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Guatemala City, Guatemala to Antigua

October 14th, 2005

It was a long ride to Guatemala City, supposedly 8-10 hours. We would stop at little towns along the way, and tons of people would get on the bus, offering all sorts of different goodies, calling out their names, back and forth through the bus. It was kinda funny. “Empanadas! Agua pura! Dos quetzales! Tomales, Tomales! Empanadas, empanadas, dos quetzales!” Sometimes the bus would continue with these vendors still on, so they would yell to the bus driver to stop, and everyone on the bus would laugh. There was one other ‘gringo’ (in general, foreigner) on the bus, and I think he must have had the shits, because we almost left him behind at one stop, and not too long later he asked the bus driver to stop for ‘el baño’. Continue reading this entry »

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Deeper into the Jungle – Tikal, Guatemala

October 11th, 2005

I got to the border of Guatemala and crossed without issue. I was absolutely innundated with people offering to change my currency (from Belize dollars to Guatemalan Quetzales) or for rides to pretty much anywhere I wanted to go. I decided to follow the advice of John (the owner of the guest house in San Ignacio) to get to Tikal. I took a cab from the border into the town, where I was dropped off with some uniformed-type men. They put me on a minibus (a van stuffed with people, bags piled on the roof), which I took to what’s called El Crucero, where the road forks. The first half of the road was unpaved and in very poor condition – we couldn’t have gone faster than 20 miles an hour. I guess the rule of the road there is ‘drive wherever you can to avoid the big holes as much as possible’, which was much appreciated. The scenery was beautiful through the northern hills of Guatemala. After a little while, the road improved and we started cruising, so I took this opportunity to hang my boots out the window to start drying them. At El Crucero, the guy dropped me off – they were going south, and I was going north. So, there I was, at some crossroads in the middle of Guatemala, backpack strapped on, just standing there. I felt like the devil should appear any second, offering to buy my soul or something. So, as I was instructed, I just started walking to the next town, where I was told I could find a bus or some sort of transportation to get to Tikal. Some little kid on a bike came and talked to me, asking if I needed a hotel. Not long after, another minibus headed for Tikal came and picked me up, and so I was back on my way. Continue reading this entry »

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Spelunking with skeletons

October 9th, 2005

After swimming with the sharks in Caye Caulker, I left the island to head west, on my way to Guatemala. I stopped in a town in the mountains of Belize called San Ignacio. I was recommended to stay at a place called J&R’s Guest House, so I walked around trying to find it, with dark clouds threatening above. Some guy asked me if I needed a place to stay, and when I told him I was looking for J&R’s, he directed my straight up this huge hill. Well, there was no J&R’s at the top of this hill – he must have just sent me up there because I wasn’t interested in his place. Bastard. Anyway, some sort of medicine man told me where it was, so I walked back down the hill, the sky getting darker, and found the place. It was a little house owned by an old couple – John and Rose. Within minutes of arriving, the sky opened up and it absolutely poured. I was talking to some German carpenter trying to find work in Belize, sitting right next to him at the table (outside on the covered patio), and I could harldy hear him because the rain and thunder were so incredibly loud. Continue reading this entry »

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Best hangover cure? Swim with Sharks

October 6th, 2005

As soon as I arrived in Belize City and got myself a hotel room, I regretted the move. I was planning to go next to Caye (pronounced Key)Caulker to do soms snorkling on the reef, but thought I’d spend some time in Belize’s big city first. I was not impressed. About after 15 minutes of walking around, I ran into Hiro again, so we checked the place out together. The Belizean Creole language, as I mentioned before is a very garbled, Jamaican-sounding version of English, and a lot of times you can’t even understand what people are saying to you. At one point, I heard some man say something as I walked by, like: Yah wah bla di’lay, dond eni, which I soon translated in my head to be “You want black dick lady, don’t deny it.” After I left Hiro (he was going to the Caye), I was sitting on a stoop reading the local paper and some lady wearing a very tattered dress, came up to me screaming something with this awful shrill voice. Iwas like, no, I don’t have any money. Then she continued screaming, and I heard swimsuit, so I was like, no, I don’t want a swimsuit, I don’t have a swimsuit. Then I heard something about ‘fight’, and I was like, no, uh, no, I don’t want to fight, and I decided to leave to avoid any sort of fight or swimsuit and to avoid catching whatever she was scratching at in her crotch. Continue reading this entry »

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Arriving in Belize

October 6th, 2005

So, Hiro and I headed down to Belize. I was headed to Orange Walk to take a jungle boat tour down to some Mayan ruins called Lamanai (submerged crocodile in Mayan), and invited him along. I got off the bus in the Mexican border town of Chetumal…I was kind of excited to cross my first border overland. I got off the bus and got right onto another one. The guy who directed me onto the bus complimented me on my Spanish, which I thought was really hilarious because he had to repeat himself three or four times before I understood what he was saying to me, and I was still a little unsure whether I was in fact getting on the right bus. Hiro said it was the one to Belize – he speaks and understands Spanish better than he does English. I think my Spanish is better than his, but he’s been traveling for a while longer, so he might be better at understanding what he needs to. Continue reading this entry »

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Tulum or not Tulum

October 2nd, 2005

Tulum, Mexico is a town about an hour south of Playa del Carmen…it’s another beach town, with some Mayan ruins, and it’s supposed to be a backpacker favorite. I arrived and found my hostel pretty quickly (Tulum is pretty small – my book didn’t have a map of the place, but seriously, there’s only one major street). I didn’t do much – it was hot (it’s really hot and humid everywhere I’ve been so far. Like way worse than those really bad days in Chicago, and I just sweat through everything, especially when I’m lugging my backpack around). Continue reading this entry »

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Playa del Carmen…oh dear, dear Playa

September 27th, 2005

Playa del Carmen is about an hour south of Cancun. I got into town Friday night and walked through town and the thick heat, looking for the hostel I chose from my book. Playa is a much cooler town than Cancun – my first thoughts were of a tropical New Orleans, probably only because there’s a pedestrian-only street where all the action seems to happen – restaurants, bars, and shops. Lots and lots of shops with people trying to lure you in unrelentlessly.

So, I really didn’t do anything in Playa except lay on the beach. That’s it. Oh, and I’d go swimming in the Sea. Then lay on the beach. And then walk the beach and then swim in the sea, and then lay on the beach. The whole coast here is open to the public, not like in Cancun where the hotels own pieces of beach. Continue reading this entry »

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Map of visited countries

September 25th, 2005

So, this website www.world66.com has this feature where you can create a map of all the countries you´ve ever been to. It tells me to post some HTML code onto my blog and the map will appear. Let´s see if it works… Continue reading this entry »

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Meager thoughts on Cancun

September 25th, 2005

My Grandma and Grandpa dropped me off at the airport. I was plenty early, checked in, and still had two hours to wait. My first instinct was to grab my phone and call someone to chat away the time. It was kind of like quitting smoking – that dreaded feeling that my vice was no longer there for me and never would be again (of course, I will get a phone again someday, but not for a while). So I just sat there and stared and walked around and stared a little more and then read some, getting used to the feeling of being off by myself. I was still in Chicago, but I did feel like I was in a place quite foreign to me (I was at Midway airport which is quite unfamiliar to me these days). Finally, I boarded the plane, nerves tweaking slightly with anxiety, both good and bad. Of course, being myself, as soon as the plane took off, I passed out for a little snooze. Continue reading this entry »

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The Double Life

September 22nd, 2005

This is a poem that I got from a friend…it´s pretty awesome and did serve as an inspiration for this trip. Continue reading this entry »

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