Via Coban back to Antigua

HI there! It´s been a while but ooh I´ve been so busy these weeks. Had good fun, saw a lot of nature and ended up at the beach South-Nicaragua in the rustic fishingplace San Juan del Sur. Tomorrow I´m heading southwards to Costa Rica.

After Livingston, I went to Coban in the middle of Guatemala. The most beautiful springs on earth in Semuc Champey, are next to this place. We spent a day there exploring the area, swimming and climbing. In Coban we met a nice man who just started a hostel over there, we had such a good time with his friendly family and could practice lots of Spanish. The strange thing was, that for unknown circumstances the temperature went down to about 1 degree Celcius! A big problem for many people, especially for the ones that are used to sleep on the streets. As you can see on the picture we had to use our bed-poncho to have a bit of a warm breakfastmoment.

Stefany´s friends (pic: me with the ´homemade´ orange), very comfortable and very nice, here I met some ´Dutchies´ that live in the same street, inviting us for dinner, movies and rides to town. My last night with Stefany was also here because she had to go to San Jose where her job at an educationalAfter that we spent a weekend close to Antigua in the house of radiostation was waiting. And ofcourse, I had to move on as well to Nicaragua. More about that later!

The Stars in Tikal

The experience I´ve been wanting to share with you is my visit to Tikal, the ancient Maya site in the dense jungle of North Guatemala. In many ways a special experience, and not only for the fascinating history of the Mayas or the starry night in a hammock.

When we arrived at 6 in the evening, it turned out that the Park Tikal was closed for visitors. The reason? All the presidents of Central America were there at that moment, making lots of noice with their big helicopters and leaving no space for others (seems logical concerning the fact that Tikal sizes only 576 km2). For Stefany and me that wasn´t a problem, cause we would stay overnight to see sunrise at Tikal the next morning. So we took our time to explore the jungle, meet many mosquitos and admire the ´grotesk´ arrival of the presidents. At 21h ´en punto´ the ligths went out in our hotel and with some others we climbed up a roof to watch the stars and drink a beer. The howling monkeys, the snoring insects, the fireflies leaving fluorescent traces made it a real jungle experience. Incredible!

At 4 o clock in the morning we jumped out (ahum...) our hammocks, ready for sunrise. Our enthusiasm was only a little bit tempered by the fact that Stefany left her contact-lenses inside the locked up hotel. The attempt to break in didn´t work so imagine me walking through the jungle, while it´s raining, while it´s VERY dark, with a girl hanging on my arm that can´t see a bit of all the impressive things we pass by... Around 6 it got lighter fortunately and there we sat, on top of a 65 meter-high-pyramid, watching sunrise in a red-black sky above the Guatemalan rainforest with it´s majestic Maya-temples. The rain started again, making the whole even more absurd, eery, cool, I cannot find the word. (Stefie still didn´t have her contact-lenses so we made an extra hour of walking back to the hotel in the pooring rain, remember the pic?)

Okay, are you still tuned? I want to keep this weblog short, but it doesn´t work this time. Don´t sayI didn´t warn you! There we go then. The Mayan civilization is the oldest after the Greeks and the Egypts. The buildings at Tikal have been built between 4 BC and the 850 AD by the population of the Mayas in Tikal (100-200.000 people). This highly civilized culture was at its peak between 200 and 850 AD. After it, they mysteriously abandoned Tikal. According to our guide Giovanni, this had to do with environmental issues. Many dry years, infertile ground afters years of exploiting the soil for agriculture made the Mayan´s desperately sacrificing more and more people to their gods in trade for rain and life. They even sacrificed the king, but even that didn´t help.

From Tikal and other Maya'cities in the area, Mayas spread over the country and divided up in many submayan cultures with all their own practices, symbols and languages (that are in fact so different that different Maya'villages right now don´t understand eachother when not speaking Spanish!) It´s only after the arrival of the Spanish they start to make their famous clothing-handcraft. The name Maya itself also comes from the Spanish, who were answered the word ´Mayap´- ¨I don´t understand¨ - by these indigen habitants of Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize and Honduras. Later they mixed up with Aztecs and other native inhabitants of Central America. The Ladino´s in Guatemala are a mixture of Spanish and Maya´s, having a higher social status than the generally poor, struggling, non employed Maya´s. This is a big inequality in Guatemala.

As mentioned, the Mayas sacrificed people and had more crual practices, like killing a non maya by surrounding him with a huge group, throwing spears. Or the ´meso america ball game´, a combination of football and basketball, where not the looser but the star, the winner was murederd by sacrifice. They only wanted to give the best they had to their gods, so it makes sense doesn´t it?

Interesting is the theory of guide Giovanni about the origin of the May´s. According to him, they come from Asia. Similarities in looks on the outside but there´s more. The tailbone of both groups seem to have a bluegreen spot just above it. Furthermore the pyramids in for instance Cambodja look very much alike the Mayan pyramids. Before the Mayans came in central america there was lots of natural problems in asia like earthquakes, storms etc. So they went to tranquil central america where non of the old Maya ruins were ever violated by nature.

History is so simple.

