Belize...did all we could. Muz swam with the rays and the tarpins and the turtles and sharks, etc. etc. We sunned and sanded and found a remedy for sand flea bites. We gorged ourselves with the meat pie man´s wares, guzzled juice from Julia the Juice Lady and got pineappled, limed and grapefruited out. We had Dove bars in various incarnations and tried our darndest to find the perfect cup of coffee. We even saw a dead inflated blowfish! Eeek! Island life, mon...
We took a beautiful boat ride across azure waters to Belize City, a Christian cab ride to the airport (he preached the whole way there), surprised to find ourselves booked into first class on Taca Airlines to Salvador and then to Guatemala City. We´re back in Antigua now, preparing for the push home tomorrow. The Posada San Sebastian (yet another wacky room!) seems like home. We snuck out this morning before the parrot was up and headed across the plaza to Cafe Condessa for some good Guatemalan coffee and panqueques. Yummmmm....then off to the Artesanas Mercado for one last negotiation...ah more textiles...but really, your honor, I have a PLAN! And as Mr. Muzzy says, ¨Yo soy es Burro¨.
Thanks for enduring the posts. I intend to post a long boring Ïmpressions¨ wrap up whe we get home.
The Muzzys
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Winding Down
Antigua to Tikal. We left Antigua in the misty morning. Sitting in the tiny domestic airport in Guatemala City, no coffee, 4 very strange looking folks walk into the waiting room. The men were tiny with tiny voices and plastic cowboy hats. One woman was small with a VERY strange voice and the other was large with the ugliest dress I've ever seen and a big neckbrace. Both the women had black scarf-bonnets on their heads and they all spoke some very unrecognizable language...so...4 Mennonites walk into a waiting room...
The prop plane ride over the jungle was nice, short and smooth and we landed in Santa Elena where a big sign with Mr. Muzzy on it waited with a van to take us to Tikal. Our guide, Berta, was already quizzing us on jungle flora and fauna...see de big hill ova dere sticking into de lake? What does it look like to you? Ah ah ah...an alligator? Berry good! An hour and a half later we pull up to the park entrance (actually, the entrance was an hour before that) and we beg for some coffee and breakfast before beginning our 3 hour tour with guide...5 hours later we dragged our weary butts into the lobby of the Tikal Inn again and collapsed. Berta tells us our entrance fee to the park is still good and we can go back later in the afternoon if we like....right....
It was pretty amazing. Spider and Howler monkeys with their babies swinging through the trees, agouti rummaging along the jungle floor, the blue headed mot mot and chatty oropendulums along with a long list of other tropical birds. And then there were the ruins! Oh my oh my! Well worth the trip. Right out of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Muz got lots of photos and only dropped a lens once (he was younger then, only a few days before his birthday)! As I looked over the edge of one of the temples down into the dense jungle, I was grateful we didn't have to climb down to get it. Needless to say, by the end of the walk we were templed and ruined and ready for a nap.
We awoke the next morning to parrots and toucans having breakfast, screeching and warbling. Shelley grabbed her binoculars and headed out of the Inn onto the big clearing around the visitors center. Muzzy moved more judiciously to a chair by the pool where he saw just about as many birds with much less movement. There was actually a yellow-breasted woodpecker making improvements to its house right there in front of us.
We headed back to Flores in the afternoon...a quick stop for the night on the little island in the lake and then a bus to Belize City the next morning.
We spent about an hour at the Guatemala-Belize border. You have to actually get off of the bus, with your stuff, stand in line to get an exit stamp from Guatemala, and then walk across a bridge into Belize, get another stamp, and then wait for your bus to come through the border as well. We bought a couple of breakfast burritos, and boom boom...on our way to Belize City. The roads were instantly 150% better, the language changed from Spanish to English, and we were dropped right at the Caye Caulker Water Taxi...grabbed our bags and bought a couple of round trip tickets and were on our way out into the Caribbean on a 60+ person boat skipping over the seas passing reef after reef at about 50 mph.
An hour later we landed on Caye Caulker, found a place to stay and began slowing down for real....
More later, maybe....
