I believe our last update was about our time in León around Christmas etc and now I am writing from Guatemala! It is currently 6 o’clock on New Years Eve and there are fireworks going off outside that sound more like bombs, they are so intense and they echo throughout the narrow streets setting off dozens of car alarms within a few blocks... These things could cause serious hearing loss!
We planned to take the 20 hour journey to Guatemala in a nice bus with air con and TV’s etc but after the guy from our hostel messed up the booking, we were told we had to go by CHICKEN BUS...
When we learned this unfortunate news, everybody from the hostel sympathized with us strongly and recounted their horrendous 9 or 10-hour bus rides and how they couldn’t imagine 20 hours... So we psyched ourselves up to leave the next day on what would be quite the trip!
As you may have heard we were pleasantly surprised and the trip was actually amazing! Their were only two other tourists on the bus so we got through the borders really quickly because locals didn’t have to clear immigration, they planned funky Latin music and chatted to us all the way and one guy bought us a hot coffee when we arrived in Guatemala City.
From the city we made our way to San Pedro la laguna, a small hippy town on the side of Lake Atítlan. This area is the heart of the Mayan indigenous culture and each town on the lake (there are a lot of small towns surrounding the lake) has their own Mayan language and in order to understand each other they all speak Spanish, so for most people Spanish is their second language and they speak so clearly and slowly that is simply beautiful to understand compared to the lazy slurs of the Nicaraguans! All the men and women wear indigenous clothing and always have a smile on their faces. They are such nice people!
We have spent the last four days here eating amazing food, kayaking across the lake, jumping of the rocks into the lake to go swimming (well there was no way I was going to jump off any rocks but Haz did) and we climbed to a peak called the Indian’s Nose to watch the sunrise. It was amazing walking up in the dark with beautiful stars and then seeing all of the lake and at least 5 volcanoes along the horizon. We also spent a day at the biggest market in Central America in a town called Chichicastenango. It was a 2-hour ride through the mountains on horrendous roads but quite a stunning market filled with colourful locally made things from blankets to hammocks to clothes, food and flowers. We spent a decent amount of money and now we are enjoying lounging round in our new hippie rags so we fit in quite nicely!
We have been traveling with an Austrian girl named Nina since the bus ride to Nicaragua and a Mexican guy named Jose, both of whom left today. It was nice to have some others to share the experiences with! We are here until Monday and then going up to a place called Lanquín to explore amazing caves filled with bats... Until then amigos...
¡Feliz año nuevo a todos nuestros amigos en Nueva Zelanda!
(Happy New Year to all our friends in New Zealand!)
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