amazing vacation

Greetings all, welcome to the tales of Jill’s incredible vacation

A little over three weeks ago, I left for my vacation. I went to the Guatemalan border the first day, into a very touristy town. Now, in my town S and I are the only gringas, and that is fine, because we are able to develop friendships with people and they know we are not just in town for a short vacation. Not so in touristy places where everyone thinks of you as a tourist. And to be honest at that moment I was a tourist, but I like my town better where I have to ability to get to know people.

The next day I met up with X (friend from training) and her friend T, from the states. We pay at a travel agency for the whole trip to Flores. We get in a little late, and the guy working the desk at the hotel tries to rip us off something severe. In Guatemala, the currency is called the quetzal (the feathers of the bird quetzal were used as money by the Mayans, and thus the name at least continues. The guy tells me it is going to be Q600 for the three of us. Well, when I called I might have been a little confused but not that confused so we talked him down to Q350. Next morning comes and we see this big old sign that says our room should have only been Q180, so that’s what we paid. Normally you pay first here, then go to your room, but it’s a good thing we didn’t.

Then comes the communication problems with our guides. See, they are from a small village in Northern Guatemala that doesn’t have electricity or cell phone coverage; thus making it difficult to actually talk to anyone. When I knew we were going to be getting in late I sent a message to his cell saying so, and he assumed we wouldn’t want to start the next day, which we actually did. He comes around 9am and says that we would take the 1pm bus to his village- all the tours start here, and being a guide is the most profitable income in the area.

In the mean time, we got to explore a little of the island. The town of Flores is actually like the state capitol. It’s an island in a lake that they built an earthen dam to, for convenience. There is a road that goes all the way around on the edge of the island, and everything else in the middle is building, paved street, or paved sidewalk. The actual dirt that you can see can be measured in square feet, and is only there as a garden feature of the central park. This is also a very touristy place so there are gift shops and restaurants and hotels galore. Now, X and T know each other from yoga, and acroyoga, so I got a little demonstration of this- the best I can do to describe it is say it is cirque de soleil type stuff. Many pictures of this to come when I can actually load them.

Time comes and we head off to the bus. Side note, the village we were heading to is so small that our guide had to buy all the food for the trip in Flores. We are on a chicken bus that is all kinds of bumpy, and dusty. At one point we were watching out the back window and all you could see were these huge clouds of dust. By the end of the trip our hair was nasty due to the cementing properties of sweat mixed with dust. Along the road though, in the times without dust, I fall in love with Guatemala. The thatched houses and the serenity of it all was beautiful.

We arrive in the village of Carmelita and are shown into our hut for the night. The hut is actually our guide’s cousin’s house, but we are using it for the night. We got to go to a little river to bath (this would be the last water we would see for four days) to try to get a little of the dust out. They fed us large amounts of food and were really nice people. After dinner we went across the way to visit some other people who were going to be doing the same hike, and thus we would be running into them every night. It turns out that they were Peace Corps Volunteers from Guatemala. So, PC stories were exchanged, and what there is to do in each country (Honduras and Guatemala).

Bed time comes and we become well aware of one crucial thing somehow left off our packing lists- sleeping bags. Our guides had given us each a blanket, but it was still cold. We were sleeping on hammocks, and the wind would just go right through them so you had to try and get your blanket beneath you and above you and curl tightly into the fetal position. This would turn out to be a repeating theme throughout the trip.

The next morning we were ready to go- although we do believe our guide was hung over. The whole family (it’s a family business) was like, “relax, you have time.” The first day was only 4 or 5 hours of hiking, and it was really flat, or at least felt that way to us. One note here- along with the guide, we paid for horses to carry the supplies. One thing to note is that there is no water along the way so you have to carry in four or five days worth of water, so horses are good.

We get to the first place, and are still very energetic, what’s 14km, but a short walk. Our guide is telling us that we should wait four hours to go see the main temple at sunset, and we were like, nope, we are going to explore now and then return at sunrise. The guide finally agrees to come with us, more to make sure we don’t get lost than because he wants to. We go up to the temple, take pictures, ask questions, and then the guide wants to go back. We don’t. He finally relents and lets us go alone, provided we stay on one path and don’t get lost. Silly him, we went exploring. We also played on vines.

