Totally Ruined

Hola!

I can't believe I've already reached the last few days of my trip. In some ways it's gone pretty quick but in other respects, when I think about all that I've done and seen, Costa Rica does seem a very long time ago. This will be my last entry as I return home this weekend (sob sob) ...

we sat there in the dark, clouds ahead only revealing a few of the trees, as howler monkeys echoed ghastly groans across the whole jungle

I ended up spending about 4/5 nights in Antigua, the longest I've stayed in any one place on this trip, although it must be said that this included many day-trips out to other nearby places, just using Antigua as a base. After so much moving around all the time, from town to town, it was nice just settling for a little bit, actually unpacking(!) and getting all the laundry done etc. Make no mistake - Antigua is a tourist town, and the numbers of tourists here were a stark contrast to what I'd experienced in Honduras. I was clearly back on the beaten path, a path which would lead all the way to Cancun on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. With the large numbers of tourists comes an increased level of safety and a relaxed atmosphere, and for a few days at least it was pleasant to let my guard drop a little bit, get the camera out and just be a tourist.

Having said that, there was still adventure to be found in these parts, you just have to look a little harder for it. I took a daytrip to Volcan Pacaya - yes, yes, another volcano, but all 3 volcanoes that I've climbed on this trip have been totally different experiences. This one was probably more rewarding and more exciting than the previous 2. Firstly the group that I climbed the volcano with were really good people and I was to meet many of them again over the coming days. I remember being really disappointed when the guide told us we couldn't go all the way to the crater of the volcano - what a letdown. We ascended past the lowland forests, onto a barren surface of solidified lava rock and before long we could really feel the heat, heat coming from the molten lava that was flowing beneath the solidified lava rock we were treading on! The  closer we got to the crater, the more unbearable the heat was becoming for some members of the group, who clearly weren´t expecting such an adventure. We had to jump over patches which were white hot, patches where you could actually see the lava flowing beneath. At one point one girl in the group, Alison, started shouting because the soles of her shoes were melting under the heat - by the end of the trek you could see how little was left, the rest had been totally burned away. Fortunately my trusty boots did me proud.

As we came within visual range of the peak, the further some members of the group were from their comfort zones. We could see and hear the occasional tumble of molten lava rocks down from the summit, whizzing past us in the distance, whilst a river of glowing red lava flowed menacingly near the top. I wasn`t alone when I switched from being disappointed we couldn`t go all the way to the crater, to thinking we were far too close as it was! We were all ready to turn back at the point that we did, and the descent was pretty difficult too because of loose (and very sharp or hot) rocks. In some cases, lava rocks which looked solid would split in half when we stepped on them, so we all had to (literally) support each other on the way down. All in all though, it was a great day out as we all felt like we`d gone through a team-bonding session by the time we got back down.

A few days later I`d arranged with Justin (one of the guys from the Volcano group) to go to Chichicastenango (No I´m not just making that name up), and along with some people I´d met on the bus, we had a fruitful day out checking out the famous Sunday handicrafts market there. The market (not to mention the crowds it attracts) is huge, and consumes the whole town every Thursday and Sunday. At first I just wanted to browse from a safe distance and scope out potential purchases (since as soon as you engage a vendor it´s sometimes difficult to walk away from it without starting the haggling process). When we came to one particular junction, a crossroads, the human traffic was so claustrophobic that we had to retire to a cafe, which had a balcony conveniently overlooking that same crossroad. It was interesting just observing all that hustle and bustle walk by, without actually being involved in it yourself - all sorts of produce would be paraded past, from necklaces, to Dalmation pups, to chickens in baskets, to pigs on leads and statuettes. One woman even tried to engage us in a haggling process from 100 metres, making a ´30´gesture with her fingers as she showed us a handwoven bag!

After Chichi, I went straight to the town of San Pedro, which sits right on the huge lake of Lago Atitlan. After all the things that you see on your travels it´s easy to feel jaded or indifferent when certain ´spectaacular scenery´passes before your eyes but I must admit, when our bus came round the corner and I caught my first glimpse of the lake, bordered by hills and volcanoes, it took my breath away.

There was not too much to do on San Pedro but the scenery here was enough to keep you busy for a little while. How´s this for crazy luck? Mick and Guissell said that they might be heading to San Pedro too but in honesty I didn´t expect to bump into them. After rejecting 3 hotels, I settled on Hotel Valle Azul, had just checked into my room and was sat on the hammock chatting with a local, when Mick pops his head out from the room right next door to mine - they just can´t get away from me, haha! It was such a funny night because over the next 24 hours I bumped into about ten different groups of people I´d met at various points over the past few weeks, much more people than I´d bump into on a night out back home! So we enjoyed the night trying out Guatemala´s famous Zacapa Centenario rum - a fantastic albeit expensive rum which doesn´t burn.

