Rio Dulce and Livingston

Below are the pictures from our last days in Guatemala. ENJOYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

To bring you slightly up to speed.....

Hmmm where were we.. where were we... ? Ahh yes! Volcanic excursion!! So the lava was tumbling down toward us. It was so unpredictable, with giant pieces of molten rock just rolling wherever it pleased. In retrospect, it really was quite dangerous, and we were tempting the gods, but alas, we are still alive to tell our tale. We approached the lava to take the obligatory pictures, warmed our hands and faces, toasted some marshmallows, then away we went. Back through the pitch black, the howling wind, and the unsteady rocks which tumbled down the volcano with every step. Thankfully only one person fell, and wasn´t hurt too terribly. I was wishing for a more powerful flashlight, and the rocks were so treacherous! After 40 minutes, we made it back to the tents, and climbed in to get any warmth we could. We fell asleep to the wind whipping our tent violently, and awoke many times throughout the night

We woke up at dawn, tore down camp, and admired the spectacular view. Absolutely once in a lifetime, amazing experience. We trekked back down to civilization pretty quickly, and were in Antigua, exhausted, by 10am. We unpacked, said goodbye to our amazing guides, and went in search of a hearty breakfast and some internet time before we departed for Rio Dulce. We caught the minibus to Guatemala City at 1, and then the bus to Rio Dulce at 4:30. Uneventful ride, consisting of scattered sleep and reading. We finally arrived in Rio Dulce at 11, where we hopped in a cab to Backpackers Hostel right on the water. We had a few drinks and some dinner, and went to bed in the 25+ person dorm (only $2.50 per person, what a deal!!).

We awoke the following day, Halloween! We hopped in the water shuttle to go up the river to the rasta town of Livingston, right on the Carribean. It was supposed to be about an hour long ride, but of course, things on this trip are never that simple! We went around picking up tourists and locals from many different places throughout the town, picking up the last batch about 45 minutes later. This crowd was so special. The minute they approached, they began spazzing out about how crowded the boat was, how the last one with this many people flipped over and sank, how it was immoral to put people in this situation, how dangerous it was to have no life jackets, etc. However, they had no qualms about jumping in, shoving the poor kid with the chicken in his lap to the floor, and pulling out their massive video cameras. Classic gringos, thanks guys! Americans have a tough enough time traveling without people like you tainting our reputation even more!! So about 10 minutes in, another boat pulled up beside us. I guess the weight was a bit much for our current boat, so we swapped to the other one, mid river.

Ten minutes later, the motor stopped. Ha. Awesome. It all honesty, the current wasn´t so bad, and it would have been easy to swim ashore, though a bummer to loose all of our belongings. The biggest guy on the boat began to scream. He was saying he needed ot go back to his hotel, how it was illegal to treat people this way, how if the boat didn´t turn around immediately, HE was going to turn the boat around. The boat began to rock. Thankfully, another boat pulled off and sent him away. As he drove off, he screamed how we should all get a refund, and how horrible things were in Guatemala. Oh joy. After he was out of sight, everyone began to chuckle and say they wished they had caught his outburst on camera. The boat immediately went ashore once the motor began to work, and we all received life jackets. Then, finally, away we went! The boat ride was gorgeous, we road through the jungle, past tiny water huts, local fishermen, lily pads, hot springs, and more.



It was so serene. We finally arrived in Livingston around noon, and set off to find a hotel. The town was alright, not really all it was cracked up to be by the guidebook and people we had met. Mainly a lot of cruiseship passengers wandering around, buying tacky souvineers, and lots of overpriced restaurants. However, our hotel had a fantastic balcony with hammocks, from where we could sit back, watch the passerbys on the streets, and drink cheap beer! So we spent our afternoon drinking, reading and writing, with the sounds of reggae in the background.



Dinner over more beers, and then some Coco Locos, which are coconuts filled with rum. MMMM.... Happy Halloween!!!!



The following morning, we took the 7am water shuttle to Puerto Barrios, and then another bus to the Honduran border. We met some lovely German girls, who were also heading towards the Bay Islands that day. We decided to team up with Angela and Ulla, and travel in a group. Four bus journeys later, we arrived in La Ceiba. It was pitch black, and way past the last boat rides to the islands, so we decided to find a hotel. We went to many places, then decided to head back to the first place we saw. It was torrentially downpouring, the streets were flooded, and there were sketchy characters around every corner. Ulla and Angela had been traveling with their friend Claudia, a girl from Guatemala, and she was with us until the rain got heavier, then she hopped into a cab. We didn´t see her for days.

