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Yo all!
Long time no write! We´ve made tracks since last journal entry. I think I was in Oaxaca last time, am now in…Guatemala! Yeh, sweet as, huh? We found both Oaxaca and san cristobal quite nice, but kind of bland in their own way. I think people who stay in san cristobal find the atmostphere really relaxing, but we found it quite a slow town which had exploited its past as a Zapatista stronghold. There were touristy areas, and a few hassling people trying to sell stuff. I guess it’s a nice town, but again I much prefer the rambling streets of san Miguel,a nd particularly guanajuato. The hostel (backpackers) was quite ncie, and they have nightly campfires but it was raining at the time, so no fire. We left quite early the next morning (after an awesome dinner) and I was unlucky to share the bed with some bed bugs (which I must have been allergic to, they´ve come up a treat!). anyway, we headed on to palenque, a ancient mayan site. We visited a couple of waterfalls , agua azul, which is usually bright blue, but was briwn when we were there due to the rain the night before. Also mizan sul (sorry about the spelling) where predator, the Hollywood blockbuster was set. Mizan sul was nice, and it was so hot that we went behind the waterfall for a freezing windy shower, and then down into the pool for a raging dip. Was fun and exciting. Our tour driver was so sarcastic and depressing, he was so anti fun and suggested that we didn’t swim.
Palenque is a beautiful mayan temple and pyramid site surrounded by jungle. We declined information from the guides and headed on through, exploring and thinking about the people that lived there, 2000-1500 years before. Some of it was fantastically ornate, and there were parts where you could walk inside the temples in underground passages. The setting was lovely too, and the views fromt eh 60m high pyramids were incredible (especially of the other pyramids). Howler monkeys were around the sire as well – they make a kind of guttural groaning sound which is quite loud. It sounded spooky, I think especially as they used their call as the sounds made by the dinosaurs in Jurassic park. So we kept thinking there were dinosaurs around. Or dr Hammond – just as scary.
We stayed in el panchan, a small series of cabañas set along a river. We had dinner at the cheaper joint and then had a few beers over at the other one. Towards the end of our conversations with a british couple we´d em in san cristobal, a mexiican band entered the small stage and played some awesome live traditional music. Then the hippie fire twirlers entered and gave us an awesome poi show. Great to see. We also had a dance with some Mexican medicine students who could all speak English and taught us some Spanish.
My Spanish is slowly coming along, dans is quite good (though hes never had proper lessons), and so I largely rely on him rather than learning new phrases. I think my grammar must be terrible.
We headed off to tikal yesterday morning with the briitish couple. There was a 2 hour bus trip to a river then a 30 min boat to a guatemalen river port (a small shack) and then another 4 hours downt eh road to flores – gateway to tikal. I spent the first bus chatting with a American teacher about world policies and surprised myself how little I know about us internal politics,a nd Australian politics as well, I guess. The boat was very pleasant, with jungle on each side – I still reckon boat and train are my 2 favourite methods of transportation, with busses coming a distant last. Especially on these guatemalen roads. They are a severe step down from mexico, with dirt and huge potholes. I don’t really mind, its just interesting to note the sudden difference. We arrived in flores and transferred to yet another bus to tikal, where we would spend the night. Met a couple fo british brothers (ben y toby) who we got on splendidly with and ended up visiting the ruins with that afternoon, shorltly after bagsing a couple of hammocks. Tikal is meant to be mindblowing. We were not disspointed. One fo the tour guys saud it was likened to new york because it has lots of tall buildings (I guess that’s the only similarity? Other than the number of landaus in them at the same trime). It is much more spectacular than palenque, with really tall, intact temples rising out over the canopy of the dense rainforest. From the top of the one we stayed on for an hour or 2 (mundo perdido) we could see spidermonkeys and toucans. Yeh toucans . that made me so happy.
We got kicked out at 7 pm, witht eh sun still not set, as the park was closing. We headed over for some chicken and rice (allegedly staple in guat according to the brits) and it was delicious. I don’t think i´ve seen a portion of meat that large since we hit some roadkill. It was like a breast and a wing but yeh – brilliant.
