Utila and the Cayes

After a day a heat and sunshine and an interminable, impossible decision about dive shops, we ended up with Captain Morgan's out on the Cayes near the west side of Utila. Hotel is nice, people are great and the food is cheap. The only problem is that since we have arrived here it has rained, and gusted, and rained and gusted, and here it is going on three days and we have been in the water for maybe an hour and half. Yesterday we went in around four and after 30 minutes we had to call it off because the turbidity and thermocline was so bad that we couldn't see anything. We do love being under the water though...we climb up and climb down and it is nuts to be able to turn anyway you want and that becomes the new up or down.

The one nice thing about the weather is that with the wind and the rain it feels like home at this time of year. We miss everyone and hope that everybody had a great thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kathleen: Hi everyone and happy thanksgiving!! It's very strange to be HOT and not surrounded by family and smells of good cooking right now, but our thoughts are with all of our loved ones... and truth be told, are a little homesick. We have been about 10 days in Honduras {land of slow internet... sorry for no pictures in this post, but it takes, literally, a million years to upload even one} and have mainly been sticking to the Carribean coast. We stayed a few days in Tela, a quiet little town that is mainly a weekend getaway for Honduran families in the nearby big city of San Pedro Sula, and mainly just swam and hung out; then two nights in Triumpho de la Cruz, a Garifuna village {black Carribeans} , where we went for a cool hike up the coast and got DESTROYED by mosquitos; and then a night in La Ceiba, a bigger city on a dirty beach. The next night we did a homestay with a family living in a village about 16 km out of La Ceiba, and camped in the jungle the next night.... where, of course, it rained!! Then we headed up the coast to Trujillo, where Columbus landed on one of his journeys and stayed at a lovely little place on the beach {which was unfortunately all mucked up from a recent storm}. We were planning on continuing our journey north into Mosquitia, but I got some exciting news when we arrived in Trujillo.... a midwife in Guatemala has agreed to let me come and work with her for a month... and I will be doing the whole clinical gamut... gyn exams, contraceptive counseling, birth assisting, etc... ALL IN SPANISH, which will be... a miracle, if it happens. As of now, I have no idea how to do any of that in Spanish, but I guess there is no better way to learn. As we've already been in Guatemala, Tait is going to continue South as we had originally planned through Nicaragua and then maybe to Costa Rica if he has the time.

Today we arrived on the island of Utila to become certified scuba divers. We had not been planning to do this... because although it is the cheapest place in the world to be certified, I was not of the opinion that we should seek out more expensive hobbies than we already have. But two dutch guys we met in La Ceiba convinced us otherwise... talking about the whole underwater world across the world that diving opens up. So here we are and we start tomorrow... Thanksgiving!! We'll be here probably 5 days then might have a day or two to do something else fun, then onwards and upwards.

So, we have much to be thankful for... although tonight I am wishing that we could be with the people we love. Eat lots of good food for us {and a piece of pumkin pie for me} . We'll write more soon.

Reflections on Guatemala and into Honduras

*Lago Peten Itza

Tait: Kath and I woke up five days ago and decided that we´d seen enough of Guatemala for the time being. We hopped on five buses and after four days of travel, some Pollo Asado at Dona Juanitas in Chiquimula, and a pitstop at the Copan Ruins (absolutely amazing sculptures...but more to come on that later), we find ourselves on the Caribbean sea of Honduras in the town of Tela. We´ve already managed beers on the beach, a sunrise swim, and deep fried snapper and we haven´t even been here 24 hours.

As always, upon leaving it is easier to reflect on the doing and the moving, the impetus of travel. Guatemala surrounded us for the span of two months and near the end of our time there Kath and I wondered how such a small country could contain the multitudes of sights and sounds that were so different from one another. It was as if within a country the size of Louisianna we saw not only the Mayan, but the mestizos and the first and third world and the ruins and lakes galore and landscapes so varied that an hour asleep on the bus saw a different country out the window. We had toilets that could wash your ass for you and toilets covered in that stuff that comes out of your ass. We had food that would be at home in New York and food that you wouldn´t find anywhere but Guatemala. We had a family, friends. travelled with others and alone, and we found places to see where there was no one but the two of us and places where everyone else had been.

