travel blog - santa cruz

by the time we hit santa cruz
where we´d booked rooms from panajachel
a number of our group fell ill
sarah and mikayla were the latest victims
and of the 3 of us
erin, sarah and myself
who had planned to dive the lake
only 2 went on to do the dives the next morning
the set up at iguana perdita
was much like finca ixobel
with a tab kept
and a lot of foreign volunteer help
and expensive food =P
i found the best hammock i´ve experienced so far in my life
(tho my experiences with hammocks
had only started a couple weeks before)
it was a very nice hammock
the weather was perfect
and i could see people doing yoga on the roof
which was kind of neat
the cool thing about this area of the highlands
is that the lake is immense
and there are many ancient volcanoes around
which makes the vista breathtaking
and impossible to capture on camera
as the distances are so vast
you pretty much have to go there
and experience it first hand
to truly understand the incredible beauty of the region
i won´t try to describe it any further
oh yeah,
this is also the place
where erin found a scorpion on her pillow
and proceeded to have a freak-out session
with some of the local staff
turning out sheets and blankets
which ended with
the scorpion stamped to death
(at least twenty times, according to erin)
i missed all the excitement
as i was lolling about in the hammock
oh well,
can´t have everything eh?

the next morning,
erin and i went diving with our divemaster jop
(pronounced ¨yop¨)
and we did one dive to 72 feet for 51 minutes
the visibility was murky
the water was cold-ish at 68F
and even in the 6.5mm farmer john
(13mm across the torso)
it was a chilly dive that reminded me
why i have a dry suit back home
=P
all in all,
the place was worth diving once
if only to say one has dove it
...it´s an altitude dive at 1560m above sea level
but with nothing super remarkable to see
we left santa cruz promptly after the dive
i don´t know if anyone visited the town
i didn´t
i wanted to return to pana
and haggle with the locals some more
which i did for some trinkets for me mom
and tickets for us to go to antigua tomorrow
then i went off to find an internet cafe
which i did
and i´ve spent the last 3 hours blogging
and i think i´m finally caught up now
whew!
time to go find some food
it´s actually just past 5pm
and i skipped lunch
as it was too hot to eat earlier today
it´s hard to believe
that it´s sunday already
and in 6 days
if all goes smoothly
i should be home in canada again
don´t know if i´ve said this already, but
time is abstract here
the days stretch into each other
and i feel like i´ve been here forever
and yet it´s all passing so quickly
i think i would like to return here some day
we shall see!
adios!

travel blog - santiago

ah, santiago...
taking a launcha over to this town
which is a fair bit larger than santiago
we left anita back at hotel paraiso
as she was sick with a bout of tummy problems
and mikayla who would join us later
arriving in santiago
we walked up into town
at a restaurant that was neat, clean and had really nice washrooms
(as erin discovered
and after which
we all had to go visit)
i also had a really huge portion of guacamole
that was really tasty
think the place was called el restaurante de pescadore or something
we went off in search of the cathedral-church afterwards
which had a marriage ceremony going on
it was neat sitting under the cool stone archways
watching the locals
we finally hired a little girl and her brother to take us to see
mashimon (sp?)
maximon?
maria is 6, her tiny brother pedro is 3
they´d been trying to sell me beaded key chains
or a photo op for 1Q while i was sitting on the church steps
and were quite the cute lil couple
in the end, sarah paid them 10Q to take us to see
this god figure of the locals
apparently mashimon was an old man who was martyred
and whose ashes from his cremated body were made into a statue
that was kept in the church for a while and worshipped
until they realized it´s pagan nature
now mashimon moves once a year
and is hosted by a local household during this time
we saw a sesserdote (priest guy)
doing a healing ceremony for a woman when we arrived
the incense was super heavy
there were also attendants to the icon
who would feed it alcohol and cigarettes which were brought as offerings
by locals who slipped in and out
we stayed and watched for a while
and at one point
when trying to get closer to sarah to hear what she was saying
i kicked 3 of the candles on the floor over
with a swipe of my foot
which was quite embarassing
and despite the hot wax on my toes
i was more worried about the lit candles
which had rolled under the wooden chest of magical clothes
luckily,
nothing caught fire
and later we left when about 30 tourists
tried to cram into the same tiny little room
causing it to be lit up with the flashes of their cameras
we returned to san pedro shortly after
having met mikayla along the way
and who went to see mashimon on her own
and still managed to catch the same boat as us returning
we picked up anita
who was doing a bit better
and headed off for santa cruz via launcha (boat)
after a brief bit of haggling
one thing,
it really helps to know how much things cost
and then pretend to know perfectly well
what the price is when haggling
the ticketmen all make a perfunctory attempt at a high price
and then just let it go
welcome to guatemala!