We eventually did go back and we talked to the others who were staying that the camping area- there are specially designated camping areas to reduce human impact on the area. Since this camping area is at a Mayan ruin site, it’s popular. We did more acroyoga and got other people to participate which was fun.

The next day we were up and out early to hike 24km to the bigger set of ruins, called El Mirador. Again this seemed like an incredibly easy hike and we got there at noon. The entire hike goes between the two sites more or less on the ancient road, so you pass tombs and Mayan “truck stops.” Then closer to the big site, you get to a jail and altar used to sacrifice the prisoners. The jail was cool in that you could actually to in and play around. I have a picture of one the cells where a bat is just hanging out. Lots of pictures playing on the sacrifice temple.

A small walk later and we get into the large site. In the summer there is a group of around 300 that comes down to excavate. Now, summer in the US is rainy season here, but that is the only time of year that there is enough water for everyone, so they have to work in wet conditions. They have some pretty basic rain catchment systems to collect all the water they will need. Because they are excavating limestone ruins, they have tarp tents covering most of the work- but you can go in and still see it all.

After a little relaxing time we headed out to the large temple. La Ganta is the largest structure in the Mayan world. The top is over 72m tall (236ft). Our guide took us and we were to start there and eventually make our way back stopping at the things we passed. Well, we got to the large temple and decided to hang out there all day. Lots more acroyoga pictures on top of the ruins. As the sun was starting to set we took regular yoga pictures as well. Now, for those of you who don’t know me so well, yoga is not my thing. I have the attention span on the average gold fish, so sitting in one not so comfortable position for a while just doesn’t work for me. Thus, my friend was standing just out of camera range instructing me on what to do and demonstrating for me.
While taking the pictures we saw more monkeys and could hear some howler monkeys in the distance just being all kinds of loud. At sunset a bunch of people come and ruin out alone time on the temple. A few minutes before actual sundown we decide to go watch from the other ruins. Well, the other temple was at least one kilometer away. We go at just about a run, and as we were climbing my legs just stopped; after walking 24km at a good clip, the running up the stairs was too much. Turns out we missed the sundown.

We head back to camp for a meal. One thing about paying a guide, we didn’t have to worry about cooking or cleaning up. T actually became my plate cleaner most meals because the plates were so big, I couldn’t eat it all. He didn’t complain about this. After dinner T and I decide to go back up the nearby temple to watch the moon come up. Problem- cloudy night. So, we are up there for a while, which was awesome because if you blocked out the flashlights that you could see of the camp, there was nothing for miles in any direction. We heard the monkeys howling, and other assorted wildlife and you could pretend you were the only humans in a very large radius. We waited a while for the moon and it was a good ways up and we thought we were never going to get a good view because of all the clouds, so we returned to camp. As we are walking back (5 minutes) we saw the moon perfectly through the clouds. Really bad timing.

There is a giant open space in the camp, the old helipad, and we laid down for a while watching the stars. In my town I don’t get to see a lot of stars and I love to do it. Living on the Palouse provided an excellent area to do this, but my little 2”X4” yard doesn’t allow for much star gazing.

The next morning T tried hard to get us up and out early but X and I were tired. Due to the lack of communication we didn’t have the whole day to explore like most groups, we had to get back to the first camp before sunset. We go off and my legs are starting to feel the affects of so much walking, but off we go. Our guide was trying to tell us there was nothing left to see, but we were like, yes there is, we passed a whole bunch of stuff. See, the guide was kind of for the walking parts to make sure that we didn’t get lost, and to cook and clean. He really didn’t know that much about the ruins themselves.

At one point T and I go off (again, at about a run) to visit a set of temples a little off the path. You see, the graverobbers had cut a giant swath into the temple, and it generally isn’t encouraged to go in, they are worried about cave-ins. This didn’t stop us though. Now, before any of you decide we were being reckless, I wouldn’t have entered if it looked like it was going to fall down. You can really only go about two feet away from the giant swath anyways.