Muz and Shell
The prop plane ride over the jungle was nice, short and smooth and we landed in Santa Elena where a big sign with Mr. Muzzy on it waited with a van to take us to Tikal. Our guide, Berta, was already quizzing us on jungle flora and fauna...see de big hill ova dere sticking into de lake? What does it look like to you? Ah ah ah...an alligator? Berry good! An hour and a half later we pull up to the park entrance (actually, the entrance was an hour before that) and we beg for some coffee and breakfast before beginning our 3 hour tour with guide...5 hours later we dragged our weary butts into the lobby of the Tikal Inn again and collapsed. Berta tells us our entrance fee to the park is still good and we can go back later in the afternoon if we like....right....
It was pretty amazing. Spider and Howler monkeys with their babies swinging through the trees, agouti rummaging along the jungle floor, the blue headed mot mot and chatty oropendulums along with a long list of other tropical birds. And then there were the ruins! Oh my oh my! Well worth the trip. Right out of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Muz got lots of photos and only dropped a lens once (he was younger then, only a few days before his birthday)! As I looked over the edge of one of the temples down into the dense jungle, I was grateful we didn't have to climb down to get it. Needless to say, by the end of the walk we were templed and ruined and ready for a nap.
We awoke the next morning to parrots and toucans having breakfast, screeching and warbling. Shelley grabbed her binoculars and headed out of the Inn onto the big clearing around the visitors center. Muzzy moved more judiciously to a chair by the pool where he saw just about as many birds with much less movement. There was actually a yellow-breasted woodpecker making improvements to its house right there in front of us.
We headed back to Flores in the afternoon...a quick stop for the night on the little island in the lake and then a bus to Belize City the next morning.
We spent about an hour at the Guatemala-Belize border. You have to actually get off of the bus, with your stuff, stand in line to get an exit stamp from Guatemala, and then walk across a bridge into Belize, get another stamp, and then wait for your bus to come through the border as well. We bought a couple of breakfast burritos, and boom boom...on our way to Belize City. The roads were instantly 150% better, the language changed from Spanish to English, and we were dropped right at the Caye Caulker Water Taxi...grabbed our bags and bought a couple of round trip tickets and were on our way out into the Caribbean on a 60+ person boat skipping over the seas passing reef after reef at about 50 mph.
An hour later we landed on Caye Caulker, found a place to stay and began slowing down for real....
More later, maybe....
Muz and Shell
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Todos Santos and back
We decided to leave Todos Santos before noon on Saturday. When we first arrived, Jon had found, with the help of our somewhat dodgy innkeep, a secure place to park the 4WD Hyundai deisel rented in Guatemala City for the trip. It immediately became apparent that the one and a half working glow plugs weren't working at 8800 feet...the car wouldn't start and we ran the battery out. Aha...here we are, Todos Santos, major market day, far from anything resembling a car repair shop and we needed another battery. Flayanna and I adjourned to the town square and found a seat while Jon and Muzzy hiked up and down, up and down and I really mean UP and Down, looking for an auto mechanico. Jon had been in Todos Santos a few years earlier and taken photos of a young man whose photo was later picked up for a worldwide HP campaign. He and Muzzy found the young man's family and cousin Benito came to our rescue, leading them to a motor vehicle graveyard sort of auto repairish shop where they rented a battery that had been removed from a wrecked pickup. To assure it wouldn´t go missing, Flayanna and I observed a small parade of traditionally clad Todos Santeros men, Muzzy and Jon (and the battery carefully cradled in a large piece of plastic) through the center of town....and after some manipulation, the car started. Then the owners of the two huge transport trucks that had been parked behind the car had to be found and the intense manipulation to move them...sort of like one of those flat puzzles where you move all the little squares around up and down in order to get them in order...and we were actually on our way...some two hours after we had intended. The way back to the main highway seemed shorter but no less perilous and we jounced and bumped and rattled our way into Huehuetenango where we immediately grabbed a room in a magical little hotel in the center of town. Our room was off a lovely little courtyard with a huge fountain and caged singing birds, TV and all! I must here interject the curious concept of the speed bump. Throughout Guatemala, on all the roads, no matter what their condition, Guatemala has installed speed bumps...few of them in any place that makes any sense at all. It makes driving a true adventure...ones that make the windshield wipers start up are considered a 10.