On the 4pm bus back to Antigua - the loco driver, who had been working since 4 am, kept yawning and saying how tired he was, which was causing endless worry for the poor American woman sat in the front passenger seat. I also killed a day going to see Guatemala City, but as with most of the big cities in Central America, it left me unimpressed, although it mus be said that I didn`t come to Central America to see cities. After about 4 hours taking in all the traffic fumes I was ready to head back to the infintiely more pleasnt streets of Antigua, riding one of the infamous `Chicken Buses`back into town - besides the G-Force almost sending passengers flying everytime we turned a corner (we were all holding onto handles with both hands, hanging on for dear life!), the ride was not too bad, not too bad at all for less than $1.

This was followed by another night out in Antigua seeing off Justin by sinking Gallos and Mojitos, it was time to move on. Before Antigua (my most recent entry) I had visited the Mayan ruins at Copan, Honduras. Now these ruins are architecturally unimpressive compared to the huge structures of the more famous sites such as Chichen Itze, but what marks Copan out from the rest is how well preserved the carvings and hieroglyphs are. As interesting as some of these were, I lacked the knowledge (or money to hire a guide) to really appreciate what these things symbolised. Call me uncultured but what I was really after were some humongous towers and pyramids to climb and be awe-struck by.

I was able to find these at Tikal, in northern Guatemala. It has to be said that the journey there was very testing. It`s a 9 hour ride from Guatemala City to Flores (the nearest town to Tikal, 1hr away) and my time contraints meant that I had to do this journey at night otherwise I`d be wasting a whole day travelling. I`d chosen to take the cheaper locals bus, along with Mick & Guisselle, using the logic that this would be much less of a target for bandits (still very active on Guatemala´s roads) than the bling bling tourist buses. It certainly was safe enough but in terms of getting any sleep, forget about it - this was the bus from hell! The driver again kept complaining about how tired he was, so insisted on blasting out dreadful cheesy mariachi music at a ridiculous volume all night, oblivious to the protests from his passengers. Added to this, I was sat next to a 7-month old baby who was probably teething and wanted the world to know about it.

Needless to say I was exhausted by the time we arrived, but I decided that I would actually stay in a (more expensive hotel) located in the jungle right next to the ruins entrance, rather than commuting in from Flores. It was worth paying the extra money anyway, as effectively I slept for 2 nights there, crashing out as soon as I checked in, and again that night.

One thing that struck me about Tikal was how uncrowded the site generally was (due mainly to the huge scale of the complex, which can be quite overwhelming). Even at Copan, the crowds were a bit overbearing - when I saw all the hordes of elderly tour groups (the socks-n-sandals crowd) at the Copan entrance, I got my running legs on to outpace them all and rush to see all the ruins first whilst they were quiet and peaceful, before the hundred-strong army of sandals came marching in.

I have to say that Tikal is possibly the most impressive, and certainly the most atmospheric, Mayan ruins site I've come across (pictures will follow, no USB here). Right in the middles of the jungle, huge temples are spread out across a large area and with all the wildlife that roams these parts too, it's pretty majestic. I think they used this site in one of the Star Wars movies.

I took in a quiet sunset there, and hoped for a repeat at Sunrise, but it appears the weather is not my friend - another sunrise spoilt by an overcast sky, and in fact that day we had the first real heavy rain of my trip so far, as a torrential downpour unleashed. The sunrise wasn`t a total letdown though - there was a really mysterious aura as we sat there in the dark, clouds ahead only revealing a few of the trees, as howler monkeys echoed ghastly groans across the whole jungle.

It`s really tiring work exploring these ruins and I think the Mayan architechts had a really sick sense of humour. Considering that the Mayas are such short people, they went and designed all these pyramids and steps with really giant steps - surely some sort of in-joke amongst the artchitechts as they watched the little villagers struggling climbing up and down?

Some 6 years ago when I was on my first independent trip and still finding my feet as a solo traveller, there was a man I met in Mexico who showed me great kindness and hospitality at a time that I was very cautious and weary of interacting with the locals too much, afraid that they might have an ulterior motive hiding behind the good deeds. When I was travelling in the city of Puebla, Rafael, a missionary who had worked with Mother Teresa, took time out to show me around his home-town, taking me to the sights, to his friends´houses and even offering me a place to stay. In many ways this man helped shape the way that I travel today - up to a point, I´ll chat with anyone and everyone and see what situations that gets me into, making a swift exit only if things start getting fishy or sinister. It´s been a good strategy and certainly this trip woulda been a lot more boring had I not been open-minded and initiated some of the situations that I have.

