Well we are now in Playa Del Carmen which is a beach town built for Yanks to visit and feel like they've never left home. Kind of like Cancun but a bit smaller I guess. Maccas, Starbucks, Walmart, it's all here. It's also unbelievably hot. Step outside for 5 mins and you are soaked in sweat. Our hotel room has a small overhead fan that gives little in the way of relief and last night, neither Craig or I got much sleep. It's just too damn hot!!! That said, the beach is very nice. It has very fine grains of sand. An important attribute of a good beach.
Over the last week and a half or so, we've made our way through Guatemala and Mexico, seeing 3 different Mayan ruins sites. Chichen Itza, Palenque and Tikal all got a look-in. Afterwards, the judges (all 2 of them) conferred, voted and judged Tikal to be the winner! The reason being that it was wedged deep in the jungle and that it's like taking a bushwalk to see the various ruins. We had to get up at 3am in order to catch a bus that would get us there before sunrise. We then climbed up one of the ruins so that we were sitting looking out over the forest canopy. The tour guide made us all shut our mouths for about 10 mins so we could look and listen and watch the clouds float over a couple of other temple/pyramids poking up above the trees and hear the howler and spider monkeys calling out to each other and the birds waking up. It was pretty awesome. It didn't have people trying to sell you a cheap piece of mayan pottery probably made in China and it didn't have massive crowds. So it won hands down. The other two sites were definitely also pretty amazing too though.
The more time we've spent in the heat of Central America, the more I have become aware of a disturbing custom. Most people deal with standing outside in the oppressive heat by telling each other how hot it is, maybe waving a fan or drinking a cold drink etc. However, for middle-aged men with large pot bellies, the custom appears to be to hike your t-shirt up and over your gut in order to air it out. I've seen it time and time again. The t-shirt just sits there, perched above the gut, in no danger of falling down, as the dude proudly displays his so-called "roof above the tool-shed". I HAVE SEEN ENOUGH BIG GUTS PROTRUDING BOLDLY OUT FROM UNDER T-SHIRTS TO LAST ME A LIFETIME!!!!!
Ok, felt good to get that out of my system.
On Saturday, Craig and I go our separate ways. He's off to New York and I'm off to LA. After 3 months of travelling together, I'm not sure if that's enough distance between us but it's a start. ;) Nah, it's been a lot of fun but I think we are both ready for the next part of our holiday. I'm hoping to get to Las Vegas and also San Francisco in the next two weeks before I then head over to London to see my brother and also my parents who will be visiting at the time. It'll be like a mini family reunion and I'm really looking forward to it.
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Flores, Guatamala
They are kicking me out of this internet cafe. We are in Flores. It is cool.
I've added some new photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/damien.evans/Holiday2007
I've added some new photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/damien.evans/Holiday2007
Monday, 16 July 2007
Guatemala City
Yesterday we left Copan and sat in an overcrowded minibus for 6 hours. The bus company was not the most organised. They overbooked which meant someone ended up having to be dumped on a different bus company who didn´t really want her plus about 20 mins into the journey someone´s backpack which was strapped to the top of the bus started falling off and would have gone completely if a couple of people hadn´t stuck their arms out the windows to hang on while the driver pulled over.
Unfortunately we´ve ended up in a bit of a dodgy part of town in Guatemala City. The hotel we are in has it´s front door locked at all times and we take most of our money out of our wallets when we head outside. That said, if we stick together and only head out during daylight hours we should be right. Walking around this morning looking for the bus station was certainly interesting. As well as bus ticket out of here, all we wanted was a place that would serve a cup of coffee with milk. No-one here has milk! I saw enough cows in trucks on the way here so how is it possible they don´t have a milk or even the ever-popular "powdered milk substitute"? Maybe in the nicer parts of town you can get milk. This place feels grimy, old and has many, many people who look like they are barely surviving.
We had hoped to catch Shrek 3 at a cinema somewhere today but it appears that the movie cinema is only open in the morning. Maybe because it´s a Sunday. Hard to say. Anyway, we get out of here tomorrow morning on a hopefully nice bus which will take us to Tikal so we can see some more Mayan ruins.
While I will miss Copan and the family I stayed with, my bowels are celebrating (quietly!) being out of there. The food wasn´t always in agreeance with them. Hopefully they will have a better time of it from now on. :) Yeah, a few notes on bowels had to happen sooner or later. Very much looking forward to being in a place where I can drink the tap water. Only a couple of weeks to go before that´s possible as that´s when I reach LA in the States.
Unfortunately we´ve ended up in a bit of a dodgy part of town in Guatemala City. The hotel we are in has it´s front door locked at all times and we take most of our money out of our wallets when we head outside. That said, if we stick together and only head out during daylight hours we should be right. Walking around this morning looking for the bus station was certainly interesting. As well as bus ticket out of here, all we wanted was a place that would serve a cup of coffee with milk. No-one here has milk! I saw enough cows in trucks on the way here so how is it possible they don´t have a milk or even the ever-popular "powdered milk substitute"? Maybe in the nicer parts of town you can get milk. This place feels grimy, old and has many, many people who look like they are barely surviving.