The next day we stopped briefly in Quetzaltenango, known as Xela (shay la) where Jon (and Muzzy) had an intense photography session with a family on the edge of town. We actually stopped to photo an old car covered in dust when these two ancient women came out and insisted we take photos of them. One of them kept grabbing my arm and hugging me...she was toothless, with gnarled hands covered in leather like skin...sweet and charming as could be and chattering at me in a steady stream of Spanish and Kich e (a Mayan dialect). The photos are quite amazing. We liked Xela, an old coffee town with colonial Spanish style buildings and the facade of a 16th century church, and if we come back, I could see spending some time there...still pretty high up at 7200 feet.
Then back to the Posada where we fell into our suite in exhaustion. David and Susie were kind enough to upgrade us to the Jr. suite at the same price as a cabana. It was impossible luxury after the 2 days in Todos Santos... what a contrast. Then David contracted with Muzzy to do more photos of the Posada for his website and they paid us with room and board for one day...sweet. We indulged in guacamole and chips (handmade blue corn tortillas custom fried for the order) and a lovley rum and fruit drink with a basil sprig by our favorite bartender, the lovely Laura...she is part of the package deal with the world class chef. They were quite a couple!
We left the next morning at the crack of dawn, chilly ride in the back of a pick up down to the beach, into a collectivo, across Lake Atitlan in the misty morning with about 14 other indegena bound for the Tuesday market at Solola. We hopped on a shuttle for Antigua and our home at the wacky Posada San Sebastian...on to our next adventure...Tikal and Beyond.
The next day we stopped briefly in Quetzaltenango, known as Xela (shay la) where Jon (and Muzzy) had an intense photography session with a family on the edge of town. We actually stopped to photo an old car covered in dust when these two ancient women came out and insisted we take photos of them. One of them kept grabbing my arm and hugging me...she was toothless, with gnarled hands covered in leather like skin...sweet and charming as could be and chattering at me in a steady stream of Spanish and Kich e (a Mayan dialect). The photos are quite amazing. We liked Xela, an old coffee town with colonial Spanish style buildings and the facade of a 16th century church, and if we come back, I could see spending some time there...still pretty high up at 7200 feet.
Then back to the Posada where we fell into our suite in exhaustion. David and Susie were kind enough to upgrade us to the Jr. suite at the same price as a cabana. It was impossible luxury after the 2 days in Todos Santos... what a contrast. Then David contracted with Muzzy to do more photos of the Posada for his website and they paid us with room and board for one day...sweet. We indulged in guacamole and chips (handmade blue corn tortillas custom fried for the order) and a lovley rum and fruit drink with a basil sprig by our favorite bartender, the lovely Laura...she is part of the package deal with the world class chef. They were quite a couple!
We left the next morning at the crack of dawn, chilly ride in the back of a pick up down to the beach, into a collectivo, across Lake Atitlan in the misty morning with about 14 other indegena bound for the Tuesday market at Solola. We hopped on a shuttle for Antigua and our home at the wacky Posada San Sebastian...on to our next adventure...Tikal and Beyond.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Todos Santos and Flying Ants
After hooking up with our friend Jon Kaplan, we delayed our departure for Todos Santos a day to take a trip into Panajachel and San Cristobal. Jon, for those of you who don't know him, is a world class photographer of indigenous peoples whom we met in Bali in 1993. He and his partner, Flayanna, Muzzy and I drove around the volcano through fields of coffee plants, shade grown, and into Pana where we picked up an old friend of Jon's, an older woman named Sarah, who has lived in Guatemala since she was 6. What a character! She conducts textile tours for tourists and is herself a weaver. She also makes patchwork quilts which she sells in Antigua, Pana and the US. She hitched a ride with us out to San Cristobal where she introduced us to some weaver friends. Of course I had to buy a huipil and although I didn't buy a traditional San Cristobal one, I did buy one that her friend's daughter made for herself. Its glorious, as are most of the textiles here. At any rate, Sarah bore a striking resemblance to my good friend Cathryn.
