Spirituality in San Marcos

So after my spanish classes and volunteering in San Pedro, I went back to the lakeside town of San Marcos, still around Lago Atitlan. Since I heard about it in Mexico city, I had intended to attend a month-long course called the Moon Course at a famous Spirituality study centre called Las Piramides located in San Marcos. However as I had taken too much time with my travelling, I only had time to attend for one week. The Moon course is a course dedicated to us asking the existential questions, Why Are We Here? Who Am I? What is the Meaning of Life? What is my Purpose in Life? etc etc, questions I seem to always be preoccupied by but even more so since my near-death experience.

The course was great and located in lovely lush gardens. I stayed in a pyramid-shaped cabana there and our learning temple was also a large wooden pyramid construct. Every morning we had hatha yoga classes and then a class on metaphysics, an attempt to encourage us to flesh out existential questions of how we live our lives and what life means to us. I find metaphysics deeply invigorating and oftentimes during one day I ask myself at least one question in this vein and so the metaphysics classes were absolutely perfect for me. In the evenings we had a meditation session which I loved as I was able to get in tune with my subconscious and free my mind from its regular clutter of (often useless) thought. We discussed many topics on which I feel strongly about; about how we are all one collective infinite consciousness and how instead of believing ourselves divided we should see ourselves as One and tune in to each other and the world around us in order to effect peace and unity. We also discussed the Subconscious Mind and how it can be played with with such concepts as Astral Travelling and Lucid Dreaming. I met some great people there, Lucy from London/Sydney, Ashley from Sydney, Lux from Switzerland, Sebastian from Bath and Rebecca from San Francisco. All really great vibes and all hoping to get in tune with their spirituality.

Anyways, I ended up leaving early as certain aspects were too much for me. I am all for spirituality but I am not for spirituality that becomes almost like religion. Worshipping crystal balls and consulting Oracles is too much, even for an ¨open-minded¨ (at least I THINK I am) person like me. Plus, there were David Icke followers. And most insulting of all, the Oracle told me I needed to CONQUER LUST and have more INTEGRITY in my life. How rude! So I had to leave...

And off I went, back to the colonial city of Antigua which I enjoyed far more this time around than the last. Looking beyond its gringoicity, I was able to enjoy the beautiful ruins and cobbled streets and gorgeous setting amidst volcanoes more acutely this time. In fact, I spent a glorious day in the gardens of an abandoned, ex-covent ruins reading my book with the birds all alone. Absolutely delightful! And a couple of days later, with a farewell to Antigua my good Texan friend Julio and I took leave for our next country, El Salvador.

Volcano eruptions, tropical storms, floods, mudslides, SINKHOLES

Mudslide in San Pedro

It has been a tumultuous past couple of weeks for Guatemala. First Volcano Pacaya, near to the famous, colonial and very touristy city of Antigua unexpectedly erupted killing a journalist and another local. This spread volcanic ash throughout the country reaching Guatemala city and even as far as Lanquin, the home of Semuc Champey. Then a tropical storm hit killing 152 Guatemalans and 100 people were left missing from the landslides. From my experience this entailed three days of utterly unrelenting, heavy and cold rain. I was studying Spanish in San Pedro by Lago Atitlan at the time and can report that every street and was transformed in to a river and every back alley (for San Pedro has many) became a stream. We all spent three days completely drenched and there was no escaping the cold, wet rain. Once the rain let up, we found out that several areas of Guatemala had been affected badly. Floods were common throughout the country and particularly near the capital city where an enormous and unbelievable sinkhole opened as the floor of the city collapsed upon itselfi. Looking like a photoshopped image or indeed a black hole to the underground from a comic book adapted action hero film from Hollywood, the sinkhole has evoked strong reactions from across the globe as to how it could possibly have happened and what loopholes or shortcuts must have been exploited for the city floor to have caved in so violently.

Sinkhole in Guatemala city

More locally, around the lake, the torrential rain resulted in mudslides from the surrounding hills and volcanoes. Houses and business were destroyed as mud seaped thickly in and people were swept with the mud. Some locals suffered the impact of the mudslides more than others and in San Pedro where 25 houses were destroyed, one family were particularly torn apart. The mother and father suffered bad injuries but their young daughter was completely lost to the mudslide and was most likely swept in to the lake. Once the rain had stopped, all the local communities rushed to help. At the site of severe damage in San Pedro, local Guatemaltecas, expats and travellers alike were digging at the sight looking for the body of the girl for the past week. People have also begun digging out the mud from the houses to make them livable again. In the meantime, the displaced Guatemalans are being housed in municipal buildings, churches and schools. The local community have pulled together to provide clothes, food and other amenities for the families. It is really quite touching. Although I spoke to an English girl who has been living in San Pedro for the past two months and is one of the forerunners of the aid project and she tells me that people suspect that the officials and admin have sadly been stealing some of the donated goods from the now homeless people.

