Guatemala City makes me miss the countryside

On the bus to Guatemala City I checked the location of a cheap hotel close to where my bus would drop me off and kept my fingers crossed they would have free beds even though it was semana santa, Easter week, and the whole country was on holiday. I figured that since it was only 6pm, not dark yet and the distance to the hotel only six blocks it would be fine to walk there alone with my backpack. And well, nothing happened and I made it to the hotel safe and sound but after my local CS friends heard that I didn't take a taxi, I was very firmly told NEVER to do that again. A girl, especially a gringa, walking alone with her big backpack reads to many people as = tourist carrying all of her valuables, stuff for free. Some of the looks people gave me on the streets and hasty signals of an old lady urging me to take off quickly made me pick up my paste and walk right behind a well-dressed gentleman so that it would look like I was with him.

Pension Meza where I stayed from Monday to Thursday is a nice place; a bed in a room for three was 35 GTQ (3,5€) per night, little gardens besides to rooms charming, wifi for free and service friendly.

Beds might have bed bugs cause I woke up with quite a few bite marks and showers and toilets were perhaps less charming, but you can't be too demanding. Quite surprisingly the place was very quiet, so I didn't make many new friends and felt a bit lonely, especially since walking alone on the streets after 5pm was not adviced.

That was probably what bugged me about Guatemala City in general; I didn't feel safe. Besides a few walks in the middle of the day with lots of people around and two times that local CSers took me out to have lunch or some drinks in the evening with them, I couldn't really explore the city too much, not as a female travelling alone.

CSer called Jonathan took me for a ride in the different neighbourhoods of the city to show how different groups of local people live and work and the differences were indeed huge with only one thing in common: fear. The rich people had their own, locked neigbourhoods looking more like castles with guards checking IDs, middle class their barbwire fences and poor people waited for the next rain shower hoping their little homes wouldn't fall down from the sides of the hill where they had build their shacks. Some areas were beautiful, views from the top of the hill magnificent and some areas were extremely sad places to see.

Luis, Specks in CS, not only took my out on Tuesday but also gave me a lift to Antigua on Thursday – how nice can a person be! He said he was bored and didn't have anything else to do, so I accepted gladly.

My first bargaining experience was very easy with the seller doing all the bargaining for me: I looked at a gorgeous bag and asked for the price but simply put it back when he said the price was 140 GTQ. I started walking away and he shouted after me: “120... 100... 80... 70.... 60... 50” and gave up saying “the gringa didn't want it after all” to his collegues. I walked back and bought the beautiful handmade bag for 50 GTQ (5€). Well done, me.

Another good deed of the day was going through my backpack and selecting clothes to throw away after I've used them once. I'm carrying WAY too much stuff, my backpacks weigh nearly 20kg and I have enough clean clothes for over three weeks – completely unnecessary. Most travellers don't seem to see any reason to even change their clothes every day, perhaps more like once a week, and even though I'm not planning to take it that far, I can definitely do with less clothes and for example do laundry every two weeks.

I spend most of my days troubling my little head with too many thoughts, like I usually do... The cultural differences and reasons behind them have always been a passion of mine and here they seem to jump on my face everywhere I go. One issue I've given a lot of thought to during this trip and discussed it with locals and travellers is poverty. Reasons behind it; its effects on the people, the society and the environment; the future of the situation; how it makes me feel; and what should be done about it.

None of these questions have black and white answers and some of the effects for example are quite indirect. Let's take for example the environmental crisis this beautiful country with such magnificent nature is heading towards. Nobody seems to care and my immediate reaction to seeing everyone throwing their rubbish on the streets, people polluting the crystal clear waters already on their way down from the mountains by doing their laundry in them and most toilets and all other polluted water going straight into the rivers was anger. But it's not that simple. If you have to worry about not having enough to eat every day or how to avoid being robbed or assaulted on your way to work, preserving the environment is probably not your top priority. And if you can't afford to go to school just like you parents weren't able to before you, how to get the education about nature issues?

