Dear Diary, Week Five...

Hola everyone! This week (January 1st to 7th) has been a rather slow one. Only 2 things happened this week that are worth mentioning...


Also I updated our "Where in the World" section. The map should be up to date on all the places we've been in Guatemala so far!


Wednesday January 4th... We have been staying with Luis' Mom's side of the family for the past month. And before we left to come here we arranged to stay one month with one side of the family and one month with the other. So on this day we moved to Luis' Dad's side of the family. I have to say it is very different! We go from a home that is a school and has three families living there, a total of 9 people, to a smaller home (not a school) with 2 people in it! Needless to say a lot of things have changed! We now share a bathroom (yes we were spoiled), we have a smaller room that seems very small because of all our luggage crammed inside it, and it is much quieter! 


Well, except the mornings... Luis's grandfather has a dog and a bird which usually wouldn't be a problem, except that EVERY morning around 7 or 8am we get woken up by that bird. Once this bird starts making noise it doesn't stop and did I mention that it was a parrot? It mimics the sounds it hears. And guess what sound it mimics the most? A car alarm going off. We wake up to the beautiful sound of a parrot mimicking a car alarm every morning. That then sets of the dog and he starts barking, then all the other dogs in the neighborhood join in and we have an orchestra of squawking and barking to usher in the morning. Isn't that how everyone wants to start off their day? 


Saturday January 7th... We went to another set of ruins. These ruins are considered the first town settled by the Spanish. They are called Iximche (icks-eem-cheh). Iximche is near the lake Atitlan, Panajachel (we went there back in December, if you want to read about that trip click here). 


We woke up, to our lovely music of birds and dogs, and headed to that area with Luis's Aunt's cousin.. Her name was Pati and she came with her daughter and her mother. We met up with Luis's cousin David Andre and his wife (the ones that got married a few weeks ago!), and his other cousin Velvet and her two kids. Most of Luis's extended family just get called Aunt or Uncle. They don't really bother with the real titles. I like that, family is family and the title doesn't really matter. If anything it is a sign of the love and respect they have for you. You are called Aunt or Uncle whether you are a cousin or 2nd cousin or 5 times removed! If they like you, you get a title :)...


We stopped at a restaurant to eat breakfast, a place that almost everyone here told us we needed to go to, and it was indeed delicious! We had panqueques (pancakes), huevos con chorizo(eggs with a Guatemalan sausage), frijoles voltiados (refried beans), and papaya and melon. 

The restaurant and vendors.. also the guard in the parking is carrying a shotgun!

After our delicious breakfast we stopped at one of the vendors around the restaurant and Luis bought a typical Guatemalan sweatshirt and I bought a chalina (scarf)! 

Me and Luis in our warm clothes with the kids of Velvet and Pati.

It was cold that day and we needed warm clothes! We were also up higher in the mountains than usual as well. And believe it or not, cold was 50 degrees! And that night it got even colder to 40 degrees. All of Luis's family was wearing scarves and winter coats and gloves! Luis was actually fine the whole time but I was a little cold. I know that New England and Utah are much colder but 4o degrees is still 40 degrees! Especially when you're used to 70 degrees. 


We finally get to the ruins so here comes your history lesson...

Luis did a free hand panoramic and stitched the photos together in Gimp.. Amazing!!! Iximche ruins.

As I mentioned before, Iximche was the first town settled by the Spanish. The conquistador's name who was leading the Spanish was Pedro de Alvarado. It was actually the first capital of the Kingdom Guatemala circa 1524. The Mayan people living in the town at the time called themselves Kaqchikel (Caw-chee-kell). They called it the Walled City, not because it had walls but because the town was surrounded on 3 sides by ravines. Anyone wanting to conquer the city had to climb and the people living in the city could see the would-be enemies very quickly. 

Luis conquered the hill!

I conquered the pyramid! ;)

 Most of the Kaqchikel people died from smallpox before the Spanish ever arrived. The rest of the population of Iximche actually helped the Spanish conquer other Mayan tribes for several years. After too many demands for some kind of tribute for the Spanish,  the Kaqchikel people eventually separated from them and deserted their town. Some spanish deserters later returned to Iximche and burned it down. These ruins do not have the grandeur that Tikal does but they are still beautiful in there own right. Thousands of people used to live in these ruins once and the history there is deep. 

I don't want to be a sacrifice!

