Now Thats CHEAP!!

OOoOhhhh Guatemala, how good it feels to be in your arms again!!! Guatemala is really growing on us and we are lingering, maybe for too long. After Rio Dulce we took a bus to Guatemala City, then straight to Antigua, a beautiful colonial town surronded by volcanoes, one that towers over the town and you could imagine just walking straight up it.
We stayed in a room there for 37 quetzales (like five bucks) and it even had a shared kitchen!! We met up with a bunch of couchsurfers.. an italian guy, one mexicano, some french italians, and an aussie. An eclectic group, we spent alot of time chillin in cafes and goin to ladies night where there is a constantly loud salsa band. Antigua is full of tourists, and catholic indegenous people and has a feel very similar to San Cristobal, not far. Altogether it is very Mexican in general, with the colonial feel, with colorful houses, and most importantly, the plaza and cathedrals. There is one giant yellow opne that has beautiful white details that have been mosaice-ed with egg shells!!! It is a beautiful church with gorgeous purple trees surronding that are all around the city. On top of the functioning churches, there are a ton of places in ruins from the earthquake that toppled Antigua, one of which we went to see. These are a beatuiful remmeberance of the architecture and add alot of appeal to the town already decked out in colonial digs.
Around the town there are two of guatemala's four active volcanoes. After a couple of nights, I went up to Pacaya, an active, lava spewing peak that you can watch an incredible sunset from. Sonya didnt come because she wasnt feeling well, and its a good thing because we both had food poisoning, and luckily mine didnt come until I made it back to our hotel. But two days before my birthday and we are both puking our guts out.. YUK!!! But when my birthday came around, we went to the only Irish pub in Guatemala and spent time with our CS friends. The next morning,we went out for all you can eat pancakes. I had blueberry, my fave.
Since we needed to stay in Antigua longer to get sonya's cavity filled, our local CouchSurfer hosted us for 3 more nights, spending a total of about 8 days in Antigua.. PHEW!!! Like i said we, kind of linger alot. After finally getting out of Antigua, we were excited for Lago Atitlan, even higher in the mountains, a lake with many mountains coming out of every corner. It is phenominally gorgeous, and each town around the lake has its own vibe, right now we are in the cheapest town, San Pedro. Our room costs $3US. Cheap!!! On our way oput of antigua, Sonya twisted her ankle prety bad, something we are working on figuring out right now, although i dont expect it to bother her for more than a week. On top of a bum ankle, our shuttle to the lake had a burro of a driver, who didnt know how to drive a stick, screaching the clutch almost every shift. At one point we had to push the car to get up a steep hill, and these old tourists abandoned the shuttle for a taxi!! But we eventually made it to Panajachel, then took a boat to the lovelky San Pedro where most of the foot travel is down a foot path, barely big enough for the motorbikes that you have to dive out of the way to not get hit by.
!!Viva Guatemala!!

back on budget

So since Ive last updated, weve come back into Guatemala, but not before spending a few more days on the Caribean, partially celebrating Sonya´s birthday. On our way from San Ignacio, to Hopkins, on the bus, we had to get off in these crossroads that had a feel of middle America rural are with a tropical feel, maybe somewhere in Georgia or Florida... there were thousands of orange trees. We hitchhiked into Hopkins and found it to be a quaint little beACH town. We stayed in this hotel crossed with a drumming center, where at night many people came and tranced us to sleep with their intricateGarifuna drumming.
After a night in Hopkins, we headed for Placencia where we rented a gorgeousbeach front cabin, splurging a little for sonya´s birthday. We found the town very relaxing, a nice beach to swim on, but there were many tourists, the kind that have Placencia as their only destination, a few resorts lingered on each end of the beach. We hopped around town to a few bars on sonyas b day and hung out with some locals when they all closed (her b day was on a tuesday golly gee).
A few nights later, we woke up to head on the bus for punta gorda, where we would then boat back to Livingston GuatemaLa, en route to discover more of the country. We stayed in a new, cheap, and not that nice hotel, named Hotel Viajeros, and just hung around, planning our trip to Rio Dulce where we are now. When we arrived, a boat took us to our hotel, which is not accesible by road, off a lagoon in the jungle. Everyday they can shuttle you into town, where we are now. Rio Dulce is right on the highway and today (probably everyday) it has a huge market going on. Coming from Belize, not to mention the jungle, the high paced atmosphere with heavy traffic and no sidewalks is a bit of a culture shock. It is alot like urban mexican markets, but somehow multiplied in comotion and everywhere. Soon we will be in Antigua (we wont want to linger there) and then Atitlan, hopefully for MY birthday.
Its my birthday!!!
it is a huge relief to be in guatemala where we can afford everything, Belize was impossible to budget in, and we regret lingering so long.

