Guatemala The Last Crusade

Lake Antitlan

San Pedro

Thursday Feb 21

Fun fact, Lake Atitlan is volcanic in origin and is the deepest lake in Central America. It's massive and is surrounded by 3 volcanoes around the perimeter as well as lots of little pueblos. Most people do farming here, but in the popular tourist towns lots of people own hotels or restaurants, so much so that in some places there are just too many places and not enough people to stay in the places so accommodation can be pretty cheap!

We had gotten in to San Pedro from Antigua Wednesday night, just as it was getting dark. The bus dropped us off right in front of a few hotels and a guy immediately came out and ushered us over to check his place out. As we were walking we asked him how much and he said 50Q’s each, and then started to laugh. We were really confused but 100 Q’s, which is about $12, is about what we had been paying. It seemed fine but we told him we wanted to look around for something cheaper, he immediately changed his tune and said, “Oh no, I was just kidding it’s 50 Q’s total.” At that point we were like, boo ya, sold! We had an amazing view of the lake and it even included our own bathroom! :)

Thursday morning we walked around the little town checking things out, we were especially concerned about orienting ourselves after we had gotten lost the night before and couldn't even remember the name of our hostel, which is only a problem if you're asking for directions! :) We had made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up wandering around in the dark for an hour before we were able to retrace our steps, haha! Later that day we rented a double kayak and went for a nice cruise around the lake. The girl we got the kayak from gave us a couple places we could visit, one was about 45 minutes away and the other was an hour and a half away if you went fast. That didn’t sound too bad, until we got in the kayak and actually started paddling…. Let’s just say we were relatively close but didn’t quite make it to either location! :)

Later on we went to the town center and walked around. They have a basketball court with two soccer goals on each side for all the kids to use, and use it they did! We sat there mesmerized at the hecticness of everyone using the court. There were 2 basketball games on one side of the court and 1 basketball game on the other side and 4 different soccer games all using the full court. Somehow they all seemed very adept at mostly avoiding each other and knowing who was playing on who’s team. It was seriously crazy but looked like they were having an awesome time! For dinner we went back to this awesome little Italian place we had eaten at the night before, all the pastas and sauces were made fresh and they had the most amazing bruschetta ever!

$6 a night for this beauty, if you look close you can see how the bathroom and the room are separated by a small wall that doesn't quite reach the ceiling. This makes it very convenient if you're trying to listen and keep track of every move the other person makes while in the bathroom.... It wasn't all bad though, the bathroom is what I'm pretty sure they would refer to as multifunctional, meaning you can sit on the toilet while taking a shower and having a conversation with your next door neighbor who can monitor that you're using the soap correctly as she's looking in through the big open window from her balcony overlooking our room... :)

This is the view from our balcony just outside our door! I could get used to this!

Looking on San Pedro, this was about as far away from the shore as we got, I'm pretty sure most of it was from just letting ourselves drift because we got too tired....

If this isn't a legit dock I don't know what is! They're actually having a big problem with docks and storefronts along the water because the Lake is rising and in 2010 alone it went up 3 meters. It's really sad to see all the stores that are now halfway under water and all the new docks and things they've had to build to replace the old stuff.

The steep road down to the lake!

Friday Feb 22

San Marcos

The next morning we woke up early and headed over to another pueblo on the lake called San Marcos, via a water taxi. If you’ve never experienced the thrill of entrusting everything you need to survive for the next 3 months in a run down boat that looks like it could sink at any minute, I definitely recommend it! San Marcos is a lot smaller than San Pedro but has become a magnet for, and I quote, “hippies-with-a-purpose,” whatever that means! Supposedly it is located in a perfect crossroads of so many things that gives it a special spiritual energy. If you are looking for spiritual rebirth, relaxation, or just an excuse to meditate in a garden full of pyramids, this is definitely the place for you. You can have a massage, take a yoga class, and learn about crystal healing all in one place! :) Once we got off the boat we asked around a few places and ended up staying at Hostel San Marcos, which included a free breakfast, we’re nothing if not thorough when seeking out accommodation. We spent the day walking around the town and checking out the beach!

