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

Guatever

And now here I have been in Guatemala! No time to write as I have been exceedingly busy soaking in Guatemala´s lush landscape and rich culture! My time in the country began on the island of Flores. The island is quaint and set amidst a gorgeous lake where I watched a breathtaking sunset... The clouds, the sky and the water all painted pink by the sun. Awestruck, I decided I liked Guatemala already. In Flores, I made the trip to Tikal. Possibly my last ruins-based trip, I had saved the best for last. Not only is Tikal the largest excavated Maya ruins site in the Americas but it is also set amidst dense jungle similarly to Palenque. Upon arrival, I kicked off my (oversized and stolen) flip flops and ran amok up the pyramids, through the jungle, over the limestone and scampering over the temples. I felt intoxicated by jungle fever and it felt criminal to wear shoes. I wanted to walk barefoot as the Maya once did and where the Maya once did. And the jungles were ridden with the exotic. Howler monkeys, spider monkeys, tarantulas, humming birds, parakeets, woodpeckers and a dozen other varieties of brightly feathered beings. Truly beautiful.

And so after Flores, we made our way to Lanquin for a water wonderland called Semuc Champey. In Lanquin we stayed at a pretty sweet hostel, again set amidst much flora and also by a serene river. Lanquin is mid-nowhere and Semuc Champey even more so. Here we visited Semuc Champey twice. It is hard to describe Semuc Champey... Many people attempt to do it justice by describing it as the most beautiful place on earth. A combination of rivers, waterfalls, natural pools in the middle of hills and jungle and forestry, Semuc Champey is all crystalline turquoise water and limestone rock formations. Here is what we saw from the Mirador (Look-out point) which took about 20mins of uphill, strenuous hiking to reach...

The second day that we visited Semuc Champey was indeed a BIG DAY OUT. I thought I was going to die twice that day but in between, had a flavour of heaven. On the way there, Julio and I took a collectivo, a form of transportation popular in these ends and one that I am most accustomed to. Indeed, the first time we went to Semuc and took a collectivo, they managed to squeeze eighteen people into the back of the burning hot, black pick-up. Everyone seemed perfectly comfortable except for myself and Julio. SO on our second day we attempt the same route, but this time it is a standing collectivo which means people are standing on the back of the truck. It is completely packed so they sit us on top of the driver´s cabin, where the LUGGAGE usually goes! PUTA MADRE! With no proper railings, I was being flung about with every corner taken by the collectivo and the drivers here take no care in driving slowly down those sharply rocky dirt roads. For half an hour, I thought I was going to die. And couldn´t help express so. However, when we arrived my eyes pumping with adrenaline and my heart rate unpleasantly high I soon calmed as I was greeted once again by this (and this is only one of the pools):

We spent so much time our second time in Semuc soaking in the waters and energy that we found ourselves neglected. In fact, for our last hour or so there we had the ENTIRE PARK to ourselves! It was like a movie. I was in my own paradise and it felt incredible. However, this pleasure was not consequence free... Our indulgence in this wonderland came at the price of missing the collectivo home and having to walk NINE KILOMETRES along uphill, rocky, dirtroads in the DARK!!!!... And then it began to rain. Once again, I found myself having one of those experiences that are significantly better and funnier in retrospect.

Flores and Lanquin were awesome introductions to the country of Guatemala which thus far I can conclude has not seemed to be too different from Mexico. It is nice to be back in a Spanish speaking country after Caye Caulker. And now we are in Antigua! The colonial capital of Central America and so far as I can tell, pretty streets, cute cafes, marvellous ruins, lots of churches... and ridden with tourists as a result. Tomorrow we leave for Lago Atitlan however I intend to return to Antigua (if not Xela (Quetzaltenango)) for Spanish classes after a bout of spirituality at the Lake.

Paz x

The coolest place in the world

...is without a doubt El Panchan, Palenque. So for the past 6 days I have been living in the jungle in Palenque, Chiapas. It is absolutely insanely COOL. Here I went to see the Agua Azul waterfalls. Agua Azul is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Imgaine incredibly high, cascading waterfalls with turquoise see-through water and caramel, smooth rocks which the water is at once gliding and hurtling over. I had to keep pinching myself to believe it was real. It is like something only witnessed in an animated disney film. Butterflies in the jungle and birds swooping in and out of the water. It doesn´t look real. It was another Avatar moment. I visited twice to swim in the purifying, fresh waters. It`s awesome power terrified me as I was reminded of my frenemy the Pacific Ocean, however at the same time it was intimately calming and meditative.

Misol-Ha waterfall

I also went to see the Ancient Maya pyramids and temples, ruins also set rather surreally in the middle of the dense Palenque jungle. Large, impressive and exhausting to climb it was mind-blowing to wonder how an ancient civilisation lived there, let alone built it with no modern construction technologies of our own. Having seen several Maya ruin sites now, the most exciting thing about these ones in particular was the setting. Wild, lush, colourful, overpowering jungle. At once scary and beautiful.