Sweatiing, splunking, and hunting

Sonya and I just got out of the jungle today, and we ar e glad to be out... not that we didnt love the atmosphere of huge leaved trees and orange groves... it was mainly the place we were volunteering at... so let me file my complaints first off...
First of all, the people that we were volunteering for at Barton Creek Outpost were very American and americanized the jungle. They were very keen on making lots of money to support "THEIR LIFESTYLE".... which includes, running 2 gallons of gas everyday to power a freezer and ru the washingmashine constantly. If they had their 3 kids wash their own clothes, then they wouldnt have so many damn clothes (which we were forcred to fold for them, totallying a time of about 2 hours... gross). Not only did they not have a very sustainable farm, but they didnt even buy food sustainably, buying imports and from grocery stores. Their 2 year old was on disposable diapers, creating more waste in the nearby makeshift landfill!!! On top of that they were barely there "to take care of their business" and didnt have much respect or appreciation for their volunteers, keeping a stricktly business attitude to their relationships. For opur first week, there was no days off and working from morning to dark (against wwoof rules if they dont pay you) until they organized a schedule. But all complaints aside I had fun picking oranges, cutting jungle trails, planting palm trees to sell at the market and harvesting bromilliads and orchids.
On one night, we were walkiing to the village to play soccer, and it takes about an hour through the jungle trail. (village name is El Progreso 7 miles) On our way back it was dark and we decided to go down a private road owned by this grumpy Canadian guy named Mike who is not to fond of other people... he is summed up, an Ogre. So when we saw him pass, before we were on his property, we thought we could make it before he came back... not! As advised by the locals and the ranger, Dennis (our friend) they said we would hide if we heard his truck... and when the alert from someone said "VEHICLE!!!" came we went reunning and hid in the bushes...
now to understand this guy mike, he claims ownership to everything, takes other, competing business's signs out of the ground, and shouts gunfire into the air when anyone unfamiliar gets near his property. Sov imagine if he found us when we WERE hiding, versus us just innoocently walking down his road... obviously knowing we were on his property....we survived but had to cut into a jungle trail when he circled back around....end of story.. but weird jungle drama.... this guy has famous resort connections with the cCopolas and his children are allowed to play with the other children at the outpost but the adults dont see eachother.. he on ce had Van Morrison at his house listening top and playing to the youngins...brown eyed girl.. WOW!!
we did get to go into the cave with our friend, and very good guide, the ranger DENNIS. He took us in at night for four hours, taking us longer and further into the cave than anyone else ever would. We got to get out of our canoes and hiked to the waterfall, which normal tours arent allowed to, and we saw many Mayan pots (all brokem after ceremonies) and skulls and bones!!! also many beautiful rock formations aging 100000 years plus.

Another fun anectdote, and Ill make it the last since I am gettin tired. One day the dogs were chasing something and made it jump in to the water, whjen we went to see what was going on it looked like there wasa monster from a japanes horror movie in the water swimming, about 6 or 5 feet long.. when we figured out what it was, a male Iguana, aka a Garobo, I asked Edwin, the resident Mexican, if we could eat it. Of course we could so we started shooting slingshots at it, but when the accuracy failed with the wet rubber, we went for the canoe and machete.... i was paddling while Edwin was striking it with the Machete and eventually went under with a dive mask to finish the kill and collect the fruits of our labor. Pictures can be seen on sonyas blog of this beautiful creature, orange aand black striped. A few hours later we were eatin Bamboo chicken (or rooster i guess) as they call it. Below i will post instructions on how to prepare it.\


HOW TO KILL, PREPARE, AND COOK IGUANA OR GAROBO (male iguana)

1. The Kill: Machete, Slingshot, or Shotgun, strike to the head is the best.

2.Take off the Iguana's head, then put on an open fire of dried coconuts until the skin startys to pop and peel.

3. Carefully peel offall the skin, andsnap off the feet, and maybe cut off the tail for easier carrying, but save it because it is tasty.

4.After skin is gone, make a rough incision from chest to groin are, and empty out the guts. The liver and heart can be delicous morsels saved for eating alone or in a stew. Give the gallbladder to the dogs to enrich their hunting instincts.

5. In the two back legs and the base of the tail there is a white, meat-looking flesh called the scent, or the musk, which you dont want to eat. Remove this.