While in Guatemala there were three mountain ranges that turned one into the other. In Xela and Atitlan we were surrounded by Volcanoes. They rose staight into the sky, thrown out of the earth in some bygone tectonic upheaval. They loomed over the landscape, so dangerous that they were docile, giants in disguise, waiting and saving their anger. Coming up from Atitlan the Volcanoes of Antigua and the Lake disappeared behind the pine trees that covered the Cuchamantanes and huge valleys appeared as scars and our bus clung to the twisted roads while the mountains circled above us. The clouds were always around and when they cleared we could look 20 miles across to where an hour previous we had come down the mountainside in the screech of a chicken bus. Turkey vultures rode the thermals across the valleys, mayans patrolled the roadside on horses and men carried bundles of firewood on ropes wrapped around their foreheads, the same way that the ancient Mayans had carried stones to and from the temples. Coming out of the Cuchamatanes we found ourselves in the midst of a mudslide, more like a mountain slide were the whole mountain had moved and as it moved it took us towards the Altaverapaz where the mountains sat like sleeping turtles one next to the other, shells popping from the green expanse: they were mini volcanoes, covered in jungle with the white of their limstone base sometimes showing through and rounded at the top missing the calderas of their bigger brethren to the south west. As we moved towards Tikal the turtles spread apart and eventually disappeared leaving only the open jungle savannah of Peten.

We stayed for five days in Peten and again things had changed. Gone were the Mayans and fresh tortillas of the mountains replaced by the Mestizo and expats of the Peten. We were away from the sludge and the slime of ancient algea in Lago Atitlan, her protestation against the filth of pure sewage the runs into her depths from the 12 towns that line her shore. Instead we were on the shores of Lago Peten Itza. A grand dock stretched into the waters, which reflected like the waters of the Caribbean 20 shades of blue and white. We dined on fish fresh from the lake, indegenous to the lake (Petenta I think) and found ourselves unable to leave except to see Tiakl.

We arrived at daybreak in Tikal and spent half the day walking with our guide. I´d never had a guide before but at this point we were travelling with a Dutch couple and they thought it was a good idea and it certainly was. Tikal is enormous and without the guide I would have had no clue what I was seeing and/ or what it meant. We took us from one temple to the next and as we sat on top of the temples in the cool morning mist howlers monkeys grunted in our direction, spider monkeys swung from tree to tree and dropped their favored nuts down on unsuspecting guests. Ocellated turkeys ran from temple to temple and the coatimundis sniffed around for scraps, using their paws and their noses just like their northern brethren, the raccoon. The trip through the temples lead us eventually the main structures of Tikal where in the midmorning the sunlight began to come through the clouds and lend a bit more mysticism to what was already a mystical place.

*Ocellated turkey, View from teh priests bed chambers, Palace, Temple one over the jungle

We stayed two more days in Guatemala after that, unable to leave to dock of Mon Ami on Lago Peten Itza and then we looked up and had to go. Two days later we were in Copan Ruinas. The ruins here are not as grand as Tikal. There are no great pyramids and the walk throught he jungle and the sacbes doesn´t have the feel of travelling back in time, but what it does have are sculptures grander and more bueatiful than any I have ever seen. There is also a museum there that contains many of the original steleas (think of them like Mayan totems). The coup de grace of the museum though has to be the Templo de Rosalia. At the Met in New York they imported an Egyptian temple and nearly the whole North wing is a room that contains this temple and one whole wall is glass and the light is able to stream in and illuminate this temple and at times it feels as if you are in Egypt, or at elast what I imagine Egypt to feel like sans heat and dust and sand. This temple in the museum is presented in the same way except that the museum is open to the sky and as the sun comes over the temple it is bathed in light. It is painted in its orginal red (a mix of insects and plants, of which our guide - I´m hooked - was able to show us the type of plant used to paint). In the museum are also fertility sculptures and some that just were made for the sake of art and no other discernible reason. There is one disk that tells the tale of the first and second dynasties of Copan and others that record a thousand years of history. We also went through the living quarters of the city that surrounded the Copan center. We saw the tombs of the Maya, which resided below the livings beds and watched macaws fly overhead squawking at our untoward interruption of their rest. The living quarters were inhabited from 1000 BC forward and our guide uncoverd shards of pottery that were inscribed wih symbols. 3000 year old pottery shards...possibly...even if he did bury them himself, it was pretty cool.

*disk with two dynasties, ruins and river, plant used for paint, temple in the museum

And now today we are in tela on the Honduran coast. For the next three weeks we will make our way down they coast towards Moskita. IN the market this morning were mackeral, caracol, shrimp, red snapper, yellow snapper, and all versions of fresh fish. We have discovered baleadas which are fresh grilled flour tortillas filled with beans and cream and cheese. they make pincho here - carne asada on two tortillas with hot sauce. Most of all, they have the beach. We´ve been in it every moment and though that sand can be littered with trash, in the water we can look out towards Punta Sal and Punta Izopo and float in the salty blue of the Caribbean.

