Vagabond and Beyond: November 2011

Wednesday 30 November 2011

Crazy Beautiful - Bienvenido a Guatemala

First impressions of Guatemala would be crazy but beautiful. We are nearly four weeks into living among the beautiful volcanic landscapes of Guatemala and Mexico is now unfortunately a memory, but fortunately for us, a happy one. The Guatemalan part of our trip started off with a relatively hassle free border crossing. Note to hopeful travellers to Guatemala, as long as you overlook the dangerous driving and road conditions and stay the hell out of Guatemala City you’ll have a great time exploring this place. We found our feet in Xela for a few days before moving on to San Pedro La Laguna, our home for a month while we enjoy the views of the surrounding volcanoes and Lake Atitlan. There we will take Spanish lessons for 4 hours a day and on the weekends hike the nearby volcanoes, kayak the lake and meet locals and fellow travellers. The long lasting impression that we will reminisce most about is the unbelievably friendly people that we have met in this beautiful country.

It’s been a while since I have posted a blog so I will split this one into two as too much to mention in one post. Picking up from where we left off after Day of The Dead, we got up early the day of our border crossing into Guatemala; it was a short night’s sleep due to the early hour of our departure and the party that took place on the hostel terrace the night before for Day of the Dead that kept us up longer than we planned. After circling San Cristobal for an hour picking up people, it was an easy two hour drive to the border town of Ciudad Cuauhtemoc on the Mexican side. After some confusion with the immigration officer thinking Sarah was German we were back on the bus and on our way to be dropped off at the Guatemalan border town of La Mesilla. From what we hear it’s down to luck when it comes to being charged a fee or not being charged a fee to enter Guatemala, technically there is no fee but some corrupt official might not like the look of a person and slap on a random fee to enter the country. Luckily we must have appeared somewhat presentable that day as we were through immigration with not so much as one question, only a friendly “Bienvenido a Guatemala”. We switched buses here and the change in landscape between the two countries was immediate. Before the border it was unimpressive plains and now once in Guatemala the boring plains were replaced by far more scenic steep mountainous jungle roads. A few weeks earlier the English couple we had met along our trip had their bus to Guatemala cancelled twice due to bad weather and road conditions. Seeing the roads in dry weather it’s clear to see how any attempted pass would have failed in rainy season. Many parts of the roads were still partially collapsed, full of landslide rubble or flooded. The only positive that could be taken from travelling these “roads” was the beautiful dramatic scenery. After another bus change and a couple of very close calls (near head on collisions!) we arrived in Xela (Quetzaltenango).

Xela is a high altitude (therefore cold at night) town that is placed within the valley of a few volcanoes which makes it a nice place to start off visually, the town itself is nothing too impressive. A lot more towns in Mexico gave better first impressions than Xela. It didn’t help that we had no quetzals (Guatemalan currency) and we needed to pay for food, hostel etc. but we were warned not to use any of the ATM’s in the main square (Parque Central) as they are nearly always subject to electronic fraud. Couldn’t find any other places to get out money and as it was now dark, so we took the chance and embraced the fraud culture of Parque Central. (3 weeks on I’m glad to say that it looks like our gamble paid off as no strange withdrawals from my account, yet!). Next day we took a self-guided walking tour around Xela, plenty of cool markets around but no main attractions to speak of. From what we hear there is a lot more to Xela so a longer stay is probably needed to really appreciate the place. In the Minerva market Sarah bought a skirt for about 20 cent and I got a top for about 40 cent, a good days shopping by any standards. There was some planning needed for our trip to San Pedro as there was presidential elections the day of our planned departure so the infamous chicken buses had to be given a miss on what could be a turbulent day.

Next day we met our English friends who had been in San Pedro for about 3 weeks and were visiting Xela for the weekend. Turns out their journey from San Pedro to Xela was not a good one as there shuttle hit a curb and the bus flipped on to one side while skidding along a mountainous road with sheer drops. Luckily everyone on the bus only suffered some cuts and bruises and everyone got out fine but they understandably looked shaken by the experience. Went to police station with them to file a report as they broke their camera in the crash, a sceptical police officer finally did up the report after finally being convinced of the photos that they took of the crash.

