There are worse places to have breakfast

Lake Atitlan - described by Aldous Huxley as like Lake Como wth added volcanos ( there is a third one hiding behind the trees to the right)

Guatemala - 3 weeks in...

and it's been an interesting few weeks.

Our first stop was in Flores/Peten mainly as a base to visit Tikal, which is one of the largest archaeological sites of the pre-Colombian Maya civilisation. It dates back to 400BC although they think the population reached its peak around 800AD. The monuments were amazing and completely different to others we have visited, and the site covers around 16 sq km.

From Flores we headed south and based ourselves in the town of Morales. There wasn't anything to see there so we had a trip to the coast and Puerto Barrios. After a very nice lunch by the sea, we went for a walk down to the port and saw all of these - coming soon to a Pina Colada near you :-)

Next, we went west and up into the rainforest to the town of Coban. From here we did a day trip to Semuc Champey, known for its turquoise pools. It was only 75km but took 3 hours to get there, with the last 20km taking 2 hours. At one point Mark commented that it must be a road because river beds don't have signposts. 

We did the hike up to El Mirador (the lookout), 700m above the pools, on wet, slippery limestone steps. My legs were like jelly by the time we got back down, but the view was worth it.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to swim in the pools as the weather was closing in and it was still a long drive back to town.

From Coban it was time to head to the capital, Guatemala City. We stayed in the historic centre so it was easy to walk around and see all the old buildings, such as the National Palace of Culture

the Metropolitan Cathedral 

and many more

We even went to the train museum which was worth the 20p entrance fee just to see the relief map of the country showing all the volcanoes in a line

The city didn't have the same vibe as other places we had visited in this country or Mexico, so we were quite happy to move on to our next destination - Antigua Guatemala. Mark has already posted a blog showing the puffing volcano and mentioned the 5.6 magnitude earthquake we also experienced. Here is the view of it the next morning:

The town was founded in 1543 and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are many old and beautiful buildings as well as quite a few ruins due to the number of earthquakes the area has experienced over the centuries, especially as it is surrounded by volcanoes.

Over the last week, we have volunteered with the World Central Kitchen helping prepare food for the people affected the Fuego's recent eruption. Not only was it for a good cause, it gave us other people to talk to :-) 

Tomorrow we head further west to Lake Atitlan.

First sight of Fuego

22kms west south west from the roof terrace of our AirBnB in Antigua. If the eruption had come in this direction a lot more people would have been affected as it has a population of 45,000  

Maria enjoying a Cock or two at Lake Izabal

Well officially Google translates it as "rooster" but we all know the truth. Why a beer should be named after a farmyard animal I don't quite get, nor why it should be a source of "tradition and pride of Guatemala", but there you go...

D-Day spirit

Is alive and well on a lake in northern Guatemala where they have made a number of home made landing craft with cheap Chinese outboard motors and wooden pallets for ramps. Still better than some of the roads around here.

Of course the climate and rest of the scenery is more Apocalypse Now....

volver a hablar español

Crossed from Belize to Guatemala this morning - say what you like about the third world,  but there was more bureaucracy and pissing about on the former British colony side in English than there was on the Guatemalan side in Spanish. 

We always lose sleep before border crossings as it's the unknown "what could go wrong to derail our plans" but now I feel we are well on our way away from having to go back to the US for any reason, which is a huge relief. And we know that if we have to temporarily abandon the car for any reason we can do that in Panama, which is now closer than Texas. And much nicer.....

And we've now achieved a higher country count than years - country 7 and coming up on 6 years.....

Belize

The country was formerly British Honduras until it gained independence in 1981 and it is still part of the Commonwealth. There's still evidence of the old British empire such as decent bacon (aka butt bacon), breakfast sausages (frozen, but I've found a butcher here in San Ignacio that made us some sausage patties as he can't get the skins imported to make proper sausages), corned beef, Digestive biscuits, Hobnobs and Heinz Salad cream to name just a few. They also do cordial/fruit squash that's not in a powdered form which is a bonus. To top it all off we found some brie, in a can, that was quite palatable. Everything here is so expensive when compared with Mexico and I often wonder how the locals live. The Belizean dollar is directly linked to the US$ at 2 to 1. The US$ is also used in conjunction with their own currency so you can pay/get change in either form or a combination of both which was rather strange at the beginning.

We spent the first two days in the small seaside town of Corozal before heading down to Belize City, 140km south. We used Belize City as a base to explore the surrounding area including out on the reef. We decided not to go out to the Blue Hole as it was going to cost US$175 each to go snorkelling or US$225 for Mark to go diving. A bit rich for our meagre wallets so we got the local ferry/water taxi to Caye Caulker and spent a relaxing day out there.

Next, we visited the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Altun Ha. An incredible number of jade artefacts were found in various tombs including a 4.5kg jade head, the single largest piece of carved jade in Mesoamerica and the Western hemisphere, valued at US$5m - $10m 

  

 Below is the Temple of the Sun God, also seen on the national beer, Belikin, which we had to try.

From Belize City we headed south to Maya Beach, Placencia, on a peninsula. We used this as a base to investigate the south of the country, including the ancient Mayan city of Nim Li Punit.  Approximately 5% of the site has been being excavated and work is still underway, but so far discoveries of pottery show connections with the distant Teotihuacan (Pyramid of the Sun site) in central Mexico.

Next, a visit to Rio Blanco National Park and a swim in the pool by the waterfalls

We also paid a visit to Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in the hope of seeing the elusive jaguar, but it wasn't to be. Instead we hiked to the waterfall, through a very hot and humid jungle

Time to move on, this time to San Ignacio, 180km to the west. We stopped at the Blue Hole National Park and St Herman's cave en-route. Mark decided to go for a swim and said it was nice and cool.

Another hike through the jungle brought us to the cave 

The lady who runs the studio apartment we stayed in feeds the local iguanas everyday with spoiled fruit and veg from the local market. There were some really big ones about, definitely handbag size.

A visit to local ruins of Cahal Pech was really interesting and the best museum we had visited.

A trip to Caracol, a large ancient Mayan site, was in order and a five hour drive (round trip) on pot-holed dirt roads made it worthwhile. Caracol covered approximately 200 square kilometres and was one of the most important regional political centres of the Maya Lowlands during its time. There was a wedding ceremony taking place when we arrived and they were being serenaded by the local choir - a troop of howler monkeys :-) (they really do make some scary sounds and can be heard up to 4 miles away)

Our last lot of ruins in Belize was a trip to Xunantunich Archaeological Reserve, just 1km east of the Guatemala border. This area was a Mayan civic ceremonial centre in the Valley region and at its peak, nearly 200,000 people lived in Belize

To top it all off, we've just seen our first toucan, the national bird of this country. Unfortunately it flew away before I was able to get a photo of it.

That's hopefully it for Belize. Tomorrow we head across the border to Guatemala