On our way up to the town center we were stalked by these two little boys who were trying to act like our tour guides so we would give them a tip. We told them we weren’t going to give them money but we’d buy them a snow cone if they wanted. They begrudgingly agreed and only said thank you when the snow cone lady made them, haha! Clearly they were less than stoked about me taking this picture! :)

This is what 125Q’s buys you for a night in San Marcos!

Saturday Feb 23 and Sunday Feb 24

The road to Utila, Honduras

The next morning we started our long journey to Honduras. We began in San Marcos and took a Tuk Tuk to the next town over called San Pablo. From there we were able to catch a bus straight to Guate! We told our bus driver we wanted to go to Puerto Barrios from there and he said oh yeah, I’ll drop you off right by the buses. He ended up dropping us off in the middle of downtown and  told us to walk down the road 5 blocks and we’d find the buses, that easy. Apparently we’re still not the seasoned travelers we seem to think we are because we believed him. After walking much further than we should have there were no buses in sight. We finally asked some guys in this tire shop and found out it was actually on the other side of town. One of the workers was just leaving and told us he was headed there right now and we could tag along. So, off we went in to the city following a strange man bus hopping with our massive backpacks and getting the strangest looks from the locals. But miracle of miracles we made it! Once we got to the bus stop we had a couple hours until the bus left and it was just our luck that another Little Ceasars happened to be in walking distance, you know what that means! We were the proud owners of two more large pizzas! :) We made it in to Puerto Barrios about 9:30 and had to put a little faith in an unmarked taxi who took us to find a hotel, don‘t worry he had come highly recommended from the local drunk hanging around the bus station. When we got to the hotel they wanted to charge us 150 Q’s and McKay immediately said isn’t that a lot? Everyone else is charging 120 (we didn’t actually know how much anyone else was charging we just didn’t want to pay more than that), the lady thought about it for a minute and then told ok, as long as we didn’t need a receipt.

Sunday morning we caught a microbus to the border of Guatemala, after paying our $24 exit tax, we had to make the long walk to the Honduras immigration. Despite the walk it was easy peasy and they didn’t even pretend to ask or care what we were bringing in to the country, it was nice not having to stress for once about all this contraband we’re hauling around…. :) Being in Honduras also meant we had to switch currencies to the Libra, it’s 20 Libras to $1 and they only use bills no coins, which just means you’re carrying around a bunch of money that’s not worth anything at all. From the border we took a bus to Puerto Cortes, then caught a micro bus to San Pedro, where we were finally able to get on a bus headed to La Ceiba, where we would sleep for the night. Once again we didn’t get in until after dark. There was a hotel right where we where dropped off but it was 650 Libras a night, so we high tailed it out of there and started talking to a taxi driver who was going to take us somewhere else. As we were talking to the Taxi driver a security guard from the bus company came up to us and told us we shouldn’t get in the taxi, it wasn’t safe… Comforting words right? So, after we told him the hotel was too much money he dragged us back in to the front desk and said we could have room 14 for 300 Libras. The AC was broken, the TV didn’t work, and the fan had to be jimmy rigged to make it work… Naturally we took it! Later, when we found what looked like dry snot blood on the sheets, we realized we should have taken our chances with the taxi!

This is a view of the lake as we were waiting for the bus to Guate.

Because waiting at a real bus stop that doesn't smell like pee surrounded by trash and graffiti would be way less interesting! 

Oh don’t worry this is just a friendly reminder not to pee on this building in case you had the sudden urge to go and couldn’t find any place more conspicuous…

Are you tired of seeing pictures of churches yet? Clearly we’re not, because we keep taking them! This is in Puerto Barrios. When we had been on our way to church that morning the sister missionaries were walking in front us. As we walked past them, McKay in his white shirt and tie and me in my dress, they said hello and then McKay said (in Spanish of course), “Ok, let’s go to the chapel.” They gave us a funny look and asked, “Wait, you guys are going to church?” “Yes” “The church of Jesus Christ?” “Yes” haha. They were so shocked, apparently they don’t get many out of town visitors in Puerto Barrios!

Welome to Honduras, I hope you like to walk....

We made it! We must have gotten our wires crossed somewhere though, because the welcoming committee with all the fireworks, balloons, and cold drinks were nowhere to be found....

