From Antigua to Lago Atitlan...

Beautiful but plastic Antigua

Ask most travellers who have "done" Guatemala what they think of the old colonial city of Antigua and they will all coo that it is pretty, fun and that they stayed there longer than expected. I simply cannot work my head around this!!! For me it was overrun with tourists, the English language written and spoken everywhere, more expensive and just NOT AT ALL Guatemala!! We stayed two nights and then went on to Lago Atitlan, a place where I have really enjoyed calling home for the past week or so!

Julio, Melanie and myself chicken bus rided it to Panajachel, the main bus stop around the lake. Four buses/near-death experiences later and we made it! Albeit not without feeling exceptionally queasy. We took a boat to our first village around the lake, Santa Cruz and stayed in a popular hostel there... La Iguana Perdida. It isn't hard to see why. Luckily we made it for their Saturday Night Cross-dressing Party of dancing on tables, happy hour drinks, men with breasts, women with a swagger, the limbo, music chairs and other fun party delights! Here we met some fantabulous people... Robert the American doctor from Ohio, Jess the sweet Australian and a few more. The next two days in Santa Cruz were spent kayaking and playing boardgames... The rain proving relentless.

Me & Melanie on chicken bus

From here Julio, Jess and myself took a boat across the lake to the peaceful San Marcos where I will be starting my Meditative Retreat later this week. It is small, hippie and "holistic" all over. We hiked around the village, searching in vain for a mysterious "waterfall" but had to return before the rain. And it rained and rained... And the power went out! We had a quiet night here staying in our cute pyramid-shaped rooms at the hostel and slept to the sound of the rainpour...

The next day we zipped over to San Pedro, the most notorious of the villages around the lake. We are staying in a hostel with phenomenal views of the lake, such an intense pleasure to wake up to. After a couple of days familiarising ourselves with the bigger lake town, partying a little, eating a lot, walking some, having fallen in love with this make-shift only midly touristy town, I signed up for Spanish classes at the Cooperativa of Guatemalan Spanish Teachers and began volunteering at the local Home for the Handicapped. More reflections on these to come...

View of Lago Atitlan from San Pedro, here is the Indian's Nose hill

Love and very poorly kisses,
Anetta x

Back to Mexico in San Cristobal de las Casas

View over San Cristobal de las Casas

My entire travelling trip thus far, peeps I be meeting always harp on about San Cristobal. For the past five days I´ve been discovering why. A charming cobbled-streeted town with many European influences and yet the largest number of indigenous Mexicans in any city, set in the middle of the mountains of Chiapas, San Cristobal is gorgeous. Once again I have stayed in a place longer than expected as I have chosen to take a couple of Spanish classes here to brush up on my slowly expanding vocabulary and to even begin to get some grip on my grammar.

San Cristobal streets in the evening

After nearly a month along the Oaxacan coast, I had become something of a well, tramp. It took me a day to adjust to civilisation again. I walked around my hostel barefoot, unwashed, very brown and wearing little. It soon became clear that San Cristobal is a far too proper place for this behaviour of the wild. Litered with great cafes, restaurants and bars... Teeming with foreign residents (mainly French and Italian) but this European bourgeoisie is mixed in with fiercely independent Indigenous communities, all with strong identities. Walking around this city is so easy, with artesan markets and handsome churches everywhere. And wherever you walk part of the experience is being approached by Indigenous women selling handicrafts for shockingly cheap prices. Alongside this are adorable children with sad eyes selling chewing gum and various other artefacts. I struggle to handle this. My Mexican friend, Julio, a wonderful San Cristobal resident and my personal tour guide and companion here tells me not to buy from the children as it encourages their parents´ exploitation of them.

We go often to a bar here called Revolucion! that seems to have a different incredible live band playing every night. Usually Cuban or reggae influenced. I love it and want to import more of this music in to London! It is a Zapatista sympathisers bar and it is not uncommon for San Cristobal. The Zapatista influence can be seen everywhere. A slight smell of tension in the air and in the mainly patronised by Indigenous Mexicans cantina we visited for our hangover lunch on Sunday, grafittied in the bathrooms was written ´Fuck of Mestizos´, a sentiment that Julio tells me is not unheard of in Chiapas.

Sumidero Canyon

Today I visited the Sumidero Canyon, recently classified one of the wonders of the world. It was lovely, a long boat ride along the huge green river alongside vicious crocodiles and amongst the awesome Canyon walls. Really breathtaking and a wonder for sure. Tomorrow I am discovering more about the local indigenous villages. A real interest for me, particularly since I visited the local centre for Indigenous studies, Na Bolom - a museum-research centre.

Much running abouts with my video camera this week!

Laterzzzz innit
xxxxx

Fleeting visit to Puebla/ Cholula

Both of which are very pretty small cities about 2 hours away from D.F. A super sweet and lovely local guy named Ricardo showed myself and Alex around, doing a mighty fine job of both! He also improved our Spanish significantly, patiently explaining every other palabra to us that we failed to understand. An intense day of Spanish speaking. And of course, once again beautiful Spanish-style colonial churches and cathedrals, vibrant mercados, friendly people, excellent cuisine, impressive Aztec ruins and grand forts (for when the French attempted and failed to invade.) Mexico once again, HAS IT ALL! We were so amazed by the colours of the city but Ricardo told us to hold our breaths for Oaxaca and rightly so...

Alex & Ricardo

As in Oaxaca city we arrived last night after a 4hour journey and our day has been crammed with colours and life and energy and ART! Galleries are everywhere as our artesanias selling their hand-made crafts on every street. I am in love with Oaxaca city!