The Canadian Andrea I met in Río Dulce was giving free courses to local children showing them how their choices effect their surroundings; a bottle you write your name on and throw on the street will disappear as the streets are cleaned my nightly rain, but if you take a walk on the beach to next day, you'll find your bottle there for sure, together with hundreds of others...


Now it's time to stop pondering and take off to celebrating Easter Antigua style. I'll make sure to download some cool videos for you as soon as I get to somewhere with a better internet connection!

HAPPY EASTER!
Enjoy the eggs!

Flores, Tikal and Río Dulce - sweetest of them all!

The island of Flores and the city of San Elena right next to it are considered to be just a very touristic spot where people visiting the Mayan ruins of Tikal stay for the night. But for some reason I liked it. Maybe it was the friendly service by a nervous teenager at the restaurant next door, or the relaxed atmosphere of the family-run hotel I stayed in, or perhaps even the company of some funny, but bit lonely Swedish girls.


All the beds of the dorm were always empty by 7am since everyone began their day trips at Tikal by 5am or took their buses to Belize, Palenque or somewhere in Guatemala in the early hours of the morning, and only laud birds kept me company as I pulled my blanket to my ears 'for just another 5 minutes'.


Another option for anyone heading to Tikal is staying by the lake in El Remate, half way from Flores to Tikal, which is recommended by many.

My trip to Tikal was supposed to start at 4.20am and after waiting out on the dark street for 50 minutes the bus did finally pick me up – some damn Israelis had overslept and the driver just waited for them which is a friendly but quite annoying Guatemalan custom. Just guess if the Israelis made even the smallest gesture to apologize when they finally showed up over an hour late with perfect hair and make-up. Lovely. I couldn't help thanking them loudly.

But Tikal was amazing. The cost of the trip wasn't the lowest, 120 quetzals(12€) for transport + guide and 150 GTQ (15€) for the entrance, but so totally worth it. And the entrance fee goes to the maintenance and renovation of this spectacular site, which is definitely something I was happy to contribute to. During the guided 5 hour walking tour I saw, besides dozens many amazing pyramids, a crocodile mum with kids from about one meters distance, petted a tarantella, met a herd of these furry babies (coatis), hanged with three spider monkeys, spotted two tucans and loved the jungle.





But who knew that Río Dulce, a five hour bus ride (60 GTQ, 6€ by Santa Elena) southeast from Flores, which most of the travellers I had met discribed as 'nothing' was the city to capture my heart. I arrived on Wednesday and got a dorm bed at the Hotel Backpackers for only 25 GTQ (2,5€) a night. The place wasn't too impressive with beds lacking blankets and pillows, dirty lockers, constant load music all through the night and extremely slow and bad service of the restaurant, but the people I met in the dorm, Mike and Robert from the U.S. and Andrea from Canada made all the difference: I was planning to head to Livingston down the river the next day but ended up staying in Río for five days.

First Andrea, who lives in the area a few months every year, took me to one the most amazing places I've ever been to: hot waterfalls of Finca Paraiso. This paradise is located an hour bus ride (towards El Remote 15GTQ, 1,5€ one way + 10GTQ/ 1€ entrance fee) from Río Dulce and consists of pools of water where hot volcanic waterfalls mix together with cold mountain spring water and little caves that make the place by far the most exciting spa I've ever been to.

I was planning to visit to local orphanage, Casa Guatemala, the next day, but after meeting two crazy Finns trapped in American bodies, Mike and Robert, and their booze loving Swedish friends (the friendly giant, the ladyboy Swede and the sarcastic medium sized Swede) I decided to spend another day just chilling in Finca Paraiso. In the evenings we became regulars at Cafe Sundog bar in Río.


After good 4 hours of sleep I finally visited the orphanage on Saturday. Boat took off from our hotel, which donates all its profits to the orphanage, at 7am and the day trip including meals cost 100GTQ / 10€. I know it sounds weird to take a day trip to an orphanage but I was told by volunteers who live in the hotel that the place is a complete community of its own, kids like visitors and the money these visits bring is vital to Casa Guatemala.

