On Saturday morning five people from the Agua trip, including me, made our way to the central square to meet our driver for a road trip around Guatemala. Jordan, the youngest American on the hike, was travelling with his mother around the country and had invited us. Since we all felt we had spent too much time in Antigua we hired a larger vehicle and tagged along.

From Antigua we drove out East to Quirigua and visited the Mayan ruins for a couple of hours. The main Mayan site in Guatemala is Tikal and the other sites are less touristed so we had the area more less to ourselves. From there we pushed onto Rio Dulce a river and lake area which links onto the Carribean Sea.

Again the views are beautiful, particularly as the river winds towards the sea among jungle, and the people clearly Carribean rather than Mayan or Hispanic. The local people speak a percussive language and many look African. We hired a boat and driver and drove to the port of Livingston, stopping on the way at some thermal springs for a well earned rest after 8 hours on the road.

In Livingston we sampled the local fish soup, Tapado, which has a whole fish, a crab, shrimp and plantains in coconut milk.

The following morning we met our driver to visit Siete Altares, a series of waterfalls and pools where we could swim and jump from the largest waterfall. Here too here were few other tourists and we were free to try all kinds of different diving methods. Sebastian´s back flop was probably the most ill-advised and did not result in the desired photo of him "lying in the air". From the waterfalls we visited some other pints of local interest such as the local Statue of Liberty which locals claim is Martin Luther King but clearly pre-dates him and is white. It is probably a saint of some sort. There is also a 17th century fort built by the Spanish to fight the pirates of the area which still stands at the entrance to the lake.

From Rio Dulce we headed North towards Tikal but made a stop just over halfway at a hotel which was highly recommended in guide book named Finca Ixobel. Here we were able to go riding with a guide who positively encouraged novices to gallop, eat some fabulous food and enjoy a fireshow in the evening. The receptionist was celebrating her birthday and had invited some friends to come and perform with her. The show was really impressive and we were told that were recently asked to perform in a large televised event.



From the Finca we still had about 4 hours drive to get to Tikal and after an exhausting night of partying I took the opportunity to sleep. When I awoke it was with a start and I was face-down in a puddle with broken glass in it. Since I am not at my most lucid when I have just woken up it took me quite a while to realise that there had been an accident and I was in the bus which was lying on its side. I did not seem to be hurt but needed to find my shoes as there was broken glass everywhere. As I clambered out through the back window and slid past the post we had hit I saw a man lying in the road surrounded by onlookers. He was seriously hurt and had a large cut on his head. Someone had called an ambulance but it would take 40 minutes and although the man was still breathing he clearly needed urgent medical attention. It was a harsh lesson in the culture of the local people when I understood that many were not surprised to see him hurt as he is the village drunk. Many simply did not care, they gossiped and gawped at the latest village attraction. I asked a man "Where is the local doctor?" and he told me that there was a clinic 5 minutes walk away. No one had thought to go there and it wasn´t until I told him to show me the way that we finally ran to get some help. Unfortunately there was no doctor, only nurses, and they were unwilling to get involved. I insisted and one Canadian volunteer eventually stood up to her superiors and insisted that they go. Stephanie was a great help as she stopped the locals from moing the man who was unconscious. There was little to do but wait for the emergency sevices and unfortunately the police came before the ambulance. They simply picked the man up and put him in the back of their truck to drive him to hospital. Meanwhile we checked ourselves for injuries, nothing serious thankfully, and tried to work out what had happened.

The consensus was that we had not hit the man but that he had fallen after being startled by the car and a child who was running after his ball in the road. Our driver, Domingo, had done his best to avoid the people in the road but had lost control on the wet road and the bus had tipped over and hit a post. The bus would now need to stay at the site of the accident and wait for assessment by the insurance company. A Canadian man approached us an offered to help us organise alternative transport to Tikal. He explained that he was the local Menonite pastor.