Destroyed Spanish school

In Spanish class I discussed a lot of these issues with my teacher. She is local, 24yrs old and has a wicked sense of humour. I learnt most of what I know about local Guatemalan life from my conversations with her. Her uneducated father was made to leave school at 11 by his parents to help provide for his several siblings and as such has been working in the mountain plantations (mainly the coffee fincas) his entire life. He earns, on average, between 40-45Quetzales a day (less than 4quid) and works 6days a week. Her mother spends her time doing work in the home, which is far more strenuous than it sounds. She makes fresh tortillas, salsa, refried beans everyday and cooks the meals, cleans the house and twice weekly will wash the household´s laundry by hand. This is normal life for Guatemaltecas. My teacher is educated and holds a good position for a local San Pedran as she teaches to foreigners. Also the school I was attending was a Cooperative of Spanish schools (and a bit more expensive than other schools in the area) which means that all the money goes to the teachers and their community projects, rather than to a company. The community projects involve sponsoring local poor families by providing weekly groceries, helping to build new homes for families who live in unlivable housing conditions and sponsoring physical education and art teachers for the local schools so the children can have access to a more well-rounded education than they would be able to otherwise. The school also runs a scheme where the students can volunteer at a local Home for the Handicapped which I helped out at too. I learnt however that the school´s future is being threatened as this year it has so far only been able to raise in donations a fifth of the necessary funds required to keep it open.

Mud-filled houses

San Pedro is a fun village for tourists. There is an abundance of schools, hostels, cafes, bars and other activities available for quite cheap. Plus, it is by the magnificent lago atitlan which itself is surrounded by three glorious volcanoes. However the past couple of weeks of consecutive disasters that have ridden Guatemala has overshadowed the country with not only a dark sense of foreboding but a strong and overwhelming energy that things are not quite right. If Guatemala and her people had not been so poverty-stricken to begin with, perhaps these disasters would not have blighted the country so badly. It has definitely been a strange time in my travels as now more than ever, it has been brought home to me that I am very lucky to have been born British and thereby privileged.

Delfino Cortez is a very gentle, very happy and very elderly (in his late seventies) local Guatemalteca who works in the big gardens of my spanish school for six days of the week. He does a beautiful and attentive job of the lush and grand gardens, and all of it is tended to only by himself and without help. He has the kindest face and during breaks of my classes he would seize the opportunity to speak to me and practise his little English and attempt to learn more. The first day I spoke to him he asked me if I was from the States. I told him I was from England which is even further away. He looked at me incredulously and exclaimed that it must be extremely expensive to fly over from there. I told him that I worked very hard just so I could afford it. He replied that in Guatemala everyone works very hard, every day, for most of the week but they still don´t make enough money to take the bus to the neighbouring town. He smiled and shrugged and continued tending to the jamaica rose bush... I think I wept a little inside.

Volcanic ash in Guatemala city

Peace and help for Guatemala,
A x

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

You gotta Belize it...

So after Laguna Bacalar, I made a brief jaunt back to my beloved jungles and waterfalls of Palenque - just to savour a bit more of Mexico before I left my newly crowned Favourite Country in the World. Here I met with my good friend Julio and together we travelled to Belize. Belize made me very happy! The closest that I have ever got to a Caribbean country, Belize did not fail to impress. I really loved it - despite the country's dangerous undertones - and I have resolved to return when I have more money to travel there. Four nights just isn't enough, although it definitely was for my bank balance which choked heavily on Belize's high US Dollar prices.

Reaching Belize territory

We arrived in Belize city on Friday morning but immediately took a water taxi to the island of Caye Caulker. For me, this blissed out island GLOWED. At all times of the day (and night) reggae, reggaeton or some other near variation of the music will be blaring from stalls, homes, restaurants, people's shoulders. And everyone seems to know all the words! I felt SO CHILLED on Caye Caulker! Belizeans here all speak perfect English too... although that is just to tourists. Amongst themselves they speak Creole. Creole sounds utterly brilliant. I overheard several entertaining conversations, including one gentleman on the phone, "Girl, I don't wah hear any of yo stupidness!"

