Chichicastenango-Flores-Tikal-Belize

We woke up early today to have the free breakfast of coffee, eggs and pancakes that our hostel offered before we headed out to meet our bus to Chichi. We didn't really want to leave San Marco but it would have slowed things up even more if we had decided to stay another night, bedsides we could probably justify spending the rest of our    3 weeks at this homey town on the lake. It was a lot more calm than San Pedro and was filled with more people trying to do yoga and mediate than hit the bar. 

    The bus ride to Chichi was just under 3 hours and at one point we were shuttled onto another bus due to the fact that there was a mechanical issue. I asked the driver what was wrong he he responded fuego mechnico. Just as I was thinking that must be a pretty bad problem they were loading locals into the exact bus we had gotten off of. After the vehicle exchange we made it to Chichi where we were instantly met by the bustling market that you couldn't walk for a second in  without getting yelled at to buy something. The city and market had kind of a dirty feel to it but we were up to explore every corner of it while we were here. Being the biggest market it Guatemala we wanted to buy regalos (gifts) for folks back home and it also gave us a chance to sharpen our bargaining skills.   Alex wasn't the best at saying no or turning people down so we ended up looking at a ton of places that had mostly the same things such as pillow cases, masks, knives and blankets. 

We had had enough of the market and headed back to our fluorescent green painted hostel were we napped upstairs and listened to the afternoon thunderstorm. Most people who visit Chichi only go for the market and head back to where they left in the morning but we had decided to stick around and go to HueHuetenango the next day. We probably should have done a little more research on the routes to get to HueHue because the next morning it seemed almost a death wish to travel the washed out mountain road that has yet to be fixed. After talking over coffee and eggs at breakfast we decided to skip northwestern part of Guatemala and head towards Flores and Tikal further North and closer to Belize. The change in plans seemed to be the best and safest option but it also meant we had to go back through Antigua before getting a bus in Guatemala City. The chicken bus was entertaining on the way to Antigua, complete with old western Spanish movie playing on a flat screen TV above to driver and every seat packed in 3 deep with the aisle also full. After winding through the mountain roads and trying to keep down our lunch we made it back to Antigua where we found a hostel for the cheapest rate yet at 70 Q total. 

After napping for a while we headed out to find a bus to take us up North in the morning. Not only did we find a bus but we found one leaving at 9 pm from Guatemala City that evening. Although we had already paid for the hostel it seemed like a good idea to try and knock out the 8 hour bus ride to Flores during the night... 

12 hours later, after a midnight breakdown, crying baby and urgent roadside bathroom break we made it to Flores. There we stayed at a small little hostel with a great view of the lake. We bought tickets for the Tikal Mayan ruins an hour or so up the road for the next day and also made the decision to head to Belize. Initially we were going to only stay in Guatemala but after talking to Mark (a.k.a Stone Cold) a bald headed, grey bearded American who lives in San Pedro, Belize, we bought tickets for the 5 hour bus/boat ride to the island....

Other random things..

-Met badass couple Simon and Julia from New Zealand who we had dinner with in Flores.

- We met an recently married angry couple in the hostel that we call the Angry Birds. They yelled at the cleaning lady for stealing their pot they left out. They always seem to be following us, bc they were on our same bus to Belize and also stayed in San Pedro. 

- People in Belize are nice

- Food in Belize is amazing

- We aren't rich (with money) but staying in Ramones makes is feel like it

- Snorkelling yesterday was amazing

- Lobster Fest Today!

- Heading back to Guatemala tomorrow 

Lago de Atitlan

We're sitting in the hostel now drinking Cuba libre and vodka tonic listening to the first real rain since we've been in Guatemala. It's the rainy season here and it's pretty amazing that  after 4 days this is our first thunderstorm. Yeserday we spent the day kayaking and hanging with the Canadians Jordan and Johnny (the dynamic duo) and some South African girls they knew from Vancouver. The lake was gorgeous and we spent most of the time jumping off the 30 foot platform into the lake. If I wouldn't have known better I would have thought I was on a lake back home in Georgia drinking beers and enjoying the sun, the only difference being surrounded by volcanoes rather than rednecks is ski-doos. We made it back to the hostel and turned in for the night but not before playing some music and talking with Adrian our neighbor from Southern Mexico who had great English and even greater enlightenment into Mexican culture .,.