We left for Todos Santos the next morning. Hooking up with the Interamerican highway, Mexico and Seattle to the north, Hondorus to the south, we sped north up into the Cuchmatanes mountains, the highest mountain range in Central America. The road took turns at being smooth and speedy and then reverted to its original patchwork of disrepair, sudden ruptures, and ubiquitious speed bumps. It is, after all, an area of earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. Passing through villages of adobe huts, herds of sheep and dry, high desert landscapes, we reached Huehuetanango, rumpled, dusty, shaken up and hungry. Jon stopped at the new shopping mall (!) and we ate at the McDonald's! Muz hasn't been in a McDonald's in 25 years and though we were skeptical, Jon assured us we wouldn't regret it. I was grateful for the clean, nearly fully equipped bathroom. Jon was a little unsure of the turn-off for Todos Santos, but since he was here 4 years ago there is a nice big sign indicating the direction. That was also where the "highway" ended. From there on it was dirt and gravel, hairpin turns, chicken buses and trucks coming the other direction on a one-lane road, sheer drop-offs to the side. At the over 10,000 foot mark, we passed through flat mountain meadows, dry, barren, littered with volcanic rock and sectioned off fences of agave plants, complete with 25 foot blooms. It looked like another planet. Then we descended into the valley of Todos Santos, 8800 feet up.
The Hotelito Todos Santos was our home for 2 frigid nights. Our first room was at street level behind a barred barrier to the 8 foot wide cobblestoned street. Very much like a small dungeon cell, the blankets stayed damp all night and we slept in everything we owned. We were awakened to the sounds of a boom-box and the whine of a carpenter's power plane as the carpenteria was only 8 1/2 feet away from our door. We made our way out to Katy's Comedor...now don't get excited. This is the way it works. There are no noticeable places to eat in Todos Santos. Katy's was a small adobe hut with a half door. You walk to the door, poke your head inside and yell "Hola! Comedor?" And somewhere in the back a light comes on and either Katy, and ancient woman in traditional huipil and dark indigo skirt comes to the front, or one of the children comes forward and opens the door. You go to the woodstove area in back and Katy tells you what she can offer...usually beans, rice and eggs. That's breakfast. Dinner is either chicken fried, chicken pipian, or one night carne asado, beans, rice and/or eggs. Yes. Oh...and blue corn tortillas, LOTS of blue corn tortillas, more than you could ever eat...which could or could not be a good thing. By the way...a good rule of thumb is not to eat any meat when you travel...unless you are staying at the Posada, of course.
Todos Santos....this is probably the most traditional village in Guatemala. The men all, and I do mean ALL, still wear traditional "traje" which means costume. Exceedingly colorful it consists of red and white stripped pants, thin blue and red stripped shirt with a handwoven elaborately ornamental collar, and a small straw hat with blue band studded with silver. The older men also add a black wool sort of chap-like garment over the top of the pants, open in front and hanging to the knees in back with a small stripe of blue cloth sewn to the bottom edge. We will post a photo soon. Most of the pants are custom made, the men are the tailors. The young men add their own style by making the pants quite baggy, ala US style. All of the fabric is handwoven. The women wear an indigo corte (skirt) with a lighter blue stripe and an elaborate woven huipil, in blues and purples, their hair in long braids down the back with ribbons woven in them, tied together at the bottom. Its quite something to see the whole town turned out on market day like a flock of exotic birds.
End Part 1
We left for Todos Santos the next morning. Hooking up with the Interamerican highway, Mexico and Seattle to the north, Hondorus to the south, we sped north up into the Cuchmatanes mountains, the highest mountain range in Central America. The road took turns at being smooth and speedy and then reverted to its original patchwork of disrepair, sudden ruptures, and ubiquitious speed bumps. It is, after all, an area of earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. Passing through villages of adobe huts, herds of sheep and dry, high desert landscapes, we reached Huehuetanango, rumpled, dusty, shaken up and hungry. Jon stopped at the new shopping mall (!) and we ate at the McDonald's! Muz hasn't been in a McDonald's in 25 years and though we were skeptical, Jon assured us we wouldn't regret it. I was grateful for the clean, nearly fully equipped bathroom. Jon was a little unsure of the turn-off for Todos Santos, but since he was here 4 years ago there is a nice big sign indicating the direction. That was also where the "highway" ended. From there on it was dirt and gravel, hairpin turns, chicken buses and trucks coming the other direction on a one-lane road, sheer drop-offs to the side. At the over 10,000 foot mark, we passed through flat mountain meadows, dry, barren, littered with volcanic rock and sectioned off fences of agave plants, complete with 25 foot blooms. It looked like another planet. Then we descended into the valley of Todos Santos, 8800 feet up.