Hiking the 24km back to the first campsite I began to feel the affects of my poor footwear choices. I had gotten two blisters in the backs of my ankles and had hurt my foot on acroyoga, so walking to prevent the hurt actually created its own problems. By time we got back I was so happy to get off my feet. The rest didn’t last long because we went back to the temple for sunset, which we actually caught this time. Then, after dinner we went up to see the stars and the moonrise. That was amazing, no clouds that night. There was a group of four backpackers up there as well and we were talking to them. Due to the cold, T and I decided to take the guide’s tent for the night (he was cold) but it wasn’t that comfortable either. The blisters on the backs of my feet I couldn’t sleep on my back because the weight on my heels was painful. The lack of sleeping pad made it uncomfortable, but two people cut away the cold!

The next morning I was hurting. I was definitely hobbling along. Then the guide lets the kid with the horses go in front. The first day he was all kind of encouraging us to ride, but when he saw that I couldn’t walk without a limp, he sends the horses away. Thus I had to suck it up for 14km. At first we were walking a little slowly because X was taking care of her sore ankles, but I just couldn’t do it; I needed to turn out those kilometers fast instead of prolonging the pain.

Once we arrived back to the village we went to the river again (seriously contaminated with soap and who knows what else). Then we were given lunch. The bus came not too long later. It was a bumpy ride again, but not nearly as dusty. We got into town and looked for a hostel to bath in. We found an awesome place. Then we caught the bus out of town. The bus driver had the A/C on SOOOOOOOOO cold. My fleece was in my backpack below the bus.

The next day we had a day to kill, so we went to Antigua for the day. For those of who not well acquainted with Central America, Antigua is the place to be during Holy Week. It was great though because we got there so early in the day most people were still at home for their hotels. We got some souvenirs off the street and ate before walking around for a while. Antigua is a colonial town with the old architecture and several volcanoes in the background. You can actually climb them and walk right up to the lava (we didn’t do it because there wasn’t enough time) because it’s not the US anything so you don’t sue us type of place.

Later in the day there were processions. The first was of Jesus walking with the cross on his back to be killed and the second was the funeral parade after he died. For those of you who are very Christian, please excuse the possible inaccuracies of the events, but that’s the gist I got out of it. These processions have thousands of people participating. There are lots of little floats and then one giant one. They go on for hours too.

Later in the day the crowds came in. Walking around became crazy. We went to a jewelry store and bought Peace Corps necklace pendants. This is the only place anyone has ever seen carry them. At one point the bag that was carrying them got knocked out of my purse because it was stuffed with other things that I had bought, and it just fell. Well, my first thought was that someone had taken it out, but I went back to check to see if I had dropped it. We go to the corner and somehow the bag and contents were fine on the corner. Hundreds of people, literally, had passed between when I dropped it and my finding it again. That was a supreme piece of luck there.

That night we met up with some friends of X. They are from Guatemala City and had gone into Antigua for the day. They were super nice. At the end of the day two of them invited us to their Uncle’s house and the family was really nice. T and X taught them a bit of acroyoga. They loved it and had a blast.

The next morning I took of nice and early (5am) for Teguc. Once back in Honduras and out of cell phone roaming, I called home and my Mommy made me a reservation at the Marriott in Teguc for the night. This place is total luxury. Its better than most Marriotts I have ever seen. I go in there looking like a stereotypical backpacker, I had been wearing the same clothes for two whole days and my bug repellent burst in my bag so you could clearly smell my backpack. There was a wedding in the hotel that night so I am walking past wedding guests like this too. The room was so luxurious it is hard to explain. I had been sleeping when able for the last few days and before that I was hiking through the jungle. In the one night there I took two showers and a bath.

The next day I finally returned home to a very grateful dog.

