Colonial Antigua, Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Chichicastenago...Natty and Jose Carlos's hospitality in Guatemala City...Journey back home...

Antigua looked exactly like Arequipa, Peru to us. We had paid an extra 8 quetzales for our luggages, we just got them and started to walk around to find a hotel room. We saw a guy on the corner who offered us a room for 13 USD per night, with private bathroom and cable TV. The room was ok, the hotel was centrally located, so we decided to keep the room. After we dropped our stuff, we went out to explore the city. Antigua is an elegant town, most of the Spanish language schools are located there and probably most of the foreigners living in Guatemala lives in Antigua. There is a Central Park (Parque Central) which constitutes the main square of Antigua and all the other streets end there. The streets of Antigua are cobble stoned and quite narrow. There are lots of language schools, nice colonial buildings converted to luxury hotels or lovely restaurants with beautiful patios. One thing which drew my attention was the fountains. Most fountains had ladies who had water running from their nipples:). After we looked around, we decided to have lunch and found an Italian restaurant to eat. Piril and Pamela had pizza and I had mozzarella salad with basil sauce (albahaca). The service in general is quite slow in Guatemala but this time it was worth the wait. Later, we decided to have coffee and entered one cozy looking cafe. The guy there was an American and he had some other Americans there, so he talked so much with them that he forgot to prepare our coffee. As I grumbled a little, he prepared the coffee, but this time the milk he put to the glass came to be an old one, so I got mad! He made the coffee again, French press by the way, as soon as we finished it, we took off and decided to head to the main marketplace where artesanias (handicrafts) are sold!!! I had promised to myself not to buy before Chichi Market, but I bought some stuff! I did not regret though...Later, Pamela left for Guatemala City as she was going to leave for El Salvador the next morning. We came back and took some rest. The next day, we decided to take it easy, look around a little bit, leisurely wandered around and bought a tour for Panajachel and Chichi for 2 days/1 night for 40 USD.

The next day, they came to pick us up from the hotel at 7:00 am. The vehicle was a small one, we all got in and the drive started. Our driver was quite fast and he was not a very careful one when entering the curves, we moved from one end to the other in the minivan constantly. There were many Spanish speakers on the bus, they chatted cheerfully where I listened to my IPOD and tried not to listen to my screaming stomach! After some point on the road, we made a stop to watch the beautiful Lake Atitlan on the highlands of Guatemala. It was a misty look and I really liked it...Finally we arrived in Panajachel and they dropped us to our hotel which was quite clean and had excellent cable TV network. Tired of the motion sickness, I took some sleep before I headed to Lake Atitlan. Piril had some flu, so she stayed at the hotel. In the afternoon, I went out, after a spicy Guatemalteco meal, I headed to one of the boats crossing Lake Atitlan for the largest village around the lake, Santiago de Atitlan. The village is tiny but I took a tictac, a tiny motorcycle thing to go to the top of the village. As I descended from the top, I hardly could stop myself from looking at the beautiful handicrafts. Finally after hard bargainings, I bought two tablecloths and several other souvenirs...I took the last boat for Panajachel. Another interesting is as a tourist, you need to pay more than a local person and it is impossible not to pay it...Anyway, I came back to Panajachel. Panajachel is also quite touristy but at the same time lovely and has its charm. We met with Piril for another Guatemalteco dinner, had something light, had our tequilas and got some breakfast for the next day to Chichi.

The next day we were picked up at 9 am for Chichicastenago (Chichi in short) Market which is set every Thursday and Sunday. It took us nearly 2 hours to reach the market. As soon as we arrived, when we were looking for a bathroom, we happened to enter a great hotel which was probably the house of some baron or duke at some period of history! The hotel was lovely with nice patios, colorful parrots and flowers, though it lacked a public bathroom! We ended up using the public bathroom of a gas station after waiting some 10 mins and paying 1 Quetzal:). Later we dag into the market for some 3-4 hours as there was nothing else to do! As soon as we ran out of all the money we had in our pockets, we quietly waited until the time was up. Later we came back to Antigua after another bumpy journey by the very same great (!)driver. I slept some time, we sat on the front next to the driver, I woke up with the dust from the road construction. After that, we survived from probably 3-4 grave accidents, ugh they drive like hell here!!! Anyway, we were back, I did my backpack carefully, we spent our last night and the next morning we headed to Guatemala City...

