Waterfalls and Monkeys Galore

The Fenstermachers came to visit--Hooray!  We logged a lot of hours boogie-boarding on the beach, hiking to the Dominical Waterfall Nauyaca (on the road to San Isidro General), eating beans and rice and enjoying the variety of monkeys and wildlife at Manuel Antonio National Park.

This time, we stayed in Parrita at Cocomar Resort.  We loved staying on the beach, and waking up to jump right into the waves.  Truly off the beaten track, too.

El Gallo de Escazu in Tres Equis

Steve's new girlfriends

Jonny and Maricela

A visit to Tres Equis to see our friends always makes us feel relaxed and happy.  Steve was particularly interested in the lifestyle of the rooster who lived at Jonny's parents house.  The gallo had 10 gallina girlfriends, and Steve thought that sounded pretty cool.

Don Rafa y Dona Iris

Popsicles in a pick-up.  Now that's livin'

We picked chayote squash right off the vine at the cousin's house, and the kids were as happy as could be sitting in the back of a pickup truck with their neighborhood friends, eating icies and telling jokes.

Super cute puppy

Blatts in Guatemala: Roasting Marshmallows on Lava - Pacaya

Written by Marina

Roasting marshmallows on lava... That was the first thought that went through my head when my parents told me we were going to hike the volcano Pacaya! So of course, we rushed to the grocery store and and bought all of the marshmallows we could find and a lot of chocolate. Then we drove the hour ride with our new friends: Laura and M.G. to Pacaya.
When we got there the officer told us we needed a guide to go up and wanted to charge us 200 quetzales per guide, but we went back to the road and got our own guide for only 100 quetzales. The hike was a super easy hour and a half. We saw awesome views of the neighbor volcanoes and our guide told us that  a clear day you could see the Pacific Ocean.


Soon we started to hike on a black sea of lava rocks! Sometimes we would get to a spot where the lava would emit heat and we felt like were in a natural sauna. Near the top of the volcano the trail ended and we sat down to take a lunch break. We ate avocado, frijoles and tomato sauce all rapped up in a tortilla.

Finally it was time for dessert! Our guide led us to and area littered with tiny sticks to roast marshmallows. It wasn't like what we expected; the read lava flowing around our shoes, but instead we stuck our marshmallows deep holes in the ground breaking apart the hot chunks of lava. It wasn't long till our feet started to get hot and we had to go stand on cooler land. Luckily none of our shoes burnt but Dad did have a pretty scary experience: he was leaning over the lava holes and must have taken in too much of it's fumes.  He later explained to us that he had slowly blacked out and come back to consciousness little by little.
          Once we were all marshmallowed and photoed out, we hiked back down to our car.  Later on the plane back home, we ate our left over marshmallows!

       

Blatts in Guatemala: Turquoise Pools at Semuc Champay

We knew it was a bad decision.  But it was too late to turn back.

The Waze link and Google maps both showed the two routes to Semuc Champay from Tikal.  But one said 10 hours, and the other said five.  But the 10 hour route looked so much shorter.  The technology must be wrong.  I insisted we take the "shortcut" in our rental car.

Ten minutes into the rock-filled, pot-holed cliff edged road, we both said, "Maybe we should turn back," but the other turn-off was an hour behind us.  Two young girls shouted at our car in Spanish, "Cuidate!"  "Be careful," but we paid no heed.  We saw an indigenous family sitting on the roadside, "Does this road get any better?"  They nodded.  "Does it go through to Lanquin?"  Again, they nodded.   Later, I realized, what do they know about this road....It would be about a two day walk to Lanquin.

After about an hour and a half Steve said,"I hope it doesn't get dark on us."  I laughed nervously.  We still had almost two hours til sunset.  But we were moving at a snail's pace.  There was nobody around, not a house or a car in sight.

Suddenly, there was a group of 8 men blocking the road with a chain, and large rocks.  They were holding jackhammers, axes and machetes.   We could pass if we paid them, because they were "fixing the road."   "How much," Steve asked, hoping they wouldn't take the car and all of our luggage. "Okay, I'll pay, but only after you open up the gate and let us through."

We got off easy for about 7 bucks, but we wondered how many more "road workers" we'd find before we made it to a drive-able road.

In the pitch black, we made it to Lanquin and stayed in separate, single cot,  mold-infested prison cells for the night.

But the morning was worth it.  We hiked an hour or so to the Mirador lookout and saw the spectacular view, and spent the rest of the morning playing in the turquoise, cool pools of other-worldly Semuc Champey.  Ultimately, it was worth it, but I'd recommend spending a couple of days instead of one morning to play there.  And take the road from Coban, instead of the 'shortcut'!

Tikal - Ruins of Guatemala

First off, if you go to Tikal and you speak Spanish, call Chindo 5199-2959 and use him as a guide.   He was so knowledgeable  about everything Tikal: history, nature, culture.   Steve asked him how many years he'd been a guide and he replied. "Oh!  You're my first tour!"   (He'd been training for two years!) Chindo es el mejor guia en Tikal.

Was Tikal worth the 20 hours of driving, noisy, mold-filled hotel rooms, pillows stuffed with who-knows-what and a road pocked with boulders going three miles per hour?

The short answer:  Yes!   The ruins were fascinating relics of Mayan history, and we saw some spider monkeys, to boot.  Honestly, though, Steve and I both thought that Palenque, just over the Mexican border, was more impressive and jungly.