6. Clean and scrun Iguana in soap and water, rinse well.

7. Chop meat into pieces and soak in lim juice for 45min to 90 minutes. Throe onion, garlic, salt, or anything else tastey to marinate.

8. Cook with a good chicken recipe, preferably spicy or with red ricotta powder for color. Fry or bake for 2- 4 hours, occasionaly adding water and basting.


And no joke, this is some of the best meat Ive tasted, tender if cooked right, with no fat, pure muscle, it tastes very much like shicken.

Carribbean sea no more

Livingston was a quasint town with a very distinguished vibe, mainly consisting of Garifuna people and indegenous Mayans. it still feels like an island and traces its roots to Afric-Caribes. one day we set out on a 2 hour walk down the beach to 7 altares, a set of peaceful waterfalls that flow in to the ocean from the jungle. When we finished hiking around, we sat for some delicious caribbean/creole style vegetables with fry jacvks (a fried dough, replacing tortillas in belize) and tryed some of the homemade Guifiti. We tried some other guifiti in town, hearing that it was an herb infuse rum, containing (from what we could tell) anise, cinammon, and many other jungle herbs, with medicinal properties, such a better imune system and it takes away stomach pains. After talking to a local for a while, he told me that all the big families have a vat of it in their house, and all the children have about a shot per day.
Now we are in belize once again, San Ignacio (after an 8 hour treck to the western most populated area0 where we are staying for a couple of nights before we journey into the jungle, near the creak, neighboring menonite communities (they look amish but i think it is different). We will be out of service from fone or email, so if you wanna get through, call sonyas phone tonight (with the whole *67 thing first).... Im not reall sure what the work entails but its a tropical phlower pharm that gives cave tours and eco tourism stuff so we will probably be in the field, cooking or cleaning, but regardless, im excited to do something new, cheap, and from what all our sources have said, enriching.
hasta quien sabe!!!

Crossing borders

So since I last got on here, we´ve done quite a bit, seen many different places, pretty quickly, and crossed a couple of borders. While we were still on Lago Peten in Flores, we went to Tikal, the super site of the mayan world. It was so big, and the temples were so spread out we had so much fun just hiking in the jungle, on much clearer, less jungly paths than palenque. We saw a Pizote, a racoon monkey type creature that sort of resembles an opossum. We got there around 6 in the morening because that is when you can witness most of the wildlife. We saw a ton of wild spider monkeys, oscellated (almost irradescent) turkeys, many parrots, but our search for the colorful toucan failed, even with our tips of where to find them. Tikal was sooo expensive, though, they wanted twenty dollars enterance (which we could have said screw it to and just walked past the unmaned ticket control booth!!! So 40 bucks to enter for us two and their guide services were one of the most expensive I have ever seen. But none the less we spent about 8 hours there and then took off back for Flores, tired and satidfied from our maybe 8 mile walk around the magnificent super city of the mayans.
On our next day in Flores we took a little boat tour to a couple of sites around the lake. The first was this zoo type reserve where they had all the animals and birds that were from the jungle region that we were in. They had all sorts of birds, jungle pigs, reptiles, a whole lot of spider monkeys especially the cute babies, and a bunch of jungle cats, incluiding the well respected and worshiped jaguar that could rip your head of in a second!!! if it wanted to.

