Guatamala -- Lago de Atitlan

After a super scenic ride through the mountains (and a stop at a real dusty frontier border town), we finally arrived in Panajachel, Guatemala. Pana is on Lago de Atitlan, a lake surrounded by three giant volcanoes -- we hope they´re not active. The locals call it ¨gringotenango¨, or place of the foreigners, mostly for the hippies that came here on vacation and just decided to stay. We also visited San Pedro la Laguna and Santiago Atitlan, both smaller towns on the lake shore (in fact, stayed in the nicest hotel in San Pedro for a whopping $25 per night -- great place, run by a couple of spanish guys that traveled to central america 8 or 9 years ago and, well, just decided to stay -- seems to be the thing here). Even though Guatamala is the second poorest nation in the western hemisphere, given the friendliness of the locals and the amazing scenery, it´s easy to see why ít is such a popular travel destination.

JeeHeon posing in front of the local transportation:

Mexico - Nice Surprise in San Cristobal

So, JeeHeon and I are walking back from Spanish class in San Cristobal, when we notice that about half the town has packed the main square at about 3 in the afternoon. We figure it´s probably a fiesta or something, but even better, it turns out the Miss Universe ladies decided to pass through town on their way to Mexico City. Needless to say, the crowd (well, at least the guys) went wild. We must have over 25 photos of this, which I think probably goes in the ¨bonus items¨ category. Woooohoooooo.

Mexico - Around San Cristobal

San Juan Chamula:

From San Cristobal, we took a ´collectivo´mini van to the Mayan town of San Juan Chamula. Collectivo vans wait around to be filled up (and I mean filled up, with children on adults´ laps and even saw a live chicken in the back with the luggage) and take passengers to other towns. It´s an interesting way to get around if going a short distance. I had tons of fun embarrassing the little kids by winking at them every time they turned around to take a look at the ´Japonese´.

This was the return collectivo ride. It wasn´t as full as the way there:

Sunday is the market day at Chamula. I wasn´t so impressed with the market (looked much like the market in San Cristobal), but inside the church was amazing! The Mayans in Chamula practice a mix of Christianity and Mayan religion. There were no seats in the church, but rather, the floor was covered with pine needles, with flowers all along the sides, about a thousand candles burning and incenses. People sat on the floor, lighted about a hundred candles, gave offerings of Coca-Cola and live chicken and prayed. It was unexpectedly moving.

This is actually a picture of the market and the church in Chumula from a post card. We were told that many Mayans take offense at being photographed (I would too if some random person came up and snapped my picture), some for religious reasons, so we didn´t take any pictures.



The church also had a strictly no photo policy, but the floor looked much like this with the pine needles:

Cañón de El Sumidero:

We took a boat tour of the Sumidero canyon. On a rather gross note, Bill was (and still is) having ´overly-active´indigestion issues and was looking rather green on the 2 hour boat ride. My digestive system, on the other hand, has completely stopped functioning, so Bill and I are jealous of each other.

The canyon:

This is a very bad picture of a monkey on a tree:

We also saw alligators and exotic birds, but of course our camera battery died 10 minuites into the boat ride so we don´t have any pictures. Plus, Bill was in no mood for pictures.

Vacation from vacation: Bill found an X-Box parlor. $1 per hour to play.

Spanish class: We are taking Spanish classes in San Cristobal (2 hours a day for 5 days). This is our Spanish teacher, Marco Antonio. We think he is a romantic, because we have learned words like ´soul´, ´suffering´, ´existence´ and ´earth´ in Spanish.

Mexico - San Cristobal de la Casas

Six hours of bus ride on a curvy mountain road in the rain, we finally arrived in San Cristobal de la Casas. We got off the bus and realized that the weather here is CHILLY! Yay! No more opressive heat! I almost kissed the ground.

San Cristobal is a charming colonial town in the mountains. A lot of backpackers visit here, as evidenced by the vegetarian restaurants and yoga classes. We actually went to a Thai restaurant - expensive and terrible food. Serves me right for going to a Thai place in the mountains of Mexico, but I couldn´t resist the temptation of Asian food.