Our final day in Xela and also the day of the presidential elections started off badly when we saw our transportation yoke (would barely classify it as a car), it was not the shuttle we expected but a “car” with the drivers family already in it. It turned out it was only our transport for half the way and a quick switch to the shuttle we got to experience the nightmare that is the roads to Lake Atitlan. They just seem to get worse the more you travel here, took an hour to do what could be done in less than 10 minutes on a normal road! No problems though and we were delighted with the views that we saw as this would be our home for the next month. Thankfully the elections went off without any problems. Both sides were accused of buying votes and in the end they chose to elect an ex general (nicknamed general de la muerte (general of death) ) who from what I can gather committed terrible crimes during the civil war here in which 200,000 were killed. As head of military intelligence he was accused of genocide and torture and apparently there is photo of him during the war standing beside 4 dead indigenous people who were tortured and this guy is the new El Presidente! He has even denied any genocide took place in Guatemala while United Nations confirmed that there was a genocide campaign against the Mayan people by the military. As my Spanish teacher said in our first class, the people have very short memories here. How bad was his opponent that they chose to elect this nut-job!! People want an end to serious crime here so who better to elect than an ex general who obviously is a ruthless leader. Thankfully in San Pedro, the politics and crime of a lot of Guatemala is left at the door as you enter a world of welcoming people and beautiful landscapes.


Border Crossing from the Guatemala side

Andrew and Emily's bus

Massive Indian dinner in Xela

Xela

Attacked Poster of new President Otto Perez Molin

Otto Perez during the civil war

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos)

Before we headed back to one of our favourite places in Mexico, San Cristobal de las Casas, we had a Halloween party in Puerto Escondido that took place in one of the beach bars. Everyone made a serious effort in getting dressed up and some of them even organised a piñata to get the night rolling at the hostel. The day before the party, we went costume hunting and Sarah picked up the brilliant and equally scary costume of Chucky from the ‘Child’s Play’ films that have haunted many of us in our childhood and now many more in Escondido, especially one particular Aussie lad who was terrified whenever Sarah entered a room wearing the costume (it didn’t help that Sarah (Chucky) pointed at him with a knife anytime she saw him). There must have been over 20 of us (dressed as ghouls, dead prom queens, butchers, Chucky) walking through the village that night on the way to the beach party. That must have been a strange sight to the local Niño’s. Some pictures of Sarah’s evil Chucky below. The bus to San Cristobal wasn’t too bad the next day as we had most of the day to relax at the pool before yet another night journey through the crazy mountainous roads. Highlight of the day was a dead tarantula at the pool, picture in last blog post (well someone from Oz told me it was a tarantula but who am I to argue when our largest and most dangerous arachnid at home is a “Daddy Long Legs”!).

This was going to be our second time in San Cristobal. We decided to cross the border here as it’s an easier border crossing than some of the southern towns, and because San Cristobal is one of the best places to be when celebrating Dia de los Muertos.

Dia de los Muertos occurs over a few days depending on the town but in the main it begins on the night of the 31^st and continues to the day of the 3^rd November. It’s like the blessing of the graves at home, in that families visit the graves of relatives for the day except that is where the similarities mostly end as Dia de los Muertos is a truly unique experience. On the 1^st we visited the main municipal graveyard in San Cristobal and outside you could tell there was a fiesta like atmosphere as there was food and drink stalls set up along a strip outside the graveyard (similar kind of thing that you would find at a festival!) along with fireworks. Once you enter the graveyard you can see the scale of the differences between here and home. Half the graves are crypts, a couple as big as a small church and a lot of them like a large room where there is a shrine to the deceased. On Dia de los Muertos relatives leave offerings that the deceased enjoyed when alive, like their favourite foods and drink (many favourite beers), music etc. At some of the graves there were a large number of relatives partying away and drinking the deceased’s favourite beer and eating their favourite foods while they request local Mariachis to play their favourite music. They stay there all day or in some cases all night and tell stories about the deceased. It’s a new take on the blessing of the graves for us and it seems to be a much better way to celebrate the life of someone. Understandably not all of the relatives appear to be in a celebratory mood and we believe this was probably down to the fact that it was a recent or a young death. Later that night we met a couple who had been travelling up from South America and they had worked on farms in Colombia and Costa Rica, sounded amazing so we got the farm names and are now giving some serious thought into working on them when we reach these countries.

