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.

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.

Tikal

Between the lighting, the amount of time spent walking, and the jungle growth, the pictures from Tikal are a little disappointing.  I should have taken far more than I did.  As well, the climb to the top of temple 5 was beyond me.  My fitness level is low, and with my hip, climbing 72 meters on a staircase after a long uphill trek was just too much.
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.

Corruscated Turkey

Spot the monkeys

Iguana

There is a conservation effort for iguanas, ones which are raised in captivity, encouraged to learn survival skills and released.

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.

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.

Views from the front and back balconies of the hotel

A picture of the single lane bridge which connects the two halve of San Ignacio

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.