Tikal Like I said in the Mexico entry, getting to Tikal had been a pain in the royals. Transportation combinations are really awkward and there's two borders to cross on top of that (Belize, in and out). So when I finally arrived on the 24th of December 2004 to the twin town of Flores / Santa Elena (they are virtually together), I was absolutely knackered. Plus, as I was to realize pretty quickly, they are both an uninteresting, dusty, uneventful pit hole. The very only reason as of why travelers come here is because it's a natural jump point to the nearby Mayan ruins of Tikal. Guatemala wasn't looking very good so far. I had not seen such a poverty-stricken country since Cambodya: roads are barely paved, brashes and rubbish piled up on the sides of the streets, houses looking about to collapse any minute, etc. It's no surprise that over 50% of the Guatemalan population live under the poverty level designated by the UN. But, overall, the persistent feeling I had here in Guatemala is of un-safety: gun-holding violent crime is not uncommon here and highway robbery (trucks blocking the highway assaulting tourists-filled buses) does occur. I was maybe paranoid or something, but I seldom went out at dark unless strictly necessary, and I always carried a couple of US$10 notes in case I was robbed in the street. I dunno, what can I say, I just didn't feel comfortable walking alone in the streets, and that I am afraid was a joy-killer during my entire stay in this country. Alright, personal paranoia aside, I will now tell you guys how I spent my 2004 Christmas day exploring the mother of all Mayan ruins: the once super power Tikal. Indeed, Tikal had probably been the most influential Mayan city of its time and reigned above the rest for centuries. Unfortunately, and since tourism is nowhere near as present here as in Palenque or Chichen Itza, the restoration works have been quite less effective. On top of that, Tikal is placed right in the middle of the Guatemalan jungle and thus it's been literally swallowed by it to the extent that some temples have been isolated from the rest and you can only catch a shy glance of them over the tree tops. I cannot stress enough how thick the rainforest is in this area (pictures bellow left) and how voracious mosquitoes get: you walk down a cleared up narrow path through the jungle and as soon as you stop still to take a photo, a swarm of hungry mosquitoes eat you up within 10 seconds so badly that you are forced to give up on the photo and resume moving. Dangerous insect-delivered diseases such as malaria and dengue are a reality here and you don't wanna mess around with them; malaria for example can become fatal and there's no vaccination against it. There are prevention tablets, but they are only 70% effective, so there's still some risk.
But, on the bright side, being so deep into the jungle allowed me to see one of the most wonderful birds in the world, the rainbow-kissed toucans, a full blown-out explosion of bright colors. Bewildering pretty! I couldn't get a clear shot with my shitty camera. Sorry guys, you'll have to come down here yourselves or browse an encyclopedia. I also saw a horde of a weird animal half monkey, half cat, half marsupial (picture on the right). I don't know it's name, but they ganged in a group of around 30 individuals. Luckily I didn't encounter any jaguar or black panther hehe. There are still a handful of them alive in the Guatemalan jungle, about to disappear though due to poachers and habitat-invasion by humans.
Alright, the ruins themselves are dominated by the very impressive Grand Plaza, a rectangular square featuring two twin pyramids facing against each other. The pyramids differ to those in Palenque or Chichen Itza in that they are steeper and with a narrower base, like if they had squeezed the main pyramid in Chichen Itza by the sides pushing it up upwards. It's really cool the sight of the two pyramids staring defiantly at each other, like in a wild west gun-duel.
This Mayan town is too small for the two of us, cowboy...	I agree, may the bullets speak... Bang! Bang!
One as seen from the top of the other one. A water well was placed in the middle of the plaza	Hehe a Mayan family gathered up for a pic. Please take notice of their traditional costumes
There are several other temples in Tikal other than the Grand Plaza, but they have been engulfed by the surrounded jungle. One of the most interesting ones is called The Lost World, upon which you may climb for a general lookout over the jungle you will be unlikely to forget any time soon. From there, you can see a bunch of temples absorbed and merged up with the jungle, struggling upwards to take a breath from the suffocating forest. The picture bellow shows a small frame off a global 360 degree overview. Here you can see two temples barely peaking over a sea of dense foliage. I reckon the entire site will be completely cocooned by the jungle and lost forever within few centuries. Hurry up guys to check Tikal out by yourselves before it's too late!
Zoomed up	It reads "Danger crocodile". For your own sake, you better be able to read Spanish here...