So I feel somewhat indebted to Rafael and when I told him I´d be in Central America we immediately discussed plans for me to visit him again in Puebla, especially as he now works in an orphanage where the poor children seldom get any attention from any visitors. The problem is that Puebla is on the other side of Mexico from Cancun, the city that I´ll be flying home from. I checked out some bus options but it´s a 24 hour trip so on my timescales I´d realistically have to look at flights. I found a flight with Mexicana which, though not cheap, is affordable at a stretch and I promised Rafael about a week ago that I would visit him. However, I didn´t book the ticket just yet as I still wasn´t sure about dates and how quickly I could get from Tikal through Belize and into Mexico.

Just before I left Tikal, I logged onto the internet and found some devestating news - the ticket price for the return flight had more than doubled, moving the cost of this trip from ´expensive´into the ´out of range´ category. Having got his hopes up just days earlier, it was heart-wrenching to have to e-mail Rafael to tell him that it was no longer possible for me to come and visit. I was gutted - I hate not being able to keep my word, and I knew just how much he was looking forward to my visit, I felt so guilty but helpless in this situation. I had tried so hard to make this happen as well, trying to move on from places quicker so I could free up more time to visit Puebla. I guess it just wasn´t meant to be. Instead, I resigned myself to slowing down the pace a bit, spending more time in Belize, and then finishing off with a few uneventful days sipping margaritas at the beach in cancun  - admittedly not an altogether unpleasant end to the trip, but a bit of an anti-climax and I still felt racked by guilt as I knew how upset (although understanding) Rafael was.

So anyway, with the Puebla plan dead in the water I moved on from Tikal and spent more time in Belize than expected. What a lovely little country. On entering, what struck me first was how out of place Belize seems in Central America - the first country I´ve been to here where English is the official language and it was strange reading all the signs without having to translate. Belize´s history I think dates back to English pirates with Jamaican slaves thrown into the mix somewhere - allow for plenty of cross-breeding and then what you have is avery cosmopolitan country. Rastas mingle freely with people with European-pale skin and everyone seems so friendly on the islands out here. Mainly people speak a form of creole - like English but spoken very quickly with some words joined up with others, almost indecipherable to English speakers. But if the language seems speeded up, the style of life here is quite the opposite - people are so laidback and trusting. On the island of Caye Caulker the roads are all just sandy paths and the only vehicles are golf-buggies and bicycles. You could imagine a Malibu advert being shot here with 3 golf-carts meeting at a crossroads ... Total Gridlock! A really tranquil little island where everyone knows everyone else.

I hired a bicycle there myself and surprised myself by just how much I enjoyed cycling aimlessly around the island. Well at first I found a quiet path hugging the beach and following that for a while, I found myself well away from the tourist centre and quite alone on a little adventure along this sunny path, riding along with a carefree child-like bliss reminiscent of long summer afternoons spent exploring. I followed the path for quite some time, and eventually I came to ... no, surely not ... the first paved road I´d seen on all Caye Caulker?! Something inside told me to wait a minute before I set off on the road ... just as well it did, because this was no road. I´d ridden all the way to the other side of the island and had somehow managed to get to the airport! This was a runway and I would´ve been playing chicken with an airplane - not a good idea in any country!

After a brief stay on the island of San Pedro I took a scenic 15 minute plane journey over crystal blue waters to Corozal, from where I crossed into Mexico yesterday  lunchtime. The plan had been to get an express bus into Cancun, due to arrive by 5.30 pm, and from there I´d take the last ferry to the island of Isla Mujeres, check into a hotel and while away my final few days here. The bus got stuck in heavy traffic on the way into Cancun and we didn´t arrive until 7pm. This was to be avery significant twist of fate.

Since I´d arrived so late I decided to check into a hotel in Cancun and head to Isla Mujeres tomorrow instead. A man at the bus station convinced me to go to his hotel. As fate would have it, after going out last night I returned to the hotel and was chatting to another traveller outside, when a third person walked up and we started chatting ...

"Where are you from"

"Puebla"

"Oh, I have a friend from Puebla" [I explain how I wanted to visit Rafael]

"Do you know theres a budget airline just opened a month ago with flights there?"

So all of a sudden Puebla was back on and this morning I looked up this budget airline on the web and snapped up affordable tickets to fly to Mexico city, from where I´ll take a bus to Puebla and meet up with Rafael! It´ll be great to see him again, even if it´s just for the day. It´s ironic that after all the planning it was a pure fluke that brought the whole Puebla trip back together again! The tickets aren´t actually that cheap but I really don´t know when or if I´ll get the opportunity to see Rafael again and really, it´s the things that you do, and not the things that you have, that matter at the end of the day, so I´ll take the financial hit and I´ll go to Puebla tomorrow, before flying home at the weekend.  It´ll be a fantastic way to conclude what has been a truly memorable trip. Hope you have enjoyed it at least half as much as I have.

Signing off,

Jase