been doing much around the lake. Our second day here we hiked up volcano San Pedro. That was one hell of a hike! I've never hiked such a steep trail before, there were times I thought I was going to fall backwards. We met the local guide, whom turned out to be about 70, accompanied with his machete and towel around his neck...(the towel should have been my clue to get more clothes!!) at the reception of our hotel at 5am. Two Irish guys were ready for the hike as well. We started walking through the town and into the National Park and began the accent at sunrise. All seemed pretty good until I realized the guide was going to keep up the fast pace and not have any tolerance for stopping or meandering. I got pretty frustrated with the hike. I really wanted to enjoy myself and be able to check out the plants n whatnot but the guide was, clearly, in a hurry. (Its mandartory to get hire a guide in the National Park, otherwise we would have gone alone). We got to the summit at 8:30am! We relaxed and ate for about 20 minutes and then, vamanos! down we went, basically running. We made it down in 1 hour! It was so crazy, I have no idea why we had to complete the hike so fast. Oh and to make matters worse I thought I was getting frostbite on my toes the whole way up. I really assumed I would heat up and the sun would warm us but, man alive, was I wrong. I ended up wearing one of the Irish dude's thermal on my legs to keep from freezing. Briony and I were both wiped out for the rest of the day so we just sat and drank coffee and ate for the remaining of the day. There are many delicious gringo restaraunts here with lots of vegetarian options.
The other day we took a boat the Panajachel, the biggest town on the lake. We just wandered around and then came back to San Pedro, there's nothing special about Panajachel except it has the best view of the three volcanoes from the dock. Yesterday we kayaked to the town across the lake from San Pedro, San Marcos. San Marcos is very small, its basically a meditation, yoga center and then the indigenous people doing their thing. The kayaking was great on the way there but the way back was brutal, the wind was blowing against us and waves were crashing into the kayak. Briony thought we were gonnna drown, haha. I will stay here for 2 more days and then meet up with Joey somewhere on the beach of El Salvador. I've met some pretty..interesting El Salvadorians so far so I look forward to seeing what the country is like.

As for Tikal...where I left off on my last post:
Tikal is massive, its a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It took nearly 5 hours to walk to all the different temples, climbing the temples gave grand views of the forest canopy and the vantage point for hearing monkeys all over. We got there shortly after sunrise and there was still a heavy fog covering the tips of the temples to the point where you couldn't see the temples from high up structures. It was beautiful to watch the fog burn off from the top of Temple II.  Tikal was definitely the most impressive of the Mayan Ruins I have visited. Its very close to the Mexican border, so it is close to Calakmul, that other archeological site I wanted to visit but never made it. Tikal was the capital of the conquest state for the Mayans, in politics, economics, and military.

After Briony and I visited Tikal and Flores we went to Lanquin for 2 nights. The major spot to see outside of Lanquin is Semuc Champey, a series of natural pools in the valley of the mountains. Lanquin is, in my opinion, the most beautiful place in Guatemala. Its just a small village community and some tourists who are there for a day or two to visit the river's beautiful colorful pools. We stayed at a hostel that was on the peaks of several smaller mountains, we had a nearly 360 degree view of the canyons and river down below. The highlight of Lanquin was definitely the puppies at the hostel! There were 4, 7 week old puppies. SO cute!!! Briony and I spent pretty much all our time with the puppies or taking photos of the puppies. Moma pup was around too so that was just even more adorable when the puppies wanted to eat and she wasn't having it or when she would groom the little guys. Precious.

After Lanquin we spent one night in Antigua. We were getting anxious to settle in one spot, at the lake, so we just briefly saw Antigua. Besides, Briony had been there previously and I didn't care for the town as much as other people seemed to. People from all over rave about Antigua but what I saw was a bunch of white people taking over the town. There's a large population of students and peace corps volunteers in and around Antigua that makes it seem like a Californian town in Guatemala. Yuppie shops and not much traditional Guatemalan life going on in Antigua. Also very expensive clothing and food stuffs. But then again, where the white people are so are the health food shops so Briony and I did have a play day in one of the cafes, mmm huevos motuleños!

Well, I think that sums up what I've been up to in Guatemala so far. It sure doesn't sound as exciting as its been so I must be leaving things out or just not a good story teller...op! but thanks for reading anyways!

