Guate Travel and Home Again!

I'm home in Durham, but just wanted to write about traveling in Guatemala with Jess. Our week was incredibly busy and we saw quite a lot of Guatemala :) After meeting Jess at the airport, we took a cab to a bus to Coban, which is a town about 5 hours north of Guatemala City. Although the town isn't that exciting itself, it is a jumping off point for going to Semuc Champey. The first full day we were there, however, we felt like exploring Coban itself instead of hopping on a long bus ride again. As it turns out, there is a fantastic orchid nursery where over 600 varieties of Guatemala's 700 or so varieties grow. Here is a picture of Jess with the orchids:

After the orchid nursery, we took a tour of a coffee farm (finca) where a very knowledgeable guide explained and showed up every aspect of the growing, harvesting and roasting process. Then we got to sit down to taste a cup ...

Our second day in Coban we went to Semuc Champey which is about 2 or so hours away: first a shuttle then the back of a pickup truck. I sat on top of the cab with the luggage and Jess squeezed in the back with about 15 other people. Semuc Champey itself is a series of stepped limestone pools. It is a bit difficult to describe so I've included a picture. We climbed up to a lookout point and then explored the pools and waterfalls for a few hours.



Our travels from Coban to Lago Atitlan were, not to mince words, awful. The van was driven by a guy who must have had a death wish -- even compared to the other crazy drivers that I had ridden with in Guatemala. We stopped in Antigua and were supposed to change shuttles but the person we bought or tickets from had actually not arranged anything for us. This was a large problem because we had to get to Lago Atitlan before dark in order to get a boat to our hotel. The death-wish-first-driver took us to a bunch of different travel agencies to try to find something but got more and more angry at us for taking his time. He wasn't the one who sold us the tickets in the first place and felt no sense of personal responsibility. Anyway, it all came to an ugly climax when he started berating me in Spanish about how I was just like all the Americans who come down and treat Guatemalans horribly. I tried apologizing, offering him a sandwich (he blamed us for his not eating lunch), telling him why I was in Guatemala in the first place ... Nothing worked. He was MAD MAD MAD. So, we got out of the van -- without getting the right amount of money back. It was traumatic. But, as it turned out, we took a chicken bus and arrived in time to get a boat to our hotel. Jess particularly enjoyed the chicken bus, although she was slightly injured by a package that fell on her head from the wrack above. Here she is with a small model bus she got later on in the market as a reminder:

The hotel we stayed in was Casa del Mundo, where I had stayed previously. I don't think I can adequately describe how happy we were to be there. We only spent one night, but had 3 delicious meals, spent a few hours in a hot tub next to the lake at night, and basked in the sun ... Here you can see Jess jumping into the lake and me getting ready to follow.

We spent the next day in Santiago visiting Traci and Jared. It was great to see them again and also to show Jess where I had been living and working. But soon we were off traveling again, this time to Antigua. We were quite lazy in Antigua but did manage to see some impressive churches and I took Jess to a lovely old monastery which has now been incorporated into the hotel Casa Santa Domingo.


Jess and I were on different flights out of Guatemala City and hers ended up being delayed by about 8 hours :( Anyway, I made it home on time that evening, Jess made it home that night at 11:30 and my luggage arrived the next evening.

The first few days I have to admit that I didn't want to leave the house. Or, really get out of bed at all. It is quite wonderful to be home. I've been eating salad, drinking water straight from the tap, going on errands with Chris, catching up with friends, and of course spending quality time with Mojo and Q (cats) and Stella (dog). I just saw that there is a possible medical school rotation in Sri Lanka, but I think I'm going to pass for now :)

Story of Mexico

After Caye Caulker, flying in to Mexico City was an incredible culture shock! My mom and I stayed in a beautiful colonial hotel near Chapultapec Park. We were there for a few days in the beginning of our trip and were overwhelmed by a huge outdoor book fair (I bought Roald Dahl's Matilda in Spanish), hundreds of public sculptures (many in the shape of chairs) and an enormous park. Oh yeah, and the shower in the hotel was HOT with plenty of water pressure. We went to the Anthropology Museum, to a wonderful modern art museum (Alan Glass exhibit of fanciful diaramas) and a movie (Vicky Christina Barcelona), and took a double decker bus all over the city. After a few days we took a bus up to Queretaro where we stayed in a beautiful B&B (Casa de Santiago). The owners provided everything from a lint brush to delicious cookies to the softest blankets imaginable. And a huge selection of books and movies. Here is a picture from their website of the view from the roof:


Queretaro is a beautiful colonial town a few hours outside of Mexico City. There is everything you could need in this small city! Well, maybe no movie theater. Anyway, we went to San Miguel Allende (think Santa Fe) for the day to visit my aunt's friends. They have lived there for 20 some years and love it. They had a very old and sweet dog who I got to hang out with, but I found out she died the next day :( We also went to a hotel where the mom of a friend of my mom's used to stay for 6 months every year, for 20 years! The ladies there remembered him and were thrilled that my mom's friend had sent us.