By the way, and just for the records: Tikal was the natural set chosen in 1977 as the rebel base for George Lucas' Star Wars. I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. It was a very dark day covered by thick, gray, leaden clouds so the light wasn't optimum for picture-taking.   Well, with Tikal I had concluded the Mayan Trail. There are many many more sites to visit like Tulum or Coba, but Palenque, Chichen Itza and Tikal are the three most representative ones of that civilization, so I decided to tick it off the list and move on. I took a 10 hours bus down into the center of Guatemala to the capital, Guatemala City, and my whole stay there lasted... less than an hour. I flagged down a taxi at the bus station, the driver drove me around for 20 minutes, I got shitless scared of the extremely dodgy look of the town and told him to drive right back to the bus station to get the fuck outta there. I had been warned by other travelers that Guatemala City is indeed rough with gun-held robbery being daily business, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw. You know, call me a pussy if you like, but the entire city looks more less the way the kinkiest neighborhood in your home town would look on the final Judgment Day, with the skies falling under an apocalyptic rain of fire and ashes. Ok, fair enough, I might have gotten carried away here, but you get my point. I mean, I have been to other non-award-winning capitals such as Jakarta (Indonesia) or Phnom-Penh (Cambodya), but those two are Barbie-land kinder-gardens compared to this one, so I couldn't gather my own shit together quick enough on my way out through the back door. This is the first place in my entire trip that I strictly and categorically recommend to not go at all. So I gave Guatemala City the mighty middle finger and got a bus to the colonial town of Antigua, epicenter of the Spanish settlement in Center America during the XVI and XVII century. Ugh, I still shiver at the thought of Guatemala City...
Antigua 50 km west of Guatemala, Antigua is a completely different story. Reminiscent of San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico), Antigua is a cool and touristy mid-sized town with one of the best colonial architecture in Central America due to its acute importance to the Spanish crown back in the day when Pedro de Alvarado was claiming the newly discovered land of Guatemala for the further glory of his majesty Carlos V. Antigua had served as the Spaniards' main stronghold ever since its foundation in 1543 until the tragic earthquake of 1776 after which Guatemala City took over as capital. In fact, Antigua has been rebuilt a number of times after being razed by consecutive seismic catastrophes and probably losing some of its original splendor in the process.
The one thing you cannot miss as you arrive to Antigua is the enormous volcano towering skywards. Moreover, Antigua is set in a valley amid four volcanoes, one of them -the Pacaya volcano- still active. Barely few years ago, climbing the Pacaya volcano was a no-go as there was a high risk of getting your ass ambushed by bandits. Fortunately, and since Antigua is probably the country's number one tourist attraction, a tourist police corp has been assigned to the area escorting all those hiking up the volcano. The last hour of ascension is a killer because the loose volcanic gravel keeps you from advancing at normal speed. Anyway, I eventually reached the crater ring (very cold and foggy up there), peeped inside, and I saw orange-hot magma for the first time in my life, burping out small flaming boulders about. There is this 10 meters-high cone within the crater ring and, at the top of such cone, the exhaust hole. Picture on the right. By the way, this volcano violently erupted a couple of years ago.
This is Antigua's set, right at the base of the active volcano I climbed atop
The volcano can be seen from every point in town	You see?
I spent three peaceful days here in Antigua. It's an interesting destination to slow down a tad and relax about admiring its architectural qualities and dinning at its multiple restaurants. However, I sort of befriended this old local lady and I would drop by her place every evening to have dinner. For as little as one or two euros she would stuff me up with local home-made food, which usually involved some meat, a side-dish of guacamole, a side-dish of a frijoles porridge (mashed black beans) and few corn tortillas. I confess being a devoted culinary-explorer hehe. They say that the quickest way to a man's heart is through his belly, so I guess this 70 years old madam should become my fiancee! Anyway, let me show you some random pictures I took as I'd walk Antigua's streets.
Iglesia -church-de la Merced
A man selling oranges	Traditional Spanish patio
After three days in Antigua, I moved higher up in the Guatemalan highlands to spend the New Year's eve at the Lake Atitlan. I had heard wonders of its natural beauty, so I figured it would be suitable to wave good-bye year 2004 there. It's been a very special year indeed for me, having been traveling up and down the planet and stuff. I foresee year 2005 being very much more conventional, which is not a bad thing in itself either. We shall see... as Queen had eloquently put it, the show must go on!
Lake Atitlan The geological roots of the lake Atitlan are most interesting. It was a salad bowl-shaped valley right in the middle of few surrounding volcanoes. These volcanoes would deposit their magma-pourings into such valley. Millennia upon millennia later, the ungodly weigh of the solidified magma finally proved too much for the ground, which consequently gave in. Water filled the hole up and the rest is history. There are a number of towns laid by the shore connected by boat-transportation. The most popular is Panajachel (known by locals as Pana), which has become the main tourist-orientated of all due to its unsurpassed views over the lake. The glorious Atitlan here displays its full punch, making of it a heaven for amateur photographers like moi. Somehow, my index finger gained control over the rest of my body because I just couldn't stop it from pounding the camera button away furiously. Fortunately, and for your viewing pleasure, my index finger knows its shit (pictures bellow).