Next day was interesting because we were going to go to the house of Natalia, whom we met in Flores a couple days ago. We came to Guatemala City, took a taxi to Natalia’s apartment and easily found it! Natalia greeted us warmly and cooked a Peruvian dish for us, hmm it was yummy...We chatted hours and hours and later we went out for a cup of coffee but we needed an ATM to get money. We tried about 4-5 cash machines which were either not Cirrus Network or lacked money as it was the end of the month!!! Anyway, finally we had some coffee and cookies on the way back and Piril paid them by credit card. We changed some money for the airport taxi with Natalia. In the evening, Jose Carlos came, we chatted long, we showed them how to belly dance, listened to Peruvian and Turkish Music, drank wine and rom...It was sooo nice to exchange our cultures, be able to share a bottle of wine and all the laughters together:). Natalia is pregnant for 5 weeks, so we’ll be waiting for good news about the baby. Jose Carlos wants the baby to be a boy, we all think that it will be a girl, we’ll see...

The next morning, after having such a nice sleep in clean, fresh and soft sheets, I headed to the airport. It was hard to believe, but we were left one single day in this part of the world!...We came to the airport, took our TACA Flight to Mexico City. The plane arrived right on time, we came back to our hotel, Lafayette.

After the last preparations, we had a peaceful sleep and the next day, which was the 2nd of March, we headed to Benito Juarez Airport in Mexico City in the morning at 6 o’clock. It was hard to believe that the trip was over...However, we missed Turkey, our beloved ones and our city itself...We took the first plane to Chicago by American Airlines and after a 4 hour wait, we took the other flight for Istanbul by Turkish Airlines, flight 006. The flight was very nice and smooth, I really enjoyed every single moment of it. Finally we arrived back home on the 3rd of March, 2008 at 11:45 am. Our parents were waiting for us!!! It was hard, but the trip was over...

The statistics of the trip is the next chapter...The next and probably the last chapter...

Belize's Belize City, Caye Caulker and San Pedro...Guatemala's Flores and Tikal...New friendships and Gallo Beer:)

We arrived in Chetumal at 1 pm. The bus station looked very easy, we saw some men selling tickets for Belize City for 100 pesos (10 USD). We bought the tickets and left the hoedoes (backpacks) there. As our stomachs were empty, we decided to go out to look for some food and came across with a Dominos Pizza in the middle of nowhere...We had some chicken which was pretty spicy, in Mexican style. Later we took the bus to Belize City. The bus was an old American school bus, which was practically crumbling...Except for a couple Belizians, the rest was all gringo. We passed through the customs without any problems and entered Belize. The bus was real fun, the Belizian crew on the bus was very nice to us, the soft Caribbean Music was relaxing, the wind blowing through the windows was nice...The highways did not seem very good quality...I saw both English and Spanish on the road signs but it was mostly English. After a bumpy journey, we arrived in Belize City at 5:30 pm...As soon as we arrived there, we got disappointed with the number of homeless people in the town, the tiny size of it, dirty streets, the crumbling ugly buildings, lots of huge cars with polaroid windows, lack of restaurants and closed shops. It looked like one of the smallest towns we saw in Peru or Mexico...After taking a walk around, we got a little afraid of the people staring at us, so we decided to look for some food. The only attraction in the town was the Cruise Ship Port and it was closed. We lost our hope to find a place to have dinner, so we ended up at Brodie’s Supermarket which was full of American products and even magazines...Their money is Belizian Dollars and there is the picture of Queen Elizabeth on the money. We got some feta cheese, some bread, fruit and juice to fill up and decided to watch TV which was practically a US TV with US Channels like ABC,TNT,NBC etc...Our hotel was like an old colonial house, the windows were so sold that all the noise was coming inside and remote control was not working. It is pretty hot there, we decided to visit the islands of Caye Caulker and San Pedro the next day.

We took the speed boat to Caye Caulker and San Pedro for 20 USD. The first stop was Caye Caulker which took about 35 minutes to arrive. The boat trip was pretty bumpy. Later we arrived in San Pedro which is also known as “La Isla Bonita” because of Madonna’s song. It is an island which is practically designed for tourism, everywhere is dotted with hotels and summer resort complexes. Most of the tourists coming to Belize usually go straight to San Pedro or Caye Caulker. The islands are also famous for their long coral reefs (second after Australia) and blue hole which is one of the deepest holes in the world for diving... We were wondering why Belize City is left that ugly and after we saw the islands, we knew the answer...All the investments were done to the islands... Caye Caulker was my second stop. I walked straight to “The Split” which occured after a huge hurricane that split the island into two...At the point where the split occured, people started a new beach club and put the tables and seats into the sea! I decided to swim in that turquiose color wonderful water but the current was amazingly strong. I could not stand still in the water without swimming... If you just stand in the water, the water takes you out to open water within only 5 minutes!!! Even I think I’m a good swimmer, I decided to stay near the beach as it was not a good place to test my swimming skills:). I had a cold Belikin Beer which is their national beer and headed back to Belize City. I bought our tickets for Flores, Guatemala for the next day for 20 USD each.