While waiting for our bus to La Ceiba we discovered a Burger King! (Do you think we're starting to miss the food back home a little?) One Whopper Jr. combo meal all by itself was 109 Libras, that seemed a little ridiculous to me, so instead we opted for this Mega King family meal which included 1 Whopper, 1 chicken sandwich, 1 deluxe hamburger, 1 regular hamburger, 2 medium fries, 2 small fries, 2 medium drinks, and 2 small drinks, enough to feed a small army for only 219, and then proceeded to eat it all.... Awkward!

They legitimately advertised having a pool here.... It wasn't even filled up.... Classy!

Guatemala Part 2

Rio Dulce

Sunday Feb 17

Sunday after waking up and realizing it was going to be our last morning in a tree house, we shed a few tears had our final delicious breakfast at Finca Ixobel and headed in to Poptun. We met a super awesome Canadian couple that morning who are in to real estate and travel 6 months out of the year. They had a truck and the dad Patrick was so sweet and gave us a ride in to town. Half the fun of traveling is all the amazing people you get to meet on the way who can be so nice and helpful! We were also especially grateful because of the long long (but seriously long) dirt road we would have had to walk down just to catch a Tuk Tuk in the first place! After that we caught a bus in Poptun to Rio Dulce, and checked in to Backpacker Hostel not a backpacker hostel THE Backpacker Hostel, apparently they thought they were cool enough to pull off a bold name like that :) and then set off to explore. Rio Dulce is an awesome little town that is set up around a big river that goes out to the Atlantic. A lot of foreigners dock their sailboats there for the winter because it’s far enough in land to be safe (well safer) from hurricanes. Because it’s on a river almost all the hotels and restaurant are set up along the river so it makes for an awesome way to spend the afternoon. That night as McKay was showering he discovered 5 ticks on his body! We were scrambling pulling them all out and trying not to leave the heads in. I even ran down to the front desk and got some matches to try and burn them out, the only thing that resulted in was me singeing some of his hairs and burning his leg! Poor guy, I couldn't stop laughing and feeling extremely bad for him at the same time. Luckily we never found any on me, and the only thing we can think is he must have gotten them on the hike to the cave the day before! He must have sweeter blood than me... We later read that lime disease can show up, up to 60 days after the head is left in...Hopefully not to be continued! :)

As we were waiting for the bus to Rio Dulce this truck came cruising down the street blasting advertisements about a circus and pulling tigers in a cage. You would have thought I’d never seen a tiger in my life the way I got so excited and was jumping up and down. It was crazy they were just right there, nothing stopping you from reaching your hand in and getting it bitten off! They were so pretty but I couldn’t help but also feel bad that they were being traipsed around like that.

This is the view from the massive bridge crossing over the river. Sorry my husband is so hard core, he just got his head shaved this day and the instant tough guy effects from that had clearly set in... :)

Just enjoying a little smoothie, a little internet, and a little water along the river.

Guatemala City/Antigua

Monday Feb 18

Took a bus first thing in the morning to Guatemala City (which will henceforth be called Guate in the spirit of acting like a local) where we would then head to Antigua. We ended up taking a bus company called Fuente Del Norte which was half the price of others, included a fresh vomit smell, and made 20 minute pit stops every hour. Let’s just say if we had been on Let’s Make A Deal, we definitely would have been Zonked (maybe some of you remember my brief unemployment period where day time television became my friend?). We ended up getting in to Guate at about 2, the bus dropped us off at this big mall with lots of buses. Sounds promising right? Wrong! Somehow out of the 1500 buses that seemed to be flowing in and out not one of them was headed to Antigua! It was going to cost us another 80Q’s just to get to the right terminal. In the end we found a bus company that was going to Antigua at 6, but first we had to get on one of their buses at the mall to take us to another terminal, where we then got on one of their microbuses which then took us to the right place to wait to leave. It ended up costing us just as much as if we had taken the nice bus in the first place and took us an extra 5 hours! Moral of the story, stop being such a tight wad! :)

As we were crossing the bridge on foot to catch the bus that morning, (because we were to cheap to take a Tuk Tuk) running late as usual, this saint of a guy in a truck pulled over and told us to get in (note to other travelers, this is probably how a kidnapping starts) so naturally we did! He stopped and picked up two other backpackers on our way across the bridge so we had them capture the moment with this epic action shot. I am clearly pumped to be there! :)