The pastor lived in the village in which we had crashed with his wife and adopted children. The children come from broken homes or in one case street children with no family at all. As well as running the local church he has established the medical clinic and a school. The family were very welcoming towards us, giving us lemonade and introducing us to visiting relatives while we waited for our new driver. Ishmael arrived and took us in his new bus to Tikal at the sort of speed that people who have just been in an accident like.

At Tikal we got up early to meet our tour guide, at 4.30. We wanted to watch the sun come up and listen to the jungle wake up. The walk through the park in the dark is spooky and we had to take care not to tread on the enormous nocturnal caterpillars which were crawling across the path. The ground was wet and slippery and the sky completely black. Eventually we got to Temple IV, the tallest temple in Meso America, and the place where we would start our visit of Tikal. We experienced another misty sunrise but it was still very beautiful to see the pyramid-shaped temples poking out of the top of the clouds as the sun came up. We then went on a tour of some of the main ruins in the park. The park is huge - hundreds of square kilimeters - and most of it is unexplored and the ruins still covered by jungle. The site, after bien abandonded, was undiscovered fro around 1,000 years. It has been under restoration since the 1880s but progress is slow and there is still a lot of work to do. Looters have damaged some sites as they have pillaged burial grounds for ancient relics. As well as the breathtaking ruins we also saw monkey, macaws and huge trees.

From Tikal we headed Southwest towards Coban and Semuc Champey a stunning National Park. We stayed in a grea riverside hotel and in the morning headed out to visit a local cave. The cave has a river source in it so that water flows through it. We took candels for light and at times swam with one hand to get through the maze of tunnels. Cavers have installed ladders for some of the harder climbs and we were able to cover quite a lot ground in the two hours (although nothing near the 11km to the end of the cave). From the cave we floated down the fast flowing river to the bus and drove to the Semuc Champey National Park but not without the boys jumping off the bridge at around 20 metres above the river. Semuc Champey is a natural bridge and series of clear water pools which covers a very fast flowing river. It was a stunning spot and an ideal place to take our final dip before heading back to Antigua.

Volcan de Agua

At the weekend a group of us hiked up the highest volcano in the area, Agua. I organised a group of people from a few language schools in Antigua and we ended up with a nice mixed group of two Americans, two Germans, one Swiss and an Australian. Most hikes up the volcano are done in one day in this season because there are frequent rains however we wanted to camp in the volcano crater and watch the sunrise from the top.

Jose, our guide met us in the central square of Antigua and took us to the small village where we began our hike. It is a small place inhabited by Mayan peoples and it was market day on Saturday. We walked past the stalls and piles of fruits up a street which gradually became a dusty path up the mountain. The mountain didn't seem that big but we would climb up 2,000m that day.

Jose walked fast and we had to ask him frequently to slow down. We were told that the hike would take 5 hours but some hikers we met on their way down took 7. They also had all their belongings stolen by robbers in balaclavas who had jumped out of the bushes waving machetes. It was not the sort of story we wanted to hear.

The hike is pretty steep up rocky paths which were still muddy from the rain. There were some interesting passes and occasionally we would share the tiny path with a Mayan and his horse. The views were extraordinary as the volcano towers 2000m above the plains to the North. We could clearly see Antigua, Guatemala city and the volcanoes and lakes of the area.

At the top there is a refuge in which we camped and warmed ourselves on a small stove. We arrived too late for the spectacular view of the Pacific and the Atlantic but managed some fairly magnificent sunset photos.

We had hoped to see the sunrise and set our alarms for 5am. In the morning however the top was covered in cloud and it was still dark. We checked periodically to see if the cloud had cleared but as the sun came up the visibility did not improve. It can happen but we were disspointed not to experience the spectacular views we had been described. Of course every day since then the volcano, which I see every day as I step out of the house, has been clear.