The Hotelito Todos Santos was our home for 2 frigid nights. Our first room was at street level behind a barred barrier to the 8 foot wide cobblestoned street. Very much like a small dungeon cell, the blankets stayed damp all night and we slept in everything we owned. We were awakened to the sounds of a boom-box and the whine of a carpenter's power plane as the carpenteria was only 8 1/2 feet away from our door. We made our way out to Katy's Comedor...now don't get excited. This is the way it works. There are no noticeable places to eat in Todos Santos. Katy's was a small adobe hut with a half door. You walk to the door, poke your head inside and yell "Hola! Comedor?" And somewhere in the back a light comes on and either Katy, and ancient woman in traditional huipil and dark indigo skirt comes to the front, or one of the children comes forward and opens the door. You go to the woodstove area in back and Katy tells you what she can offer...usually beans, rice and eggs. That's breakfast. Dinner is either chicken fried, chicken pipian, or one night carne asado, beans, rice and/or eggs. Yes. Oh...and blue corn tortillas, LOTS of blue corn tortillas, more than you could ever eat...which could or could not be a good thing. By the way...a good rule of thumb is not to eat any meat when you travel...unless you are staying at the Posada, of course.
Todos Santos....this is probably the most traditional village in Guatemala. The men all, and I do mean ALL, still wear traditional "traje" which means costume. Exceedingly colorful it consists of red and white stripped pants, thin blue and red stripped shirt with a handwoven elaborately ornamental collar, and a small straw hat with blue band studded with silver. The older men also add a black wool sort of chap-like garment over the top of the pants, open in front and hanging to the knees in back with a small stripe of blue cloth sewn to the bottom edge. We will post a photo soon. Most of the pants are custom made, the men are the tailors. The young men add their own style by making the pants quite baggy, ala US style. All of the fabric is handwoven. The women wear an indigo corte (skirt) with a lighter blue stripe and an elaborate woven huipil, in blues and purples, their hair in long braids down the back with ribbons woven in them, tied together at the bottom. Its quite something to see the whole town turned out on market day like a flock of exotic birds.
End Part 1
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Movin' on day...we think
Time to reckon the bill and pay for a week of decadence here at the Posada. We've been back and forth across the lake a few times, sometimes rougher than others. Chaldera's aren't always the calmest places. The wind has come up and a couple of the crossings have been bone-jarring adventures that have left Shelley's hands cramped from gripping the plastic seats as the boat slammed into the waves. It didn't help that we heard that a couple of months ago 5 people didn't make it...sunk like a rock was the term David used, I believe. Nice. We intend to move on today. We did, however, make it to the market in Santiago Atitlan twice and yesterday raced across the lake, grabbed a tuk tuk to the bus station, just in time to have Muzzy push my butt up into the rear end of the chicken bus to Solola (he needed two hands!). The bus then climbed over 1000 feet in 20 minutes on a road that had more twists and turns than a bad mystery novel. It never slowed down once, just honked as buses decending waited at the hairpin corners for us to pass them. Yikes! Arriving in Solola was a relief and a thrill. This sprawling village on the top of a ridge, the main plaza packed, Guatemalan music blaring out over the balmy windy day as hawkers cried their wares...vegetables, fruits, chickens, tables of hand-woven fabrics sold by women in amazing costumes, men strutting like peacocks in fabulous ghost-cloth jackets with over embroidery, cowboy hats and these great spotted wool skirt-like things around their hips...and villagers from all over in different costumes of amazing colors and head ornaments. What looks like "costumes" to us is actually their daily wear...and they wear it proudly. This is not a tourist market. We only saw a very few gringos...none buying cloth...this market was locals only. There were tables of beads sold in small packets and by weight, stalls of brightly colored thread...I swear Guatemala has the corner on DMC embroidery floss! And then there was the food! Chuchitos, small tamales with ground meat inside, more avacodoes, soups and stews and ice cream. It was a fabulous market well worth the hair-raising climb.
We have hooked up with our friend Jon Kaplan and intend to start heading toward the highland village of Todos Santos...maybe in one day or perhaps stopping on the way. If you want to know what these areas look like, Google the names and take a look around.
On the road,
Shell & Muz
We have hooked up with our friend Jon Kaplan and intend to start heading toward the highland village of Todos Santos...maybe in one day or perhaps stopping on the way. If you want to know what these areas look like, Google the names and take a look around.
On the road,
Shell & Muz
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