The one good thing about that bus taking us to the mall was it had a Little Caesars! I’m seriously not even posing in this picture, this is what my face was doing from the second I spotted someone carrying a Little Caesars box from 20 yards away until I was desperately inhaling that pizza as if I hadn’t eaten for a month! Don’t worry we each bought our own pizzas and then walked around carrying our own boxes… I’m sure everyone was thinking, "Ok, you big fat Americans, eat your pizza." Also, as we were waiting for our pizza we saw these girls who looked like they could be sister missionaries but we weren't quite sure and didn't want to stare too hard. So, instead we did the awkward let's walk around them to see if they're wearing name tags but don't look too obvious that we're trying to get a better look at them dance that we've all done in the past.   Strangely one of them kept staring right at me and I thought, how does she know that we're members? As we got closer she walked up to me and was like, "Do you play soccer at Ogden Indoor?" I was in shock and my first thought was, I'm famous! Then, I realized I was wearing an Ogden Indoor Champions shirt (they don't just give those out for free ya know?) that she had recognized with a keen eye. Her name was Sister Montoya (?) and she was from South Weber and we ended up knowing a bunch of the same people. What a small world!

While waiting in the terminal for the bus to go to Antigua we met Caitlyn. I seriously love her! She is from Byron Bay in Australia and is a total hippie, I‘m talking crystals, rainbow gatherings, shaved head with a few little curls here and there, the whole bit. She’s been traveling for the past 14 months and just kind of living day to day working here and there making things to sell, trimming (which I later learned meant plowing marijuana plants) etc. She also spent a bunch of time traveling on a bus that ran on Vegetable Oil. She told us they would raid all the fast food dumpsters at night looking for discarded oil. She was on our little microbus to Antigua and is a total sweetheart and made me laugh so hard. It was fun chatting with her and hearing some of her fun stories. She’s thinking about heading home soon because her brother’s girlfriend is having a baby, so she told us total straight faced, “I want to be there waving crystals at it as it’s coming out.” I started laughing and she was like, “No, I’m serious.” It was so funny, but we had a really good time with her and ended up staying in the same hostel. This was an awesome little street vendor we ate at in Antigua for 20 Q's, it came with meat, beans, avocado and a tortilla, so good!

Tuesday Feb 19

We ended up staying at the Hostel A Place to Stay, which made it difficult to find because every time we asked if someone knew A Place to Stay, they kept directing us to other Hostels…. Get it? I’ve been waiting 3 weeks to use that one! :) It wasn’t anything fancy but it was $15 a night and included a free breakfast! The first morning it was juevos rancheros with this awesome salsa and bread, so delicious! Later that day we booked a sunset hike up the volcano Pacaya about an hour away from Antigua.

On our way to the Volcano, we stopped partially to get a pic with this awesome view and partially because we were hiking up a mountain and we definitely needed the break! Notice the stick McKay's carrying, he got conned in to "buying" it from one of the kids at the bottom. Apparently buy is not the right word as they encourage you to recycle your sticks so the kids can take advantage of the next set of tourists that pass through. :)

Oh sure, I look tough now, just don’t look too closely or you’ll see all the sweat pouring down my face! I thought I was going to pass out hiking the 4km up this thing. My heart hurt, my lungs were burning, and I was so out of breath I only made 1 LOTR reference the whole way up. :) In all seriousness the week before someone had a heart attack doing this hike and ended up dying. I tried to use that as a reason why I needed to ride a horse up, but McKay thought if the 70 year old lady in our group could do it on her own, so could I. :)

Look at my handsome shaved head man. He shaved his head so he would look tougher and all the bad guys would stay away... So far it's worked like a charm! Behind all that toughness is the peak of Pacaya, this is as close as we could get to the top because it's not safe due to recent activity... Personally, I don't understand how it can be any safer to be this far away from the lava, but hey who I am to judge, we got to climb up a volvano. 

No BD, just cookin some mallows from the heat coming off the lava right below us, the sulfur taste was an added bonus! I'm pretty sure this girl in the background has been following us since Mexico waiting for a chance to photobomb the blog, well, whoever you are your time has finally come, you're welcome....

Just hiking through Mordor, we’ll be sure and tell Frodo hello for you.

After hiking around the volcano we hung out on top and watched the sunset, it was so pretty! Also, in case you were wondering despite sitting on top of a mountain of lava it was freezing, hence the sweatshirts!