The amazing part is that the people who call themselves Mayan today perform rituals there still. Every day you could see an ancient Mayan ritual, sacrificing animals included (usually once a week and only chickens). We missed the one that happened that day but you aren't allowed to take photos during it anyways. There was an area of the ruins that had candles burning and incense left over from the ritual. It was cool (understatement) to know that 2,000 years have past and amidst modern society the Natives have managed to preserve their culture. 

The tree behind us is growing on TOP of a pyramid! Amazing that it can grow on stone...

No subir a las estructuras (Do not climb the structures)... whoops. 

Luis taking a picture of a cow.. The cow wasn't tied up very well and it charged Luis a couple times! The sacrifices he makes to get a good picture :)

We climbed a pyramid! Granted it was very small and took 2 seconds.. but we climbed it!

After walking around the ruins for a couple hours we found ourselves hungry and made our way to our cars and drove to another restaurant. 


I have to put a plug in here to say again how amazing Luis's family is. They STILL do not allow us to pay for ourselves and although we sometimes (ok, every time) feel like we're taking advantage of them, it is again humbling to see their willingness to make us feel so welcome. 


The restaurant was called Tecpen (Teck-paan) something or other. I know you may not care too much about names of places but I love names. I love trying to pronounce them, butchering them, and eventually getting them right. Almost every Spanish name is beautiful and the way it rolls off the tongue of everyone here (except me) is fabulous. We sat down at a table that was right next to a woman making tortillas on a tortillera, basically a big pan with a real fire keeping it warm. More amazing food! 


The temperature was getting down to the 40's at this point and I was freezing! So sad I know but the restaurant has windows that doesn't close. Most houses have patios or certain parts of their homes open to the outside. Guatemalans are not used to cold weather! 


Another great week passes us by in Guatemala. We only have 3 weeks left before Chile! 

Dear Diary, Week Four!

Hey guys! Week four, December 25th to January 1st consisted mostly of our trip to Flores and Tikal.


To read about that trip start here, Day 1. I separated each day into a single post because the post was getting forever long! At the end of each post there is a link to connect you to the next day. We were in Tikal for 3 days! We had so much fun there and learned so much! Be sure to click on the pictures so you can see the bigger version!


December 31st... We had a blast again with Luis's family. We ate a big dinner around 8:00pm then went with Luis's Uncle Alberto to his wife's side of the family. We set off tons of fireworks and watched a 360 panoramic view of huge fireworks all around us! The fireworks went on for about an hour! 

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year and here is to 2012!!!!

Day 1 Tikal/Flores

Hey guys! I know this is the post you have all been waiting for.. ok I don't really know that but Luis and I were so excited to finally make it to Tikal! Tikal (Tee-call) is the most concentrated area for Mayan Ruins, also the most famous area. It’s the place that most people want to go to when visiting Guatemala and is also estimated as being the ultimate destination for 2012. Huh, wonder why? ;) 

This was going to be a very very long post so I separated it into the three days we were there. 

We left December 26th at 10:30pm, Luis, me, his Uncle, Aunt, and two cousins. We took a red-eye bus, an all night one, to not waste one day in Tikal. It was a very looooooooooooooong ride. I couldn't really fall asleep and Luis was dying of heat. Luckily we were in the back of the bus and could open a window. I basically read the whole time and Luis alternated from trying to sleep and playing on his iPhone. The roads were apparently better than what they used to be but Luis and I thought the ride was extremely bumpy. One of the things I miss the most from the U.S. is smooth roads! 

Day 1 December 27th...

We arrived in Flores around 7am. Flores (Floor-ace) is a small island in the middle of a lake. 

Not one of our pictures but a great picture of the island we stayed at!

Technically it’s a peninsula since a road connects it to land. We stayed in a hotel in Flores because Tikal is a National Park and there aren’t any hotels near there, its about an hour away from Flores. So when we got to Flores we went to our hotel and took a 2 hour nap. Got up around 9:30 and still had the rest of the day ahead! Even though I thought the bus ride was miserable I would recommend it to all others traveling to Tikal to do the same thing. You save a whole day to be exploring in and around Tikal because there are so many activities to do and you won’t want to miss out on anything! 

Back to waking up around 9:30am. We ate some granola bars for breakfast and then tried to find a ride to some caves. There are these little things called Tuk-tuks (took-took). It is basically a scooter with a seat in the back and a covering over your head. It can fit 2 comfortably or 3 if one of you is small. 

Tuk-Tuk!

 We took 2 of those to Cuevas Actun Kan (Ack-toon Cawn Quevas), caves!! 

Welcome to the Caves at Actun Kan!

The entrance to the caves.

