Hello all,
First of all, Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo !!!!
Secondly, here is an email to inform about what I´ve been up to the last 2 and a bit months, this, really, is in lieu of an Xmas card (I´ve not sent any this year...).
Link to my trip photos: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mark.g.blackburn/CentralAmerica2009
I spent the first 6 weeks in North America. Helped my Dad take his boat down the "intra-coastal waterway" from Virginia to North Carolina. For those not in the know, it´s a canal composed of rivers and man-made sections, nearly goes down the entire East Coast of America, no sea journeys necessary ! that was nice and relaxing, weather was pretty good too (except for 3 days of not-quite-spent Hurricane Ida).
Then on 1st Dec, I flew from Virginia down to Cancun, Mexico with a 7 hour stop-over in Miami (cheap flight !). I wondered around downtown Miami and it seemed strangely familiar....odd!....was it deja vu ? no, it was the hours I spent watching Jim (old flat mate) playing Grand Theft Auto Miami !!
Cancun, was, oddly, fine. Mainly, as I stayed downtown and avoided the frankly appalling "hotel zona" comprising all-inclusive hotels and “lobsterized” brits. The beach is ridiculously narrow (only 30ft and hence very busy) for such a well known resort, but the water is sublime ! warm and curiously “soft”, you could spend days in it. I went out to Isles Mujeres on the ferry, stayed in one of the world´s best “hostels”. Literally, on the beach, hammocks, palm trees, own beach, own beach bar, cheap cocktails. It would have been great, but sleep was not on anyone else´s agenda ! and it was mine. So to escape the large sound system (outside my room) I slept in a hammock and awoke covered, head to toe, in Mossie bites, thanks party goers! So back to Cancun and onto a “Chichen Itza” day trip where I met a very friendly and very enlightened American girl (that makes at least one...), the Mayan monuments are impressive, but a little souless in that environwment. The captain of the winning team (playing the Mayan “wall game”) was ritually beheaded; that would liven up football a little.....
Onto Tulum, Mexico, on the excellent Mexican bus service, checked luggage, huge seats, a/c & movies. Tulum has a wonderfully scenic Caribbean beach, overlooked by smaller Mayan ruins. There were more “typical” backpackers here than Cancun, and so a friendier hostel. Spent an afternoon on the beach then snorkled in a “Cenote” (a water hole), I would have dived but after a gap of 6 years I did not think (even very mild) cave diving was the place to start....I was wrong though, the diving looked very good, with plus 150 meters visibility, very rare and something to be experienced. In the evening I missed the last bus from the beach and walked about 6km back to the hostel, in the black dark (and biting insects), not so much fun.
Next day, away from Mexico towards Belize. I was warned off Belize (P&C) but after talking with other BPers, decided to go anyway, as it would be the last beach resort for a while. Met a nice group of people on the bus there, and we got together at Belize City in order to find accomodation (we had missed the last boat by 10 minutes, typically, so we were stuck). Belize City is an eye-opener, very, very poor and run down with a only slightly veiled sense of threat (however I expect it was all in our minds....). Odd to be speaking and reading English once again. I think Belize´s independence from the UK (in 1981) was either a mistake or rushed through too fast, it´s not prospering, though, strangely, "stuff", is expensive. We took a "cigarette boat" out to Caye Caulker in the morning, and that thing flew, maybe 40 knots plus, with three Honda 225´s on the back, across a georgeously azur blue sea. "Caye Caulker" is maybe what the North Caribbean was like in the 50´s or 60´s, very laid back and covered in wooden shacks (only construction method, the nail...), the hostel is in fact quite wonky, it´s friendly and a great holiday island. We all got hammered on 241 cocktails, particular favourite, the "dirty monkey", whilst sitting at a paradise like beach bar, IN the actual water.
The famed reef snorkelling was somewhat compromised by a great big fat hangover, I contemplated being sick through my snorkel at one point, so was glad I´d chosen not to dive. The sting rays are tame (having been fed by human hand) and they come and nudge you underwater, not instantly an attractive prospect (remembering how Steve X(?) the exhuberant Ozzie wildlife guy met his end). After 3 days of lazing about in paradise we (myself and two English girls, Cassie & Lizzie) headed back to Belize City and onto Guatemala.