Wednesday Feb 20

Getting to Lake Antitlan

We woke up in the morning and after enjoying another amazing free breakfast, this time of pancakes, we walked around the market in Angtigua. Where, my husband willingly asked to not only try on a pair of fake crocs but then proceeded to buy them for 30 Q’s. I never thought the day would come and I’m still in shock just thinking about it! After that we found the chicken buses to Lake Antitlan and headed off. 

McKay discovered these little gems on our first day and couldn't get enough, it's a frozen banana dipped in chocolate for 2 Q's, that's like a quarter, but seriously though.

I on the other hand opted for the ever classic snow cone. Only they do these ones by hand with a big block of ice and a shaver and then they add in addition to heaps of the snow cone syrup delicious things like canned strawberries, nuts, canned cream etc. Delicious! :)

One of my favorite things about Guatemala, is the way they pimp their buses! All the drivers are so proud of their buses and of making it their own, the inside is usually covered in bling and the outside is decked out with flashy paint and flashing lights galore! This was the third bus we had to switch to on our way to the lake, I especially liked it because it was named Wendy! :)

Construction stop! This was particularly painful because we could finally see the lake and knew we were so close and yet so far away! We sat there for an hour with no movement whatsoever, finally I think our driver was just done and got everyone to band together and away we went! Construction work be danged!

Coming soon, the lake and what it's like to have a bathroom where your neighbors have a direct view of your toilet from their balcony...

Guatemala Part 1

Guatemala

Flores/Tikal
Wednesday Feb 13

Took the 6am ferry back to Belize City, we got in early and booked a bus straight through to Flores Guatemala. Sounds simple enough, but let’s be real, nothing is ever as it seems down here. Our deluxe bus with AC, seats that lean back, and movies ended up being a van that was overbooked and packed to the max. Lucky for us we jumped on board the second it got there, because 3 other people had to figure out a different ride even though they had already bought tickets! 

We got in to Flores in the afternoon and checked in to the Mirador De Lago hostel for 90Q’s a night (about $12), it was awesome! We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming at the lake and walking around. Flores is awesome, it’s a little island on a lake that you can walk all the way around in 20 minutes. It’s pretty touristy and where everyone stays when visiting the Tikal ruins!

This is the view of our hostel from the dock. We had a sweet view of the lake!

It’s so hard spending a day lakeside, now if only someone would give me a pedicure....

Getting ready for sunset! I love Flores so much, it is such a cute little town and we wished we could have spent a lot more time here.

Don't be deceived by the quaintness of these streets.... Just kidding they really are just as cute and quaint as they look in the picture!

That night at dinner we ordered nachos, instead we got Nacho Cheese Doritos and guacamole….

Thursday February 14

Maybe you’ve heard of a little place called Tikal? It was only like the mecca of the Mayan world in it’s hay day, no BD (as in Big Deal, which it clearly was)! We woke up and waited for our tour bus at 3 in morning! After 30 minutes of sitting on the street in the dark waiting to get mugged, the van shows up (I'd also like to note we were the first ones on the bus, so I don't understand the 30 minute delay) and the first thing we learn is that the travel agent lied and it was going to cost us another $15 each, meaning the total tour itself for both of us was over $100! That’s supposed to be our max budget per day, I was ready to kill someone and sadly this wasn't even the first time I had been duped in Flores! After an hour long ride we got to the base of the ruins still in the pitch dark, it was freezing cold but so serene. We started the couple mile hike up to Temple IV and along the way we saw a Crocodile in a swamp no more 2 feet off the path, a massive tarantula, so many stars shining, and you could hear all the sounds of the jungle. It was so amazing and peaceful!

We hiked on top of  Temple IV and watched the sun come up. It was such an awesome experience hearing all the animals in the jungle and even seeing the monkeys swinging in the trees right below us! As we were sitting there you could hear all this crazy growling in the jungle, luckily we had already had our own run in with Howler Monkeys (maybe you remember the evil growling that I almost risked my husbands life for?) or I might have been a little (a lot) scared! On this hike our guide informed us that to make the sounds for the T Rex in Jurassic park they combined a lion and a howler monkey, that made me feel a lot better about being such a pansy! :)

You might also recognize this view from such little known movies as Stars Wars The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the JedI! (On a random note, I did not intentionally capitalize the I in JedI, the computer just keeps doing it for me…. This is probably some kind of a joke the programmers hid in the software feeling like JedI must have a higher calling in life and deserve the proper respect)

This is from the top of one of the Temples, I think maybe Temple VII, does the VII make sense in a layout kind of way to help you find your way around, nope not at all, they just seem to be randomly numbered for no rhyme or reason!