Two volcanoes staring at Panajachel from the distance Boat sailing across the lake Sunset is something you do not want to miss
Pana's main drag is a shameless feast of handicraft stalls, internet cafes, budget restaurants and street vendors offering hand-made cloths, necklaces, colorful t-shirts and the rest of it. Most of the handicraft vendors are of Mayan roots who make a living entirely out of tourism. Something I had noticed is that Mayan locals are not very keen on interacting with foreigners. Just for the hell of it, I attempted a couple of times to engage in a unsubstantial chit-chat with a few of them, and every time they didn't really put any effort to chat back with me. I don't know if it's a language issue (Spanish is their second language, being a Mayan dialect their first) or they simply are sort of a closed society like what I had noticed with Chinese villagers few months ago. I am not saying that they are unfriendly nor rude, but I personally didn't have much luck communicating with them to a closer level other than the typical sale approach. Pana as a whole is obviously aimed to tourists, specially americans as there's plenty of them here. So, while the town and its amazing lake vistas are certainly worth the visit, it feels too cheesy and un-eventful for my taste. At the end of the day, I have been 10 months traveling around the world already, so I have become a bit more demanding than that. So on the 31st of December 2004 I walked down to the docks and jumped into one of those boats circling the lake about. Twenty five minutes later I got off at the smaller but more charismatic village of San Pedro de la Laguna. San Pedro's docks - I like this pic's composition
San Pedro is an interesting beast: In one hand, it's the typical mayan village with locals dressed in their colorful traditional costumes, harvesting coffee off the nearby hills and mothers carrying their children in a cloth wrap-up hanging on their backs. In the other hand, it's become a hideout of hippies and bohemians; Temporary shelter for wandering souls gathered up in brotherhood communities for the lack of ties with their respective countries; Meeting point for both backpackers doing the Central America trail and for young Guatemalans eager for a weekend party... Well, enough of second-rate literature, you've gotten my point. San Pedro is very similar to what Dahab (Egypt) had looked like when I first visited it eight years ago, or what the legendary Kho Samui (Thailand) or Goa (India) had probably been during the marihuana-distorted 60s and 70s. Being New Year's eve, I asked a guy selling hand-made leather necklaces in the street (who turned out to be Spanish like me!) if there was any party going on for the night. Surely enough there was, so I had a much-needed shower and headed down there at 10 pm. It was sort of a small club by the lake shore. As the clock ticked closer to the midnite deadline, the party began to set alite with some live band playing and the first rounds of drinks being served. At midnight, everybody wished "Feliz Ano Nuevo", "Happy New Year" or a blurry mix of the two to everyone around and all of a sudden another band started to perform a cool show of brazilian percussion music, you know, with bongos, drums and stuff. Very fast paced and very Caribbean-flavored. And so everyone merrily joined in and so I met Karen (from Holland but of Malaysian roots) and Juan Pablo (from Guatemala) with whom I spent the rest of the evening. I had an ass-kicking time! Welcome in, year 2005!
I spent two more days here in San Pedro, mostly hanging out with Karen sun bathing at the docks (where locals wash themselves with soap) or playing the scavenger's hunt. The game was organized by the guys at her guesthouse and six teams signed up for it. Basically, the organizers had hidden 12 consecutive riddles all around San Pedro. Upon solving out one riddle, you'd figure the location where the next riddle would be dug in, and so on. Well, Karen and I scored a less-than-proud last position, finishing the 12 riddles like two hours behind the rest of the groups hahaha! oh, and as a consolation prize, we got a tin of spicy sardines which were not bad at all, mind you. As I forked my way down the tin, one of the girls said eyes-wide-open in disbelief: "I can't believe you like that shit". Well, I did indeed, sort of... After the game, we all enjoyed a tasty barbeque and a cold beer at the rooftop. I was hungry as a wolf after running up and down San Pedro in search for the bloody riddles! Picture on the right: Karen and I. Just a side note: the waitress at the restaurant hosting the BBQ was a friendly Spanish girl called Rocio who told me that her wages are 5 Quetzals (50 cents of a euro) per hour. That more less amounts to a total of less than 100 euros/month full time. That should clue you in as far as the tight purchasing capacity of those living in rural Guatemala.	San Pedro is set all the way up a steep hill   Coffee grains drying up on the sun
View of the lake from San Pedro   Karen goofing around between two chicken buses. The chicken buses are reconverted old US school buses that are now used by Guatemala's public transportation network
And that's about it really. On the 3rd of January I backtracked all the way San Pedro - Panajachel - Antigua on my way towards Copan, a small town right behind the Honduras border famous for the nearby Mayan ruins. So the next day early in the morning I finally crossed the overland pass into a whole new country to explore: Honduras.
Dancing the New Year's eve away by the pulse of brazilian percussion music at the remote lake of Atitlan, in the Guatemalan Highlands, proved definitely being an unusual way of spending such a traditional date. I had a good time there in San Pedro.
The views of the Lake Atitlan from any of the settlements by its shore are just amazing! Antigua, with its colonial architecture and its volcano-climbing facilities, is worth a few days in itself Guatemala is a very cheap country. Small money lasts a looooong run Tikal's Grand Plaza with its twin pyramids facing each other is a pretty cool sight, despite the fact that everything else has been almost lost to the jungle
Guatemala, specially if venturing away from the touristy main spots, didn't feel safe to me which waters down the traveling experience because you are safety-concerned 24/7. At least that was my case The capital, Guatemala city, is a dodgy pit-hole with little of interest to offer. Stay well away I wished I had had a bit more of time to give Guatemala a deeper bite, but I just didn't have it so my whole stay felt a bit rushed up