We three take a bus to Flores, Guatemala, we spurn the tourist shuttle and take our first Chicken Bus, of course it takes twice as long ! but is an experience none the less. If you don´t get off at your stop straight away you are enveloped by a double "wave" of incoming passengers, and that´s it, your going on to the next stop ! Arrive and I (alone) suffer first bout of Montezuma´s revenge ! A herbal remedy, purchased in Crouch End with great scepticism, works a treat...
We then move onto TIKAL, famous Mayan temple ruins, situated way out in a jungle wilderness. It is wholly atmospheric and monkeys swing through the trees above you. We get there in time to see the sunset, which we do, and it´s jungle as far as the eye can see. Then´s it´s up at 5am to see the sunset (after having camped at Tikal in a hired tent), not so easy when the actual alarm goes off. It´s a 50 minute, in the dark, yomp to the top of the temple and it´s thick fog....ho hum....we see nothing at all, and we are not the only ones....however the morning noise the "howler monkeys" make is something (you´d not guess it was monkeys).
I said goodbye to Lizzie and Cassie (they were going on to volunteer at a monkey "retreat"). Then I took a long tourist bus ride to "Seumuc Champey". The back half of the bus was partying Brits (stopping to buy beer at every petrol station), the front half, not (inc me). After four hours, tensions were developing, after nine hours the driver refused to make anymore "rest stops", there was no sympathy from the front half..... Seumuc Champey was lovely, a natural paradise (see the photos) and "eco" guest house only had generator power between 6pm and 10pm. There was a good fun multi-national crowd. We swam through caves holding candles with one hand, a skill in itself.
My Lonely Planet recommended a road trip between Coban and Huehuetango (as a main country attraction), however it gave no clue as to how it was to be accomplished, and everyone else was opting for the tourist bus. Fortunately, a Spanish speaking English girl (another Lizzie) opted to come with me and off we set, on the local "micro" buses. Quite an experience (see photos). They cram you in, 3 bums (plus chickens) to a 2 person seat, you cannot move !!! On the second day I counted 23 in our toyota micro bus which should have carried nine (in the UK) !! At one point the road had been carried away in a massive landslide, no problem, very very steep home-made hairpin dirt tracks in the pouring rain !! I really could not look at one point, I was sure we going over the edge. So who needs a 4x4 ? a fully loaded (and totally knackered) Toyota van is the answer !! It was a picturesque route, but it took us two days with an overnight stop in a trademans hotel (Single room with bathroom and TV - 4 pounds !). We got stared at quite a bit, obviously we had fallen off the Gringo trail.
We both arrived safely in "Xela" from Huehuetango via an extremely hairy "Chicken Bus" ride. A chicken bus being an old American School Bus driven at insane speeds. Guatemalans are, on the whole, tiny, so the mini school seats are not really a problem (for them....); going to the local market makes me feel like a Giant!. Xela was a surprise in that it was (and currently is) freezing ! Other parts of Guatemala were unbearably hot and sticky. Here we are at 2300 metres, it´s very cold at night. The town is surrounded by (inactive) cone shaped Volcanoes, extremely scenic (when it´s not raining).
I´ve enrolled at a Spanish Language school here in Xela and I´m now on Day 4, desperately trying to conjugate verbs and make some sense of it. I´m living with a Guatemalan familly (a homestay) the food is very good but I can´t communicate with them, presently. The father is a Guatemalan "Fred Dibner" without the mechanical skills ! he is very laid back but, my god, the house is a terrible concrete bodge (he built it himself). The electrics defy description. When he has the money (I think) he adds another floor, there are 3 floors and going up.....(i´m on the first). There is only water for a few hours a day, and it is never hot....
If you´ve made it this far, well done, you deserve a medal!. I´ve heard the weather has been poor in the UK, so heres hoping it improves for you.
best regards to all,
Mark