¡feliz solsticio de invierno!

Its been a long time since I have updated this blog so this could be a long one or I could get tired of typing and cut it short. We'll see how this goes...

Happy Winter Solstice!
I am in San Pedro la Laguna on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. There's a Solstice/ Full Moon Party at the beach on the lake tonight that Briony and I will probably attend for a bit. There's some like minded folks around the lake. Working toward reforesting the mountains around the lake and growing their own foods. There's many yoga retreats and ecovillages in the lakeside towns. Most of the native people look to be of Mayan descent, wearing traditional garb but there are also heaps of tourists; some are here for long stays, either taking Spanish courses or volunteering. 

Again, I will work back in time from where I left off to now.
After my week stay in El Panchan, at the gate of the Palenque ruins, I went to San Cristobal de las Casas. I walked all over the town before I found  the hostel I wanted to stay at so I was tired and pretty cranky by the time I arrived. That night I didn't so much but I did meet Briony. Briony and I hit it off right away. I was complaining and she listened and then vice versa. It was nice to chat with another solo female traveler and talk about all the challenges of traveling alone. Briony is from Sydney, Australia, she's vegetarian and loves to do yoga. We have turned out to be quite a good match for traveling. We both have high standards when it comes to food and low standards in terms of accomodation. We both pee a lot and love animals! So it works out quite well. San Cristobal is a lovely town in the highlands of Chiapas, at nearly 7000 feet. It was so cold at night and in the shade during the day. I had to buy gloves, hat, scarf, and a warmer jacket. I was wearing all my clothes by the time night hit. It was actually quite miserable being so cold but at least I had company in the misery. Briony and I went to some yoga classes and found all the vegan/vegetarian restaraunts in San Cristobal. San Cristobal has the best food in Mexico. They ae focused on local products and community intergrity. There's a large population of Zapatistas there as well as many small Mayan villages. I rode a horse to San Juan Chamula, a Mayan village an hour away. It was a great time to be in Chamula because the 12th of December was the following day so there was a huge celebration going on for The Virgin Guadalupe. Many men and women dressed in wool skirts and tons of loud fireworks going off for minutes on end. The church was elaboratly decorated for Guadelupe, many candles and flags. There were people running with torches all through the country some starting in Mexico City and working their way all the way to Chiapas, it was really intense. They had bandages on their feet and were being closely followed by decorated vehicals.

Briony and I decided to go to Guatemala for a few weeks before she has to return to Mexico for her studies and I meet with Joey in El Salvador. We wanted to make the border crossing exciting so we got on the bus to Palenque. We missed the bus we wanted so we had a bit of a wait, at 1am. Arrived in Palenque at 8am and then played 20 questions to try to find the next bus to Frontera Corazal, the border town. We eventually found the collectivo that would take us the 3 hours to Frontera Corazal and borded with some machettes, piñadas, loads of boxes on the roof and quiet a few Mexicans, typical bus ride. The immigration office quickly stamped our passports for exit and we got on a small boat to cross the river over to Guatemala. The boat ride was only a few minutes and there was a chicken bus waiting on the other side to be filled before making its way to Flores. After stopping every 30 seconds for 1 hour we eventually started to make some progress toward Flores. That would be the first of many terribly long and uncomfortable bus rides.

Flores is an island, of sorts, its actually connected to the mainland by a road but people call it an island so maybe the road was an addition. Flores is the popular taking off point for Tikal, a Mayan Ruin. We had a chill day in Flores where were took a boat around the lake, Lago de Peten Itza. Went to a wildlife reserve where they have endangered species held captive for breeding purposes. Such beautiful animals! Many different cats and monkeys. The lake is large and didn't look to be very polluted. Lots of people were swimming in the lake or kayaking.
The next day we went to Tikal at 5am. It was about an hour ride to Tikal.
ugh, I'm so tired of being on the computer. I will finish this another day. I've actually had a really frustrating internet experience. I've been trying to upload my photos onto the internet so they are safe just in case something were to happen to my camera but its taking forever and I can't read anything on the webpage so I will cancel the upload and figure out another way to remove my photos from my memory card later. Suggestions? I think there's no convenient way without having my own computer.
Adios!!