Down the road from the Palenque ruins is an area called El Panchan, described by Lonely Planet as a "Legendary travellers` hangout" but it is so much more than this. Swarmed with hippie travellers and residents, the place is magical. I was staying in a wooden cabana deep in the jungle and awoke each morning faced with exotic, wild and gigantic jungle plants with huge, cartoon-like leaves that made me miniature. And at night, we would all be kept up by the extraordinary huffing and puffing of the jungle´s attention-seeking howler monkeys who would sit very close to our cabanas and ensure us a very disturbed sleep. In fact, the entire jungle pulsates with a raw spiritual energy and I couldn`t help but look at everything in close detail. Caterpillars, hibiscus flowers, tightly twisted tree trunks, an immaculately formed cocoon, marching ants carrying leaves to build their nest, shiny berries, dangerous thorns, large but unthreatening tarantulas. Each day, my eclectic group of friends that I met there and I trekked around the jungle on slow, attentative adventures and discovered and frolicked in waterfalls. I was always hesitant to climb them, panicked by the strength of water but with patience and very deliberate movements I was able to conquer and climb near the top where fresh, clean water would pour over the top of the edge and purify and cleanse me. And wherever you walk in El Panchan, people would be jamming, playing their live music together with friends and strangers and just chilling and enjoying the good life amidst their beautiful surroundings every day.

Each night in El Panchan, we would sit in one of the open-air restaurants there - usually Don Mucho´s - and listen to awesome live music. The bands played an eclectic mix, sometimes from Argentina, sometimes son Cuba and sometimes jungle music which involved the lead musician carefully selecting from one of about fifteen different small wind instruments and making various animal sounds. Here my friends and I would sit and listen to the original music and drink red wine as locals and travellers danced salsa together seamlessly. And everyone I met in El Panchan was so interesting! I met a beautiful, delicate flower from Finland by the name of Karolina. She is a gorgeous, petite, dreaded and very talented artesan who has spent the last seven years travelling, 3 and a half of those in Central America, getting by on limited money but selling her handicrafts. Karolina is intensely charming and sweet and has a certain vibe that drawns in the people she meets and makes us want to protect her. She is also four months pregnant, which at first suprised and probably disconcerted me somewhat but when I saw the incredibly conditions she was bringing her unborn child in to I had no question in my mind that travelling was the right thing for her and her `Elfa`. Everyday her fairy was surrounded by original live music, organic nature and animal sounds and fresh, clean water as she ensured she swam in a waterfall each day. I wish them the best.

A wonderful adventurer named Mercedes from Texas was the first girl I met in El Panchan actually and not only did she go out of her way to make me feel comfortable, she encouraged and supported me during my waterfall climbing ordeal to ensure I got over my trauma. Unbelievably sweet for someone I don`t even know. I also spent time with a delightful Finish/Portugese newly married couple, Vera and Rico, who were very sweet, funny and down-to-earth and had met in London. Being in their company was extremely pleasant and you could feel their love. Strangely I bumped in to a French friend too, Romain who I had met in Puerto Escondido and who had been there in Mazunte when I had my accident. That was amazing and he strongly expressed his relief to see me well and healthy and walking again. Funnily enough I met many other people who had heard about or eye-witnessed themselves my accident and they would swarm me with marvel and a million questions to try understand my experience. I met a fascinating and beautiful girl/jungle creature, originally from Switzerland but who had been living in Mexico for 2 years names Jess. To talk to, I thought she was nearly thirty. An old soul, she talked to me about my accident in a spiritually mature way and I was fixated. She also crawled and ran and smoothed her way through the jungle like it was second nature. A real-life Mowgli. I couldn´t believe it when she revealed to me she was only twenty-one but she admitted she feels like she has always felt she has lived on this planet for centuries. My closest friend in El Panchan was Julio, a Mexican-Venezuelan from Texas who has been doing various voluntary work in Guatemala but is now on a roots-discovering trip in Mexico, he has an acute appreciation for live latin music and would beam ear to ear all night every night (save for when his head was on the table as a result of too much tequila consumption) and we left El Panchan together to discover the Carribean coast.

I could not have had a more enjoyable time in El Panchan and I already think about going back one day. There was a newly started intentional community there called Maya Buda and one day, Karolina, Julio and myself dropped by to see what it was all about and we all got on so well with the residents that we visited a nearby waterfall together. I could easily see myself living there for a little while. It was very hard for us to leave but now here Julio and myself are, making a quick city break in sweaty, hustling Merida on our way to the Caribbean coast. It feels very inner city typical Mexico here but today we are visiting nearby natural cenotes, sink holes that are formed under caves.

Leaving you in love and peace,
Anetta xxx