We went back to the hotel, dried off, and went in search of food. As we left, the owner of the hotel said that we were in a very bad area, that there wasn´t food anywhere nearby, and that it wasn´t safe, even for four people to walk together. We ventured out anyway. We wandered for a long while, before we passed an expats bar, where a man told us that there was a Pizza Hut down the street. Victory!! We had some pizza, then went back and passed out.

We were unsure of whether the boats would be running the next morning, due to the heavy rain, but the hotel owner called, and we were in luck! We rushed off to the dock and bought our tickets. Finally, something was going our way!!

Hot like lava

So, we wandered into to town to find ourselves a tour up to Pacaya to see the lava in the evening but when we arrived at the tourguides that we had heard about we chose to do something a little different. The plan was to leave at 2pm the next day (yesterday) and hike to the volcano and make camp to wait out until the sunset and from there hike to the lava, afterwhich we would spend the night on the volcano and head back in the morning. So we spent the afternoon on Tuesday wandering here in Antigua and hit up a couple of cool bars in the evening.

Come Wednesday, we packed up and headed for O.X., our guides, and by 330pm we were hiking up Pacaya itself. After a few wrong turns and a little backtracking, we made it to our campsite, with amazing panoramic views of the landscape and the other 3 volcanoes in the area. It was also bitterly cold and extremely windy! After layering up and eating a great curry dinner, huddled together for warmth, we started out for the lava!

Within just a few minutes we were able to see the lava on the side of the volcano, where we were heading to. Hot, molten rock just crumbling down... headed straight for us!!!

Details to follow soon, we have to catch a bus to Rio Dulce.

But here are the pics! Enjoy!

Holla Guatemala!

So the road from Flores to Lanquin was in pretty bad shape, turning our 7 hour trip into an 11 hour one. Terrible floods are affecting thousands of people, the worst flooding in 30 years. We came upon the first bit of flooding, which didn't seem too deep, though the current was incredibly strong. We waited 3 hours for a truck to tow us, and finally drop us off in a dry patch. Horray! However, 2 minutes down the road, the flooding returned, worse than before. We waited a while to tag on with another truck, which towed us into this small town, with buildings completely underwater. We were towed onto a ferry, and floated across to safety. It took a full hour to get through the floods, with the help of the towers. Then we continued on, another 6 hours to our hostel. We were traveling alongside another bus from Flores, with an English girl named Emma, and a French Canadian couple. We went to the same hostel in Lanquin, Los Retiros, wich was set off in the hills along a rushing river. There were stilted bungalows, which were all full, so Emma, Oli and I decided to bunk up together in a loft above the bungalow. Not much bug protection, but the beds were okay!Went down the road for some much needed beers and dinner, then retired early, as we were taking the 9am tour to Semuc Champey!

We were picked up at the hostel in a truck, where we rode in the back like cattle. 10k later, down a very bumpy road, we arrived at Las Marias caves. First we all hopped on the rope swing and flung ourselves in the rushing river, then we grabbed candles and headed into the caves. We waded through water, with only the dim light from our candles. It was amazing! Climbed up ladders, through small crevices, and into more pools with waterfalls. The water was surprisingly warm! Such an incredibly unique experience.

From the caves, we trekked back down the hill, grabbed some tubes, and floated down the river for a while. So relaxing to look up at the lush green trees and hills surrounding us, and we were blessed with a beautiful day. Once de-tubing, and walking back, we decided hey, why not throw ourselves off this massive bridge? Its only 30+feet to the raging waters below. We got some great photos! I tried to chicken out, but then some local police drove up and cheered me on, I had to do it! It felt like I would never hit the waters below, and once in the water, it took ages to get back up again!! Crazy.

We then walked up to the entrance to Semuc Champey, buying some delicious handmade chocolates along the way from some local girls. We decided to take the tough hike up the mountain to see the glorious lookout point over the sparkling blue pools below. And what a hike it was! Straight up, through mud, holding on to vines and tree trunks to steady yourself. But the payoff was incredible. What a view! We trekked down to the pools, and immediately hopped in, and each pool became increasingly warmer. This was one of the best days so far, such incredible beauty and fun times!

We decided to go to the Lanquin caves when we got back, to see the hundreds of thousands of bats that emerge at sundown. We waited for a while, and suddenly they began flying out of the mouth, never once hitting us. There were other tourists there that made the experience a bit painful, with CONSTANT flashes so we couldn't see a thing! It was a cool experience though. Oli, Emma and I walked back through town in the dark, passing a massive spider along the way.