* snapper

Two weeks gone

Yikes! I somehow lost half of this post! Just got on today and realized that the first part is missing. Sorry, reader. The first part of the post was talking about how we left Xela and arrived at Lago Atitlan, a beautiful, huge lake in the middle of the Guatemalan highlands. It is surrounded by a bunch of different villages, and we traveled around the villages for a little more than a week, relaxing and celebrating Tait´s birthday. We stayed in three villages, the first was a little wierd and gringofied, but CHEAP and had delicious food and the village itself was really cool (I´ll post the pictures I originally posted later). Then we splurged and went to a beautiful hotel will gorgeous views of the lake and its volcanos, and then spent 3 nights camping at the biggest village on the lake, Panahachel... which is where this blog picks up. I´ll try and track down the original...

Kathleen; Pana was gringofied, somewhat like San Pedro, but it was more institutionalized so it was a little less wierd. We didn´t see a lot of Pana, besides the business we conducted there (buying used fabric, mailing said fabric, exchanging books, etc...). We were mainly taking refuge, because the moment we set up our tent the heavens opened and it poured. After the first night, when we woke with standing water in our tent, we were forced to move to a little concrete pavillion on the hotel grounds. After three nights of this, we called it quits and moved on to the next destination. Of course, on the day we left, the sun was shining and it was the most beautiful day ever (see pic). But before we left we took a day trip to Chichicastenango, which was reputed to have one of the biggest markets on earth. And it did. We were there for Dios de los Muertos, and it was QUITE the party. Here is just one of the paraders (I think he was parading as one of the conquering Spaniards). Oh, and another picture of a sign that tickled my fancy (don´t pee in the sink).

We spent two full days of hard getting to our next destination. The first night en route we spent in a little village called Usbatan. It was lovely, except that our hotel was literally a shithole. E.g. the toilet was a hole covered in shit, and the whole hotel stunk. I was miserable. And I am not overly hygenic, and I have certainly seen my fair share of gross and primative toilets in my day. But this was the worst. However, the town also had a lovely little plaza, not noteworthy except for all of the life that was happening. There was an interesting rainbow theatre, which we agreed must be used for everything from school plays, to concerts, to the nativity scene. There were two basketball hoops, and there were three different games happening SIMULTANEOUSLY at EACH hoop. Everyone just ignored each other and took turns. We also had a delicious meal at the market... a fried taco filled with veggies, and Tait had some sort of spicey tamale filled with some sort of indiscriminate meat. Also, the very popular arroz con chocolate... basically mushy rice cooked in hot chocolate... its a breakfast and dinner drink... delicious! They also have arroz con leche, which is mushy rice in hot, sweet, spiced milk.



The travel itself was also an adventure... we took about 12 chicken buses to get where we were going... I think I explained earlier that chicken buses are US school buses that have been reincarnated as mass transit. Well, the seats are built to seat two but almost always seat three. That means there are 6 people across an aisle built for 4, and on the hairpin turns you are literally holding on and bracing yourself for dear life (they are long turns too... you think that they´re over but... still holding, still bracing, still praying, still grimacing). On one of the legs, Tait had to sit on the roof of the bus. Oh... because there are also little minivans that are built for 12 and regularly hold 25. On one leg we secured a prime spot (the bus left at 4 in the morning, so didn´t have much competition) but picked up a family of 12 on the road. The little girl squeezed on the little ledge in front of the front row of seats, (she was a cutie of about 6 or 7) was sitting in between Tait´s legs, and puked for the entire journey. She was a stoic little thing, too. As were her three younger siblings, who didn´t peep for the entire 3 hour unpaved bouncy uncomfortable journey.

The next day we arrived in Lanquin, at a little hostel set on the river. It was lovely, much warmer than in the highlands, and had a great restaurant. We camped the first night, and again were woken by puddles of water in the tent (it had been raining here for days, and rained for the first 12 hours after we put up the tent). So, the second night we slept in hammocks... where we could feel the breeze, hear the rushing river, the animals, the rain... but stay dry. I had never slept the night in a hammock before, but I think I could develop a taste for it.

This region is built on limestone and is marked by limestone caves and outcroppings. We went to visit Semuc Champey... which is hard to describe. In between huge limestone cliffs a river RACES, and goes under ground, under these beautiful lakes set into limestone craters, and then comes out in dramatic waterfalls on the other side. We went on a fun hike to the spot where you could view everything, but of course, it started to rain as we were hiking, so it was considerably more slippery. We played in the lakes and swam (again, a little cold because of the rain), and watched tour groups hurl themselves off cliffs into the waterfalls.

Tomorrow, we head north to the Mayan ruins of Tikal and the hot (hopefully not too rainy) jungle. We´ll try not to let this much time pass again between posts.