This place is so huge and covers an area of around 16 sq km, sorry I’m too lazy to type that in to Google and figure out the translation to American, but it’s massive, we were exhausted after walking all morning! We actually ended up leaving at noon (we had already been there for 8 hours) just as the herds and herds of tourists started coming in and we were like boo ya! Also the Mayans lived here from about 800 BC to 900 AD, see learning can be fun and interesting! :)

Another one of the temples, they used to let people climb these but eventually the death toll raised higher than the permitted limit... Cause apparently in Guatemala it takes more than one person to plummet to their death before they'll do anything about it. :)

We self timed this picture ourselves, are you impressed?

That night in honor of Valentine’s Day (we actually had forgotten what day it was until someone reminded us halfway through the day) McKay took me on a super romantic date to Burger King, followed up with the latest Die Hard movie and a double scoop of ice cream! Does he know the way to my heart or what? :)

Finca Ixobel

Friday Feb 15th and Saturday Feb 16th

We took one last look at the awesome view of the Lake from our hostel hopped in a Tuk Tuk and took a combi to Finca Ixobel. It’s this awesome little ranch slash hostel slash farm that I stayed at the last time I was in Guatemala. It’s such a great atmosphere there, everything is super spread out and centered around a main reception slash kitchen area. They have dormitories, apartments, camping and tree houses as well as lots of hammocks for lounging, a man made lake slash pond and of course a ping pong table! The food there is also so delicious, everything is made fresh, including all the breads and desserts! Every night they have a set menu with two kinds of salads, two kinds of sides, and two main dishes to choose from (vegetarian or meat) and there were always tons of locals that would show up just for dinner, that’s how you know it was legit! :) We spent 3 nights there and wished it could have been longer! On Saturday we did this amazing Cave hike that if I could only recommend one thing to do if you came to Guatemala this would hands down be it!

Tuk Tuk travel, fit for a Mayan King.... if they were still around.... I'm sure.

Ridin in style!

This is the entrance to the Finca, our Treehouses were just to the left in a big field!

 Ahh, convenient, McKay snoozing away while I'm hard at work snapping some photos... :) This is our Treehouse, notice the super deluxe wooden windows held up by a rope and the super classy mosquito net, it also came complete with your very own candle set and matches to light the place up at night, it's like electricity only better!

The view from the deck of the Treehouse, notice the hammock, no reason, just wanted to make sure you saw it!

On our way to the cave with our guide Wilson and faithful companion Lady (as in Gaga)! We had to hike an hour through flat land and then up in to the mountains to get to the cave.

Apparently hiking in the woods makes me skittish...

See that endless black hole behind us? Yep, that’s the cave! :) It's on Finca Ixobels property so no one else has access to it but them. I can’t believe more people don’t do it, easily in the top 5 sweetest things I’ve ever done!

And in we go! Watch out for the flying bats streaking through the dark and blind fish living in the dark plaguing the water....

This is the cave, it was seriously so amazing! Half the time we were wading in water up to our waste other times it was so deep we had to swim. It was pitch black and along with our headlamps Wilson was lighting candles along the way. 

Picture this, at the end of our hour long hike in to the cave, we're exhausted, we're wet and we don't remember what the light of day feels like. We come to a big waterfall, it’s so loud and all you can hear is the water pounding as it falls an incalculable distance, it sounds like it could be miles high. We turn our headlights off breathe in becoming one with the darkness and then you make the giant leap of faith in to the pitch black! Talk about YOLO (for those of you not in the know that means You Only Live Once, I am so a hipster)! In reality it was only about 15 feet high, but you feel like your falling forever! Ahhhh Yeeeah! Here’s McKay getting ready for the big jump....

Coming back in to the light!

The long hike home through the jungle felt twice as long coming back with wet shoes and major chafing! 

Wilson the stud! He didn't even get us lost once!

Up next, adventures with hippies and we finally find a Little Ceasars!