travel blog - the licuado ladies

while walking through the town of san pedro
in search of lunch
we met a guy mike
who was selling food from a basket
(he was once a canadian)
and promised to return to find us
with some chocolate cake that was to die for
(and it was)
we walked uptown
and vacated a local comedor
after finding that maybe the lady didn´t really have what we wanted
(edible food?)
and erin and i walked straight back to this taqueria we´d seen before
it was clean and empty
and upon ordering 2 sets of tacos at 3x10Q
i left the group
to go back to this juice stand
on the side of the street
that we´d passed on the way back
there i found
that with my limited spanish
i could actually communicate with the locals
on a very basic level
why did i go back to find this juice stand?
because they´d been calling out the price of 3Q for a drink
while the restaurant had a listed price of 6Q
hey,
frugal i may be
but these ladies were delightful
delores is 51 looks 40
and makes fresh pure orange juice
her daughter rosa is 31 and looks like one of my high school kids
and operates from a connected stand selling licuados made of fresh fruit
for the same price
i had a banana licuado that was the BEST licuado i´ve had on this trip
bar none!
and also the cheapest by half
after lunch,
i returned with the group
and had another licuado - banano-piña
which was even better
if only because i like that combo of flavours more
erin ordered an orange juice
which tasted so good, it wasn´t even funny
i was in heaven!
i also learned how to ask where a good place to swim was
which is where we went swimming later that afternoon

the next morning,
before leaving for a quick trip to santiago
i went up through some back streets
and found the licuado ladies already there
apparently they are there from 6am to 6pm every day
i had 2 glasses of orange juice
between which
a wealthy local arrived with his family
3 beautiful children
a teenager
and 2 ancient crone like ladies in traditional dress
they all had orange juice
the older ones with a raw egg in it
and though i didn´t speak much with them
with a bunch of facial gestures and smiles
i had a really neat interaction with the little boy and his sister
who were dressed sharply
and likely on their way to school
when they left,
the father said with a big smile, ¨adios amigo!¨
which felt pretty special to me
sometimes i think
a sincere heart-felt smile can break any language barrier
after they left,
i asked delores why they wanted raw eggs in the juice
to which she replied something that i totally couldn´t understand from her words
but from her body language and facial gestures
i could tell she thought it was disgusting and they were a bit crazy
i think she also said something to the tune of
that they did this every morning
i asked her if she would ever drink juice with a raw egg
to which she quickly replied never!!
and so,
for my second juice,
i took it straight up
the old fashioned way
it was really neat
seeing mother and daughter
making 6 cups of freshly squeezed juice
(the 2 very young kids shared a glass)
and i wish i had video´d it
delores would cut the oranges in half
while rosa would squeeze each half
which flowed through a strainer into a pitcher
they moved with such speed and smoothness
it was like watching a well-oiled machine
very very cool
...i returned for one last licuado with sarah and erin
on our way to santiago
and i wish i could have stayed longer in san pedro
if only to talk more with these locals
and drink more of these amazingly delicious drinks
i learned at that last sitting
that they grew all the fruits themselves
and that the mother had spent many years making licuados
and so passed on the technique to her daughter
one thing is for sure
not all licuados are made equal
and these were the best in every aspect of quality, quantity and price
that i´ve ever had.

travel blog - san pedro and slacking

we took a boat from pana to san pedro
with the customary flock of rip-off artists trying to get us there
for double the price
(oh wait, sorry!
they´re poor uneducated primitive people living on the edge of subsistence)
and cursing us when we don´t fall for the gambit
as it stands
foreigners pay a least triple what a local pays
even AFTER haggling
which i suppose is fair in a way for the locals
the trick is finding what the bottom foreigner price is
and many of the locals are happy to enlighten the naive traveller
if you can speak a few words in spanish
by now,
my numbers were getting better
and i learned how to say ¨how much?¨ properly
so life was good
arriving in san pedro to the smell of fermenting coffee beans
was not the most pleasant event of the day
but was more than compensated by the fact
that after visiting about a dozen hotels
which were either full or too expensive
(only one was too expensive, the rest were full)
we found hotel paraiso...
the place where sarah had stayed at 3 years ago
very cool
and santos, the owner
was a nice cheery guy
after being show to our basic concrete cell like rooms
which were just fine for the price of 15Q
i noticed
slung between a palm tree
and one of the building posts
was a bright blue
slack line
yeah!
of all places
a half finished hotel
(which sarah tells me is in exactly the same state it was
three years ago, gravel pile and all)
in the dusty back warrens of san pedro
i´d even talked about slack lines earlier with mikayla
when i attempted my first hammock experience ever
at finca ixobel
(crappy hammocks there,
unless you like scripting a mr. bean-ish skit
in which case they were perfect)
anyways,
we tried it out
it was low
but it was tight
and a new star talent was discovered
in less than an hour
erin was sitting on the slack line
standing on it
and by the evening
she was walking and turning around
after standing up on the slack line from a sitting position
amazing!!!
we went for a swim between slacking
walking our way through dusty dirt paths
to dive off a floating dock
into a really refreshing and clean part
of this massive lake
lago atitlan
which is surround by ancient forest covered volcanos
the water was a deep green
and very refreshing
it was also extremely hard to float in
compared to most wet thingies
(ie. pools, oceans, other lakes)
which meant that normal people like me
had to keep moving to stay afloat
tho weird people like sarah
could sleep laying down in the water
(she was the only one tho)
after a refreshing swim
using fishing buoys as markers
we walked back to our hotel
had a supper in a restaurant with an amazing view
of the lake
and the forest fire on the mountain top way across the water
after that,
sarah had a treat for us
having booked these thermal baths
and leading us through the darkness of the night
and a rabbit warren of connecting paths
some cobbled, most dusty dirt
we arrived stumbling in the darkness
(ok, i stumbled a lot
but i´m sure the others must have too...
i just didn´t notice because
i was too busy looking at the ground
which i couldn´t see in the darkness anyways)
to the candle-lit baths
apparently the way the thermal baths work is like this
water is pumped into black hoses
that are placed under the sun all day
and then pumped into a covered bathtub
so which is amazingly warm
we spent a couple hours there
all 5 of us just fitting in one of the baths
(i guess it was the largest one)
taking the occasional dip in the cold pool
which was refreshingly cold
and good enough for a single dip for most warm blooded mammals
before a return to the hot pool was desired
that night,
upon returning to the hotel
we met the owners of the slack line
a trio who had just got the line for christmas
and were still figuring stuff out...
they sure had it rigged up nice tho!
and i have a feeling
call it an educated guess that
erin will join the ranks
of slackers in edmonton
when she returns from central america!