Rumbling rocks

The last couple of weeks have been eventful geologically. Almost two weeks ago Pacaya volcano, which I visited earlier in my trip, erupted. The new flow of lava came down below the tree line but did not reach the villages. Visits to the volano are continuing in spite of the "Yellow alert", and my housemate was brave enough to go, but the scenery has changed dramatically and it now isn´t possible to walk on the lava. the authorities have not yet decided to evacuate the surronding villages but are monitoring the situation. The news story is here:
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2006/agosto/01/148277.html

On Wednesday night there was a tremor in Antigua at around 2am but since there hasn´t been an earthquake since 1976 here no one seems too worried. This morning I was woken by what I thought was a house falling down - after all we had just had a tremor - but in fact it turned out to be Fuego Volcano grumpling.

There are three volcanoes in the area surrounding Antigua: Fuego, Pacaya and Agua. Fuego and Pacaya are both still live and periodically emit smoke, lava or debrit. Agua last erupted in 1541 and destroyed the ancient capital so that it was moved to the current location of Antigua (it was moved again to it´s current site in the 18th century after a large earthquake).

I have organised a trip to Agua with some other students from the school this weekend. It is the largest volcano at 3,760m above sea level and takes about 5 hours to climb. We plan to hike up on Saturday, camp in the crater overnight and then come down on Sunday morning. The mornings tend to have clearer weather and the sunrise promises to be spectacular. If the visibility is good we may be able to see both the Pacific ocean and the Carribean sea from the top. We may also get a bird´s eye view if Feugo or Pacaya decide to errupt.

Weekend on Atitlan Lake

This weekend I visited a lake a few hours from Antigua which is in the centre of a volcanic zone. I wanted to get out into the country side, breathe some fresh and get close to nature. Antigua is beautiful, and many see no reason to leave, but Guatemala also has many natural wonders and interesting wildlife so I felt it was time to see them. I travelled with two American boys from my language school, Aaron and Dylan, who are on their summer holidays from college.

Lake Atitlan is on the site of an ancient volcano which exploded millions of years ago and is 300 metres deep in the centre. The explosion was enormous and rocks were found as far away as the Southern United States and Panama. This event left behind a huge crater in which the lake now exists. Inside the crater hole a number of smaller volcanoes have sprung up in the intervening years (the site is still live) and this has disrupted the perfect circle of the original lake. The lava beneath heats the mud at the bottom of the lake - a phenomenon which can be felt by divers.

We caught the bus on Saturday morning from Antigua and then a water taxi to one of the villages on the lake named Santiago. There is a shrine to Maximon there. Maximon is a wooden statue which the local men wail at and burn incense for in a religious ceremony. From what I saw he apparently likes to smoke a cigarette now and then too. A very odd experience which our 12-year old guide did little to explain - probably because there doesn't seem to be any consensus on who he is beyond a deity. Here is a link to a site which explains a little more (in English): http://www.timshome.com/maximon/default.htm

We visited a couple of other villages on the lake side and admired the highly embroidered clothing of the local indigenous people. Although many of them speak Spanish their first language is Mayan and includes clicks and a sound called the "double glottal stop".They are also very small people - most about 4 feet tall - with seemingly fragile bone structures. Although some young people wear Western clothes most people, including children, dress in their original costumes which they make by hand in their homes.

In spite of all this interesting culture we decided to stay in a waterside hostel called La Iguana Perdida which is owned by an American and run by some Brits. Their Saturday night parties are legendary and include a compulsory dress code of clothes from their dressing up closet. There are dozens of ball gowns to choose from and Aaron chose a fetching sequined number while Dylan preferred a more subtle peach dress.

The party was wild and long and, since my swimsuit was part of my costume, I took the opportunity for a dip in the lake. We had bought a bottle of rum which and at intervals we took shots of it sitting on the floor of our hut. At one point Dylan shouted to me "Get up! Get up right now! Get up!". Apparently the rustling I had heard behind me was a large scorpion which had crawled under my leg - I was more or less sitting ON it. In the commotion the scorpion ran away and we were unable to catch it. I was concerned but there was little to do but face the fact that the hut would also be home to animals. Little did I know that the desire which had prompted the trip -to become acquainted with the indigenous fauna- was only beginning to be fulfilled. In blissful ignorance I continued with the festivities in the bar for several more hours before finally going to sleep, exhausted.

