In the last six months I have had a lot of enjoyment seeing many people and traveling many miles. I have managed to visit a lot of old friends and meet a bunch of new ones while putting a lot of miles behind me.
I hope to do a lot more after the New Year, but have enjoyed taking a month off to do very little, but am also glad it is coming to an end so that I can get back to seeing more of the world.
El Salvador is calling, and so is Panama. The canal has always had a distant call to me, the amount of work and planning that went into its construction and how much it changed the flow of commerce and people makes for great history.
I made the mistake of leaving for a walk without taking my camera yesterday. The locals here in San Pedro had a festival happening with a dance in the middle of the street. There were about 25 dancers, all in costume with masks. the masks were modern latex ones, but showed a wide variety of faces including a pirate, old granny, bride, child and more. I liked it, but the traffic backed up for a couple blocks seemed to be frustrated . ;)
To all of you, be well any have a great time with the people you love.
Ken.
Tuesday 24 December 2013
Friday 13 December 2013
San Pedro, Dec 13th
Traveling is fun, but so is putting up your feet for a while. This post is going to be all about my impressions of the little town of San Pedro La Laguna. I have been here for three weeks, and plan on staying here until Christmas.
There is a division in this town, between the tourists and the locals, with the line never clearly drawn and the businesses straddling it all the time. The general division is how close to the lake you are, the places closest to the lake serve the tourists, and the ones up the mountainside tend to be for the ones who live here.
It is a fair hike to get up the hill to the local market where the fresh produce is sold, with major market days on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. the place is cramped and small, and crawling with people.
When you walk along the streets, it seems like every third door is for a small store, whether they are selling phones, chips and candy, canned goods or fabric and clothing the one thing they all have in common is that they are small. The biggest ones are half the size of a typical 7/11. Very few of the stores have decent lighting.
The restaurants and cafes here are very much into the open and airy concept. Most of them have a portion which has no roof, and most have partitions to break up the larger areas. Some have a garden setting and the ones on the lakeside do their best to give a nice view of it.
The local cuisine is not really featured in the cafes, with Mexican being the closest to local style featured. There are about five places that specialize in Mexican, plus three food carts that do so. Two places have sushi, and most have seafood.
There are some things I miss, and decent processed meat is one. Although I believe that the amount of chemicals to be found in pepperoni to be less than healthy, it is darn hard to find a pizza down here with it.
On the other hand, most of the chicken is free range, and most of the beef is grass fed. Makes for way better flavour, and better tasting burgers. I have only had one burger here so far, at a place called D'Noz, and it was better than all but a few I have ever had. Billed as a chilli burger, it was topped with fire grilled mild chilli peppers, fresh jalapeno slices, ripe roma tomatoes, cilantro and in the place of honour, right in the middle was a whole clove of garlic. Totally made my day.
On the serious side of things, I have not had any problems with robber etc, but a number of others have. There are hikes to the top of nearby volcanoes and on a few of those there have been people robbed and assaulted. The police have been a larger presence in the past week, and from what the guides say it is coming under control, but it is still a concern and shot have been exchanged between the police and the thieves on at least two occasions, including one over the prone bodies of a group of tourists. No police or tourists were hurt, and the thieves left the area rapidly. Rumour has it that if the police are unable to capture the robbers soon, the army will be brought in to sweep the area, which will be a very tense situation as the army has a bad reputation around the lake from incidents in the recent past.
My impression of the situation is that the authorities are doing their best to get the lawlessness under control as fast as they can without angering the local population. Everyone realizes that the amount of injuring/robbing people is bad but it is still happening.
All in all the area is safer than many in Latin America, but that does not mean that it is entirely safe.
There is a division in this town, between the tourists and the locals, with the line never clearly drawn and the businesses straddling it all the time. The general division is how close to the lake you are, the places closest to the lake serve the tourists, and the ones up the mountainside tend to be for the ones who live here.
It is a fair hike to get up the hill to the local market where the fresh produce is sold, with major market days on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. the place is cramped and small, and crawling with people.
When you walk along the streets, it seems like every third door is for a small store, whether they are selling phones, chips and candy, canned goods or fabric and clothing the one thing they all have in common is that they are small. The biggest ones are half the size of a typical 7/11. Very few of the stores have decent lighting.
