One Way United

So we made it to Antigua, said to be the most famous town in all of central America. If ever there was a more chill place I don´t think I´d believe it. This town has a very relaxed vibe to it and we appreciate that very much right now. We spent the night here and simply relaxed and enjoyed this small city’s many restaurants and cafes and played cards. Practically every tourist who comes to Guatemala passes through here at some point so it is a very clean active place. After a little rest it was on to Lake Atitlan. Quick note: we had a very hilarious taxi ride from Guatemala City to Antigua. The cab driver had lived in Guatemala all his life but had once tried to come to America. He was caught however and promptly deported….to Ecuador. He´d tried to conivnce the authorities he wasn´t from there but they would not listen, so he´d had to call his family at home and tell him he´d been sent to Ecuador against his will. It was hilarious.

The two hour bus ride was rather boring, but it was well worth the wait. As we came over the last peak and caught our first glimpse of this mountain lake we were absloutely floored. Descending down the winding roads our gaze remained transfixed on this breathtaking vista. When we finally made it to the town of Panajachel (can you pronounce that? I can´t) and stayed just long enough to have lunch. We dined with this mother-daughter traveling duo from Chicago. The mother had actually grown up in Guatemala and had many interesting stories about her experience in the area. She and her daughter Crystal were great fun to chat with. After that we boarded a boat to the smaller town of San Pedro. Chilling in the small boat and gazing out at the lake I had a relization. With the looming volcanoes and mountains that completely encircle this small body of water, sprouting up with countless verdant trees and quaint villages, this was undoubtedly the most beautiful lake I´ve ever seen in my life. Amanda has gone on record as stating that this is the most beautiful place she´s ever been to period. It´s hard to argue. We found a hotel that looked right out over the water and wandered around the town, which is apparently very devoted to God. You can not walk half a block without seeing one sign that proclaims “Jesus loves you” or something similar. The narrow cobblestone streets and were very calm and the people were always friendly towards us obvious outsiders. This was an awesome place to visit.

Next day was market day. We boarded a bus and road away from the lake to the town of Chichicastenango (I´m not even going to try) but everyone calls it Chichi for short. Every Thursday and Sunday is the big market. Locals come from all over the day before to set up shop for this big event. Some even sleep in their stalls. We arrived around 10 a.m. or so and set out to see the wares. It doesn´t become overly apparent at first as the outskirts are just busy with people and noisy passing cars. But as you wander into the labyrinth of stalls and vendors you become ensnared by something that can only be decribed as organized chaos. Every sense is assualted in this place. The feel of all the intricate native weavings, the smell of the smokey candles, the iridescent mass of colors of hand carved masks, the taste of the greasy food frying en-mass in the local eatery. And of course, the swarms of people shouting at you to come and buy their stuff. This was a whole new adventure for us. Bargaining is something I´ve never really done before but for these people it´s a way of life. Everything is for sale and no price is set in stone. You can get everything here: blankets, bags, clothes, books, hand-carvings, even machetes.

You can walk around pretending not to be interested in anything, but these people are experts. The see where your wandering eyes go and will jump out to get you to stop and look at their stuff that they know you want. Being the gringos the sellers will naturally start start with something really ridiculous, but they will lower it right away. We counter with an extremely low price to see how they´ll respond. And the game is on. Even if you have no intention of buying anything it´s fun just to see how low you can get stuff for. You haggle back and forth with the vendors always claiming that their offering you a “special deal” that´s just for you but they probably use that line a hundred times a day. If you can´t get the price you want we often deferred to the ultimate tactic “The Walk Away”. If you´ve spent enough time with them and they know you´re truly interested many sellers will often drop their asking price rapidly if they see you turn around and look elsewhere. Some people will even chase you down. It´s crazy fun and if you´re patient you can get some great deals.

After our market adventure we went back to San Pedro for one more night and then made our way back to Antigua. Tonight is special as it is Amanda´s last night on the trip. Tomorrow she flies home to Seattle where she will beging preparing for grad school so she can go on to educate the youth of the world, single-handedly saving English class is her lofty goal. It has been great fun to travel with her and I wish her well in her future endeavors. She will probably make her own post about her experience in a day or two so be on the lookout for that.

 Later all!

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Here I sit, in my comfortable hostel, in the tranquil touristic town of Antigua.  I have spent so much time here on my last two mission trips to Cajixay with such loving, amazing people that coming to Antigua feels a lot like coming home.  This is the first time on this trip that I have arrived to a place that felt completely familiar.  Yes, it is really nice finally arriving to this colonial town.  But Antigua is not the purpose of this post.  I want to tell you all about what may be perhaps the coolest place I have visited on my entire 7 month journey.  TIKAL!

I have seen a lot of Incan ruin sites as I traveled through Bolivia and Peru but none of these compared to the Mayan ruins of Tikal.  Yes, even better than Machu Picchu.  Tikal is a site that covers 50 square miles and was once a major Mayan city with over 100,000 people residing there until it´s sudden collapse in the 9th century.  The people and houses may be gone but what remains of this once glorious city is nothing short of spectacular.  There are many giant stoned pyramids, temples, and Acropolises that are surrounded by dense jungle where howler and spider monkeys roam free.  Walking through the site was like being transported to another world. It´s no wonder George Lucas used Tikal to represent Planet Endor in Star Wars.  There is no way to describe the surreal feeling of seeing these temples rise high above the jungle canopy with the howler monkeys screaming in the distance and spider monkeys literally swinging right above you.  What makes this place even more special is that all the ruins are so spread out that finding solitude is remarkably easy.  I was alone journaling atop an ancient ruin looking down at the beautiful Acropolis Central.  To my left I could make out the tops of the Acropolis del Norte and giant temples of the Gran Plaza.  To my right I could see an ancient temple rising high about the canopy.  Sitting atop this place, with my great view, I went over a full hour without seeing another human being.  I saw several monkeys but no people.  Absolutely incredible.