The next morning at 430 am we rose for a sunrise tour. Costs $15 aussie but worth it with guide luis. We trekked through the dark jungle seeing scorpions and toads, then climbed temple 4 to look out over the rest of the ruins with the mist fading away as the sun rose. Spectacular. As it got lighter, the birds chirped up and woke the other animals, including the mighty howler monkeys which boomed an impressive voice over tikal (which means the place of echoes – hence louder monkeys). It sounded like there were about 10 male howlers, but there were only 2, alledgely, according to luis.
The rest of the morning was spent jetting around the rest of the sight learning about the customs, the reasons the different `pyramids were built, the restorations, the fauna the flora, everything. We saw more toucans, crocs, turtles, heaps of birds , toucans, toucanettes (little toucans!) and more scorpions. Awesome. We got back for 10 am, for a well deserved brekky before shower. We intended to walk back into the park, but it takes 20 mins to walk there, so we figured it wasn’t worth it. So we sat in the sun, wrote postcards and had a specially prepared Yorkshire brew. Ben y toby headed off for a canopy tour on zip lines.
We hopped on the bus back to flores where I am now. On the bus we met some American girls who are fairly well traveled, and on holidays from teaching in LA: we had lunch with them (chicken and rice). Ti more expensive here than mexico. About $5 aussie for chicken and rice, and about $2.5 for a beer. Accommodation is cheaper though, and transportation will be too. Our bus tonight is to rio dulce, a town on the river which is at the start of a canyon to Livingston, a rasta town on the coast accessible only by boat. Nice, boats. So feeling a little weary after four 6am or earlier starts, but may sleep in a little tomorrow for the germany game at 10 am.
From Livingston, we will likely head up through belize tot eh Yucatan.
2.5 weeks to go.
xo
Long time no write! We´ve made tracks since last journal entry. I think I was in Oaxaca last time, am now in…Guatemala! Yeh, sweet as, huh? We found both Oaxaca and san cristobal quite nice, but kind of bland in their own way. I think people who stay in san cristobal find the atmostphere really relaxing, but we found it quite a slow town which had exploited its past as a Zapatista stronghold. There were touristy areas, and a few hassling people trying to sell stuff. I guess it’s a nice town, but again I much prefer the rambling streets of san Miguel,a nd particularly guanajuato. The hostel (backpackers) was quite ncie, and they have nightly campfires but it was raining at the time, so no fire. We left quite early the next morning (after an awesome dinner) and I was unlucky to share the bed with some bed bugs (which I must have been allergic to, they´ve come up a treat!). anyway, we headed on to palenque, a ancient mayan site. We visited a couple of waterfalls , agua azul, which is usually bright blue, but was briwn when we were there due to the rain the night before. Also mizan sul (sorry about the spelling) where predator, the Hollywood blockbuster was set. Mizan sul was nice, and it was so hot that we went behind the waterfall for a freezing windy shower, and then down into the pool for a raging dip. Was fun and exciting. Our tour driver was so sarcastic and depressing, he was so anti fun and suggested that we didn’t swim.
Palenque is a beautiful mayan temple and pyramid site surrounded by jungle. We declined information from the guides and headed on through, exploring and thinking about the people that lived there, 2000-1500 years before. Some of it was fantastically ornate, and there were parts where you could walk inside the temples in underground passages. The setting was lovely too, and the views fromt eh 60m high pyramids were incredible (especially of the other pyramids). Howler monkeys were around the sire as well – they make a kind of guttural groaning sound which is quite loud. It sounded spooky, I think especially as they used their call as the sounds made by the dinosaurs in Jurassic park. So we kept thinking there were dinosaurs around. Or dr Hammond – just as scary.
We stayed in el panchan, a small series of cabañas set along a river. We had dinner at the cheaper joint and then had a few beers over at the other one. Towards the end of our conversations with a british couple we´d em in san cristobal, a mexiican band entered the small stage and played some awesome live traditional music. Then the hippie fire twirlers entered and gave us an awesome poi show. Great to see. We also had a dance with some Mexican medicine students who could all speak English and taught us some Spanish.
My Spanish is slowly coming along, dans is quite good (though hes never had proper lessons), and so I largely rely on him rather than learning new phrases. I think my grammar must be terrible.
