INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
In part this record is included in the 2004 MEXICO blog since the journey began with five nights in Mexico (two nights each in Mexico City, Oaxaca, and San Cristobal plus one on an overnight bus. It ended with a night in two more in Mexico City. All these favourite destinations were visited on both journeys.

It does not however record that we were upgraded to first class with fully reclining seats, individual TV and champagne for the flight to Mexico city. Joan records that the KLM cabin staff were so helpful and happy, altogether making KLM her favourite airline. We presumably started off with a short flight eastwards from Cardiff to Amsterdam.

This blog thus covers the three weeks in Guatemala starting with the journey from from San Cristobal to Xela on 6 November 2004 and ending with the journey from Flores to Villa Hermosa on 27 November 2004. Unusually only Joan kept a written dairy of this trip and this record is drawn almost wholly from that record added to occasionally by my memories of the happenings over a decade ago. It seems that I recorded my thoughts in emails to myself but never stored them as a whole.

XELA or QUETZALTENANGO

Saturday 6 November 2004
Caught the bus at the San Cristobal bus station at 07 :30 after a breakfast of a single coffee. It took  2.5 hours through wooded mountains to reach the border where the bus stopped discharging us at the Mexican customs followed by a short walk to the Guatemalan customs for a second stamp.

Then walking up hill into the centre of town passed the post office to a square where we found a single colourful chicken bus for our onward journey, a huge downward step in public transport for these were in fact retired years ago from their original use as School Buses in the USA.

QUETZALTENANGO our arrival not the start at the  border

We handed our rucksacks to the conductor who put them on the roof with all the luggage and then I left Joan whilst I found a shop selling something to banish our hunger. The conductor gave me 5 mins, meantime the empty bus was fast filling and Joan decided to risk life and limb to climb the vertical ladder to enter at the rear and found two seats. Then the bus engine started, Joan panicked and tried to get out of the bus banged on the side of the bus and waved at the driver, the conductor ran after a European man thinking it was Brian, then just as he gave up and took our rucksacks off the roof Brian reappeared.

The rucksacks were reloaded, we both got back on and Brian's explanation of the delay unfolded. In trying to buy four tortillas filled with vegetables he could only pay with the large Guatemalan notes we had procured at the border, thus giving the shopkeeper with a major problem. Joan records she won't let Brian leave her like that again - if we had got separated from each other or our luggage it would have been a nightmare of an introduction to a new unknown country. 

As it was we were now standing passengers but within a couple of minutes had been offered seats by two young men, one of whom spoke some English having been in Florida for a while. People were very kind and tried to speak to us. They were mainly peasant farmers, women with children and beautiful dark eyed babies staring at us because we looked so different with our pale skins and greying hair. 

The narrow isles and seats designed for two school children but now having to take three passengers with the outside person lucky to get a half seat. It was difficult for the conductor to pass by and collect the fares, and difficult for the passengers to remain seated whilst the bus sped round the hairpin mountain bends. We arrived safely in Quetzaltenango, or Xela the Maya name by which it is known locally.

QUETZALTENANGO BUS STATION and MARKET

We took a taxi to El Parke, the main square where we took a huge room in the pleasant Hotel Casa Florencia with two double beds a hot shower, a walk in wardrobe, a wood tiled floor and a TV. 

We walked around town finding an ATM and checked out the restaurants settling on a wonderful place selling Argentinian fillet steak with sliced potatoes fried in olive oil and corn on the cob, plus an enormous tomato, onion, avocado and red pepper salad. The place was full of what we took to be Spanish students and could hear many European languages.

Sunday 7 November 
We had breakfast at the hotel and got into discussion with a Norwegian couple of around our own age who were attending Spanish lessons in preparation for extensive independent travels in South America. During the week nights they each stayed at separate home-stays so as to force them to practice independently, but they moved to a hotel in order to be together for the weekend. In six weeks they intended to learn Spanish from scratch. We exchanged emails though and kept occasional enthusiastic contact since.

They had spent weekends on Lake Atitlan and gave us the name of a great place to stay called Jinava, describing it as very peaceful in a beautiful garden on the lake shore. A wonderful choice which we fully endorse.

We went to the Sunday market at Momostenango, a great bus ride full of friendly happy locals off for a day out in their local costumes with elaborately hand embroidered blouses. As we left the main road for the bumpy one into the hills we saw women washing on flat rocks in the stream and saw the washing laid out in the sun on the grass to dry.