So after a very relaxing lakeside stay in flores, we trecked on a tour to Belize City, from where we would take a water taxi to Caye Ambergris to meet my mom for a little more than a week. There was another illegal attempt at a border fee, which we firmly denounced, explaining that other immigration officials told us that we didnt have to pay.. I only had 3 quetzales (about 50 cents) on me and we barely had anyfood or water until I got some cash in Belize. So when we arrived to the water taxi 15 minutes before departure, I had to run through hastling pan-handlers to the nearest cash machine. The second we arrived in Belize everyone was really friendly and really lively, speaking their really Caribbean accents which are hard to get used to, but you eventually catch on and comprehend most things. It is the spanish that i cant understand, and then when they start speaking Creole, its out the window, not to mention the Mayan, and Garifuna languages they throw in there to. Where we stayed on the island was secluded from town, and even though we were in Belize, it could have been anywhere on the earth (besides the giant barrier reef that was a quarter mile away.) But when we went into town we had to stay for 5 hours because of the boat service to our hotel, we got a good feel for Belizian culture and the people. The general greeting if you see someone on the street is Arright??, and you usually get a Caribbean toned ¨Ya Man.¨ While we were there we rented golfcarts to get around and transport groceries, which was always provided entertainment. Because its an island everything is very expensive; food, water, tours, especially fresh food are the most expensive commodities. While we were on our vacation from our vacation, we hung out in our room alot because it was almost a terrential down pour for our first half of the stay. It was ok though because we had a large condo rented and it was very comfy, with two bedrooms (which the place upgraded for free). After the sun came out we went on a fishing trip for a half day where we jumped the reef ( a tough task, going out to sea), going to do some deep sea fishing. Sonya caught a couple of nice ocean Triggers, where as all I caught was an ugly pitiful toadfish which wasnt even good enough to keep for bait. Despite the cost (10 times more than a Mexican fishing trip) we enjoyed getting out on the water and just kickin back and fishin for a few hours. The next day we took the sea kayaks out to the reef and all three of us had a lovely sunset kayaking trip on the Azure Caribbean.
On our last day we had to leave early to make it down south to Punta Gorda, a seven hour trip from Belize City. When we got to the bus station in B.C. everyone kept on asking where are you going, what time, and usually uncomfortable with this seemingly unnmotivated kindness, we realized it was exactly that, everyone just extremely happy to help us find our way. On that day when we were travelling, it was Obama´s inaguration so everyone was talking about it and when we pulled up to the statyion in Belmopan, I could here him giving his speech on the radio. Everybody was all Obama crazy in Belize, a huge contrast from the standoffish Mexico.. I even bought a CD in the B.C. bus station with songs all about Obama (there are alot).
So whenwe got on the the bus (James Bus Line) we realized why we couldnt reserve tickets... you just get on and somebody will come take your money eventually. So we get on the exotically painted schoolbus where the only storage is that in the back where they have taken out a couple of seats for room. Despite the lack of luxury on the bus, everyone was seeming to have a great time, relaxing, bullshiting with other passengers and what not. After the long bus ride we arrived in Punta Gorda, a town that has deep roots in the Garifuna culture, whom are descendants of shipwrecked slaves mixed with other indegenous races. The place is so relaxed that they just call it P.G. and its so small that you can walk around it in about a half an hour. Our first night being in the real Belize, we went for some traditional belizian food, which is always cheap, and for me, stew chicken with rice and beans is ALWAYS delicious. As soon as we got out of the north, we realized that the island was very expensive, yet still cheaper that the states, and the rest of the coutry could offer financial relief.
After one night in Punta Gorda (which I would like to return to) we took off on boat for Livingston, Guatemala, where we are now. The immigration office in PG was so relaxed, it was a wooden shack, where everyone gave times that all varied: such as how long you need to leave the country until you can come back (officially 72 hours but when we inquired, most seemed absent of any knowledge on this time frame). That was the reason for coming to Guatemala, to renew our free 30 day visa when we come back to Belize, which is our plan: volunteering near Barton Creek, and then celebrating Sonyas birthday somewhere on the Caribbean (maybe back north Caye Caulker). Here in Livingston it is only accesible by boat and right on the Caribbean, it is a purely Garifuna town, where telephone poles are painted in the famous red, yellow, green, rasta stripes. Back in Guatemala, things are as cheap as they should be, but the Belizian vibes of the coast are still here. Dating back to the Mayans, Belizians have always wanted to keep a distinct culture away from the north, the Mayans digging a channel (that widend over many hurricane seasons and storms) to seperate its land from the Yucatan peninsula, creating a truly and physically seperated land. And it shows... Belizians are different that any other people, speaking with Caribbean accents but using english (britain) terms like when I got this guys phone number in PG hey described it as ¨six-hundred, eight-TRee, ot four¨... distinct. So we are still on the Caribbean, 2 weeks straight now, but we will trek across Belize again soon, on Saturday ( you can span the country the long way in about a day!!!)