Photo Time!

Campeche central. Just outside of my hostel, Monkey Hostel. (my hostel is in the green buidling and you can barely make out the sign in white). This is the main cathedral where the second column was not completed for 100 years or so after the first...that´s why they look different.



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There were several mother pigs but this is the only one I got a photo of. Piglettes everywhere! So adorable. They´d be running around oinking and cuddling up with each other.



THE armadillo!





Roasting the armadillo over the fire for hours!



Waterfalls that Walter and I went to for the day. His friend, Modestar dropped us off and picked us up. They were only a few miles from Modestar's house.

Modestar's adorable 3 year old son. He also has 3 older boys. 

Pacheca! Steve's dog. She and I became very good friends. She knew I was the one in charge of the food but I still hope it was a stronger relationship than that :)
Pacheco means stoned in spanish. And boy is she an airhead!

My hiking around in the national park around the Palenque ruins.

Palenque ruins!

Howler monkey! The whole family crossed by and I couldn't get it together to get some decent photos but this one will do for now. I'm sure there will be more monkeys in my future.

During the 30 hours downpour. You can see the cabins were filling with water. The river overflowed by about 3 feet!

Inside Steve's place.

Jungle Livin'

I am at an internet cafe in the town of Palenque getting some internet time and stalking up on sugar. I have been so addicted to sugar in Mexico. They have little treats all over and I just can't say no to 5 peso homemade donuts on the street. Palenque is a pretty big town with the basic Mexican requirements for a town. Giant markets! -just like we have the Safeway, and whenever you find a giant market there is always a farmer's market type situation in the vicinity with more local produce and all the necessities for everyday living, so I usually go to the mercados instead. I bought avocados and habeneros and cilantro for my guacamole tomorrow! Anyways, Palenque! And El Panchan! I am staying in a small village , El Panchan. Its at the entrance to the national park where the Palenque archeological site is. I have a sweet deal. My first day here I met an ex'pat, Steve, who offered me a space at his house for free as long as I cook. I had a room to myself until Anna joined the party, now Anna and I are sharing. Its cool and takes the pressure off having to cook every meal plus she is easy to be around. she set her tent up in the room which takes up most the space which is kinda annoying since i like to organize and clean and the tent doesn't allow for that. The room is technically outdoors so there's a bit of a mosquito situation, i light incense or coverup so that seems to work. Anna is riding her bicycle from Alaska to Argentina, has been on the road for 1.5 years, and that's just this trip. Honestly, I'm envious. It makes me want to go home and get my bike! Don't worry, Mom, I'm not going to.

My day today consisted of making hotcakes for Steve and Anna. Anna made me coffee- Yes, I am drinking coffee now too! AH! Then I showered over the river at the canbaña lodge, they have great showers with hot water. My walk to town took a long time, its over 4 kilometers and its not a simple path, lots of pulling over for cars to pass or stopping to take photos of weird ants and whatnots. I got a bit lost in town but found the internet!

I will now go back in time to when I left Campeche, on the 26th.

I wanted to go to Palenque but I read to bus times wrong and turned out I couldn't get there unless I waited 10 hours in Campeche and then arrived at 3am or something so instead I chose a destination on the list that wasn't too expensive to get to- Villahermosa! I got on the bus 1 hour later after eating huevos motuleños across the street. I love huevos motuleños, I will make them for you when I get home. I didn't even know where in Mexico Villahermosa was when getting on the bus. Turned out it was 7 hours away! I got in at 9pm and walked around until I found a hotel for cheap. I put my stuff down and went to the center of town where I watched a salsa band, ate flan and drank coffee. Then wandered around town a bit to find places I'd like to see the next day since I had a bus toPalenque at 1pm and wouldn't have much time in Villahermosa. I gathered its a big town with cowboys and typical Mexican life that you think of when thinking what Mexico is like, definitely different than the Carribean. Lots of cowboy boots and big belt buckles holding in bear bellies. Hot sauce was for sale in most shopes, Villahermosa is in Tobasco!