Still alive in Livingston

Hello! Greetings from Livingston, West Guatemala at the Carribean coast, only to be reached by taking a boat over the Rio Dulce. A quiet village where in earlier days the slaves from Africa arrived which resulted in a very colourful town of Garifuna´s, Maya´s and ladino´s. The Garifuna´s are a minority in Guatemala, for the population consists mainly of Maya´s and Ladino´s - a mix of Maya´s and Spanish people. The Rastafari is all around in Livingston.. relaxed atmosphere, music everywhere, streetlife till late at night. We were in a Garifunabar and enjoyed a nice show with african girls dancing, one of them asked me to join.. so I did.. was very funny! and scary :)

And what I loved very much... to see the sea! What´s really too bad though, is that the the beaches are not very beautiful. They´re small and there´s lots of trash, especially flipflops and bottles and other plastic rubbish (everything that floats). It seems the water is rising, so the beaches get smaller. Furthermore most countries at the Carribean don´t have well functioning ´trash management´, so it keeps piling up especially because the populations are growing rapidly. We made a nice walk of about 5 hours yesterday to waterfalls where we swam. ´We´ are my travelcompanion
Stefanie, Ana from the US and two Spanish guys Jordi and Jose. We spoke lots of Spanish the last days for the guys don´t speak English, I´m getting more and more comfortable with it. We met them at a ecological (VERY basic..) hostel at Rio Dulce, in the middle of the jungle where we have been kayaking, walking, swimming and visiting a developmental schoolproject. The picture at the right is in the middle of the jungle, while Stefany and I are soaking wet from head to toe.. Sunrise at Tikal was great and we experienced the rainforest in its true ´sense´.. later more about this. Bye!

Dansen op de vulkaan

O WOW.. this weekend I literally danced on a vulcano...

it was such an amazing experience.. climbing the vulcano Pecaya, we approached the lava at two meters distance. Meanwhile, we could not see further than 10 meters because it was so cloudy. It smelled like a bige fireplace. We could only HEAR our guide shouting ´this way, this way´ and not see him. It was appr. 50 degrees and we saw the boiling lava under our shoes - which nearly melted. Can you imagine it felt like being in a Lord of the Rings-kind of movie?

Of course, at the end we threw in ´our precious´ and saved the world! (If anyone has got the lyrics of the song 'Dansen op de vulkaan, I would be happy to receive it!).

Right now it´s Wednesday the 15th and I am in Flores, North Guatemala. Last Monday I left Antigua and Stefanie and I stayed in this little city Flores for a day to relax, read and swim in the lake. In about two hours we go to Tikal, one of the most impressive Maya-ruinsites in the world. A unique place because it´s in the middle of the jungle. ¡Adios!

La vida en Antigua

¡HOLA A TODOS! Finalmente una otra historia de Guatemala para ustedes. Don´t be afraid, I won´t change to Spanish already.. even if I wanted to.. My Spanish improves by the day but I have to work hard for it. The combination of this language course in the morning with Salsa-classes in the afternoon is very good. Mind and body are very satisfied :)

LAST WEEKEND I went to Lago Atitlan with some people I met here. San Pedro was the place were we found a hotel. This is some sort of old hippie-place with lots of places to go out and tjill.. so we did. This place is like Antigua situated between volcanos, but much more isolated from the rest of the world. The best way to get there is by boat and it´s clear that the western people that live there (a minority still) don´t have much to do but smoking pot, drinking beers and juggling with fire ,) We stayed in a nice hostel with great view (see the pic) and swam in the lake. Like Antigua and I guess much more places in Guatemala the people here are very ´happy´ and colourful religious, from Saturday to Sunday we heared them sing in one of the many churches. Texts like the one you see on the picture (Jesus is the Lord) are very common here.

LIFE IN ANTIGUA is good. I did make the plan anyhow to leave this place next Monday with Stephanie to explore more of Guatemala and I´m looking forward to it! I´ll give you a little impression of the daily life. I wake up around 6 in the morning because by then it´s very light outside and the Guatemal girls that work here, Anna and Christi (sisters) make lots of noice when they start their working day. It´s very nice to have the chance to live and learn with them - Mayas and only Spanish-speaking girls. On the picture you see we gave them a map of the world. Their first question was ´what´s the blue?´. They´re very mature although they´re younger than most of us, I think mainly because they have lots of responsibilities for their family. I´ve been invited to a ´real´ Maya-wedding by a friend of them, but unfortunately I´ll be away by then. Christi is very sweet, a few minutes ago she came to me and gave me a little bag with Guatemaltecan Worriedolls for good luck.

Usually I have some breakfast on the roof in the sun and do my last homework. Around eight we walk to school were we have classes till 12 o clock, with a little coffeebreak that gives us time to exchange the latest gossips in town – and believe me, after some weeks in this small place everybody behaves likes he or she has been here forever. The school is on a picture at the left, it´s beautiful.

My teacher is very dear to me already, this is Blanca (see pic). She takes me everywhere and tells sooo many story´s that I normally would never hear. For instance, did you know that because children have breast-feed until 2,5 years over here, the mothers have to think of a little lie to get the kids to eat normal food? They put rice on their breasts, so it looks like there are worms with the purpose that the kids don´t like it anymore.

I have been working in a school, playing with little kids that cannot go home for different reasons. It´s very funny to talk with little kids that give their best to correct me when I speak bad Spanish. QUE VAMOS HACER???? screamed one of the girls to me after I asked four times what she was saying. I will never forget how to say ´What are we going to do?´ in Spanish again..

Right now I´m going out with two housemates, Minke and Marlijn, for cubas libre. Tomorrow I go with my teacher to a museum in Jocotenango, to see how coffee and clothing is made in Guatemala.

¡Adios!