It´s not a pot belly, it´s the money belt:

A lot of cowboy hats in this town:

This is the Thai restaurant:
Dangerous combination:

This town also attracts many people from nearby Mayan villages setting up market and selling crafts. The Mayan village women wear the traditional dresses and men wear cowboy hats. It is a funny sight to see an expresso cafe next to a Mayan village lady holding a live chicken. There are also a few cute children with Bambi eyes selling stuff. I think we will have about 10 braclets by the time we leave here.

Zapatistas: In 1994, the Zapatistas, a left-wing peasant group fighting for indegenous rights, briefly took over this town. There is still some of their presence in this Chiapas region of Mexico, but like anything else, it has been commercialized, with Zapatistas T'shirts and dolls sold in the markets.

Bathroom in the closet: Our $22 per night hotel is a great deal - clean, includes breakfast and 24 hour hot water. However, it does have this funky bathroom in a makeshift closet.

Mexico - Palenque

We took a 6-hour bus ride from Campeche to Palenque. Mexican bus system is great! Their first class buses have computerized seat assignments, a/c and play movies. It has been really easy to get around in Mexico.

Palenque is famous for its Mayan ruins set in a tropical forest. According to Rough Guide, it was "founded around 100 BC as a farming village, its peak came during the seventh century.¨


That´s Bill at the very top:
Vacation from vacation: This was in Campeche. It has been incredibly hot and humid here. Even if I am sitting in the shade, sweat drips down and it feels like I am sitting in a sauna. We walked by this hotel and decided to ask if we could use their pool. We ended up spending a whole afternoon there for ordering $10 worth of food! Their marble, air-conditioned bathroom was nicer than our room at the hostel. $10 well spent.

Mexico - Vallodolid, The gran carrida (well almost)

Well, I was hoping that for my first entry on our blog I would be able to tell you about a crazy Mexican bullfight, and, for a brief moment, I thought that might be the case. After deciphering the signs around town and finding a cab to take me out of town to the plaza de los torros (bulls) la victoria for a reasonable price, I was amazed to find myself the only gringo at the arena, which, for those of you in the know, is something akin to the Cheney Rodeo Grounds - a real rural venue for the local show. I´m talking guys riding in on horseback, loads of shitkickers and cowboy hats and plenty of cerveza to go around. Had she gone out thre with me (and lucky for her she didn´t), even JeeHeon may have found it a little interesting. Then, out of knowwhere, the skies opened up and let loose with a torrential afternoon rainstorm, and not the kind that let´s up after a few minutes - it just kept raining and raining and raining. So, instead of watching the skillful and brave matadors of Mexico, I got to stand around under the beer tent for a couple hours with everybody else trying not to get soaked, except unlike everybody else, I didn´t really have much appetite to drink as I´m wondering how in the hell I´m going to get back to town with not a cab in sight. On a good note, at least a few local guys brought their instruments and entertained the crowd during the storm. Finally, I decided I better hoof it back or I´d be stuck in rural mexico in the dark and pouring rain. Took me just over an hour to make my way back to our hotel on foot. Hopefully I´ll have a bit better luck next time.

On a good note, JeeHeon and I did manage to have a good time in Valladolid (in the central Yucatan). We visited the famous mayan ruins at Chichen Itza and a local cenote (pools of water formed by underground springs that provide the soul source of water for the Yucatan state). Some pictures are below, including some eerie carvings of what appear to be grinning human skulls (think human sacrafice).

Mexico - Campeche

Campeche is a pretty city with colorful ´colonial´buildings and narrow streets.

This is the center square with a cathedral at dawn. There is a couple making out at the bottom of the picture:

This is the view from the hostel (that´s right, a hostel) balcony at 2:30am. The heat and mosquitos have turned me into an insomniac. Why I have eight moquito bites while Bill has none, I do not know.

This is the same street next morning - it´s May 1 (Labor Day), so there´s May Day parade around the square. Right now there is music and drums in full volume.