We headed off to tikal yesterday morning with the briitish couple. There was a 2 hour bus trip to a river then a 30 min boat to a guatemalen river port (a small shack) and then another 4 hours downt eh road to flores – gateway to tikal. I spent the first bus chatting with a American teacher about world policies and surprised myself how little I know about us internal politics,a nd Australian politics as well, I guess. The boat was very pleasant, with jungle on each side – I still reckon boat and train are my 2 favourite methods of transportation, with busses coming a distant last. Especially on these guatemalen roads. They are a severe step down from mexico, with dirt and huge potholes. I don’t really mind, its just interesting to note the sudden difference. We arrived in flores and transferred to yet another bus to tikal, where we would spend the night. Met a couple fo british brothers (ben y toby) who we got on splendidly with and ended up visiting the ruins with that afternoon, shorltly after bagsing a couple of hammocks. Tikal is meant to be mindblowing. We were not disspointed. One fo the tour guys saud it was likened to new york because it has lots of tall buildings (I guess that’s the only similarity? Other than the number of landaus in them at the same trime). It is much more spectacular than palenque, with really tall, intact temples rising out over the canopy of the dense rainforest. From the top of the one we stayed on for an hour or 2 (mundo perdido) we could see spidermonkeys and toucans. Yeh toucans . that made me so happy.
We got kicked out at 7 pm, witht eh sun still not set, as the park was closing. We headed over for some chicken and rice (allegedly staple in guat according to the brits) and it was delicious. I don’t think i´ve seen a portion of meat that large since we hit some roadkill. It was like a breast and a wing but yeh – brilliant.
The next morning at 430 am we rose for a sunrise tour. Costs $15 aussie but worth it with guide luis. We trekked through the dark jungle seeing scorpions and toads, then climbed temple 4 to look out over the rest of the ruins with the mist fading away as the sun rose. Spectacular. As it got lighter, the birds chirped up and woke the other animals, including the mighty howler monkeys which boomed an impressive voice over tikal (which means the place of echoes – hence louder monkeys). It sounded like there were about 10 male howlers, but there were only 2, alledgely, according to luis.
The rest of the morning was spent jetting around the rest of the sight learning about the customs, the reasons the different `pyramids were built, the restorations, the fauna the flora, everything. We saw more toucans, crocs, turtles, heaps of birds , toucans, toucanettes (little toucans!) and more scorpions. Awesome. We got back for 10 am, for a well deserved brekky before shower. We intended to walk back into the park, but it takes 20 mins to walk there, so we figured it wasn’t worth it. So we sat in the sun, wrote postcards and had a specially prepared Yorkshire brew. Ben y toby headed off for a canopy tour on zip lines.
We hopped on the bus back to flores where I am now. On the bus we met some American girls who are fairly well traveled, and on holidays from teaching in LA: we had lunch with them (chicken and rice). Ti more expensive here than mexico. About $5 aussie for chicken and rice, and about $2.5 for a beer. Accommodation is cheaper though, and transportation will be too. Our bus tonight is to rio dulce, a town on the river which is at the start of a canyon to Livingston, a rasta town on the coast accessible only by boat. Nice, boats. So feeling a little weary after four 6am or earlier starts, but may sleep in a little tomorrow for the germany game at 10 am.
From Livingston, we will likely head up through belize tot eh Yucatan.
2.5 weeks to go.
xo
posted by ben at 7:34 AM
1 Comments:
Wow Ben! Toucans! AND baby ones. I LOVE Toucans, well, when I say I love them, I could only eat one or two! hehe. But really, I'm jealous (but not of the crocs). It sounds like you are having an absolutely fantastic time, you describe it so well. It sounds like you can enjoy the peace there and yet still have great adventures and do so much with your time. Well done! Keep it up.
The waterfall sounds like a great experience, how big was it (I have SO many questions and want to know much more, cos you make it sound so good. Can't wait to see the photos!).
What a history the Mayan people have, puts white australia in its place doesn't it.
Howler monkeys sound cool, you should tell Steph Baldi about the fire twirlers - she does that so well.
New York has lots of tall buildings, and the last two days it has also had lots of sunshine too. Will try to update our blog in the next day or so.
Not sure where Leah is - she is due to be in Sydney so I guess that is where she is.
Take care, and keep up the FUN.
Luv,
Dad
xo xo xo
PS Keep the bed bugs OUT
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