The restaurants and cafes here are very much into the open and airy concept. Most of them have a portion which has no roof, and most have partitions to break up the larger areas. Some have a garden setting and the ones on the lakeside do their best to give a nice view of it.
The local cuisine is not really featured in the cafes, with Mexican being the closest to local style featured. There are about five places that specialize in Mexican, plus three food carts that do so. Two places have sushi, and most have seafood.
There are some things I miss, and decent processed meat is one. Although I believe that the amount of chemicals to be found in pepperoni to be less than healthy, it is darn hard to find a pizza down here with it.
On the other hand, most of the chicken is free range, and most of the beef is grass fed. Makes for way better flavour, and better tasting burgers. I have only had one burger here so far, at a place called D'Noz, and it was better than all but a few I have ever had. Billed as a chilli burger, it was topped with fire grilled mild chilli peppers, fresh jalapeno slices, ripe roma tomatoes, cilantro and in the place of honour, right in the middle was a whole clove of garlic. Totally made my day.
On the serious side of things, I have not had any problems with robber etc, but a number of others have. There are hikes to the top of nearby volcanoes and on a few of those there have been people robbed and assaulted. The police have been a larger presence in the past week, and from what the guides say it is coming under control, but it is still a concern and shot have been exchanged between the police and the thieves on at least two occasions, including one over the prone bodies of a group of tourists. No police or tourists were hurt, and the thieves left the area rapidly. Rumour has it that if the police are unable to capture the robbers soon, the army will be brought in to sweep the area, which will be a very tense situation as the army has a bad reputation around the lake from incidents in the recent past.
My impression of the situation is that the authorities are doing their best to get the lawlessness under control as fast as they can without angering the local population. Everyone realizes that the amount of injuring/robbing people is bad but it is still happening.
All in all the area is safer than many in Latin America, but that does not mean that it is entirely safe.
Friday 22 November 2013
San Pedro La Laguna, Nov 22
This is a town on the side of Lagos Atitlan, a lake with no outlet, which is an old volcanic caldera. There are a number of small towns and villages around the lake, along with three volcano peaks. The pictures I post will be to show some of the town, and how the place is narrow and cramped and hilly. All in all the place is very friendly, but the market is as crowded as Granville Island at Christmas, but only one small block in size.
Sunday 17 November 2013
Keeping my sense of Humour
I have not been doing very much searching for nice places to stay. Mostly I follow along with other travelers, listen to their comments and borrowing guide books as well as doing some searches on line. I ended up in Los Amigos hostel in Flores by following other travelers, and it was a fine place to stay. The group I was with has decided to take the night bus to Antigua, and that is where this story takes off.
After talking with a couple travelers 6 of us decided that taking the night bus to Antigua would be a good idea, and that we were unlikely to find a lower rate than booking through the hostel. We paid 240 Quesatales each (exchange is 8Q=1CD) for first class ticket. The tourist agent said the bus left at 8pm, and was due in Guatemala City at 5 am with a transfer there to a smaller shuttle which would take us to Antigua. The bus was far too big to make it to the front door of the hostel on the narrow streets of Flores, so we made the 2 block walk to the bus. Once on the bus, it felt very much like hurry-up-and-wait. We scrambled behind the bus agent, got our luggage stored, sat down and went all of one kilometer to the main bus station where we waited for ten minutes to enter the depot, followed by waiting another twenty minutes for people to slowly board. The air conditioning was working just great. Maybe too great. After 3 weeks of never being in an air conditioned space it was a little too cool for me in the long run.
While on the bus talking with others, as well as searching on line, bus travel other than first class is very not recommended in Guatemala, with something like 30 drivers of the 'chicken' buses shot during the previous 6 months. Gulp.
The bus itself was clean and the seating was designed to be great for someone about 5' 8" or shorter. This meant that I was not very comfortable, though way better than on a chicken bus.
Finally we pulled out and were on our way. The night was cloudy to start, and the driver had a tendency to leave the interior lights on, on the 2 deck where we were and that combines with the tinting on the windows meant that the view was boring.
We stopped at four different places along the way to let people on and off, as well as one half hour stop for the driver's dinner. Shortly after that long stop, the bus seemed to develop problems. We would pull over into gas stations, where no one got on or off, wait for 5 minutes then off again. then the stops got a little more frequent with the driver getting out to open up a compartment at the back of the bus. Followed by the bus going very slowly up hills with the occaissional pull out to pause, shut the engine off for 2 minutes then off again. After about an hour of this, the air conditioning was shut off and never came back on.