English roast for dinner, which was not so great, then beers and great company! We chatted with the very nice guy who was staying below our loft and had been on the tour with us, and basically hung out all evening! We signed up for the trip to Antigua the next morning, a direct bus which would take 7 hours. Not bad!

Or so we thought. After passing through Coban, we found the roads blocked because of an impromptu teachers strike. Our driver took us to a nearby mall to wander for a little more than an hour, and it was FREEZING! Had some lunch, waited ages for our bus to return, and then off we went. We found out that the roads were going to be completely closed the next day, today, for more strikes, and transportation would be impossible. Lucky timing! The rest of the drive was uneventful, restless naps, reading, counting down the minutes until we arrived and could get off the bus. We finally arrived in Antigua around 6ish, a nice 10 hour ride! Wow!

Oli, Emma and I walked around to a few different hostels which were all highly recommended but completely overpriced. We settled on one down the road, a clean place with hot water, and a cheap triple room. We bought some chips and dip, some Brahvas, and played cards all night in the freezing cold.

Today we are off to find a tour to take us up the active volcano! More soon, my lovelies!

Pics from Flores, Los Amigos & Tikal

Well I´ll be a monkeys Uncle...

The day we arrived here in Flores we were told that the President was going to be at Tikal the following day, so therefore, it was closed. Well this was fine with us as after so much hectic travelling, a day of chilling out, laundry and casually meandering around this little island would be perfect. So thats just what we did, with nothing too unusual happening, just us enjoying our vacation! That was until we got our laundry back..... less a pair of my pants! This lead to a very interesting conversation in Spanish (I don´t speak Spanish!), trying to see if they had cropped up at the Laundrette since we had left. Well the lady there, despite the language barrier, clearly did not like the suggestion that she had misplaced my undies, so Jen and I were sent back with our tails between our legs, me down to only 3 pairs of ¨calsones¨! To top off the evening, we also found out that the President was not at Tikal that day but was going to be there the following day, yesterday, when we were planning to go.... another day in Flores it was, it could be worse!

We decided that we should do something with this extra day here, so after breakfast we headed towards the natural caves, Actun Kan, just a couple of kilometers away. The caves themselves were cool, but nothing compared to the Carlsbad Caverns in AZ that we had seen on our cross-country adventure just a month prior. We did get to see a bat though! In fact, it was the walk to the caves that was rather eye-opening.

As we left the main roads of Santa Elana, 2Km from the hostel, on the way to the caves, we found ourselves in what wcan be described as a village settlement in the Jungle. There were horses, pigs, chickens and dogs roaming the muddy road that was lined with timber and tin shacks that stretched into the jungle foliage of the small valley that we were walking through. It really was quite the experience and the inhabitants were certainly interested in the 2 white folks walking through. As odd as it sounds, the main form of transport here is the tuk-tuk, and we were definately in the minority of foreign travellers walking anywhere.

That evening, we did establish that Tikal was infact open today, but the sunrise tour stopped the day we got here - a combination of newly discovered laws (possibly a lack of bribes!) and bad weather, so we booked ourselves in for the 5am departure and settled in for an early night. Come 5:30 this morning we were on our way to the ruins, tired but excited.

It became apparant on this hour long trip that the Guatemalans are very happy to let their livestock run free everywhere. The bus was constantly having to weave past horses, turkeys, pigs, dogs, goats and children to make its way along the winding roads! In fact, on the return journey, we saw a dog just lying on the floor in the middle of the road, traffic whizzing past in both directions! But we did arrive safely to Tikal, ready for our tour. Cesar, our guide, was great, and within minutes we were gazing at turkey like animals belonging to the peacock family, toucans and hearing all the sounds of the jungle. Cesar was fascinating to listen to as he clearly had a love for the area and also spoke great English! The first ruins we came across were in the main plaza, including some great masks and carvings, but it was not until we reached Temple V that we were really blown away.

Temple V is the 2nd biggest pyramid at Tikal and it is beautiful. And it is also very steep! But even steeper are the stairs you have to take to get up to the top. To prevent damage to the stones, a wooden staircase hyas been erected next to the actual steps. I use the word ¨staircase¨ very loosely, as really it is a series of ladders! Jen and I were first to ascend and when we finally got to the top, out of breath already, we became even more breathless. The view was amazing, the temples sticking out of the miles and miles of jungle in every direction. But the strongest sensation of all was the one to stick as close to the wall as possible, not look down and hold on to anything we could! It was even worse when it came to getting down.... again Jen and I were first to attempt the descent, without looking down, we had to do so in the same way we came up, just like a ladder, as the steps were so damn steep. We practically kissed the ground as we returned to earth!