It was an adventure and I loved it all. The rushing around allowed us to just do whatever since we knew there was a limited time. I am glad I met many interesting people and got to experience something amazing.Greetings all, welcome to the tales of Jill’s incredible vacation

A little over a week ago, I left for my vacation. I went to the Guatemalan border the first day, into a very touristy town. Now, in my town S and I are the only gringas, and that is fine, because we are able to develop friendships with people and they know we are not just in town for a short vacation. Not so in touristy places where everyone thinks of you as a tourist. And to be honest at that moment I was a tourist, but I like my town better where I have to ability to get to know people.

The next day I met up with X (friend from training) and her friend T, from the states. We pay at a travel agency for the whole trip to Flores. We get in a little late, and the guy working the desk at the hotel tries to rip us off something severe. In Guatemala, the currency is called the quetzal (the feathers of the bird quetzal were used as money by the Mayans, and thus the name at least continues. The guy tells me it is going to be Q600 for the three of us. Well, when I called I might have been a little confused but not that confused so we talked him down to Q350. Next morning comes and we see this big old sign that says our room should have only been Q180, so that’s what we paid. Normally you pay first here, then go to your room, but it’s a good thing we didn’t.

Then comes the communication problems with our guides. See, they are from a small village in Northern Guatemala that doesn’t have electricity or cell phone coverage; thus making it difficult to actually talk to anyone. When I knew we were going to be getting in late I sent a message to his cell saying so, and he assumed we wouldn’t want to start the next day, which we actually did. He comes around 9am and says that we would take the 1pm bus to his village- all the tours start here, and being a guide is the most profitable income in the area.

In the mean time, we got to explore a little of the island. The town of Flores is actually like the state capitol. It’s an island in a lake that they built an earthen dam to, for convenience. There is a road that goes all the way around on the edge of the island, and everything else in the middle is building, paved street, or paved sidewalk. The actual dirt that you can see can be measured in square feet, and is only there as a garden feature of the central park. This is also a very touristy place so there are gift shops and restaurants and hotels galore. Now, X and T know each other from yoga, and acroyoga, so I got a little demonstration of this- the best I can do to describe it is say it is cirque de soleil type stuff. Many pictures of this to come when I can actually load them.

Time comes and we head off to the bus. Side note, the village we were heading to is so small that our guide had to buy all the food for the trip in Flores. We are on a chicken bus that is all kinds of bumpy, and dusty. At one point we were watching out the back window and all you could see were these huge clouds of dust. By the end of the trip our hair was nasty due to the cementing properties of sweat mixed with dust. Along the road though, in the times without dust, I fall in love with Guatemala. The thatched houses and the serenity of it all was beautiful.

We arrive in the village of Carmelita and are shown into our hut for the night. The hut is actually our guide’s cousin’s house, but we are using it for the night. We got to go to a little river to bath (this would be the last water we would see for four days) to try to get a little of the dust out. They fed us large amounts of food and were really nice people. After dinner we went across the way to visit some other people who were going to be doing the same hike, and thus we would be running into them every night. It turns out that they were Peace Corps Volunteers from Guatemala. So, PC stories were exchanged, and what there is to do in each country (Honduras and Guatemala).

Bed time comes and we become well aware of one crucial thing somehow left off our packing lists- sleeping bags. Our guides had given us each a blanket, but it was still cold. We were sleeping on hammocks, and the wind would just go right through them so you had to try and get your blanket beneath you and above you and curl tightly into the fetal position. This would turn out to be a repeating theme throughout the trip.

The next morning we were ready to go- although we do believe our guide was hung over. The whole family (it’s a family business) was like, “relax, you have time.” The first day was only 4 or 5 hours of hiking, and it was really flat, or at least felt that way to us. One note here- along with the guide, we paid for horses to carry the supplies. One thing to note is that there is no water along the way so you have to carry in four or five days worth of water, so horses are good.

We get to the first place, and are still very energetic, what’s 14km, but a short walk. Our guide is telling us that we should wait four hours to go see the main temple at sunset, and we were like, nope, we are going to explore now and then return at sunrise. The guide finally agrees to come with us, more to make sure we don’t get lost than because he wants to. We go up to the temple, take pictures, ask questions, and then the guide wants to go back. We don’t. He finally relents and lets us go alone, provided we stay on one path and don’t get lost. Silly him, we went exploring. We also played on vines.