travel blog - panajachel and chichicastenenga

so after spending a relaxing day
haggling in the market at panajachel
we all met up for supper
and found a nice lil place
that served decent food for a moderate price
but had AMAZING service
in that the lady got every aspect of our order right
and did everything in a timely fashion
course after course
without the customary 1 to 2 hour wait
that had accompanied some of our more recent experiences
(like in flores... where the girl
kept writing down more and more and more
every time we repeated what she said for clarification...
that was scary)
the next day,
we were to go to chichicastenenga for market day
but erin had a nasty ear infection
and had a breakout of hives that same night
and so where 5 were to go,
only 3 went
as sarah stayed behind to take care of her
later,
we found out that the vaseline she´d put in her hair
to keep her braids more manageable
was the likely cause of the allergic reaction
and we returned to panajachel to
a normal looking, unbraided erin
oh yeah, and the hives were gone too
anyways,
chichicastenenga hosts a market 2 days a week
thursdays and sundays
this was thursday
and we arrived at about half past nine
and entered the market
it is one of the largest in the area
and was quite interesting to see
many of the stalls were covered with tarps
and a maze of tents created a really neat atmosphere
smoke from cooking fires
with the odd beam of sunlight piercing through
gave the food area a truly exotic look
the other thing that really stands out or, down maybe
is the height to which many of the tents were strung
you see,
the average mayan person is no more than 4 feet or so in height
so walking through the tent mazes
reminded me of being in the catacombs under paris again...
the really tight parts =P
the market was exotic
fun to learn
and fun to walk around and through
and the church had some mayan-catholic priest guys waving incense around
but all in all,
the market at panajachel was much better
the people were friendlier
and would haggle to a lower price
and there was actually more variety of textiles at pana
besides,
anyone who has been to a night market in taiwan
will know that size doesn´t matter
it´s the quality of the goods that does
and with that being said
the night markets in taiwan are HUGE compared to the market days in the highlands
and the coolest thing about that
is with my almost non-existant handle of the spanish language
i wasn´t too worried about getting lost or disoriented
speaking of getting disoriented
we had an almost-situation
after i split from anita and mikayla
to go wander the market alone
at kirby-speed
and found myself at the departure spot
on time
and alone
with the bus there
and everyone else who´d come
but no anita or mikayla
not long after,
i saw anita walk by from the oddest street
(not even in the market)
and waved her down
noticing that she wasn´t carrying
any of the dozen things she´d bought that morning
and noticing
that mikayla wasn´t there either
by sheer dumb luck,
she´d found the departure spot
while looking for the restaurant that she left mikayla in
our dear mini-bus driver, carlos
was intent on leaving
(the cabron!)
prolly because he was still miffed
at the fact that i´d gotten a lower price for the fare
than what he quoted me
and now he was stuck driving me and my friends
he tried to leave a few times
before mikayla came in search of anita
sans many bags of products
which she had left in the care of some nice local ladies
and actually pulled away
after mikayla went back for the loot
luckily,
by speaking directly to the other tourists
and apologizing while asking them if it was ok to wait a few more minutes
carlos couldn´t very well take off
and piss everyone off
poor carlos
in the end,
we all made it home
all the loot made it home as well
and we found a relaxed pair of our friends
3 tacos for 10Q with amazing toppings
and for me,
a whole bunch of better deals
than anything to be had in chichi
damn, but i like pana!
oh yeah,
there were some papoosa ladies on the wednesday night
out in the street
who were making fresh papoosas
for 4Q a piece and totally de-lish!
we were off to san pedro the next day
and i was definitely sorry to leave
but we made plans to return early
as it seemed we all enjoyed pana equally
=)