La Ruta Maya

The day after our jungle adventure at the ruins, we returned to go look for the Templo Olvidado (the forgotten temple), which we found but with help from a guide.... its a beautiful, excavated temple about 2km into the jungle, and on our way we saw other, unexcavated temples, more howler monkeys, tehons, and many birds. We explored the parts we left out the previous day, and returned for a relaxing evening before our departure into Guatemala.
We woke up at 5am yesterday for our 10 hour trip to Flores, an island on Lake Peten near the Mayan Capitol of Tikal. In our research on our trip, we read that there were no fees for entering or exiting Guatemala, but also read that either the tour guide or the imigration officials tried to rip you off anyways. Its only 5 dollars but to us, we thought about the principal and wanting to be educated travcelers, we were not going to give in, practicing the night before how we would fight for our free entry.
As the bus full of travelers hopped off the bus (we didnt mention this free entry thing to anyone else, but some knew about it) we were first in line to get our passports stamped, and being friendly at first with the immigration officials, asking them how they were, hopefully enjoying their day.. blah blah blah. Then they asked us for the 50 pesos or 5 dollars, or 40 quetzales for entrance into the country. And in response i said ´´no soy un mamon, gue!´´( I ain´t no sucker, man) and he said everyone has to pay it, so then I asked if he would give us a reciept ( as others instructed would work to not have to pay) but then he still suggested yes, i will give you one. So my finasl attempt to not have to pay this illegal fee was suggesting that to enter guatemala was free, and the second that I said I had spoken with my embassy, they started to be on our side. (this is what you should do if any cop tries to get a bribe from you, especially at checkpoints with illegal fees and what not.. but it is very difficult to report them, you need their name, badge number, and vehicle number.. without that you are screwed.) They quieted in their tone and told us to come back at the end of the line, and as long as we didnt tell anyone else, then they would give us our passports back (which were already stamped and ready to go before we started discussing the fee)... we had read stories about this situation of somebody arguing about it, still paying, and not getting their passport stamped, and having trouble leaving the country. We are all legit, free entrance into guatemala (as it should be), and still friends with the imigration folks!! haha. Everyone else paid, and even after we left, we didnt want to construe any jealousy, so we just kept it to ourself. Everyone else paid the illegal fee (even the ones who knew it was illegal, because their spanish wasnt good enough to reason with them), and the officials went home with fat pockets.
On our trip, talking to the tour guide, who spoke english with an awesome accent, he told us that 3 years ago he worked for Survivor (the original reality show) as a translator when they came to other Guatemalan ruins.
So with our strategized seat placement on the bus (closest to the door) we were the first ones in line at the ATM, which ran out of money before our busload raped it of its cash... and the first ones to this economic hotel, getting the nicest room with a view for a budget price (about 12.50 USD a night). Needless to say, we felt pretty confident in ourselves as travelers and gave our selves props (in private).
Last night, after getting here we just relaxed, adjusted and had a good nights rest. And today we took a kayak out on the lake, circling a different, smaller island, and got a decent upper body workout in the process. I just had a delicous lunch, and this afternoon we will anti-mosquito a bunch of our stuff. Tomorrow or the next day will be set aside for the ruins at Tikal, then its off to Belize. I am already loving Guatemala.. the people are in no rush to get anything done, very nice, and the difference in food is slight but impressive... almost every plate, they will bring you fried bananas on the side, and tamales are wrapped in banana leaf rather than corn husk, not to mention some new slang words and a slightly different accent than mexico. We will surely return to this country, probably doing a lake tour checking out the big one near the carribean coast, and of course down south to Lago Atitlan. Traveling is great fun, get on the bandwagon.

in the jungle the mighty jungle, the MAYANS sleep tonight

So new years was fun, lots of fireworks, sparkelers, good food, good bands, etc. Got home really late.. blahblah.. the usual celebration. On the first, I sent myself, in San Francisco, a big fat orange juicer to make our own delicious juice at home!!!! Then on the second (yesterday) we arrived in Palenque, where we have a pretty run down room rented but it works.
Today we went to the ruins about a half hour walk from where we are staying (although we hitchhiked up the road). These are the best ruins we have ever seen. With only 3% excavated of the entire site, there are still over 20 pirimades or structures. It is huge, surronded by thousands of hectaacres of jungle. Sonya and I decided that we were just gonna explore this trail that went into the jungle, right after this tomb on the trail. We ran into very few people on the trail, but a couple of texans joined us, and right after I was explaining the deadly conbras that you need to watch out for, we saw one, a HUGE one.
It was at least 8 feet long and as thick as my leg, and Im sure very venimoso. After that we were terrified, even though we claimed we WANTED to see the snake, keeping our eyes peeled in every direction. (apparently they are very agressive and will attack without provocation.) Then only a couple of minutes later we saw a ton of Howler Monkeys in the trees, whcich we could here, far off, our entire hike. Keeping in mind the snake, we took turns looking up at the monkeysd, while the other person kept the walking sticks, guarding from poisonous snakes. The monkeys can be heard from miles away and liteally sound like a jungle cat, mostly like a LION though. On monday we will probably head for Guatemala, in route for Belize. The only other ruins that equal Palenque great vastness are TIKAL, near the lake of Peten Itza. And then we are to meet mom in BELIZE!!!!!! so excited for the future, and apparently, the present holds a bit of excitement, too. At least life threatening excitement, hehe.