And I fell in love with the place and its inhabitants! Casa Guatemala is located in a beautiful place down by the river and consists of a school, a farm with animals and agriculture and houses for about 20 teachers, 15 volunteers, 25 workers and 250 girls and boys of which about 100 are orphans and 'belong to the house'; rest of the kids come from poor families and stay at the house to go to school and to get decent meals every day, but were on Easter holidays with their families when I visited the place. The location is beautiful, everything well-organised and the volunteers full of love for the kids, but lack of money and volunteers makes it all tough.

For example taking care of 25 5-9-year-olds alone all day and all night with 2 hours of running water a day and electricity in the office only doesn't sound like to picnic to me. But after being able to teach one kid to read, another one to count, fixing some tears in little clothes by sewing by hand, holding one girls hand as we walked past cows she was afraid of and getting another, badly traumatised, frequently crying little sweetie to laugh by lifting her up in the air and spinning until my head started spinning too, my heart had totally melted. So there might be change in my travel plans for August-October and a 3 month, extremely tough volunteering period waiting for me in Casa Guatemala.

Please visit their website to see if you would be interested too – help is always gladly accepted but especially months of November and December is when there are not enough volunteers helping the kids out! Visiting volunteers can stay 1-2 weeks, pay a fee of 235 US$ per week for food and housing at the Backpackers hotel, other volunteers pay 300 US$ for minimum 3 month stay living at the house itself.

Next stop, Guatemala city! Love you all!

Chamula, Palenque and from there on

After laying in bed (or running between the bath room and the bed) for three days I finally felt okay enough on Thursday to take a bus to a near by village called Chamula to go see an indian church where old native rituals still take place on daily basis. The place was full of locals, families and groups of both men and women, the floor partly covered of some type of cut grass, smells of different innocents and smoke filled the air and there where candles EVERYWHERE. I felt like a total outsider but just tried to take little space and sit down with the rest of the crowd. As part of one ritual an old woman was wiped with a live chicken right next to me, then the chicken killed and some booze poured on top of some candles on the floor. Next to her there was a lady breast feeding her baby. I've never seen a church with so much life in it. Peaceful, I'm not sure, but definitely part of people's life. (Sorry for the lack of pics, I didn't want to steal the peoples' souls...)

The children begging outside the church were less fun. My extremely firm 'NO!' seemed to do the trick though – they knew better than to mess with a inpatient Finn with a tummy ache! I've actually been amazed of how little people beg or to try to sell their stuff to me at all, or shout on the streets or show any attention really; maybe because I've just felt so ill and wrinkled my forehead so hard... Well, whatever the reason, it's makes my life easier.

After some well-needed rest we went to Kate's friends house in the evening to chill out and see other people with stomach problems (shitloads of Americans and one Russian).
The next morning I decided I was time to hit the road again, say goodbyes to my lovely hosts and head to Palenque, and Kate's friend Jorge surprised me by saying he'll join me. The 6 hour bus ride was a complete nightmare; the bus went up and down and turned left and right about a hundred times a minute in high speed and my recovering stomach didn't make it any easier, neither did Jorge's bad hangover. But the views weren't too bad...
After we finally reached the town of Palanque in was difficult to walk straight, let alone keep anything down. I had booked a room in the city and was planning to head straight to Guatemala the next morning but for some reason we ended up in La Panchan, an area between the city and the famous Maya ruins of Palaenque, in stead. We took beds in dormitories of 6 for 60 Mexican pesos (less than 4€) per night, met some nice Kadadian and French travellers and paid too much for the shitty food in one two restaurants in Panchan. The place is amazing in many ways (in the middle of the jungle with birds, and all sort of wild life right next to you) but also made to lure the money of stupid tourists who have to eat overpriced food in the two restaurants if they weren't wise enough to buy food in town.

After a very early night interrupted only by about five bathrooms visits and party-Jorge's arrival at 4am I was more energetic than ever the next morning. Fruity breakfast with a Kanadian Isabel and a german hippie family, bit of rest and off to kick Jorge out of his bed. We went to the ruins stupidly in the hottest hours of the day which made me simply seek shadows whenever I could and perhaps be less interested in Maya culture than I should've or would normally have been. After Jorge had recharged his batteries with Mayan energy and I had almost been paralyzed by the sun and the heat, we walked to the nearby waterfalls that were incredibly enough completely empty of tourists when we arrived. After walking in the cooling pools, sitting on the smooth rocks and getting hits by refreshing water showers I felt like I was alive again – by far the best place in Mexico so far! Just as we were leaving the waterfalls were filled by a huge group of tourists that had no idea of the paradise it had been only a few minutes before.