Our bus for Flores was at 9:30 am but we were told to be there earlier, so we went to the boat terminal at 9:00. Our vehicle was a small one and it was full of gringoes like us! The Belizian – Guatemalan Border was about 3 hours from Belize City. The formalities were easy and we entered Guatemala without any trouble. Flores, the place we were heading was a little island which was located in the middle of Lake Peten. We arrived in Flores, Guatemala at about 2:30 pm and realized the sweet girl sitting in front of us in the bus...Her name was Pamela, she was Argentinian from a German/Italian descent family, 24 years old and traveling Central America for 15 days....She was going to stay at Mayab Hotel, so we decided to try that hotel too. The room cost us 23 USD per night with cable TV and private bathroom as usual...In the evening, Piril stayed in the room and I went out to a restaurant overlooking Lake Peten to have some cold Gallo Beer...The town was very nice, with its cobble stoned narrow streets, lots of shops and restaurants...While we were talking with Pamela, she told us that she bought a tour to Tikal for 300 Quetzales which was worth 40 USD, with lunch, guide and transportation back to Flores...We bought the same tour and decided to go together...

The next day, they came to pick us up at 7:30 and after a short waiting for the other members of our tour at Tıkal Airport, we headed to Tikal. Tikal is one of the largest Mayan Settlements in the middle of a jungle, its weather is pretty humid and hot. Our guide, a Mayan descent, Benedicto said that the temperatures may rise up to 40 C from time to time, but thank God, we did not have such a high temperature. We entered the National Park of Tikal and drove inside the jungle about 10 kms more to get to the entrance of the Mayan Site. Benedicto told us about the trees, plants and animals living in the jungle and told us about the monkeys which jump from tree to tree around. We saw many monkeys, tiny, big, brown, black, babies...They were joyfully jumping from tree to tree...Later slowly we started visiting the temples which were numbered as 1,2,3...They built huge temples in pyramid shapes and some of them were restored by the American and British Mayan Researchers. Finally we saw a huge temple which was overlooking the jungle and without going up to it, one can hardly imagine the site’s location within the jungle...After the tour has ended, we met a Peruvian couple living in Guatemala City and had lunch together. They were very sweet, we chatted on the way back to Flores and later we traveled with Natalia and Pamela together that night to Guatemala City. Jose Carlos, who was the husband of Natalia stayed there for some more company work. We bought the bus ticket from the company ADN which claimed to have great buses but the bus was a Chinese made one and it was not comfortable, besides being a fridge:).

When we arrived in Guatemala City, we said goodbye to Natalia and went to the hostel of Pamela to accompany her. She was going to travel to El Salvador the next day, so we went to pick up her bus ticket and later had a great breakfast together. We had decided to head to Antigua without staying in Guatemala City and Pamela decided to come with us too. We took our backpacks and went to the bus station for Antigua. The bus was a “Chicken Bus” which was an old American school bus and the driver was a psycho who competed with another bus driver on the highway!!!!....Another weird thing which grabbed our attention was the women insisting on sitting on the front row next to us!...Although half of the bus was empty, these women wanted to squeeze their bottoms right next to us and while I fell to sleep at some point, Pamela said ok to one of the insistent women while we drove about 15 mins like this!.... We thought it would be a tradition and just laughed at it!...After praying to survive from that bus, we came to Antigua....

Next chapter: Colonial and beautiful Antigua...Lake Atitlan, Panajachel and Guatemala City...

San Cristobal de las Casas, Palenque Mayan Site, Playa del Carmen and Chichen Itza...