During the daytime, we would go swimming at the island's 'Split', literally where the island split in to two after the last hurricane. Our hostel also lent out canoes and I loved nothing more than paddling out on the calm sea on a canoe. One day we took it to the North side of the split to discover the beaches there... However my favourite time was when we took the canoe out just at sunset and without paddling, just let the boat rock with the gentle waves and sat in silence and let our senses be consumed by our environment as the sun shone awesome colours through the sky, clouds and sea.

One night we went out dancing at the Oceanside Club and as expected, I had one of my favourite nights out during my travels! Belizeans not only know how to dance so rhythmically, but they can also dance at double the speed of the rest of the world! I attempted many times to emulate their shaking and grinding and various floor manoeuvres but unfortunately failed... However in the process of trying, I had the time of my life!

Not all is safe and chilled in Belize though. The first night we arrived, we collapsed in utter exhaustion after our achingly long journey from Palenque. However the next day we were regaled with the story of our fellow hostelites of how they went out that night and got in to a bloody fight involving one of the girls being hit across the head with a two-by-four and gunshots having been fired. Then the night that Julio and myself did go out dancing, we were being hassled by a local guy following us about the dancefloor and touching himself. Disgusted, we left the club and walked back to our hostel only to realise he had followed us home. Thankfully after some time, he left. The next evening the island was alive in fury as it was revealed that a drunk policeman had shot a captive in one of the cells. The local people were gathered outside the police station demanding to know what happened, why it happened and where the policeman was hiding. It was very tense and when I spoke to the locals about it they seemed disturbed, sad and upset that this type of thing had happened again. As we left the island Julio and I were sitting on a bus chatting to a lovely Belizean Menonite when we saw the face of Alex Goff, the same man who had harrassed us that night on the front cover of the newspaper. He was also the same gentleman that was shot by the policeman.

Julio and I rode the rest of the busride to Guatemala in quiet reflection.

Water

Water has the craziest impact upon me. (And no, I am not still harping on about my near-death experience.) The last week I have been travelling with my German warrior princess Sinah. We have been blessed to have had the opportunity to visit a couple of outrageously aesthetically pleasing places! The first being Tulum and the second, Laguna Bacalar.

Tulum is all white sand, turquoise water and absolutely ZERO activity. After god knows how long of strenous partying, the two of us had serious downtime chillaxing by reading novels in hammocks for five days. Two nights were spent in cabanas set deep in the white sand and two in hammocks under the stars. Both sound more romantic and dreamy than they actually are. In actual fact, each morning both myself and Sinah would wake up with our faces caked in sand. It was so windy! And the cabanas were too hot and sweaty and the hammocks too cold and windy! My last night in Tulum in particular was a very difficult night´s sleep... Tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable, cursing the wind, sand blowing in my ears, a multitude of bugs buzzing all around me. It all came to a crux when I heard my head wail ¨I wanna be back home!¨ Right about then was the moment I told myself to positively STFU and took 30seconds to contextualise myself and the fact I was sleeping in a breezy hammock, between two palms, on a white beach on the Caribbean coast, in Mexico, to the sound of the waves crashing, underneath the infinity of stars in the sky. I quickly silenced my whiny thoughts and fell in to a deep, pleasant sleep...

We also went to visit the ruins of Tulum (more ruins!!!) which are impressive but mostly (to me) for their unbelievable location, right up high on a hill with spectacular views of the diamond-sapphire ocean! These Mayans were the clever/lucky bastards.

And after Tulum Sinah and I headed to Chetumal to get to Laguna Bacalar, easily the most stunning lake I have ever witnessed. Freshwater the same colour as the Carribean ocean and with a white sand floor, the lake is calming, serene and peaceful. We met some Mexicans who took us for a ride to visit a particular side of the lagoon where there are no people (and DEFINITELY no tourists) and we paid 25pesos each for a Kayak between two. Sinah and I paddled away over the expanse of the lake... and then found a paradise within a paradise in the form of the lagoon´s on cenote. A kind of sinkpool where we can see the rock formations clearly in the water and swam with fishes. My words do the experience no justice but today was one of my lasting memories of Mexico I can foresee already.

