Insane Central American Bus Rides - from Dave

Well, I survived another shuttle-bus ride.  In hindsight, I guess it wasn't that bad, but for the 7 hours of being squashed into a micro-van designed for 8 people, with 15 other backpackers, it did seem less than ideal. Our driver was a Madman, driving through packed Guatemalan City streets, missing dogs and kids by inches, squealing the bald tires descending the mountain passes at high speed, and passing transport trucks and chicken buses like he was competing in a computer game.  All the time, he played bad Salsa music at ear-splitting volume.  I had to laugh when Justin Beber came on the air, and our Spanish speaking driver started singing along to "Baby, Baby, Baby….".   

I had one of the better seats with a window that opened, but this only allowed black diesel smoke to be blown in my face, and gave me an earache from all the honking and road noise.  With my legs pressed tight into the seat ahead, and my hips and shoulders squashed into the person next to me, my ass and legs went numb after 2 hours into the 7 hour trip.  Luckily the others on the bus were a pretty good group.  The 15 of us got to know each other to pass the boredom, and ease the physical discomfort of being squashed like sardines into the ancient micro-van designed for 8 people.  Did I already say that there were 15 of us in an 8 passenger van?  I don't want to repeat myself.

I had to close my eyes when we passed 3 transport trucks in a row on a blind corner.  Then it got worse.....   As night fell, all the drivers on the road went insane.  Watching headlights coming at you at high speed on a mountain road in Guatemala is not a pretty sight.  I felt better when I just closed my eyes, and turned my iPod volume to maximum to drown out the road noise and blaring radio. To keep their sanity, I noticed some of the young backpackers were imbibing in bad wine and cheap prescription drugs (which apparently are dirt cheap and don't require a prescription here). The rest of us just suffered. 

I was a relief when we all just fell out of the van at the border, and stumbled into the line to pay the bride to get our Passports stamped at the Guatemalan-Honduras border.  

Survived yet another bus ride in Central America,

Dave

Studied Spanish for a week, climbed a volcano, and kayaked on Lake Atitlan

Yikes, I think I need a day off.

I spent a week studying Spanish in Quetzeltenango(Xela).  It was pretty intense, with 5 hours a day of one-on-one immersion.  I had a really patient teacher, but I'm not sure how much got through my thick skull.  I really need to practice more.  It might help if I spent more time studying rather than climbing volcanoes.

     The volcano hike up Santa Maria was pretty easy, but the 5am start was hard.  There were a couple teenage girls from the US in our group who struggled.  It was 3500 feet elevation gain on a steep, slippery trail, and most of those in our group had no experience.  I had to laugh at a young Aussie, who had never hiked before, but was a good surfer.  To descend the steep muddy trail, he tried surfing down.  It was really hilarious and the wipe-outs spectacular.  Amazingly enough he didn't hurt himself.  The views from the top where stunning, which made the early start worth it.  There were even some tough old Mayan women in sandals climbing to the summit for a Mayan religious ceremony.

     In Xela, I stayed in a Cultural Center that had lots of plays and live music every night.  This was fun and really interesting, but didn't do much for my Spanish study habits.

    I'm now in San Pedro on Lake Atitlan, and last night I experienced a bizarre procession of the Virgin Mary on a Parade Float.  It's like the Semana Santa parade that they have at Easter, but this one is held before Christmas.  This is a small town of only a couple thousand people, but they had live bands playing on 5 street corners, and after the Catholic-Mayan church service on the steps of the Church, they paraded a huge wooden statue of the Virgin Mary along the cobblestone streets.  She was covered in Christmas lights, and flowers.  They have an old Honda Generator that they wheel behind the procession to power all the lights on the Float.  The procession had to stop every block, to clear the evil spirits away.  They did this by throwing tons of firecrackers on the cobblestone street in front of the procession.  I think it worked.  It also cleared the kids away who were running around and having a great time.  There were lots of fireworks too, during the parade.  There are Fireworks almost every night in Guatemala, as we approach Christmas.

Photos

Cheers,

Dave

Nervous in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Hi,

Last night I was sleeping up in the loft of a funky little guesthouse in the heart of downtown Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  The town is in an area of Central America that gets hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, and volcanic eruptions.  The most active volcano in the western hemisphere is steaming away above the town.  Well, it got a bit interesting last night.

I woke up at 4 am to what sounded like an avalanche of rubble rolling down the fiberglass sheet roofing only 2 meters above my bed.  I saw shadows of huge rats in the moonlight, chasing each other and racing and scratching around the roof. I could see the shadows of at least 4 or 5 of the largest rats I've ever seem.  They were at least 12 inches long and were extremely fast. I thought I was going to be attacked and eaten by a horde of huge rodents. 

It turns out that there are hundreds of cats in this city….. cats, not rats.  Thank god.  I learned afterwards from Julia, my amazing Spanish teacher, that all the city's cats live on the roofs of the buildings.  There are absolutely no cats who live on the ground.  The wild, hungry dogs would get them, of course. The cats run around at night, making the most incredible noise – scratching across the clear fiberglass roofing.   Thank god they were not rats.  I was a little nervous.  

Hmmm… 'Cats on a hot tin roof' ?

Not eaten by rats yet,

David