Kalle goes Central America - Part 2. Guatemala

We begin our second chapter with a long and bouncy busride all the way to the border of Guatemala and ahead. I was heading to Tikal, the greatest Mayan ruins open for big audience.



I met two other travellers during my our trip who were also going to Tikal. On the way we had this idea to sleep on top of the Mayan ruins in the national park which we read from our precious LP. This time, however, the book was totally wrong and the only chance to sleep in the ruins were in overpriced huts (~20 euros/person) with guards. Boring. The others decided to stay there for the night, but I decided to head back to El Remate, a really small village 30 minutes away from the ruins and slept the night (for approximately 5 euros).

Alarm clock went off at 5:15am. It was time to head back to Tikal.

Already on our old rusty minibus I was starting to feel the hollowness that surrounded me when I watched the jungle bend over the little road heading to the ruins while the sound of wild animals were penetrating through the car window.

The ruins opened at 6am. I devoured my little breakfast sandwich in the local little store with other early birds while anxiously waiting to enter this holy ground. From the main gate onwards the jungle started to get thicker and thicker and if it wasn't for the little info kiosks or some Japanese tourists, the liberating feeling of being in the middle of nature just by yourself couldn't be avoided. I tried to capture this feeling by some pics:

Foggy sky and wild jungel from the top of Temple IV.

Clearing sky over the jungle. On top of Temple III, my personal favorite

A shot of the Grand Plaza, taken from the top of Temple II

I tried to make a funny face. Didn't succeed.

I climbed the magnificant ruins one after another and slowly more people were starting to come to the park. When the noise of american tourist groups became to common, I decided to have a relaxing lunch in a nearby cafe. This relaxing lunchtime included free listening to some grandmas talking about their sicknesses and dead relatives in the next table. After the lunch I checked still out some ruins that was left, but the unique feeling of nature had already a bit disappeared. I left the ruins in the afternoon and hanged out in a local net-cafe for the evening.

The next morning I went to the famous colonial city of Flores nearby the Tikal ruins. It was ok since the streets and the houses were nicely coloured, but the weather was pretty bad and I was a didn't find too much interesting things to do there. It was time to move on.

I had reserved and paid a bus ride to the city of El Rio near the river of Rio Dulce in the south of Guatemala. The bus would leave at 6am in the central station and I was promised to get a tuc tuc ride from my hotel at 5.30am. Still at 5:45, no tuc tuc had come for me. The streets were totally empty and my paid bus would leave in 15 minutes, crap. Then, out of nowhere and empty tuc tuc came and stopped in the front of me. He wasn't the guy that was supposed to get me, but nevertheless he accepted cash and I got myself to the center 2 minutes too early! If you aren't born to be wise, at least you can get lucky.

Arriving in El Rio. It was raining and the amount of trash thrown in the streets and in the nearby lake driving me crazy. The feeling started to get better when I took a boatride to my hostel, had a good lunch, chugged two beers and decided to take a kayak hoping to find some little jungle path separating from the lake. I did found the perfect little river after some time and headed off to the jungle. After some time, when the noises of familiar animals changed to sound of more unfamiliar and when every tree trunk was seeming like a living creature, I thought it was a good time to turn back. Nothing too special happened during the night.

Next morning I woke up early again and was full of energy. I was told about Finca Paraiso, this beautiful waterfall with warm spring water in the midst of forest, and wasn't wasting my time to get there. After an hour bus-ride I arrived to the place and I have to say that it was among other things one of the coolest experience so far. The cold river water was mixed up with this 60-70 degree (celcius) water that came down from a 8-10 meter waterfall. They formed a nice little pond underneath with an approximately 40 degree water. The feeling was like being in a natural spa and, due to my early arrival, I had it all for myself for the first 2 hours or so.

Cold water with sulfuric, hot water caused 1. constant fog, and 2. nice smell

Finca Paraiso, Rio Dulce

Happy traveler

Later on I met a really friendly finnish couple on their honeymoon there. We had also a little walk in the nearby roads while heading to the bustop. Here's a few pics of typical Guatemalan countryside.

Blooming tree next to a Guatemalan road

Very typical image of Guatemalan countryside. In the back can be seen the biggest ongoing threat to nature in the country - deforestration due to poor farming strategy

Mayan people fishing. Couldn't speak English nor Spanish!

We had waited for the bus for at least 45 minutes, when a bunch of gringos came with their pickup and stopped at our place. We hopped in and and had a squeezy, but a funny ride back to the town with all the 17 of us.

In the night I met some british guys, with whom we had a brilliant idea of going with the same kayak that I had taken before to go back to the town in the pitch darkness. The trip would have been an hour to either direction if we wouldn't have lost. Three times. The trip back was starting to get a bit disastorous when our other paddler was too wasted to keep himself straight from falling off the kayak. Finally we made it back to the jungle hostel at around 3 am after 4,5 hours.

25th on January. I had planned to with a boat ride to Livingstone, a harbor city in the eastern part of Guatemala. It was a boatrip on Rio Dulce all the way up to Livingstone and included nice stops in a ancient castle and another hot fountain in addition to the beautiful scenery during the whole trip. Totally worth it!

The guide and the driver

Not bad place for the castle - huh? Originally built for defending the city against pirates.

A local starfish shop in the riverside

Clip from the river cruise - old lady rowing. The local kids used the same type of kayaks to get to school.

After the cruise I was planning to stay in Livingstone for the night and continue back to Belize and later on all the way back to the peninsula of Yucatan in Mexico the next day. Unluckily, the boat schedules weren't colliding with my plans so eventually I had to get my passport stamped right away and hooked up with two Swedes, a Mexican guy and a Canadian jerk for an 1.5 boatride to Placencia, Belize. I got, however, a few photos from the streets of Livingstone, Guatemala.

From the colourful streets of Livingstone

5 meters onwards - yeah it had its downsides

I'll tell about the rest of my trip during the next chapter which will hopefully come soon. I'll add a little overall perspective of Guatemala here in the end.

Compared to Belize, Guatemala is much more for the culture-seekers while Belize is more like a place to relax. Even though I didn't have too much time there and missed to visit some of the most beautiful places (like the waterfalls of Semuc Champey), I already encountered a bit of the Guatemalan hospitality and its diverse culture. Every people that I met were really helpful and nice. The local culture varied a lot between different places ranging from the colonialistic and more western traditions to the old, indigenous cultures that still existed in the less touristic and poorer areas.

Guatemalan food is pretty simple and consists mainly of three different things: Tortillas, black beans (frijolles) and fried chicken (if your lucky). This was one thing that I was a bit disappointed to, but on the other hand, what would you think that people eat if they think that god exists in the form of corn.

Prices and living standard was distinctively lower than for example in Belize. The daily budjet could be squeezed to way under 20 euros since an average cost for a night was around 5-6 euros and relatively good could be bought for under 3 euros.

In a nutshell, Guatemala is still a paradise for cultural seekers with low budjets. It has partly become already a bit touristy, but has still its original vibe that sometimes may seem hard to get through approach as a foreigner, especially without knowledge in Spanish. I will certainly come back there some day and go for those places that were left. The only thing I need is enough time, since the transportation will take a LONG time.

Anyway, here was a brief history of my trip to Guatemala. Hope you made it all the way to the end. After this, I had still 4 days left for my trip. During this time, I spend one day in a retirement center, had my gear broken down when diving 30 meters deep and was left in the middle of a Mexican freeway with all my luggage. But more of these adventures in the third and last chapter!

Cheers