These caves are not like the ones you go to in the U.S. The ones all lit up with a guide to take you through and stairs everywhere? So not like that here! It was pitch black and once you paid to go in they send you off with a “Ten Cuidado por favor,” please be careful. There was no guide and no electricity in the caves, good thing we all came prepared with flashlights. Luis actually took out his good flash (from his camera) and would use that occasionally because it lit up the whole cavern. These caves were huge! We walked around in the caves for probably two hours, almost getting lost. We saw tons of bats! Luis got some amazing pictures of bats staring right at us hissing because of the bright lights. 

They're staring right at you!

We found Batman! In a cave, in Guatemala... and really tiny ;)

There were a couple steps when you first walked into the cave but other than that you were at the mercy of the uneven floor, we slipped quite often but never fell. It was very cool to feel like real spelunkers! The deeper we went the warmer it got, all of us, including Luis’s family, were drenched with sweat by the time we were done! 

Hi! 

Look at all the cool handprints. We don't really know what or when they're from.

After the caves we got back into some Tuk-Tuks and headed back to our hotel. We stopped at a plaza and ate lunch at Pollo Campero (Poyo Com-perrrrro). So delicious! It is a fast food chain but the best fast food I have ever had. It’s mainly a chicken restaurant, like KFC but seriously much better. There are a few in the U.S. but apparently some ingredients aren’t allowed to be used in the U.S. restaurants so you don’t get the full delicious flavor. 

Hanging out after eating lunch and traversing the caves! Me and Clarissa.

Once done with lunch we went back to our hotel and swam in the small pool. 

The pool of our hotel. I spy with my little eye..... MAX!

While in the pool we had our first encounter with a huge cucaracha (cockroach), the thing was the size of a role of quarters! Did you know they can swim, and underwater? And that they apparently enjoy it!? It swam after us when we were trying to get away from it!! We all jump out of the pool except for Luis, the brave one. He grabbed one of those floaty noodles and tried to pick it up and fling it out of the pool. After about 8 tries he finally did it. Everyone was yelling at him to kill it, including two other random kids in the pool, “Matalo, matalo!” (kill it, kill it!). One of the kids even begged him to use his own shoe to kill the cockroach even though it was finally out of the pool. Luis slammed the shoe on the cockroach at least 10 times before the thing succumbed to death. Gross!

The size of our cockroach!

After the pool, we all showered and decided to walk around Flores. There were several restaurants for us to pick from and ended up choosing a restaurant that wasn’t actually very good. Also we sat near a Christmas tree that played “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” over and over and over and over and over again. I had that song stuck in my head for the next week! And Luis’s eleven year old cousin would tease me and starting humming the song just when I would start to get it out of my head! We would tease each other back and forth, he didn’t like cockroaches so I would pretend there was a cockroach right by his foot. After dinner we all went to bed early to get ready for Tikal the next day!

Did I mention yet how warm it was? Where we are staying in Guatemala City the elevation is about 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level. So even though its a tropical country the weather has been a steady 60 to 70 degrees. Tikal/Flores is at sea level and entirely a rainforest. The temperature was usually around 80 degrees. Even though Guatemala doesn’t get snow, it is there winter season so here’s another travel tip... if you plan on coming to Guatemala and visiting Tikal, do it in the winter months. There are hardly any bugs or mosquitoes to bother you, Luis and I did not get bit by one mosquito and we were outside almost the whole entire trip! It was pure heaven to enjoy warm weather and not be bothered by bugs!

To read about Day 2 click here!

Day 2 in Tikal/Flores

Day 2, December 28th....

We had arranged the previous day for a driver to take us to Tikal, wait for us, and drive us back to our hotel again. Guess how much it cost? 350 Quetzales (Ket-sal-es)! Do the math, 8 quetzales is equal to 1 U.S. dollar... An hour drive and waiting however long it would take us to see the pyramids (which took 5 hours) and driving us the hour back, all 6 of us, cost $30 American dollars. Where in the U.S. could you find something like that?! 7 hours of service! It still amazes me at how cheap things are here.

Ok, back to Tikal. On our drive in we saw caution signs for different animals; turkeys, snakes, possums, and... jaguars!! A sign saying caution jaguar crossing. Can you believe it? Of course we didn’t see any jaguars, they tend to be night creatures and stay far away from humans. 

It's blurry because we grabbed the camera as quick as we could and took the picture inside the car. But you can clearly see the Jaguar sign!