We finally pulled into the bus depot in Guatemala City about two hours late.
Got off, got our luggage, and off for the two block walk to where the shuttle was. The bags were tossed up to a luggage rack on the top, all 24 of us loaded onto the shuttle, which was a very tight squeeze, and as we pulled out of the compound where the shuttle had been waiting, the luggage caught on the lintel for the gate and scraped the luggage rack loose from the top of the shuttle. After the driver and a helper struggled with the rack for twenty minutes, we were let out of the shuttle, I stretched while others went to the bathroom and two disappeared to buy breakfast. An hour and fifteen minutes after we had first loaded onto the shuttle we were off for Antigua.
I was of the opinion that as long as we were stalled waiting, we might as well have some fun with it. By the time we pulled out most of he passengers were joining in on making humorous comments on the whole situation. I started off by commenting to the guy in front of me who had a small guitar case that he needed to play the song 'The Wheels on the Bus Go Nowhere at All", and that set the tone for the comments for the rest of the trip to Antigua. A few were too tired or did not speak english well, but most seemed to feel the mood lighten. I felt we could either get mad and frustrated or roll with it and laugh.
A second smaller shuttle from Antigua took me to , Pannajachel and from there I took a water taxi across the lake to San Pedro La Laguna. I collapsed onto a bed at a hostel after twenty hours of travel with about 2 hours of napping.
After talking with a couple travelers 6 of us decided that taking the night bus to Antigua would be a good idea, and that we were unlikely to find a lower rate than booking through the hostel. We paid 240 Quesatales each (exchange is 8Q=1CD) for first class ticket. The tourist agent said the bus left at 8pm, and was due in Guatemala City at 5 am with a transfer there to a smaller shuttle which would take us to Antigua. The bus was far too big to make it to the front door of the hostel on the narrow streets of Flores, so we made the 2 block walk to the bus. Once on the bus, it felt very much like hurry-up-and-wait. We scrambled behind the bus agent, got our luggage stored, sat down and went all of one kilometer to the main bus station where we waited for ten minutes to enter the depot, followed by waiting another twenty minutes for people to slowly board. The air conditioning was working just great. Maybe too great. After 3 weeks of never being in an air conditioned space it was a little too cool for me in the long run.
While on the bus talking with others, as well as searching on line, bus travel other than first class is very not recommended in Guatemala, with something like 30 drivers of the 'chicken' buses shot during the previous 6 months. Gulp.
The bus itself was clean and the seating was designed to be great for someone about 5' 8" or shorter. This meant that I was not very comfortable, though way better than on a chicken bus.
Finally we pulled out and were on our way. The night was cloudy to start, and the driver had a tendency to leave the interior lights on, on the 2 deck where we were and that combines with the tinting on the windows meant that the view was boring.
We stopped at four different places along the way to let people on and off, as well as one half hour stop for the driver's dinner. Shortly after that long stop, the bus seemed to develop problems. We would pull over into gas stations, where no one got on or off, wait for 5 minutes then off again. then the stops got a little more frequent with the driver getting out to open up a compartment at the back of the bus. Followed by the bus going very slowly up hills with the occaissional pull out to pause, shut the engine off for 2 minutes then off again. After about an hour of this, the air conditioning was shut off and never came back on.
We finally pulled into the bus depot in Guatemala City about two hours late.
Got off, got our luggage, and off for the two block walk to where the shuttle was. The bags were tossed up to a luggage rack on the top, all 24 of us loaded onto the shuttle, which was a very tight squeeze, and as we pulled out of the compound where the shuttle had been waiting, the luggage caught on the lintel for the gate and scraped the luggage rack loose from the top of the shuttle. After the driver and a helper struggled with the rack for twenty minutes, we were let out of the shuttle, I stretched while others went to the bathroom and two disappeared to buy breakfast. An hour and fifteen minutes after we had first loaded onto the shuttle we were off for Antigua.
I was of the opinion that as long as we were stalled waiting, we might as well have some fun with it. By the time we pulled out most of he passengers were joining in on making humorous comments on the whole situation. I started off by commenting to the guy in front of me who had a small guitar case that he needed to play the song 'The Wheels on the Bus Go Nowhere at All", and that set the tone for the comments for the rest of the trip to Antigua. A few were too tired or did not speak english well, but most seemed to feel the mood lighten. I felt we could either get mad and frustrated or roll with it and laugh.