The next day we took an 8 hour bus ride to get to Xilitla which is the home of Edward James. James was an eccentric millionaire in the early-mid 1900s who built a surrealist garden in the middle of the mexican jungle, called "Las Pozas". The garden itself is hard to describe, but you can imagine Dr. Suess's illustrations come to life ... Here is a picture:

Anyway, we stayed for two nights in Xilitla and then headed back to Queretaro and then finally back to Mexico City. I fineggled my mom to stay for 5 extra nights which was quite a coup! This time we stayed near the Zocalo and explored that part of the city. They had set up an ice skating rink on the Zocalo as well as a hill with snow on it for kids to sled down. The area was incredibly crowded and exciting! After going inside the main church we watched people getting blessed with incense and feathers ... The juxtaposition of Catholicism and traditional religious/healing rituals was striking! We spent a day down in Coyoacan which is a suburb of Mexico City where the Trotsky House/Museum and Frida Kahlo House/Museum/Studio are located. Both museums were fascinating, especially because Frida and Diego Rivera and Trotsky were all revolutionaries together (until they had an ideological falling out perhaps relating to Trotsky having an affair with Frida). We also went to Museo Diego Rivera -- Anahuacalli -- which he built like a Mayan temple to house his collection of ancient artifacts. Besides hundreds of pieces of pottery etc., this museum housed a installation art exhibit with skeletons (made of animal bones) that dance when you play an organ that is rigged up to them like marionettes. Here is a picture of the artifacts:

The last place in Mexico that we travelled was San Cristobal, Chiapas. San Cristobal is another beautiful, colonial city. We were very lucky to find Bela's B&B on trip advisor (http://belasbandb.com). There was a lush courtyard, fruit/granola/honey/yogurt for breakfast each morning, a very comfortable bed, 3 sweet dogs, and a fabulous hostess. And I got a 90 minute massage (the best!!!) for about $25. We visited a Mayan Medicine museum and an Amber Museum and mostly relaxed. It was a welcome change of pace from Mexico City! Unfortunately, after a few days in San Cristobal, my mom and I had to go our separate ways :( I took a shuttle down to Guatemala and she flew back home to New Mexico. We had a wonderful trip (as usual)!

The shuttle took about 10 hours and I didn't arrive in Panajachel until 6PM at which point it was getting dark and I had to pay someone to take me across the lake since there were no more scheduled boats. It was a little bit scary in the boat, but I very much wanted to get back for New Year's Eve with Traci and Jared and Matt in Santiago. Everything ended up just fine and we had a relaxed but enjoyable end of 2008/ beginning of 2009.

Tomorrow I am going to meet Jess in Guatemala City and we are headed up to Semuc Champey which is supposed to be georgous. I'll update soon :)

Back in Guatemala!

First of all, Happy Holidays! I hope that 2009 will bring all sorts of wonderful things such as Sunday Brunch, World Peace, and time in the garden.

I am back in Guatemala after a month of traveling. First I met Chris and Laura and Chad in Belize and afterward traveled with my mom in Mexico.

Our trip to Belize was utterly exciting and absolutely relaxing, by turns. We first spent several days in San Ignacio which is very close to the border with Guatemala. The chief excitement of this town is that you can travel to the ATM cave. (Our camera broke so these pictures are from Chad: http://thecusters.shutterfly.com/532). The entire cave experience was other-worldly: after taking a van and then 8 of us squeezing into and on top of a jeep, you hike through seemingly prehistoric forest to the cave entrance. The river disappears into an enormous yawning cavity. The river is so deep at the beginning in passageways to the large rooms inside that you have to swim (without getting your headlamp wet). The cave system itself is enormous and we hiked inside for about 2-3 hours without exploring even a tenth of the entire thing. There were incredible stalactites and stalagmites as well as ancient pots and skeletons that had been left exactly where they were found.Laura and Chad spent a day in Tikal while we explored ruins closer to San Ignacio where we were staying. (This was after we tried to take a canoe up the river but the guy was too stoned or drunk and never came back after he supposedly went to get the canoe.) Here are L&C visiting Tikal:

We took a bus and then a very very small plane to Ambergris Caye off the coast of Belize. On the way we were going to stop and see a zoo, but left a bag on the bus. The bag contained the camera (before it was broken) so Chris and I tried to catch up with the bus to get the bag at the bus station in Belize City. We were going to try to flag down the next bus and I thought there was a 10% chance that we would ever see the bag and camera again. A very nice group of people picked us up and we rode in the back of their pickup truck to the bus station. Unbelievably, Chris found the bus and the bag was still on it. Furthermore, a guy who the ticket-taker at the zoo had called to try to get the bag for us actually had tried to get it (but wasn't allowed to take it as it wasn't his). He came and found us also! We were so thankful and wanted to give him some money but he didn't want any. So, the entire experience resulted in us meeting some very generous people :) However, then we were in Belize City for a few hours which at least around the bus station is quite poor and seedy. Some drugged out guy started talking to us and calling us racist for not wanting to talk to him etc etc. He was a bit threatening and manipulative (playing on our desire not to be racist). We were relieved when we finally sat down somewhere inside to eat.

Eventually we made it to the airport (2 little airline offices and a small airstrip). The plane to Ambergris was very exciting and we saw hundreds of smaller cays off the coast. San Pedro itself (the city in Ambergris) is very quaint and we stayed in a beautiful condo that had a pool and a outside bar and was right on the water. What's more, the couple who rented us the place were amazingly helpful -- we were spoiled! Besides eating delicious food and drinking fruity drinks, we rented bikes one day to explore the island and went snorkeling another day. Here I am holding a shark and Chris on our bike ride:

After Chris and Laura and Chad flew home (sniff), I went to Caye Caulker. This is the tiny and quieter island and I just stayed in a guest house and read by the water.


After a couple of days I was ready to go to the big city: Mexico City. I will write about Mexico in the next post since there is much to tell. Hope all is well :)