Bus trip from Palenque to Flores in Guatemala started 6am, took all together 9 hours and cost 300 Mexican pesos (18€). The trip was slow and tiring but interesting with changing drivers and a nice boat ride across the bordering river. After arriving to Flores I got a bed in a nice hostel called Doña Goya for 30 quetzal (3€) per night and ate my first big meal in a week.

Watching the sun go down on the lake, laying on my bed with a full and happy belly and listening Bob Marley jamming on my MP3 player must be heaven on earth – and 8 months of this still to go!

Here's by the way an updated march-april travel plan:
week 10
London, Great Britain (with Erik)
Mexico city, Mexico

week 11
San Cristobal de la Casas, Mexico
Palanque, Mexico

week 12
Flores and Tikal, Guatemala
Río Dulce, Guatemala

week 13
Antigua & Guatemala city, Guatemala

week 14
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
Tapachula & Oaxaca, Mexico

week 15
Mexico City, Meksiko

San Cristobal de las Casas might have been cooler in other circumstances

The bus ride wasn't that bad at all, slept most of the way and woke up to see the sunrise in the jungle. Unlike the parts of Mexico city I saw San Cristobal is very touristic, but also full of natives, which makes it a colourfull spot where many backpackers stay to live after their tour in Central or Latin America. I won't be one of them though: Psychedelic Americans who believe that humans evolved from reptilian extraterrestrials from space getting prepared for the new era starting in 2012 - lizzies – just aren't my cup of tea. Neither do I feel at home with hippies dealing and meeting dealers all day long all excited about the starting mushroom season, for quite different reasons than I usually am. I know how boring and restricted that makes me sound but hey, I think I just prefer a lifestyle with a future, living completely day-to-day works better when you're a teenager.

Sunday was full of sun, mango peeling and chutney making, followed by a great dinner at the hippie house. I met a cool, completely deaf, couchsurfing couple who were hitchhiking their way though Latin America and had the longest conversation on notes since high school.


On Monday it was time for a nature excursion with my host Rudy, her girlfriend Monika and a CS couple from the states. Rudy and Monika met in CS in december and are now expecting a baby - yeah, CS is TOTALLY not a dating site. And me and Erik met already in November so we're taking it nice and slow only having moved in together... After seeing how countless aerobic classes don't help at all when walking up the hill in these altitudes, admiring the views and feeling the coldness and cleanliness of the mountain current on a hot Mexican spring day we got back to the city for a bit a sightseeing and for some quesadillas later.

That's where the fun ended. I've spent the last 48 hours dividing my time between the bed and the toilet, having only water, tea, juice and different kinds of pills to keep me 'alive'. 39 degrees feaver and extremely unhappy stomach doesn't make best travelling company so I'll have to cross at least Villahermosa and Palenque off my list for now. I don't know what I would've done without Rudy, Monika and their flatmate Kate who've taken such good care of me. So the view on the left has been the only one I've seen in the last couple of days.

God how I'm tired of being sick...

Chilling in a not so chilly Mexico

It's a bit strange hopping from the coldness of London to the total summer (in Scandinavian standards anyway) of Mexico. I had already forgotten how sweaty rush hour metros and buses can get and what it's like to cover your feet with bandages after the first day of sandal blister collection while spending 4 hours checking out some Mexican anthropology in a massive museum – but hey, it's summer!



The coolest thing (besides the amazing food and the god-like hosts of mine) was being the tallest in the women's metro car, very much a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a shortie like me.





Yesterday I took a break from sight seeing before even starting in properly, 'cause my little brain said it needed to rest for a day or two. And the brain gets what the brain wants so rest of Mexico city can wait until next time.