Once we arrived at the entrance to the National Park I wasn’t allowed to speak English so we could get a native rate to enter the park. Not that I thought it would work, they only needed to take one look at me and know I’m not from here. Pale skin and red hair are dead giveaways! We also picked up a guide to walk with us through the park. Another travel tip? Get a guide! They know the park, where to walk and where not to, they know the stories, the names, and history so well. We learned so much about the place! It will always be worth the money for a guide, we got to see the place to its fullest, never getting lost, and always being told the amazing stories of the Mayan culture. 

At the entrance there is a small scale model of what Tikal would have looked like back when they were first built. When the Mayans built these temples they completely deforested the area. There were no trees after the Mayans finished their temples! To make one metric block of stone for the pyramids it took 20,000 trees! 600 square kilometers of forest completely gone. The size of most of Massachusetts I think. So the small scale model is almost exactly what Tikal would have looked like, all stone and no forest. 

Max made it to Tikal! The small replica of what Tikal would look like.

A bird in the midst of green.

We saw a few animals; toucan, spider monkeys, some other birds, red fire ants (I got bit by one), a huge termite mound, and 2 pizotes (pee-so-teh). They are kind of a cross between an anteater and a raccoon. One of the pizotes was furious at the other one and hissed and yelled at it when it got too close. 

Spider Monkey!

A Toucan!

The termite mound

The termites!

Red fire ants carrying leaves.

Another bird that looks similar to a Toucan.

Pizotes fighting!

One of the half uncovered pyramids.

It was amazing to walk around the Mayan ruins and temples. The feel of history was strong and the amazement you felt at such an old society building such magnificent structures hits you over and over. The sad part is that only 30% of the temples in Tikal are uncovered. They estimate that 70% still lies beneath the ground and trees! That doesn’t even count all the rest of Guatemala and how much is still uncovered. And you can believe it too when you walk by large mounds/hills that don’t really match the rest of the terrain. Our guide would point to those mounds and say there is another temple or pyramid, completely buried so you can’t see any of it. They don’t have the funding to uncover the rest. All the money that the park makes from the entrance fee is taken by the Sports and Culture Municipality. They don’t leave any for the restoration of Tikal which is so sad because Tikal is one of the most amazing historical places. The most famous pyramid that you see pictures of all the time is the Jaguar Temple. The picture we have of it you can see that one side is restored and the other isn’t. The scaffolding is still there from 20 years ago when they started to restore it and lost the funding. 

The largest pyramid in Tikal is actually almost completely covered, 70 meters or 230 feet tall. They only uncovered the very top and then built rickety wooden stairs, 190 of them, so you can climb to the top of the pyramid. That one is called the Two Headed Serpent Pyramid. Standing on top of it we could see 4 other temples/pyramids and endless rainforest. The view was gorgeous! On our way down the stairs it started to rain, typical for a rainforest, but it made the stairs so slippery! We made our way down and waited in a little pavilion with a straw-like roof for the worst of the rain to stop. As it didn’t seem to be slowing down our guide suggested we keep on walking. And for the rest of the day my clothes and hair stayed completely soaked because it rained on and off. It was also so humid there was no chance our clothes would get dry! 

We continued walking and climbed another pyramid (much smaller) only about 80 steps. I can’t remember how tall it actually was. The pyramid and the following structures in this section were called El Mundo Perdido (The Lost World). Some people living during this time started to build tunnels underneath the temples and painted the walls with pictures of naked men and women and would do “Unspeakable” things in the tunnels. Those people became so wicked that the others who weren’t, left and started calling it the world that was lost to them because of the wickedness of those people. That section also consisted of 3 temples and 2 pyramid structures dedicated to the solar equinoxes and solstices. This was another amazing example of Mayan ingenuity and knowledge. During the two equinoxes and solstices the sun rays travel directly above one of the temples and intersect the pyramid (which was over 1,000 feet away) perfectly in the center, to the millimeter. They used it to tell them which season they were in. After 2,000 years it is still completely accurate. The Prudential Building in Boston sinks an inch every year. So much for evolution! I’m thinking we went backwards, especially after seeing such precise structures still standing. 

The Solstice and Equinox Structures...

After seeing the Lost World we made our way to our first completely uncovered Pyramid. It was called Temple 5 (no Mayan name) but was dedicated to the God of Rain. This thing was massive! 

We are so small!

We weren’t allowed to climb it because it was too dangerous. The steps were too crumbly and old. Here’s another cool fact, almost every temple we saw had at least 3 our more layers underneath it. Most often, when the old King died and the Temples were passed to the new King, the new King would build on top of the old Pyramid. Sometimes they didn’t like it, wanted it bigger, or just change the structure entirely. One temple actually had 13 other layers underneath it! In some temples you could actually see the layers underneath. One we climbed had 3 sets of stairs visible! Also the most inner layers still had some paint on it. The temples and pyramids were usually painted white or red. Amazing! 