We eventually did go back and we talked to the others who were staying that the camping area- there are specially designated camping areas to reduce human impact on the area. Since this camping area is at a Mayan ruin site, it’s popular. We did more acroyoga and got other people to participate which was fun.

The next day we were up and out early to hike 24km to the bigger set of ruins, called El Mirador. Again this seemed like an incredibly easy hike and we got there at noon. The entire hike goes between the two sites more or less on the ancient road, so you pass tombs and Mayan “truck stops.” Then closer to the big site, you get to a jail and altar used to sacrifice the prisoners. The jail was cool in that you could actually to in and play around. I have a picture of one the cells where a bat is just hanging out. Lots of pictures playing on the sacrifice temple.

A small walk later and we get into the large site. In the summer there is a group of around 300 that comes down to excavate. Now, summer in the US is rainy season here, but that is the only time of year that there is enough water for everyone, so they have to work in wet conditions. They have some pretty basic rain catchment systems to collect all the water they will need. Because they are excavating limestone ruins, they have tarp tents covering most of the work- but you can go in and still see it all.

After a little relaxing time we headed out to the large temple. La Ganta is the largest structure in the Mayan world. The top is over 72m tall (236ft). Our guide took us and we were to start there and eventually make our way back stopping at the things we passed. Well, we got to the large temple and decided to hang out there all day. Lots more acroyoga pictures on top of the ruins. As the sun was starting to set we took regular yoga pictures as well. Now, for those of you who don’t know me so well, yoga is not my thing. I have the attention span on the average gold fish, so sitting in one not so comfortable position for a while just doesn’t work for me. Thus, my friend was standing just out of camera range instructing me on what to do and demonstrating for me.
While taking the pictures we saw more monkeys and could hear some howler monkeys in the distance just being all kinds of loud. At sunset a bunch of people come and ruin out alone time on the temple. A few minutes before actual sundown we decide to go watch from the other ruins. Well, the other temple was at least one kilometer away. We go at just about a run, and as we were climbing my legs just stopped; after walking 24km at a good clip, the running up the stairs was too much. Turns out we missed the sundown.

We head back to camp for a meal. One thing about paying a guide, we didn’t have to worry about cooking or cleaning up. T actually became my plate cleaner most meals because the plates were so big, I couldn’t eat it all. He didn’t complain about this. After dinner T and I decide to go back up the nearby temple to watch the moon come up. Problem- cloudy night. So, we are up there for a while, which was awesome because if you blocked out the flashlights that you could see of the camp, there was nothing for miles in any direction. We heard the monkeys howling, and other assorted wildlife and you could pretend you were the only humans in a very large radius. We waited a while for the moon and it was a good ways up and we thought we were never going to get a good view because of all the clouds, so we returned to camp. As we are walking back (5 minutes) we saw the moon perfectly through the clouds. Really bad timing.

There is a giant open space in the camp, the old helipad, and we laid down for a while watching the stars. In my town I don’t get to see a lot of stars and I love to do it. Living on the Palouse provided an excellent area to do this, but my little 2”X4” yard doesn’t allow for much star gazing.

The next morning T tried hard to get us up and out early but X and I were tired. Due to the lack of communication we didn’t have the whole day to explore like most groups, we had to get back to the first camp before sunset. We go off and my legs are starting to feel the affects of so much walking, but off we go. Our guide was trying to tell us there was nothing left to see, but we were like, yes there is, we passed a whole bunch of stuff. See, the guide was kind of for the walking parts to make sure that we didn’t get lost, and to cook and clean. He really didn’t know that much about the ruins themselves.

At one point T and I go off (again, at about a run) to visit a set of temples a little off the path. You see, the graverobbers had cut a giant swath into the temple, and it generally isn’t encouraged to go in, they are worried about cave-ins. This didn’t stop us though. Now, before any of you decide we were being reckless, I wouldn’t have entered if it looked like it was going to fall down. You can really only go about two feet away from the giant swath anyways.