Few interesting things about everyday life in Mexico:
* men and women travel in different metro cars during the peak traffic hours to avoid harassment when it gets extremely crowded
* real tacos don't contain any cheese
* being called a blondie doesn't have anything to do with your hair coulour and catcalls equal whistles on the streets
* taxis look like any regular cars – most of them really old – and are really cheap; c. 10-15 minute rides for less than 2€
* toilet paper needs to be put in a bin instead of flushing (which I keep on forgetting)
* the minimum pay in Mexico is about 5€ per DAY


Tonight I'm off to experience a 12-hour bus ride to San Cristobal de las Casas.

According to the bus company site it's going to be very comfortable, according to my hosts a total nightmare.

I'll let you know who won.

Mexico City, baby! This chick has flown across the Atlantic!

After baking a few blueberry pies in the morning, me and the most gorgeous man on earth arrived to London on Monday evening to meet up with my lovely and utterly pissed CS hostess Jade and her Guinness loving flat mate, who to my great amazement both made it to work the next morning.


Tuesday went by way too quickly doing absolutely nothing and enjoying every minute of it; taking random doubledeckers, wondering around on the banks of the Thames collecting bird shit on our shoes and trying to smootch each other to death. Then we met up with the birthday triplets Caroline, Ary and Sophie as well as the world saving electric car racer Toby – my mates from Erasmus exchange in the Basque Country in 2005. I'll add a link to Toby's blog later... if I get a hitch thought Chile from him in a few months!

My best friend Minna caused me some new wrinkles by forgetting her mobile at home and therefore not replying to my SMS asking if she and her family survived the earthquake in Turkey. (I know it was days ago, but do you really think I've had time to read the news lately?). But her better half Antti did, and they're all well, getting tanned and fat enjoying their holiday.


On Wednesday I decided to stop using EasyBus after freezing my ass off waiting for one of their godforsaken buses for more than half an hour in the frisky London breeze. Or just to exchange Erik for a sumo wresler who could block the wind a bit better. We said our bitter sweet goodbyes and now I'm wrote these words of wisdom in Gatwick where I was offered to be upgraded on my flight, for a minor additional change of 500£. But I only had 3£ so I bought Panda licorice instead.

Disappointingly enough none of my long flight nightmares came true. No screaming children anywhere to be seen or heard, no-one stinky sitting next to me (no-one at all actually, the plane was more than half empty) and the food was good. Seriously, not even just decent but actually tasty. First nine hours of the flight went surprisingly painlessly and the last three were only annoying 'cause my eyes insisted on closing even though I wanted them to keep open.

I only realised that this is actually happening – I'm really thousands of kilometres away from everyone I know – when we started landing to Mexico City which is not a particularly small village with its 22 million people metropolital area. And guess how many silvery and golden lights flashing in the dark when you're approaching it from the air!

After staying awake for over 24 hours and having yummy Mexican food with my hosts Carlos and Adrian , I fell asleep in a about two seconds. Now the first day at this huge city is about to begin!

Plans, plans, plans...

This is what my travel plans look so far - the idea is to change them constantly just to confuse you though:

March-April = Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador

week 10
London, Great Britain (with Erik)
Mexico city & San Cristobal de la Casas, Mexico

week 11
Villahermosa & Palanque, Mexico
Flores, Guatemala
San Ignacio, Belize

week 12
Belize city, Belize
Northern Guatemala & towards Guatemala city & El Salvador

week 13
Santa tecla & El Salvador, El Salvador
Antigua & Guatemala city, Guatemala

week 14
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
Tapachula & Oaxaca, Mexico

week 15
Mexico City, Meksiko


April-May = Northern Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil

June-July (with Erik) = Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru

August-September = Chile, Southern Argentina

October = Mexico (Yukatan and shores of Golf of Mexico)


I'll try to keep you entertained on the way. Or well, at least keep you posted.

I've been told not to lift anything heavy for 7-10 days after the angiography yesterday, but a 15-kilo backpack can't be considered to be that, right? And I'm taking my personal servant with me to London anyway. Will have to replace him with a donkey in Mexico. (We'll see how good kissers they are...)

Toodeloo,
Elina