It was only a 2 hour bus ride to Palenque. I spent my first night in El Panchan, the tourist town close to the ruins, at Jungle Palace. Cabañas on a river! So wonderful. I got my barings and then ended up eating dinner with a Panamanian dude who travels around selling his jewelry. That night was interesting, talked to people from El Salvador and Guatemala and spent a lot of time writing in my journal or just being alone.
The next morning my waiter at the local restaraunt, Walter, asked if I want to go with him to his friends house for the night and next day because it was his day off tomorrow. It sounded rather strange that he'd ask me but I was interested so I agreed to meet him when he got off work at 3pm. We go to Walter's house in Palenque first and then drive 2 hours farther into the junglely farm towns to a place called Palestina.

Palestina has 20,000 people but live in a farming lifestyle. Most homes have pigs, chickens, geese, dogs, maybe a cow or 2 and some veges.  The house I stayed at didn't have cows or very many planted veges. I don't know anyones' name from Palestina! There was grandmother, probably 50-55, who has 9 children. 5 boys, 4 girls and then tons of kids from there. It was difficult to keep straight. They were so welcoming and fun. Always laughing together at something someone said or did. Oh, best part! On our drive we came across a armadillo that was recently killed by a car so Modestar (Walter's Friend who was driving) uturned to check it out. Turns out he wanted to take it home. So into a plastic bag the armadillo goes and first thing when we get to the house...prep the armadillo for grilling! That night consisted of sitting around the fire with the roasting armadillo. The next days food....armadillo. I had a great time but towards the end of the second day I was eager to get out...I ate very little food while there (tortillas and vege soup) and was getting frustrated trying to communicate. I just didn't want to talk or explain myself but they kept asking questions and speaking in Spanish and expecting me to unerstand and respond. There were times I just wanted to say, ¨Stop talking,we can't communicate!¨ and walk away. Ofcourse I did not do that, I already offended them enough by not eating the armadillo.  Walter was the only one drinking tequila that night and got super drunk where he threw up all over and almost fell in the fire. Nice.

The next morning I woke late, there was nothing going on...besides the tortilla maker on the other side of my head. We got a ride to some waterfalls from Modestar. So beautiful. Walter and I were, unforntuntately, the only ones there. That was rather awkward, we ate lots of oranges and I did a lot of walking around to get away from him. The latinos!! We went back to the farm house and chilled with the family for a bit until Modestar got home from work. Then 8 of us, Modestar has 4 children and his ¨big wife¨ drive about 1 mile, traveling at no more than 5 mph to a protected lagoon undergoing restoration. It was a lovely spot but by that time I just needed to be alone so it dragged on...eating the armadillo with the lemonade, swimming, yadda.

I got back to El Panchan around 9pm that day and went to Steve's to check out that situation. His offer was still open so I made a home there and we cleaned out my room a bit. Steve and I ended up talking until pretty late in the night. Steve is an interesting person, he has a sense of humor so that makes up for some of what he says. He is a bit crazy (his addiction to his ¨friends¨on Fox News, is 1 example), from living in the jungle alone for 10 years and various other stories, libertarian type personality.  But for some reason we get along and have some great dicussions about topics from Mexicans owning internet cafes to stem cell research to the music of Bach.

I went hiking around the jungle the other day to find some waterfalls Steve told me about. And as usual, its difficult to avoid seeing someone you know or meeting a local who wants to show you around. I entered the park the back way so I didn't have to pay admission and see Raul driving home from work, he's a tourguide in the ruins. Raul tells me he will show me the waterfalls and a trail to the ruins from the jungle. We end up hiking for a couple hours together until we reached the ruins where I explored alone.  And I got in the ruins for free too. Whew, I'm saving loads of money right now!

Its been pretty relaxed at El Panchan. Steve puts on  a movie most nights. I am reading a fun book; something like,The unforuntate event of the dog at night...that's not it at all I'll write the real name later. Oh the rain! The night I returned from Palestina the rain started and did not stop for 30 hours. It was a downpour constantly. The people staying in cabañas had to leave because water was up to their beds. The whole town was flooded for hours and it took at least a day for the trails to be visable again. I thought it was rather fun. I put on my poncho and walked around, even walked with Pacheca...Steve's dog. She's so sweet but has no manners and has her own agenda when released outside!

That brings us to persent time. I think I will stay here a couple more days. Work on the room a bit to help Steve out and then heading south!
¡Nos vemos despues!