We hiked for hours around, upon, in between ruins, climbed pyramids and ate roast chicken rolled up in tortillas sitting on top of a tall pyramid looking out over the archaeological remnants of the Mayan empire: a technologically and scientifically advanced society that sacrificed their sports stars to the gods.

One of Steve's favorite parts was chewing on the anesthetic leaf of a pepper tree, which not only made your mouth go numb, but was also a curative for stomach aches, if you swallow it.

Cool ruins, history and natural surroundings!

Blatts in Guatemala: Market Day in Chichicastenango

If you wanna buy ethno-plunder like it's going out of style, get yourself to Chichicastenango on a Thursday or Sunday.  As the day wore on, the streets became so crowded with vendors that it became difficult to remember how to get back to that stand where I saw the "authentically hand-sewn" bag I had my heart set on. (I did find it in the end!)

The scariest moment (from a parental perspective) was when Marina stepped on a grate in the street and her leg slipped through the gap in the metal bars.  While all of the bystanders panicked, Marina calmly removed her shoe and deftly pulled her leg back out, without missing a beat.  What a trouper!

Plan on ponying up for the real deals, but the machine made crap is easy pickings, and most stuff goes for a few bucks.

There's a brightly colored cemetery at the end of the road; the flower vendors on the stairs of the church are a photographer's dream, and don't miss the hot cornmeal papusas filled with cheese and topped with cabbage and hot sauce!

Steve left his favorite REI towel in a hotel here, but fortunately, as this is a  popular spot on the tourist trail, we found fellow travelers who picked it up for us when they went there!

Leave a trail of bread crumbs if you plan to try to make it  back to your hotel.

Blatts in Guatemala: Homestay in Xela, Thermal Baths

The first thing we did when we arrived in Questzaltanango (also known as Xela) was to buy hats.  Fleece-lined, wool hats.  The cold weather was only mitigated by the warmth of the family we stayed with.

For four days, we shared Christmas tamales and beans on tostados alongside Noemi, Carlos, and their extended family of 14.  Carlos was on the verge of retiring as a public school PE teacher, and it was an opportunity for us to share a home, meals (and one very occupied bathroom) with a humble family whose modest lifestyle was worlds away from our own.

We spent a full day hiking at Baul with Carlitos, the spunky 9 year old grandson, and the next day relaxing in the Fuentes Georgina thermal baths.  But the best part was the campfire in the cousins' backyard, complete with hot dogs and roasted s'mores.

If you want to do a homestay in Guatemala, I'd recommend trying to find one in a rural location, often through the town mayor or a Spanish language school.  The ones in the tourist towns are often just glorified hotels (see our San Pedro post.)

The accommodations were rustic, but overall it was great for our whole family to experience a small taste of a very different life than we are accustomed to.

Blatts in Guatemala: Colonial Antigua

We spent hours meandering the rustic, cobblestone streets in old Antigua. (okay, in one instance for hours when I got lost on the way back from the supermarket...), passing brightly colored and faded buildings, old churches, fabulous facades and motorcyclists without helmets, galore.

There's plenty of free stuff to see and do--like hanging out in the plaza and watercolor painting or watching the fountain oddly adorned with water shooting out of women's breasts.

There's a 'jade museum' and a 'chocolate museum' - thinly disguised stores/tourist attractions, but fun to see.

We spent lots of time hanging out in the courtyard of Hostal Antigueno and taking much needed hot showers that we had a hard time finding in our other, more rustic accommodations

After 18 months of bland and expensive Tico food here in Costa Rica, we were happy to eat Indian foot at Toko  Baru (near Cafe Sky, 1st Av. and 7th Calle), nearly every night.

At night, the Christmas and New Years' fireworks were low and dangerous, and people were fond of lighting hot air lanterns and letting them off into the sky.  But most, instead, first made a wild pass at the crowd, nearly lighting tourists and small children on fire (no kidding!)  Lots of people set of M-80s, inciting the dogs to barking and setting off car alarms.

Perhaps the coolest thing we saw was the Volcan del Fuego erupting regularly, sending off plumes of black smoke over the colonial town.

All I can say is "Ootz."  That's how you say "Super cool" in one of the 26 indigenous Mayan language here in Guatemala.

Stunning Volcan San Pedro, Guatemala

Written by Benji

We commenced our journey up the volcano with a tuk-tuk (a three wheeled vehicle used as a taxi) up through the town as the volcano loomed above it.   Our trip was organized by an agency in the town of San Pedro.  We were accompanied by our guide, Cesar. We reached the entrance and started our walk up the volcano that stretched above our heads.

Cesar provided us with information about the nature around us and pointed out a bunch of cool spider nests.  At one point, after about an hour, we stopped at a lookout and we were very tired, Then our guide pointed out the map to us, and informed us, to our displeasure that we were only a quarter of the way up.

The path was rocky, steep and slippery.  It was hard on our legs and we took constant water breaks.  It was a treacherous hike, but halfway there was a good view of the San Pedro side of Lake Atitlan.  You could see all of the boats crossing the lake.  You could see the proof that the lake was once the  a giant volcano, and that the lake was formed in the crater itself.  We took a bucketload of pictures and ate sandwiches that we brought with us.  Most of the people at the top did not have a guide!

On the way down, we ran with speed and agility.  We sprung like gazelles.  When we reached the bottom, we thanked our guide and went to our hotel to rest for the rest of the day.

The whole next week we were very sore.  Our time for the hike was two and a half hours up and one hour down.

This was a worthwhile experience that I will never forget.