travel blog - how to haggle, a la kirby

now i have to say
that something about my stay in china
all those years ago
changed something within me
now,
when i find a brilliant tourist market
those long dormant instincts
for haggling
came flaring back to life
i walked the market with erin and sarah
up and down the street
and into the many side streets
checking out the local wares made for tourists
i didn´t want anything in particular
but erin and sarah did
and we proceeded to walk along
asking the prices of pants, shirts, bags and wallets
all hand woven by the local women apparently
whether this is true or not
is another matter
seeing as many of the people
were selling the same things
this however,
made things very easy
when one starts comparing apples to apples
the most interesting thing about haggling
is that you gain more by doing less
so,
rule 1. never seem interested in what you really like

rule 1.a. establish a code word for the main haggler for when you do find something that you like

rule 2. never pay more than HALF of the lowest starting offer after you´ve checked out at least a half a dozen stalls
(as a general rule, i start off at about a third the lowest starting price)

rule 3. never give in, or speak a higher price than your main haggler, once the haggling begins
(or as my lil bro calls it, ¨never break rank¨)

rule 4. never take anything they say personally and always smile
(you´d be surprised how far a smile goes)
rule 4.a. ask what their name is and ask a lot of questions that have nothing to do with the item you wish to procure to keep them off balance and learn more about them

rule 5. walk away... a LOT - you can always go back, tho if you do, let THEM make the first move and call out a new price *wink*
rule 5.a. call them by name when you pass them agani and say hi or make a joke about how rich/handsome/pretty/strong/etc. they are or something

and that´s the general gist of it
the rest is all ... arte!
=P
hehhee
i have to say
after an a pretty much sleep-free night in the bus
haggling in the market
sure got me relaxed
it´s even cooler
when you don´t REALLY want anything
and are just haggling for your friends
the irony of it all is
that my tender hearted companions
felt that serious haggling could be taking advantage
of these poor primitive people´s dire circumstances
and life of bare subsistence
and so a couple of them
actually paid MORE than what i´d haggled the price down to
now if anything can make a true haggler choke,
this is it...
poor indigenous primitive market man/lady with gold rolex on wrist:
¨ok, final price, i sell you 2 for 70Q ¨
tender hearted naive friend give him 80Q
because she feels i am ripping him off
p.i.p.m. m/l w.g.r.o.w runs away laughing to his friend in the next stall
...
yeah, serious
y´know what i also find very very difficult to watch?
jewellry guy goes,
¨160Q for this amazing hand made silver jewellry¨
t.h.n.f. goes,
¨ok!¨
luckily i didn´t faint
and had the presence of mind to scream ¨NO!¨
and immediately followed that with, ¨don´t pay more than HALF!¨
even tho my psychic haggling instincts had told me
that buddy jewelry guy had at least tripled the price
when our t.h.n.f. kept admiring the piece before asking the price
in the end,
i realized a tiny bit of enlightenment
if a person is happy to pay a price
let them pay it
and walk away
they won´t appreciate anyone telling them that they got ripped off
especially when i found the same hand made jewellry at another stall
and haggled it down to 30Q in less than 30 seconds
while walking to, by, and away
from the guy trying to sell them to me
i figure,
if a person spends a sizable amount of money on something
they´ll value it all the more
and there´s nothing wrong with allowing the locals to fleece the tourists
after all,
it makes the tourists feel better
knowing that they´re taking CARE of the locals
of course,
they don´t realize that alot of these poor vendors
drive away in very nice vehicles at the end of the day
and have a perfect set of teeth...
in line with the flow of the idea of taichi
i found myself haggling for a price
that i knew would be fair for the merchant AND make my friends happy
very weird
but fun nevertheless
as it took all of my so-called ¨talent¨
to manage such a fine balance
and none of the transactions took more than a minute or so
=)
that said,
a few incidents still occurred
where my friends WANTED to pay more
i just walked away with a smile on my face