The rest of the tour was wonderful, we saw spider monkeys several times and were able to clinb temple IV, the tallest on the site, except this time up much more managable flights of steps - the view, however, was even better! This was at the end of our tour and Jen and I decided to explore a little futher on our own and headed down a road our map indicated lead to some more temples. We had gone quite far but still no ruins, or signposts, and out of nowhere there was a VERY large rustle in the jungle next to us. Our pace quickened as we had visions of a jaguar tracking us! Within no time we stumbled across the next set, and thankfully, more people and this lead us back to the entrance!! As we returned for the shuttle back we also came across an entire pack of racoons crossing the path... of course by the time I got the camera out there where only a few stragglers left!

On the return journey an observation about the Guatemalan people became very clear to me. They love their weapons! The guys clearing the sides of the road don´t have strimmers or weed-whackers, let alone a lawn mower, but just go at it with machetes.... very efficiently I might add too! Anybody in the security business here, whether for a bank or a parking lot, has a stockless shotgun and the Police are something else! Giant automatic rifles, no matter if they are in a small town, a city, or just kicking it in the back of a pick up! But what made all this clear to me was what we saw today..... in a small village at the side of the road, there was a cop standing next to a shanty hut, in his hand was one of the scariest pieces of artillery I have laid my eyes on! (Chris, you´ll appreciate this!) He had a stockless shotgun, with a collapsable stock attached, a magazine so big that one would only expect to see it on a cartoon AK-47, and to top it all off a silencer the size of my forearm attached to it!!! What was this guy expecting to encounter in the tiny Guatemalan village!!

Anyway... we did make it back with no firearm contact and were greeted back at Los Amigos by the resident parrots accompanying us for lunch, and a new addition to the family.... a turkey, that has spent most of this afternoon staring at the mirror, clucking and pecking at itself!

We leave here tomorrow, back on the road, to Semuc Champey to experience the natural beauty of a limestone bridge and swimming holes! From there we shall go on to Antigua and Lake Atitilan, after which we shall head back to the East to Rio Dulce and take a river tour to Livingston. From there into Honduras.

At least thats the plan, we will see!!

Till next time... Adios.

You better Belize it.

Three hours later, we arrived in Belize City! The guidebook boasted of a quaint Carribean town, where you can walk nowhere without being serenaded by Reggae Beats and friendly faces. I have come to the conclusion that the author must have been on some heavy drugs. I have never been in such a shit-scary place in my life. Talk about trench town!!! We walked by the crumbling buildings and were followed by many drunk homeless men, asking us if we needed directions to the ATM. Yea, that sounded like a good idea. After a bit of bickering in the streets, we hopped in the water taxi to go over to Caye Caulker. We didn´t want to spend one more minute in that scary town. Caye Caulker was nice, but as it was still raining, there was little to do other than eat and drink, which we did. Can you believe we had to pay $39 Belizian, which is $20 american dollars, for a 6 pack of Red Stripe!?? At this point we knew we needed to leave Belize, STAT. Had a nice evening of cards in our room, listening to the rain pour down.

The next day, we grabbed a water taxi back to Belize City, then a Chicken Bus to San Ignacio. And a chicken bus it was! 2 live chickens were in the back seat, sitting in plastic bags, clucking away. Wow. Arrived in San Ignacio, where we were met by a very nice american man who gave us all the informaiton in the world that we could need for the town, and let us know that the Guatemalan border was closed because the bridge was under water!! Terrible flooding everywhere. Crazy. We went to the shop, bought a bottle of rum, some bread and fillings, and went back to the hotel. Nice evening of kings in the corner and cocktails!

Woke up today, went across the road to get an update on the border. It had opened! Hopped in a chicken bus, and away we went!! The border crossing was no big deal,and thankfully the water had receeded just enough to allow traffic through. You could see the standing water in all the fields, this flooding will be devestating for many people. After attiving in our third country, at the end of our third week, we were relieved to be back on comfortable ground! Grabbed a collectivo to Flores, got a room at Los Amigos (nice private room, with actual art on the walls, in the best place in town... $11!!!) Had a huge pizza lunch down the street overlooking the lake, and are feeling great. Its nice to finally catch you guys up on the blog! Miss everyone, we are enjoying your comments. Love you all!! :)