Next day we went with a few people from our hostel to San Juan Chamula. I mentioned this town in an earlier blog, it was the town that worshipped Coca Cola and sacrificed chickens inside their local church. Again, like before this town was unique in how they practice their religious ceremonies. We arrived about 10 am and already there were plenty of people falling over drunk (celebrating their grandfather’s favourite Mezcal too much maybe). The graveyard was different from San Cristobal’s in that all the graves were very simple, as each grave had only a cross, what appeared to be a fresh mound of soil, and were recently decorated with flowers and offerings. The dress of the locals and many other things were just mad, it’s hard to explain…. There are some pictures below that might be able to portray in a small way what the day was like in this village. Back in San Cristobal there were a lot of people dressed with painted faces or full costume and back at the hostel roof terrace it was the same with everyone face panting for the antics ahead that night. This was to be our last night in Mexico and the next day we were catching a shuttle bus to Xela (pronounced Shay La), Guatemala. Our leaving day caught up on us so quick we really didn’t get to appreciate our final few days in Mexico but it’s like taking off a bandage or saying a long goodbye, best to do it quick. We both loved Mexico, the place and the people, and we can both honestly say that we will be back and that we would recommend it to anyone (probably not Cancun or the bus ride from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido but the rest was muy bien). Next on the itinerary, five weeks of one to one Spanish classes while staying with a familia for a homestay in the beautiful town of San Pedro La Laguna, a small village on Lake Atitlan which is surrounded by picturesque volcanoes that we hope to climb on the weekends : )

Adios MEXICO!!! Hasta Luego!

Cookie from Oz

Pinata

Sarah taking her anger out on the pinata

Gang from the hostel

Another death at the hands of Chucky

Sarah as Chucky

Dia de los Muertos

Dia de Los Muertos

Dia de Los Muertos - Halloween masks

Dia de Los Muertos - Candy skulls

Dia de Los Muertos

Dia de Los Muertos - San Cristobal Graveyard

Dia de Los Muertos - San Cristobal Graveyard, Mariachis

Main street, San Cristobal

Dia de Los Muertos - San Cristobal Graveyard

Lucha Libre

Main street San Cristobal

Welcome sign for San Juan Chamula

Dia de Los Muertos San Juan Chamula graveyard

Dia de Los Muertos San Juan Chamula, ringing the church bell

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Dia de Los Muertos

Joaquin, Dia de Los Muertos

Friday 4 November 2011

Oaxacan highlands to Pacific sunsets

Oaxaca City is like a larger version of San Cristobal, pretty cool colonial town with loads to do. We stayed in Casa GiGi a B&B that is like your grannies house. She even woke us up when the savage breakfast was on the table in her homely (plates on the wall from places she had been) dinning room. The second night we happened to be there was the night that La Carrera Panamericana 2011, Mexican Road Race, was passing through. It's like the Gumball rally that you might have heard of that goes through some European countries. It created a class atmosphere for our first night there along with the setting up of decorations for Dia de Los Muertos.

Loads of trips to do around Oaxaca so we decided to do most of them as we would be taking it easy at our next stop of Puerto Escondido. We signed up for a full day trip that took us to some ruins, a tree (you'll see why!), a Mezcal distillery, a traditional textile village and a petrified waterfall. Close to Oaxaca is the massive El Tule tree in Santa Maria del Tule which has a circumference of over 160 feet and is over 2000 years old making it one of the oldest living things on the planet and the largest tree in the world by circumference. In the photo below you can see how it completely dwarfs the large church beside it. Craftily we didn't have to pay the entrance fee as Sarah found a way into the church grounds opposite the side the tour buses drop you off from. A good stop off on the way to the textile village of Teotitlan where we saw how they make the traditional rugs and textiles. Most interesting stuff was how they get the colours (for the trademark red colour of the Zapatec people they use the cocoon of an insect that lives in a cactus leaf). After a few demonstrations they were on to the selling to the tourists!! Prices were a bit crazy and a jumper I was looking to get was 4 times cheaper in a village we later visited in Mitla. Next up was the Mezcal distillery to learn about the infamous hard drink, comes in loads of different flavours and strengths so we had to try at least half of them out! After you drink the stronger versions you take an orange slice and dip it in this orange powder which is made from the agave worm that you find in the bottom of some Mezcal bottles. Some were pretty nice but we refrained ourselves from buying an entire bottle and stuck to the free samples! Odd enough having a few shots before next going on to the Zapatec ruins of Mitla. Ruins were nice, detail of most the buildings have lasted well over the last 2,000 years but they were small and hard to find impressive after the several great ruins we have seen so far.