travel blog - to coban... NOT

upon leaving tikal,
we headed off back to flores
and went to the offices of el tigre
where we were to catch our bus to coban
when we arrived, however
we found that the bus was cancelled
due to something called a ¨strike¨
now apparently,
the way a strike works here is
a bunch of very unhappy people
get together and block off highways
with trucks and cars and fires and many many people
thus,
our direct route to coban was not an option
arriving in flores at about 1pm
thinking to catch the 2pm bus out
we ended up going the way we thought we´d have to go to begin with
and that is to guatemala city
which is way south of coban
(with flores north of coban)
and then backtrack to coban on another bus
this bus didn´t leave till 10:30pm
and thus i spent about 5 hours catching up on my blogging
now,
in sorting things out
we found that we could get off the bus early
at a town called el rancho
and save maybe 120km of backtracking
estimated time of arrival was 5am the next morning
after a number of hours in the internet cafe
we proceeded to board a ¨first class bus¨ ... mas o menas
which i learned means something like ¨more or less¨
i´ve got to say it was a lot more on the less side
the seats reclined
but they were made for tiny people
the bus driver didn´t have the AC on for the first hour or so
which made the bus stifling hot
and then when we finally got under way
after waiting for some locals to board over the period of an hour
(so much for leaving on time)
el bus drivero cranked the freaking AC so high
i felt like i was back in canada
in the middle of winter
...without my winter jacket
the night proceeded at a breakneck pace
with the driver going through hairpin turns in the dark
so quickly
that i was thrown half out of my seat a number of times
the night was a hazy blur
of trying not to get tossed
and trying to stay warm
it cannot be said
that i was amazingly successful at either
the journey was punctuated by stops
presumably at different towns
but no one ever got on
and no one ever got off
at about 4am at one of these stops
i asked sarah if she could check
to see how far we were from el rancho
i had this feeling
that we may be ahead of schedule
due to our driver´s exuberance
in handling those mountain roads
...we found out then
that we were long past el rancho
and almost at guatemala city
about half an hour out of the city stop
(bus station some where in the city)
the pollution became very evident
sarah and i could not stop coughing
the rest of our companions were peacefully oblivious
or something like that
it reminded me of beijing on a bad winter coal burning day
anyways,
we arrived in a terminal of sorts
in the darkness
and were promptly swarmed by taxi drivers
at some point during our journey into the city centre
we´d decided to skip coban
and go on to the highlands
which would be a shorter bus ride
and not involve any backtracking along the route we´d come
the 6 of us
(we´d been joined by daniel from switzerland
who was also attempting to go to coban
-and for those that have been following the blogs,
he´s one of the boys that erin and mikayla met atop a pyramid temple
through their peanut butter offerings)
crammed into 2 mini taxis
and headed off to 2 different bus stations
daniel went on to coban
while we hopped onto a moderately chromed chicken bus
and left not long after for panajachel
the bus was an old school bus
converted into a completely different type of vehicle
with fancy signs and chromed grill
and religious sayings in spanish pasted all over the interior
2 or 3 hours into our travel
picking up and dropping off many locals along the way
the bus broke
guess it was bound to happen sooner or later
some of the more optimistic amongst us
sat in the bus for quite some time
(it could be because we didn´t want to haul our packs down)
while others abandoned bus immediately
after half an hour
of watching the bus driver attempt the same fix
-this consisted of wrenching at the shift stick which was stuck
the rest of us got off
and walked a bit down the road
to see if we could catch another bus
this process of waiting by the road side
lasted for maybe another half hour
when all of a sudden
with a shout of glee
our previous bus
made it back to the land of the working
the last little bit to panajachel
didn´t take long
and we hopped off the bus
and headed over to mario´s rooms
where i can´t remember if sarah had stayed before or not
but turned out to be VERY pleasant
nice showers with hot water
clean bathrooms
and bright airy rooms
perfect!
the little hotel is right on the street
where the tourist market sets up
and after checking in
and ditching our packs
a few of us set off to see what was available
and how much things costed
an adventure in haggling was about to begin...

travel blog - a few addendum thingys

currently in panajachel
with very limited time to blog this
so this blog will be dedicated to a few lil details
that i missed in my previous blogs

finca -ixobel
a new canadian past time was discovered there...
due to the difficulty to generate electricity way out there
and the lack of light in the evening
supper was always accompanied by
numerous long white candles in neat clay candle holders
as the group of us came together for supper at 7pm every night
(the only time and place to get food around there! hehehe)
right when it was served
in order to be first in line
and to hear one of the staff introduce supper
as supper wound down
the inevitably bored and distracted diners
discovered that one amongst them
had some psuedo-masochistic tendencies...
either that or a serious case of wax-pyromania
(that´s the need to find all pieces of wax in the immediate vicinity
no matter how small or sticky or thin a piece
and try to set it on fire)
(this person was mikayla, by the way, NOT me!)
somewhere along the way
someone tried to blow out one of the candles from a distance
this promptly turned into
one long night of candle-blowing
from different angles
with interference from other people trying to counter-blow your breath
and all sorts of fun
that made the working staff exit the room very quickly
this lasted until the candles went out
because there was no wax left
yeah, serious, eh
but that´s not the cool new past time we invented
you see,
the second night,
we were bored again
and decided to try something even more interesting
i can´t remember whose idea it was
(prolly mine)
but it ended up with me being the first to try to
SUCK a candle out
yeah, cool eh?
not the word that comes to mind immediately for you?
well it was a hit at our table
because after my first attempt
everyone was laughing so hard
they looked like they were in pain
sad to say,
i am a novice
and the candle flame didn´t even budge
finally i convinced some of the others to try to do it
and i had a first hand idea
of how funny it looked
we even enticed a dutch traveller
(name of martin who flew his motorcycle over here
so he could travel around for a few months)
to join us in our new canadian past time
he actually managed to burn his lips...
that really says something about the dutch eh?
*wink*
so anyways,
the next time you´re sitting around a candlelit dinner
and find yourself just a tad bored
give it a try
candle sucking
just remember
you heard it here first!
hehehe