We spent 2 days touring the park.  We arrived to Tikal by taking a torterously long, hot 12 hours bus ride from Guatemala City to the unspectacular city of Santa Elena.  We spent the night there and arrived to Tikal early in the afternoon the next day.  We found a campground to stay at where we slept in hammocks and only spent about $4 each…not bad considering where we were staying!  We then set out and spent the first day just exploring as much as possible.  We climbed up to the top of many temples where we were greeted by simply breathtaking views.  Atop these temples you could see nothing but jungle with giant stone pyramids rising high above the canopy.  The most amazing area of Tikal is the Gran Plaza.  The temples and Acropolis surrounding the Gran Plaza supposedly took over 1000 years to build.  Can you imagine?  That means it´s quite possible 50 generations of people worked to create these structures.  Talk about dedication!  While Tikal has been largely excavated, there is still a lot of work to be done.  There are many structures that are still completely covered by jungle and many temples that are still completely covered by soil and trees that have grown on all sides.  There are also many structures that undoubtedly have yet to be discovered.

Our one night in Tikal was very long as all of us had trouble sleeping.  It got a lot colder than we had expected and since we had left our bags in a locked room we spent most of the night a little chilly.  The next day in Tikal we visited the few remaining structures that we did not see on our first day which included the Acropolis Central which was my personal favorite place because there was a lot to explore and a lot less people than there was at the Gran Plaza.  There was a lot of structures that we did not see because they required multi-day hikes.  A local guide was telling us about 4 day trek to a temple which was not completely excavated that had a 1 km base!  I´m telling you…these ruins are incredible.  If I had to make a list of 5 must see things that I have seen on this trip, Tikal would be on it without a doubt.  We spent the rest of our second day there just doing our own thing, chilling, and ended our Tikal experience with playing Pinochle in Acropolis Central.

We are going to spend the next 2 days on Lake Atitlan before heading back to Antigua where we will probably stay more or less until the mission team arrives on the 18th.  Amanda also updated earlier today about our nice experience in El Salvador so make sure to read that as well!  Love to all!

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Well, we are now in Antigua, Guatemala; just resting for a day after the last few nights of little sleep (Jordan will cover that in his next post on TIKAL).  But my job is to tell you about the wonderful, beautiful, rustic, friendly country of El Salvador, even though we were only there for 2 nights.

It took a lot of pushing on my part to go to El Salvador as were very crunched for time on our way to Guatemala.  I had always wanted to go because when I worked at Delfinos, all of the cooks were from El Salvador; it was really what sparked my interest in Latin America.  Unfortunately, however, El Salvador is slightly out of the way when heading towards Guatemala; and out of all the Central American countries, it is the least touristy and the least visited.  But my pushing won out and we hopped on an 11 hour bus in Managua that went straight to the capital, San Salvador.

San Salvador was a delight.  The cab drivers didn’t try to rip us off (like in Nicaragua), a random man stopped and hugged us as we were trekking to our hotel (ok, he might have been drunk, not really sure), people didn’t hassle us for taxi rides, hotels, and tours, and people were always more than ready to help out with directions or information.  I believe the friendliness of the people owes itself in part to the fact that El Salvador has not yet been jaded by tourism; therefore, people are always ready to help and show a genuine interest in you.  Anyway, our hotel, Hotel Florida, was lovely and a great place to rest after so much travelling.  That night, we set out for the mall where we enjoyed Pizza Hut and TCBY (we are such Westerners, I know!)

The following morning we set out for the small Colonial Town of Suchitoto.  This town is where all of my old Delfinos coworkers were from so I had heard all these stories about how great it was.  Suchitoto did not disapoint!  Granted, there was not much in the way of tourist activities there, but I think that was part of the charm.  When we checked into the hotel, the lady who owned it had her husband give us a ride to the lake (we didn’t even have to ask).  As though that wasn’t enough kindness, she gave us a huge plastic bag with her family’s swim suits and towels for us to use (we had left most of our luggage in San Salvador).  Later that night, this little boy tried to teach us how to spin a-top-on-a-string thing, and was cracking us up as he made fun of Jordan’s many unsuccesful tries.  He would go around showing people (all that night and the next morning) how Jordan threw the top.  It was HILARIOUS!  Between interacting with him, eating in laid back restaurants, hanging out at the lake, and browsing in all of the Artesian shops, the best we can describe Suchitoto is TRANQUILO (we have agreed that there is no sufficient English equivalent to this word).  Jordan also said that the town might win the “Friendliest Award” out of all the towns he’s been to on his entire trip!

So all and all, we were only able to spend 2 days in El Salvador.  But it was enough to win me over to the county; I hope to go back some day and maybe do some volunteer/mission work of some kind.  While El Salvador might not be a top tourist draw, its richest resource is definetly the people! Love it, love it!

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