In the night I felt something scampering on my head. I could feel little paws stepping rapidly over my hair. I think it was probably a mouse, or a rat, or possibly a lizard. It was awful thinking of the possibilities but I had no torch and there was no electric light to actually find out what it had been. I adopted the "Latin Driver Technique" which I developed earlier in my trip and ignored the problem.

Later in the night I was awake and staring into the blackness when another little scampering beast used my head as a footpath. I was sufficiently cogent to be infuriated by the impudence and began shaking everything vigorously to get rid of the beast: my head, my pillow, my blankets. Just to make sure I repeated the frantic convulsions until I was thought it was gone. In spite of these efforts I felt powerless since there was no way of checking exactly where it was.. or what it was...

The following day Aaron and I dragged ourselves out of bed early to go diving. It was the first time I had dived in a lake and I found the experience really interesting. The water was pretty clear but we could only go near the edge of the lake since it rapidly gets very deep. We dropped down to an area where the heat and gases of the lava beneath can be felt and seen. In places there are small bubbles rising up through the mud and patches of green and brown indicate areas which are warm. We had expected the mud to be hot but it was actually only slightly warm which was a bit disappointing. Nonetheless there were some fish and incredible volcanic rock formations which were fun to swim around.

After the dive I was finally able to relax and decided to enjoy some hammock time on the terrace of the hostel. The view of the lake from there is stunning and the visibility is never better than in the early morning. Already the hostel dogs were awake and playing in the water and a few people were leaving for new horizons in the water taxi. I admired the vista, dozed, and relaxed with The Sunday Times Magazine from April. Just as I mulled over the perfection of the moment, a large black creature, which I later realised was a dog, leapt into the hammock. He had just been swimming in the lake and was so happy about it that he had decided to celebrate with a face-licking session. Pushing him out of the hammock did little to dent his exuberance and he bounced off happily to share his joy with other tourists. In my blissful state it was difficult to object to such earnest affection but as the odour of wet dog hit me, and the water seeped through my clothes, I had to concede that it is possible to get too close to nature at times.

Pacaya Volcano Lava Video Link

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1003060271&n=2

You need the latest Macromedia Flash to view this. There is a prompt to download it if you don't have it.

A Recipe for Fluency

Last night my spinning head dictated that I should speak no more Spanish. I obeyed and went out, with my new house mates, to a local bar named Riki's because we had heard that there would be a concert there.

It was no ordinary concert. The remaining members of the Buena Vista Social Club, Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzalez, were playing along with a supporting band. They live in the outskirts of Guatemala city and frequently play this tiny venue which is really just an annex to a bar here in Antigua.

When we arrived the room was completely packed full of hot and sweaty people. Some were at tables but most were sitting on the floor or standing. It was very cramped but the atmosphere was electric. After some negociation we managed to get a space on a table right at the very front. The view was incredible and I wished I had brought my camera to the bar. These old guys really know how to perform.

Towards the end of the first set they called for people to come and dance and somehow a tiny space was made at the front of the room and a couple danced salsa. They spun and flailed seductively on the postage stamp-sized piece of floor.

After a short break the band started again and everyone started to dance. Few knew how to but that wasn't the point. The band loved it!

The second half eventually ended but we stayed for a while to finish our drinks. Sometime later I found that my spinning head had eased and my linguistic skills returned. I decided that it was time to try out my Spanish on the Cubans.

Ibrahim Ferrer and I chatted about Havana, the National Hotel where he worked for many years and the terrible Chinese bicycles that I remember overtaking uphill when I cycled in Cuba. The very basic machines only have a single gear and are bought very cheaply in parts from Asia to be assembled in Cuba. I told him about my trip, the people I met and my impressions of Havana and the countryside. Clearly drinking and dancing, not books and exercises, are the key to speaking Spanish. I must sign off as I have "homework" to do.