how to meet people in tikal
at the top of the uber-dangerous-death-defying temple perdido mundo
i met our two lil sisters, erin and mikayla
who´d picked up a couple of friends
danial from switzerland
and allard from holland
tho at that time
all i managed to find out was
one was a dutch guy and one was swiss like the cheese
the rest of the time i was plastered to the top of the pyramid temple
trying not to fall off
so,
how did our two young amigas meet these nice boys
well,
apparently the trick is peanut butter
it´s so simple
merely climb one of the death defying pyramids
sit at the top
open a jar of peanut butter
and start eating it with your fingers
when you see someone you want to meet walk by
(tho how people walk on top of pyramids is still a mystery to me)
offer them a dab
it works
trust me
i saw the results
maybe it has something to do with the sticky bonding nature of peanut butter
whatever the scientific reasons may be
we met up with these guys again coincidently
upon our return to flores
(ok, one of them came back with us
but the other one was pure coincidence
or rather
due to the karma of the butter of the nut of the pea)
so it was proved empirically twice over right there

okee-dokee
that´s all i have time for right now
the internet cafe i´m at is about to close
and tho it´s early here
i will say this
it´s the cheapest one we´ve found so far
at 5Q an hour
and a very solid connection
kudos to sarah, our intrepid wanderer
hasta luego mes amigos!

travel blog - jungle, jungle, jungle, TIKAL!