We had hoped to catch Shrek 3 at a cinema somewhere today but it appears that the movie cinema is only open in the morning. Maybe because it´s a Sunday. Hard to say. Anyway, we get out of here tomorrow morning on a hopefully nice bus which will take us to Tikal so we can see some more Mayan ruins.
While I will miss Copan and the family I stayed with, my bowels are celebrating (quietly!) being out of there. The food wasn´t always in agreeance with them. Hopefully they will have a better time of it from now on. :) Yeah, a few notes on bowels had to happen sooner or later. Very much looking forward to being in a place where I can drink the tap water. Only a couple of weeks to go before that´s possible as that´s when I reach LA in the States.
Monday, 9 July 2007
Copan Update
Well we've been in the town of Copan for a week now and it's going well. The family that I'm staying with are very nice, cook me tasty food (anything from pancakes to enchiladas etc) and sometimes I can even understand what they are saying to me. No-one speaks english so it's tricky at times. Actually, the mum of the house, Esmeralda, is very good at speaking slowly and simply so I can usually get the gist of what she's saying. The other person I talk to a bit is young Carlitos who is 4 years old and doesn't seem to mind that I only understand a little of what he's saying. It sure doesn't stop him from saying plenty! I'm sure I got told a fair bit about the new Fantastic Four movie the other day and later he explained in depth to Craig and I how to make a watch out of plasticine but my ability to reply with anything sensible is not great. Listening to me speak in the past tense is at times painful I'm sure as huge delays ensue as I scan the depths of my brain for what tense I am aiming for, how I need to tweak it just right and then I spit it out. You can definitely hear the cogs turning! I need more practice.
The setup here is pretty good. I've got a bedroom of my own with a bathroom and a tv that has a good number of cable tv shows including CNN in english plus Simpsons and Family Guy in either spanish or english. Craig tends to drop by in the evening so that we can watch the soccer as the Copa America competition is on right now. Last night we watched Chile get spanked by Brazil. Carlos, time to barrack for Peru!
The Spanish classes are pretty good and go for four hours in the afternoon. The mornings are free time and are usually spent keeping out of the heat, doing some homework etc. Yesterday, being the weekend, Craig and I went to Macaw Mountain which is a bird sanctuary close to town. We saw awesome coloured macaws, very cool toucans plus owls and other birds who were a notch down on the coolness scale from the macaws and toucans but still worthy of a bit of a look. I took photos but the pc I'm using doesn't seem to have a usb connection so I'll load them up another time.
This morning I went to see the Mayan ruins which are also just outside of town. They were pretty impressive. It's thought that the civilisation died out in the area because the population got too large and the environment they were living in couldn't handle all the deforestation and other general havoc they subjected it to. Crops failed, not enough food was produced etc etc. I guess they didn't have Live Earth concerts back then.
The mosquito population here is looking much healthier than they were when I arrived and I'm taking a fair bit of credit for that. This morning I killed a mozzie dining on a little "liquid Damo" (as they like to call it) and I swear he was as large as Norm from the Life Be In It commercials! They tell me there's no malaria here so it's more of an annoyance then anything. I have two or three small lizard/gecko creatures living in the roof of my bedroom and they come out at night to eat bugs and run along the walls but I think a pep-talk is in order because they really need to lift their game.
I'm hungry. I'm going to try to find some cake.
The setup here is pretty good. I've got a bedroom of my own with a bathroom and a tv that has a good number of cable tv shows including CNN in english plus Simpsons and Family Guy in either spanish or english. Craig tends to drop by in the evening so that we can watch the soccer as the Copa America competition is on right now. Last night we watched Chile get spanked by Brazil. Carlos, time to barrack for Peru!
The Spanish classes are pretty good and go for four hours in the afternoon. The mornings are free time and are usually spent keeping out of the heat, doing some homework etc. Yesterday, being the weekend, Craig and I went to Macaw Mountain which is a bird sanctuary close to town. We saw awesome coloured macaws, very cool toucans plus owls and other birds who were a notch down on the coolness scale from the macaws and toucans but still worthy of a bit of a look. I took photos but the pc I'm using doesn't seem to have a usb connection so I'll load them up another time.
This morning I went to see the Mayan ruins which are also just outside of town. They were pretty impressive. It's thought that the civilisation died out in the area because the population got too large and the environment they were living in couldn't handle all the deforestation and other general havoc they subjected it to. Crops failed, not enough food was produced etc etc. I guess they didn't have Live Earth concerts back then.
The mosquito population here is looking much healthier than they were when I arrived and I'm taking a fair bit of credit for that. This morning I killed a mozzie dining on a little "liquid Damo" (as they like to call it) and I swear he was as large as Norm from the Life Be In It commercials! They tell me there's no malaria here so it's more of an annoyance then anything. I have two or three small lizard/gecko creatures living in the roof of my bedroom and they come out at night to eat bugs and run along the walls but I think a pep-talk is in order because they really need to lift their game.
I'm hungry. I'm going to try to find some cake.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)