We had an early morning starting at 3:30 am to climb Nadiz de Indio (Indian Nose) to watch the sunrise over Lake Atitlan. We meet our guide outside of the hostel where we followed him in dark streets to meet out chicken bus. When the bus arrived it was surprisingly full of locals heading to various towns for the Saturday markets and we found our seats at the front of the bus. Maybe it was a good thing it was dark because we couldn't see the drop offs we were surely to crash off if our brakes failed. 

After about 45 minutes of racing through the dirt roads on the souped up school bus  we got off at what seemed like a random dirt road. Our guide Jose led us through the darkness and cornfields to a small trail where climbed for a while until we reached the steep steps cut into the mountain that would take us to the top. We made it to the peak and were met by the creeping light that was cast over the lake and surrounding volcanoes by the sun that had not yet risen over the horizon. 

We sat and watched the sunrise and took probably 50 pictures that will look exactly the same but with something so beautiful it seems that every picture captures something special. After an hour or so we headed back to a town nearby where we piled into the back of a pickup truck and headed towards San Pedro. Along the way we picked up locals, one of whom was a little old lady who looked about 80 that rode in the back and made it look easy. Our last leg of the trip home was on a "tut tut" ( I guess that's how you say it) which is essentially a chariot/motorcycle that gets you from point a to point b and they seem to race each other along the way. We made it back to San Pedro safely around 8 a.m.  and I think we at least got a podium in the race back to town. I hit the bed quick and slept until 11 or so before we decided to pack up and head across the lake to San Marco where we are now.  San Marco is one of the best places we've been so far but we are headed out tomorrow to go to Chichicastenango for the big Sunday market. 

First Days in Central America

      We made it to Guatemala yesterday and already it seems we are acquainted to the Latin American style of travel, dealing with hostel and bus negotiations and hoping that my understanding of Spanish is correct. After landing in Guatemala City we took the advice of everyone, including the local Fransisco who we sat next to on the plane, and got the hell out of the city. There wasn't much bargaining for taxi's as I had expected and we needed up paying 80 quetzals (a whole 10 US dollars) for the ride to Antigua. We made the hour or so ride  and searched the small colonial style town for a place to stay. After attempts to find the hostel we originally wanted, we ended up in a private room at the Banana Azul hostel. Paying around 20 US dollars for the room wasn't bad but it seemed we could maybe have found something nicer. Maybe it was a good thing to start with a bad hostel so everything else can only get better. Alex complained of the smell..I said, "welcome to Guatemala".  We walked around Antigua that evening for a bit but decided to turn in early so we could wake up and catch the bus to Lake Atitlan, about 2.5 hours away. 

   This morning our alarm went off at 6 and we got ready for the trip. We tried to make breakfast in the hostel kitchen but were met with dirty dishes, no clean spoons and the old drunk Russian named Vladmir, who had preached to us about god knows what the night before. We decided to pack our granola and not worry about the milk we had bought. After grabbing some coffee we found the bus stop where we met a man telling us the bus wasn't going to stop there but he would take is there. We were cautious because we had just turned down a person offering the same courteous escort  but we decided to trust this rather round man. We followed our newly found guide to where the bus was and without a doubt our bus was one of the "chicken busses" we had both read about and had been warned about. Trusting that everything would be fine we handed over our bags to be tied to the roof and found our spot among the locals for our ride to Atitlan. The ride, although longer than two hours, went off without incident and we made it to a town called Panajachetal on Lake Atitlan around lunch time. We walked around for an hour or so then hoped a boat to the town of San Pedro across the lake. The boat ride was less than an hour and we found ourselves at home quickly, getting a great hostel with views if the lake and surrounding volcanoes. 

    Right now, Alex is asleep, dreaming about the countless dogs and puppies she's seen and petted on the streets and luckily she says the ones in this town seem very happy. Tonight we plan on grabbing some Cheila's (beer) and enjoying this almost beach feeling town that was called by one local a place for the" heppies". 

Vamos a Guatemala!!

Heading to Guatemala tomorrow...or actually today since it's 12:15 am. Made the CVS run for travel supplies and picked up more sunscreen than we possibly need.

Oh yea I finished Step 1! That little quiz is kind of hard. Hope I passed. Ha...seriously though...
Hopefully I can keep some updates going during the trip. Antigua is the first stop after Guatemala City.