W finally made our way to the main Plaza. That’s where the famous Jaguar Temple is and the Temple of the Masks. It's the one that you see pictures of all the time. The picture we have of it you can see that one side is restored and the other isn’t. The scaffolding is still there from 20 years ago when they started to restore it and lost the funding.  

King of the time built the Temple of the Masks to honor his wife and built the Jaguar Temple for himself. It is amazing to know that these temples were built in a matter of months, and not the decades it would take us to build them now! The main plaza is surrounded by different structures. Some of them homes, offices, government buildings, a typical city! The floor between the pyramids was covered in grass but back in the Mayan time it was stone. If they were to dig down they would still find that stone floor, 3 layers of stone. Each stone floor 30 centimeters thick. The kings would not only redo the pyramids but the floor as well! 

Luis climbing down the narrow, wooden, slippery stairs of the Temple of Masks.

On the left is the Temple of Masks, in the middle are some houses and other stuff, and on the right is the Jaguar Temple. 

The Jaguar is actually a very revered and worshipped animal to the Mayan culture. And the Jaguar Temple once had a huge sculpted jaguar head on top of it. It was a wooden plaque that was taken from Guatemala to Switzerland of all places! So sad that such an amazing structure is no longer on top of the Jaguar Temple, where it should be. We walked around that area and were just struck with massive size of Tikal and the pyramids. I kept on wishing I could have seen this place when it was first built. It is beautiful today, I can’t imagine what it would have looked like! Well, probably not as nice since all the trees would be gone but still so amazing! 

Can you believe it! We're sitting on the step of the Jaguar Temple!

Luis, becoming very proud of his heritage.

We reluctantly made our way back to our driver and drove back to our hotel. We stopped at Pizza Hut on the way and enjoyed some good ol’ fashioned American Food :). Thus ended our foray into the Mayan world.


To read about Day 3 click here!

Day 3 in Tikal/Flores

Day 3, December 29th...

Today was the extra-curricular day! We did two things I’ve always wanted to do in a rainforest. A Skyline walk and a Canopy Zip-line! We went to a place called Ixpanpajul (Eesh-pawn-pa-hool) to do all that cool stuff.  It was another place where when paying I wasn’t allowed to speak English and did my best to fake I knew Spanish. I stuck to the phrases I know like “Donde esta el bano” (where is the bathroom), “Me gusta helado” (I like icecream), “Quiero agua”, (I want water), etc. 

Our Skyline walk was 2 and a half miles of up and up and bridges and up and up! Luis and I were pretty tired by midpoint. How convenient that the lookout point had hammocks!! We hung around there for about 20 minutes enjoying the sounds and sights of Guatemalan rainforest. There was this loud roaring that we thought sounded like a large cat but it was only a parrot! A macaw parrot we were told. Also we looked one way and we saw the Island Flores and where we were staying and to the other side we saw where Tikal and the pyramids were. It was amazing to be able to see so far. Guatemala City and the.area around there is surrounded by mountains. And while gorgeous you can’t see very far. Flores and the area around there is completely flat so you can see for miles if you are up high enough! On one of the bridges we saw two monkeys, another toucan, and more birds. Such a gorgeous trip.

The hammock at the lookout point half-way!

The monkey we saw while on the bridges.. Can you see his face?

The view from the bridges, gorgeous!

Us in our harness get-up before we do the zip line!

After the walk we then did the zip line! It was 8 platforms and we had to climb two of them. So much fun! We didn’t see any animals but we were all making too much noise for that :).. The bus ride to the first platform was almost as exciting as the zip line itself! The bus had to literally drive straight up, almost 90 degrees, a road with only 2 tracks of cement. We thought we were getting a free roller coaster ride! After the zip lining we were debating to go on a horse back ride but it was a boring trail, it didn’t even go into the rainforest! It was also getting very late and we had to either call for a ride or walk to a bus stop. We ended up walking to the bus stop since our driver from the previous day wasn’t answering. We waited at the bus stop ad it was getting dark so Luis’s Uncle decided to start walking. We walked, as it got dark, in Flores, along the highway... those words don’t do it justice but needless to say it was a scary experience and I was utterly relieved when a bus stopped for us and let us on. Never do what we did!! Nothing happened but it still wasn’t the safest thing to be doing. We went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and made our way to the bus station for the looooooooooooooong journey home.