Last place on a long day of tours was the Hierve El Agua (Spanish for "the water boils") which is a set of natural rock formations that look like waterfalls. It wasn't till I got there did I realise that they weren't actual waterfalls because all I had seen were some photos! To get there we had to go through two tolls as two towns claim ownership of the Hierve El Agua so both want the financial benefit of them. One of the towns is about 30 mins from them so they're just in on the scam. Apparently the dispute has been going on a while and the site is closed down sometimes due to arguments between the two communities. Hierve El Agua; "These formations are created by fresh water springs, whose water is over saturated with calcium carbonate and other minerals. As the water scurries over the cliffs, the excess minerals are deposited, much in the same manner that stalactites are formed in caves. One of the cliffs contains two large pools for swimming as well as a number of small natural pools. "One of the pools is very near the edge of the cliff which from below makes it look like you are standing on a waterfall. Well worth the trip out here and the two tolls; check out the pictures below, great views of the valley below.

Booked our night bus to Puerto Escondido to enjoy the beach and sun so we decided to go to the ruins of Monte Alban that day. Really didn't want to go out to more ruins but after finding out that they are ranked among the best in Mexico (and highly recommended by Amy!) and with no plans till our night bus later on we had no excuse. Finally got the haircut as well, walked in to a place and pointed at a photo and hoped for the best. Turned out pretty well seeing as all I did was point at a photo-the barber was very meticulous and spent over half an hour perfecting it. We stayed a bit out from the centre of town and after booking the bus to Monte Alban I decided to run back for the camera that we forgot to bring while Sarah waited with her book in the Zocalo. After sprinting for about half an hour in the blistering sun and catching a crappy bus back into the centre we had 2 minutes to catch our bus. Just had enough time to tell Sarah we need to sprint it to catch the bus (she had no watch so didn't realise how late we were). Lost Sarah after the first turn and after going back I had no idea where she was. Thought it best to go to the bus stop and hope she could find it. I got there with no sign of Sarah and bus was just leaving and when I was trying to explain to the bus guy that I was waiting for someone that I had no idea where they were (in my terrible Spanish) Sarah popped up.

After all that drama, we were finally on the way to the ruins on top of a mountain overlooking Oaxaca City. At the end of it all it was one of our favourite ruins with great views of the valley below and nice relaxing setting (no traders around wrecking our heads!!) where you could chill out and lie out on the grass. The place is famous for stone carvings of tortured chiefs of other states (keeping in line with happy stories from around the ancient Mayan world). At some of the ruins across the road from the main site there was a group of people dressed in white hooded robes performing some ceremony. Seemed very cult like and we went over (Sarah wanted to join them but I convinced her to sit nearby) after seeing the main ruins and it was just odd. People in a circle holding spears while a cult like leader dressed in yellow with dreads and a beard(a shaman perhaps?) walking around people with incense, playing drums and other stuff. More Sarah's thing I'd have to say! : )

Night bus to Puerto Escondido was the worst bus trip we have ever been on. The roads are shit! Plain and simple. And the bus sucked too, people standing the whole way and knocking into our seats. The bus just kept turning and turning making any sleep impossible. People were also sleeping below in the cargo holds, was an odd journey and not one I want to do again. Apparently that 8/9 hour journey will become a 2 hour one when they finally build a highway between the two cities. However, apparently the corrupt Mayor in Escondido has spent most of the money on a lavish 5 star hotel with none of the highway built and now funds are low so it might take about 20 years to build it as all they have done is the planning stage. Ah corruption and embezzlement, we must be in a Central American country...

Our place in Puerto, Sunset Point, is a beautiful place with the most chilled out owner you could hope for (think Jeff Bridges as The Dude in The Big Lebowski), a massive pool, great hang out area/outdoor kitchen and 5 minutes to the beach. The weather was sunny every day and about 30 degrees. Exactly what we wanted and our plan for the week; get up late and roll from our bed to the lounger poolside and enjoy the Escondido life. Cooked for ourselves most of time, you would think this wasn't being lazy but we didn't want to trek down to the restaurants along the beach. Some of the Aussie guys cooked some Mahi-Mahi on the BBQ they caught that day, tried some and it was bleedin' delish! We ventured a couple of times down to the beach to watch the surfers and a couple of sunsets. Waves were massive and all the surfers seemed to be class. Sunset over the Pacific looked amazing with the giant waves, rock points and people surfing. We also met up with Sarah's cousin who she hasn't seen since she was about two. He's staying in Puerto for a few months and who could blame him (we know we'll be back some day). Not much else to report from Puerto Escondido except there was a bit of a party atmosphere as all the Aussies staying there would do was eat, drink and surf. We had a pretty good Halloween party on the beach for our last night but we'll put the photos from that on my next blog as it will be about Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos). So next up is a night bus back to San Cristobal to celebrate Dia de los Muertos.