Laguna Bacalar

Feeling utterly content, instead of heading to Belize straight away I have decided to go back to the Palenque jungles. I am not ready to leave this marvel of a country that is Mexico!

Water calms me.

Love x

A Dream

I had a dream that I was on an island in the Caribbean ocean where the sand is white like powdered cocaine, the water is crystalline turquoise and shallow for miles and I´m with the best company I could possibly be in. This lasted maybe 6 days and then I woke up on a bus leaving the island and realised that it was actually all true. The island is called Isla Mujeres (Women Island), the location is just off the Caribbean coast of Mexico by Cancun and the company were my friends Julio, Sinah and Tyler (and a bunch of other awesome people I met.)

Sweaty, bustling Merida failed to impress much save for the pleasant free entertainment one evening in the Santa Lucia plaza there where they were having a Celebration of Maya. Here, Julio and myself were able to walk around the local, pristine University and check out the photography exhibition. After which we sat amongst the local people of Merida as a Mexican woman with a powerful voice sang traditional songs, backed up with her own band to the pleased crowd made up of both the old and young. It was really great and I wondered how often Mexican cities have this kind of free family entertainment on a weekday evening in comparison to cities of the UK.

So after only a couple of nights there we made our way to Cancun via a day trip to Chichen Itza, one of the most impressive of Maya ruin sites. This, having been my (fifth?) site of ancient ruins was still able to leave me in a state of awe - so long as I ignored the hundred tour groups littering my view. Julio and myself took great delight in observing the many iguanas and monitor lizards that had free reign over the pyramids and tried hard to imagine an ancient civilisation clambering up the high, solid structures and playing games in their ball court. It was a really fun day and I realised that maybe such wonders can be better when experiencing them with a friend. (Whereas usually I insist upon such adventures being a solely personal experience.)

We then landed in Cancun, a place which made my stomach physically sick. An absurdly long stretch of ostentatious resort upon resort lining the beach, each trying to outdo the other. American dollars being poured in to this part of the Yucatan, only to go straight back to the International hotel chains. After seeing how the rest of Mexico lives in my last 3 months, I felt utterly uncomfortable as did Julio. And I enjoyed declaring rather loudly how disgusted I was by the disparity of rich and poor in the country, fuelled by apathetic Westerners to the other patrons of my tour bus who were being consecutively dropped off at their respective Hiltons, Meridians and JW Marriots.

Isla Mujeres

Julio and I found a humble hostel to stay in in the centre of town and spent the evening drinking Don Simon above the rooftop terrace with a complete view of Cancun. Upon witnessing the myriad of McDonalds´golden arches arrogantly rising above the city, we resolved to leave Cancun the very next morning for Isla Mujeres where I knew my two good friends, Sinah and Tyler (the wonderful people I had met and who had subsequently looked after me after my accident) from Puerto Escondido.

Reunion with Sinah & Tyler!

So the next day (Saturday 24th April), Julio and I took something of a party boat across the Caribbean sea to Isla Mujeres. This was easily one of the most exciting boat journies of my life! Turquoise waters seen only in postcards and brochures, dolphins swimming with the boat, live music, windswept hair and above all, wonderful company. Landing in Isla, we were both taken aback by the simple beauty of the island.

And here we spent the next 6 days... Swimming in our own part of the ocean, walking along the beach, EATING GREAT FOOD, partying with Sinah (who had got a job in a bar there for the past month) and Tyler and also another couple whom we met from the states, Harlen and Aimee. Two absolute kindred spirits on vacation and with warm hearts and open minds. We all gelled together so smoothly and had a really great time together. Julio and I spent every day together and I feel blessed by his beautiful albeit short friendship. From Austin in Texas, he would not stop HARPING ON about how Austin is a sample of heaven. He also eats phenomenal amounts and is extremely passionate about his food; mealtimes with him were truly an artform. I had so much fun dancing with, eating with, swimming with, swearing at and teasing him, even if I never see him again I will (somehow?!) consider him a friend for life. Saying goodbye to Isla and Julio was very difficult and even now I am in Tulum, arguably Mexico´s best beach, I am still feeling quite tender for both. Isla Mujeres was one of my favourite dreams.

But now here Sinah and I are in Tulum! The same kind of beach as Isla but windier so more waves but also emptier! And sleeping in a cabana set deep in the sand. It is very beautiful and surreal and we are having a lovely, girly time together... Look forward to more days of fun with my German princess.

Peace n that

xxxx