so off we went to tikal
on our bus provided by san juan travel
61km away from flores
we arrived in the dusty parking lot
early in the day
after we paid our 50Q park entrance fee
headed over to the jaguar inn
where our rooms weren´t ready yet
because it was too early
dropped our packs
and headed into the park
from the inn,
the main entrance to the park was about 1.5km
almost all of it walking under the jungle canopy
it was warm out
but the high canopy made it feel airy and cool
in a very comfortable way
the girls, erin and mikayla went off on their own
as sarah said to me,
we were prolly cramping their style
the three of us left
took our time wandering through the ruins
using one simple strategy
go where the massive groups of tourists are NOT going
and boy where there alot of massive groups of tourists
we pretty much wandered in the opposite direction of everyone else
this was accomplished
by following the exit signs in reverse
clever eh?
so tikal...
one word
IMPRESSIVE
the ruins are extensive
the ruins are HUGE
alot of it has been excavated now and quite a bit of it restored
alot of areas are still blocked off
or still remain buried and in various states of decay
but what HAS been unearthed is mind boggling
i guess there were something like 100,000 people
who lived here at the height of the empire
the temples stretch high above the jungle canopy
and the stairs are quite steep
most of the temples have wooden stairs
and the main steps have been blocked off
temple 1 is completely blocked off
apparently because a couple people fell to their deaths while climbing it
mundo perdido is perhaps the only one you can climb directly
(lost world)
and while the bottom part of it has been restored
the upper part is really really patchy
now the only problem with this is
i am really really really REALLY scared of heights
that vertigo thing
that feeling of being sucked over an open edge
no matter how close to the wall i am
really sucks
and if i thought climbing the wooden stairs of temple 2 was bad
perdido mundo was worse
i decided very quickly
upon looking at it
that i was not going to climb it
so i stayed at the bottom
and watched sarah and anita crawl up the massive steps
it took them a bit of time
and at the top
i saw them near the edge
and then sarah slowly disappeared
inch by inch
i later found out
it was because she was scared of heights too
after they descended
i watched a few more people ascend
and then erin and mikayla crossed paths with us
and were going to climb up this structure
i had counted roughly 87 steps
(had plenty of time sitting at the bottom there to do things like count stairs)
some of the steps almost 2 feet in height
and by the time people made it to the top
they were little itty bitty specs
i decided i would climb the damn thing too
now,
going up isn´t all that hard for me
especially when i do the patented kirby-spider-crawl
where i keep as much of my body in contact
with as much surface as i can
all of the time
sarah had made it about 3/4 of the way down by then
and was resting off to the side
i went up tier by tier
and i did the stupid thing...
yeah, i looked back down
all of a sudden the stairs felt very, very thin
and hollow too
and slippery
and angled totally in a bad way
so after i dealt with two near-freakout episodes
i found our ladies at the top
eating salsa verde doritos
with some new friends they´d met around the ruins
a dutch guy and a swiss guy
at the top of perdido mundo
there are no railings
so i couldn´t go near the edge
the view was perfectly spectacular standing from the center
and i took quite a few photos
never once going near the edge
as time drew near
to head back down
(ie. i was getting freaking hot in the sun up there)
i started to try to slither to the edge
you see,
the kirby spider crawl looks pretty normal going up steep stairs
but it looks damn funny on flat ground
i think i was the only one not laughing
going down was nerve-wracking
especially because the top 2/3rds of the pyramid
are in fairly poor condition
and it´s steep
and then there´s the vertigo thing
it is amazing how some people can just walk straight down the darn things
or at least
walk down in zig-zags
i can zig, but i can´t zag
(as in i can turn to my right
but i have a hell of time turning to the left
this, i found out many years ago when i started to learn
how to down hill ski
...and yeah, i´m serious
and not making fun of zoolander
this is serious sh*t here
life and death y´know)
and regardless of what zigs or zags may do
the ksc (kirbyspidercrawl) doesn´t allow for many angles
by the time i reached the bottom
i was soaked in sweat
and only part of it was because of the sun
a small part of it
there,
how´s that for honesty? =P
we made our way through other parts of the ruins
anita spotted two foxes at group G ruins early in the walk
and we saw spider monkeys here and there
the jungle surrounding most of the area
gave the walk a feeling of adventure
as sarah observed,
it´s really cool to walk through dense lush jungles
(on nice cleared paths mind you)
and then all of a sudden come upon an gigantic temple
we prolly made about 10km in the jungle that day
winding around
up and down
and then out to get our rooms and a bite to eat
we´d decided to catch the sunset on top of temple 4
and started making our way in at 4:30pm
we got there with plenty of time to spare
tho temple 4 is the farthest away from the entrance of the park
it´s also the tallest at something like 70something metres in height
though it has a nice set of wooden stairs going up the side of it
at the top
the sun was obscured by some clouds
but there were patches of clear sky as well
a bunch of people gathered to watch the sunset
and as it got closer
more and more people arrived
some of them at the last minute
huffing and puffing
i guess they´d ran through the whole jungle
and then up the pyramid
to make it in time
that´s about 3km on rough rocky jungle trails
impressive...
i´m glad we went up early
we had good seats
and tho the sunset was not very spectacular
the view was amazing
and it was peaceful just sitting up there
watching the light fade
watching other people watch the sun set
watching the guard with the shotgun walk around
-very near the edge which ironically gave ME vertigo
but didn´t seem to bother him one bit ... go figure =P
as the sun went down
we decided to head back down first
before the other 2 dozen or so people did
but as we rounded the other side of the temple top
the moon, a single day shy of full
had risen above the jungle canopy
i wanted to stay and watch
and sarah decided to stay with me
she had a head lamp
which made things feel safer
(for the trek back)
as we watched moon rise
i couldn´t wait for the sun´s light to fade
i could imagine the blue-ish glow of the moon
striking the tops of the other temples
the park officially closed at 6pm
the guard let us stay up there almost another 40 minutes
before he asked us to go down
and we were still kilometres away from the entrance
when we reached the bottom
he asked us to stay together and exit as a group
for our safety
he also unslung his shotgun
and i remembered reading in the guidebook
that tourists and been robbed and raped in the parks a couple of years ago
later i found out
that that kind of violent crime
had been more or less stamped out
and that his action
was in case we were attacked by a jaguar
that made me feel much better
seriously
i was hoping we could go through the grand plaza
rather than walk the exit road
because the exit road is winding and through jungle
and i wanted to see the moon lit ruins
as if fate wished it to be so
the guard led us through the grand plaza
we were the only ones there
maybe 8 or 10 of us in the dark
the odd headlamp on here and there
and one silent guard with a shotgun
perfect.
it was SO beautiful
amazing and magical
the temples were lit up by the moon´s light
and fireflies created a mirror of the stars above
in the grassy field between the temples
i wish i could have stayed there all night
and watched the moon move across the sky
but we had to keep moving
eventually,
we made it out
and it was a trek that was filled with a soulful beauty
as well as some really neat coincidences
not long out of the grand plaza
a voice called out asking
if the people from edmonton, alberta were still around
i responded
¨um, some of us are¨
it turns out,
there was a german girl
who had lived in edmonton, alberta on exchange for a year
by some strange coincidence
we knew alot of mutual people
she started by asking us where we lived
and found she lived right around the university
where we all live
very very cool
she started mentioning names of people she knew
who went to scona
even tho her exchange was with st. fx
and i knew a few of the swimmers she mentioned
even cooler
life is full of chance little meetings
very very cool
we finished the last part of the walk through the jungle
talking about such things
what a way to end the night