A second smaller shuttle from Antigua took me to , Pannajachel and from there I took a water taxi across the lake to San Pedro La Laguna. I collapsed onto a bed at a hostel after twenty hours of travel with about 2 hours of napping.
Friday 15 November 2013
Tikal
The site is very large, and like all the other Mayan sites, only a portion has been excavated. I would have liked to take more time to explore the shorter side buildings, but in order for the tour to see a decent portion of the complex, we had to keep moving.
I know I am going back to Tikal, next time hopefully I will be in better shape, and will likely do it without a tour, so I can explore the portions I want slowly and thoroughly. The park is large, and not close to amenities, but very worth the time to get there.
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| Corruscated Turkey |
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| Spot the monkeys |
Thursday 14 November 2013
Iguana
There is a conservation effort for iguanas, ones which are raised in captivity, encouraged to learn survival skills and released.
Tuesday 12 November 2013
Cahal Pech, San Ignacio Belize.
The rain was on and off. I split a taxi ride to the site with an English couple, thus saving our legs from a steep climb. The site is far from completely excavated, and they are continuing to work on portions of the site. A few of the pictures taken show the excavation and allow you to see the amount of over-burden the archeologists are dealing with.
The first few pictures are from the museum show cases, followed by ones from the site.
These ruins are impressive, and seem set closer together than the ones at Altun Ha, however at neither site is fully excavated, and although the plazas are currently larger at Altun Ha, who knows if this will stay true as the sites are fully investigated.
As their construction methods did not include the use of mortar, they did not use the true arch in construction, but used the more primitive Corbel arch as seen above. Two of the reconstructed rooms have been done with wooden lintels, I failed to inquire if this was a period technique or not.
The ruins here bring home to me how fleeting most of our modern constructions are. Each layer here was added on top of a completed previous layer, with the layers being added as near as we can tell in 52 year intervals, the length of the Mayan solar cycle. There are very few places where humans have lived built and improved for the 1,900 years this site was actively inhabited. The amount of manual labour that went into the construction of these ruined cities is daunting, and the only way I can really grasp how much sheer effort that went into the complex is to keep firmly in mind that it was not made in one generation, or even a few, but hundreds.
These pictures are only a few of the 150 I took of this site. There was no place where the view was decent to give a full view of the complex, though at a later date I may search the web for a picture or map of it.
The first few pictures are from the museum show cases, followed by ones from the site.
These ruins are impressive, and seem set closer together than the ones at Altun Ha, however at neither site is fully excavated, and although the plazas are currently larger at Altun Ha, who knows if this will stay true as the sites are fully investigated.
These pictures are only a few of the 150 I took of this site. There was no place where the view was decent to give a full view of the complex, though at a later date I may search the web for a picture or map of it.
San Ignacio, Belize
So, on Nov 11th, I went from Caye Caulker to San Ignacio. The water taxi from the island was noisy but fast, and the trip took about an hour. Taxi from the terminal to the bus depot was bumpy and the way was twisty, no real through streets. The bus was nearly full and ready to go when I got to the depot. The ride took about 2 hours, with many stops, lots of folks getting on and off along the highway. Most of the spots people were dropped off had shelters on one side of the highway, but rarely both. The rain was intermitent, and at times quite heavy. Cost for the bus ride was $8BZD, about $4 Canadian. The rain has meant that access to some of the Mayan ruins is impossible because of the need to ford a river, but Cahal Pech is an archeological site at the highest point of the town.
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| Views from the front and back balconies of the hotel |
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| A picture of the single lane bridge which connects the two halve of San Ignacio | ||||||||||||||||||
Saturday 9 November 2013
Last bit from Caye Caulker (for now)
I have really enjoyed my stay at Caye Caulker. I can see myself living here, even if my wallet can't. I have posted a number of pictures of the scenic views and sunsets, but it is time to show some of the typical street views, some nice and others not so nice.
The theme for the island is 'Go Slow', and there are a few signs saying this in the pictures.
I do not know how well these last two pictures will show, but when it rains here, it tends to come down quite heavily.
Take care, and Go Slow.
The theme for the island is 'Go Slow', and there are a few signs saying this in the pictures.
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