We arrived early in San Cristobal de las Casas, as usual. The bus ride was horrible for an 80 USD deal! We were frozen and suffering from back pain!!! We found a decent hotel for 12 USD per night, which did not have a bathroom door:))) I was desperate about my laundry, as I had had only one clean pair of socks to wear on! The girl downstairs was very lovely, I paid about4 USD for a 2,5 kg load which seemed to be a good deal after a 12 USD self service deal in Salvador, Rio.We had a nice breakfast inside a colonial house and decided to take a walk around. The city is famous for being a nice colonial town as well as being the base for the Zapatistas. Zapatistas fight for the independence and rights of the indigenous people around the area and are not as popular as before now. We went to the main square and saw a nice market place right by the main cathedral of the town. It was a colorful market with small Zapatista dolls (dolls wearing black and Ninja masks!), lots of Che tshirts and souvenirs. Of course we bought several stuff as usual but I got mad when one guy sold me a belt for 100 pesos where I saw the same s.t for 50 pesos. I returned there and asked my money back...He did not give the money back, though I got 20 pesos back after making such a fuss!!!(at least). Afterwards, we had some lunch and decided to visit two famous museums in town, Mayan Mecidine Museum and Na Bolom Hotel-Restaurant-Museum. On the way to Mayan Museum, we saw a barber shop where there are dozens of hair styles and hair cuts, from the front and back which seemed very funny to me...Anyway, the museum was pretty interesting with all the models showing Mayan Traditions. We saw a video about childbearing and it was very similar to Turkish traditions. Also they use rooster for the evil spirits, which is an evil eye in Turkey. The wide use of herbs and different mixtures also seemed very similar. We even closed our eyes and listened to the woman in the video as she talked in Maya, where it sounded very much like a villager lady in Anatolia, Turkey. Finally, we came to a conclusion that there might be some kind of relationship between the Mayas and the Turks, so far as their belief system and medicine at least are concerned...In the afternoon, we bought a tour for one of the most important Mayan settlements, Palenque for 35 USD per person which included transportation, guide, visit to Agua Verde and entrance fee to Palenque. After that, we visited Na Bolom which was the house of a Swedish couple who came and did researches about the area in 1970s. We were behind a German tour group when entering the place, so they did not charge any entrance fees from us!!! Na Bolom means the house of the jaguar, as the jaguar was a holy animal for the Mayans.

The next day, we left early with our bags for the tour. First, we visited Agua Verde which was a cascade very similar to the one in Manavgat,Turkey except its beautiful turquoise color. We spent a quiet hour there and continued to another cascade.

Later we visited Palenque with our guide and learned about the customs of the Mayans. They built large temples and observatories as predicting the weather was very important for them. They believed in moon and sun and devoted people and animals for them in their temples and cenote sagrados (pools where they sacrificed the people). They had a very peculiar architectural style with reverse V shaped arches and atriums or patios, with a pyramid style. Palenque is built inside a jungle (selva) and it was terribly hot and humid. To visit a Mayan site within a jungle was very interesting, though difficult and sweaty! We came back to Palenque which is a dusty and boring town to buy our tickets for Playa del Carmen. We had to make a choice between Playa and Cancun, we looked at the bus prices and got the cheaper deal:)) The bus left at 20:30, we were tired and needed a good shower however got the patience to recover in Playa del Carmen.

We arrived in Playa at 7:30 am, went to choose a hotel, found a nice hotel for 80 USD with clean sheets-towels and working remote control with a dozen cable TV channels. We spent a leisurely day in Playa del Carmen. It is a touristy town but has its own charm. I saw many Americans there having their vacations and everybody talked to me in English...After finding a great buffet breakfast, fed and showered, threw myself to get to see Playa. It is small, there is not many things around to see actually...We bought a tour for Chichen Itza, another Mayan Site which was chosen as one of the new 7 wonders of the world.(I think Tikal is better though!). In the afternoon, we went to the beach to enjoy the Caribbean Sea! I loved the sea, it was very warm and nice...We found a cheaper hotel in the center for 50 USD and decided to move there. We spent a quiet evening, had a nice Mexican meal, had our Coronas and had a good nite´s sleep...

The next day, we were going to go to Chichen Itza, woke up pretty early, left our bags to our new hotel and went to the travel agency to go to our bus. The guy took us in front of some shopping center. We thought it would be good to visit the WC before heading to Chichen Itza, so we asked the fellow, he said 5 mins and we jumped to come back in 5 mins. When we were back, we saw the guy leaving, we thought he would be back but he never showed up!!! We were planted right there:(((( Well, sure we went back to the agency, the guy blamed us for being late and yelled at us for being late and uneducated!!!! With the hope to get the money back, we left, found a bus to Valladolid first, then changed to Chichen Itza and made it there. At the carpark, we saw our bus in which we were supposed to be aboard! I talked to the driver and we decided to meet up at 16:00 right by the road junction. I was desperate about recovering our money from the stupid travel agent, so I thought at least we could use the transportation service back. We visited Chichen Itza in 45 mins!!! It was not as big as Palenque, so we were not very impressed with the site. The large pelota game field was interesting as well as sacred pools and the main temple...Later we told the situation to the guide and he was surprised too...We went to a nice place with the group where was like a sacred pool and some people swam there...We were still upset and nervous after all this mess happened, so just looked around and had some coffee. When we came back to Playa, the guide took us to the office and the stupid guy who left us paid the money back to us, deducting the used portion of the services... He looked like he pulled himself together within a few hours after we left him!!! After having our money, we had a nice Mexican feast and happily went back home...We were ready to move on to Belize City, however first we needed to go to Chetumal, which is the border town with Belize...

Next> Belize City, San Pedro, Caye Caulker and Flores-Tikal Guatemala...