and with much anticipation for the next morning
i´d learned from hila at finca ixobel
that one could enter into the park early
if one paid a bribe... err fee to a special guide
who would get us past the armed guards
she paid 25Q
the starting price was $10USD
i´d spent the day doing some basic haggling
and eventually the guide-to-be
came back with the price we wanted
and no money up front
early the next morning
a number of us went out to see the sunrise off temple 4
we met 4 people who travelled from finca ixobel
as well as group of germans who didn´t have a guide
but managed to talk the gateguards down to 35Q each
i got everyone together in a big group
and we paid the same price
very nice,
the only lil part of the strategy that messed up
was that we had to pay the 50Q entrance fee again
when we might have been able to sneak in with the germans
due to some little logistical problems
and a message not being communicated at the right time
we didn´t get that part in for free
which is too bad
oh well,
not everything works out as planned
anyways,
the sunrise was non-existant
something i expected
but just watching the mist and clouds
dance in the dimness
revealing and hiding the temple tops
was beautiful
it was fairly quiet up there for the most part
even tho there were more people watching the sunrise
than the sunset
and we finished our day in tikal
crossing the northern and southern acropolis
visiting and climbing temple 5
which was nightmare steep
with no rail at the top
and yeah, i made it up to the top
tho i lay on my stomach for most of the time there
no pride, whatsoever
we even made the trek out to temple 6
which used to be the most dangerous
but it was nice and fairly isolated
walking through the grand plaza in the morning
was very cool
not many people there
and some great light for photos
later, ate some food at the commodore
checked out the small museum
and then caught a bus back to flores
where i´ve been blogging for about 5 or 6 hours
trying to get caught up
after our bus that was supposed to leave at 2pm
couldn´t go any more
because of a strike
or a ¨blockade/riot¨ on the road we wanted to take
so now we´re waiting for the night bus
which i need to go catch now
and wrap up this blog
can´t believe i finally caught this all up
not as many lil stories as i´d like
but that´s the gist of the travel so far
=)

travel blog - to flores, in flores, out of flores

on the morning of our last day at finca ixobel
we all got up to walk into town
to try to find tamales for breakfast
instead of going out to the highway
we walked through the barrios
(or suburbs)
and got a taste of life in the countryside of guatemala
in poptun (not sure if i spelled the correctly)
we located the market
as well as some tamales
the first ones were grilled day olds
and not so good
but for 1Q a piece
they were cheap
then we found fresh ones for 3Q each
they were big and moist and very tasty
eating our tamales and a few assorted fruits
we then walked the 40 minute walk back to the farm
something about walking back from a place you didn´t know
before you got there...
it always feels like it´s shorter going back
we then caught a shuttle that was supposed to take us to flores
with two mexican guys in a rickety mini-bus
they kept switching cds before songs would finish
sometimes in mid-song
and turning the volume up and down
and stopping the vehicle a couple of times
to go out and confer about something near the wheels
and we never hit a topspeed of more than 25km/h i think
somewhere along the road
another bus came whipping up
(we´d passed this tourist bus on the way off the farm
where the drivers had stopped to chat for a several minutes)
and we were told we were on the wrong bus
so we transferred to this new bus
which took us back to poptun
and then sat in the bus ¨area¨ for a while
trying to get a few more people to go to flores
eventually we left
with a couple of locals hitching on for a short ride
and we picked up people and dropped them off along the way
when we reached the town of santa elena
we were transferred to another mini-bus
which took us to our dorms for the night
flores is a quaint little town
built on a tiny one-hill island
everything is painted in colours that stand out
from bright blues and yellows to all sorts of pastels
here i tasted tepezquintles
i was told to try this by our 3 guatemalan med student friends
it´s a type of giant rat or something
later, sarah looked it up for me in her book
it´s a paca agouti
...giant rat is easier to understand
looked sort of like pork
in texture and colour
tho a bit more tender
taste was bland-ish
which leads to me to the further conclusion
that it doesn´t matter WHAT kind of meat one eats
it´s the WAY you cook it that really counts
but at least i can say i´ve now tried giant rat
=P
walked around town bartering for internet prices
and did my first set of blogs from flores
as well as this second set as well
for 8Q an hour and a fast and stable connection
what more could one ask for?
just fyi, 1USD = 7.7Q
after our one night in the dorm
we set off on an early morning shuttle to tikal
so what can i say about our day in flores?
found real soleros - the creamsicle kind
had lunch at a restaurant where communication was a severe problem
and because of any language barrier
walked up and down the streets a few time
getting ourselves disoriented... err oriented
or something like that
ate off the street when there was some kind of tostada sale
buying food from ladies with plastic containers full of ingredients
and walked around looking for erin and mikayla who supposedly had the keys to the dorm
when they were actually out looking for us
because we´d decided to leave the keys with them
then left,
and so sarah had the keys in her backpack the whole time
oh yeah,
and the internet!
very cool
that, for me, was flores