Hiking the 24km back to the first campsite I began to feel the affects of my poor footwear choices. I had gotten two blisters in the backs of my ankles and had hurt my foot on acroyoga, so walking to prevent the hurt actually created its own problems. By time we got back I was so happy to get off my feet. The rest didn’t last long because we went back to the temple for sunset, which we actually caught this time. Then, after dinner we went up to see the stars and the moonrise. That was amazing, no clouds that night. There was a group of four backpackers up there as well and we were talking to them. Due to the cold, T and I decided to take the guide’s tent for the night (he was cold) but it wasn’t that comfortable either. The blisters on the backs of my feet I couldn’t sleep on my back because the weight on my heels was painful. The lack of sleeping pad made it uncomfortable, but two people cut away the cold!

The next morning I was hurting. I was definitely hobbling along. Then the guide lets the kid with the horses go in front. The first day he was all kind of encouraging us to ride, but when he saw that I couldn’t walk without a limp, he sends the horses away. Thus I had to suck it up for 14km. At first we were walking a little slowly because X was taking care of her sore ankles, but I just couldn’t do it; I needed to turn out those kilometers fast instead of prolonging the pain.

Once we arrived back to the village we went to the river again (seriously contaminated with soap and who knows what else). Then we were given lunch. The bus came not too long later. It was a bumpy ride again, but not nearly as dusty. We got into town and looked for a hostel to bath in. We found an awesome place. Then we caught the bus out of town. The bus driver had the A/C on SOOOOOOOOO cold. My fleece was in my backpack below the bus.

The next day we had a day to kill, so we went to Antigua for the day. For those of who not well acquainted with Central America, Antigua is the place to be during Holy Week. It was great though because we got there so early in the day most people were still at home for their hotels. We got some souvenirs off the street and ate before walking around for a while. Antigua is a colonial town with the old architecture and several volcanoes in the background. You can actually climb them and walk right up to the lava (we didn’t do it because there wasn’t enough time) because it’s not the US anything so you don’t sue us type of place.

Later in the day there were processions. The first was of Jesus walking with the cross on his back to be killed and the second was the funeral parade after he died. For those of you who are very Christian, please excuse the possible inaccuracies of the events, but that’s the gist I got out of it. These processions have thousands of people participating. There are lots of little floats and then one giant one. They go on for hours too.

Later in the day the crowds came in. Walking around became crazy. We went to a jewelry store and bought Peace Corps necklace pendants. This is the only place anyone has ever seen carry them. At one point the bag that was carrying them got knocked out of my purse because it was stuffed with other things that I had bought, and it just fell. Well, my first thought was that someone had taken it out, but I went back to check to see if I had dropped it. We go to the corner and somehow the bag and contents were fine on the corner. Hundreds of people, literally, had passed between when I dropped it and my finding it again. That was a supreme piece of luck there.

That night we met up with some friends of X. They are from Guatemala City and had gone into Antigua for the day. They were super nice. At the end of the day two of them invited us to their Uncle’s house and the family was really nice. T and X taught them a bit of acroyoga. They loved it and had a blast.

The next morning I took of nice and early (5am) for Teguc. Once back in Honduras and out of cell phone roaming, I called home and my Mommy made me a reservation at the Marriott in Teguc for the night. This place is total luxury. Its better than most Marriotts I have ever seen. I go in there looking like a stereotypical backpacker, I had been wearing the same clothes for two whole days and my bug repellent burst in my bag so you could clearly smell my backpack. There was a wedding in the hotel that night so I am walking past wedding guests like this too. The room was so luxurious it is hard to explain. I had been sleeping when able for the last few days and before that I was hiking through the jungle. In the one night there I took two showers and a bath.

The next day I finally returned home to a very grateful dog.

It was an adventure and I loved it all. The rushing around allowed us to just do whatever since we knew there was a limited time. I am glad I met many interesting people and got to experience something amazing.

Things have been crazy since last time I wrote the blog, and more updates to come, i promise.

Jill