MARKET at MOMOSTENANGO

In San Antonio Alta we saw two women with skirts swathed in plastic washing their long black hair in the steam to make the most of the midday sun. We asked about the time of the last bus back and made our way to the pretty main square with a yellow clock tower, the church to one side and civic building on the other.

MOMOSTENANGO note the head scarves

MOMOSTENANGO  - for carrying

It was full of colourful stalls selling fruit and vegetables, ironmongery, clothes, embroidered blouses, crockery, panama style hats baseball style caps, stalls with hand dipped candles in various colours near the church. 

On the side opposite to the church was 8-10 foot square bunker built of black volcanic stone containing smouldering charcoal, used to burn rubbish we thought until we saw a man and woman counting out candles then holding them up towards the church door and praying before placing the candles in the fire. I wished we understood, was this an ancient Mayan custom overlaid with christian beliefs? 

MOMOSTENANGO Volcanic Rocks

We talked to a young lad with several words of English who was sitting with two old ladies selling vegetables, they chatted to and when we left waved and said goodbye - we love the feeling of making contact with local people, no matter how little.

On our return a husband and wife joined us for several stops carrying their washed clothes in a shiny new galvanised bucket ready to hang it out on their return home.

Back in Quetzaltenango our wonderful restaurant was closed for Sunday but we did find a very welcoming cafe open that cooked us a breakfast menu of good cheese omelette with bread and coffee. 

LAGO de ATITLAN

Monday 8 November
Off to Atitlan, taxi to the bus to Los Enquentes, another to Panajachel as we thought but it turned out to be Solola, we should have waited for a further bus or taxi to take us the rest of the way from the top of the caldera down to the lakeside. The lake looked so invitingly beautiful that we decided to walk down with our heavy rucksacks, not realising it was a 8km downhill walk in the midday sun.

WALK DOWN TO SAN MARCOS

The lovely view was long forgotten by the time we reached the bottom, hot and completely exhausted. Joan had the good fortune to rave about seeing another humming bird, but eventually concluded she dare not stop for fear of being unable to start again.

LAGO ATITLAN,  WALK DOWN TO SAN MARCOS

Luckily we found a restaurant on entering the town and recovered with glasses of real lemonade, a bowl of soup, chicken and chips and a pasta salad. We then took a boat across the lake to San Marco and with difficulty found Jinava, a wonderful spot indeed a magical tropical garden full of flowers, exotic poinsettia, avocado palms, banana trees and little stepped paths between the bungalows meandering down to the lake shore.

JOAN RELAXING IN GARDEN at JINAVA CHALETS

We chatted to a Portuguese man born in England with a Franco-Portuguese wife who were taking a three month holiday from their hotel in Mozambique, close to the South African border. They had traveled up Central America starting from Panama. 

Supper of a tasty spaghetti and in bed by 7:30 completely whacked.

9 November
A restful day both with Joan with stiff hips me with sore legs, starting with a cold shower, not working at first but fixed rapidly on telling the owners. Chocolate pancakes for breakfast then diving off the boat key for a wonderful swim in the lake and delighted to find it easy to walk out. High quality sunbeds and a sauna within an hour lit promptly on request. A French couple from Paris were also swimming and sunbathing but for us a much needed rest day.

VIEW from JINAVA

Idyllic, huge 130 square kilometres and at 350m Atitlan is the deepest lake in Central America surrounded by volcanoes itself a caldera. A wonderful deep blue colour surrounded by volcanoes, peaceful with just the occasional sight of a lone traditional fisherman casting his net from his small paddled wooden boat - though they don't seem to catch much.


Aldous Huxley famously wrote of it in his 1934 travel book Beyond the Mexique Bay: "Lake Como it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing." It will long rate as our most favoured peaceful spot. However just a year later in 2005 Hurricane Stan caused mayhem all over Guatemala and the nearby lakeside town of Panabaj was buried in a landslide causing 1400 deaths and leaving 5000 homeless.

A lunch at 3pm so big we settled just for chocolate pancakes for supper - real backpackers fare Brian called it.

Wednesday 10 November
My birthday 'well he hasn't wished me happy birthday yet and it's 10:30 am. In the end I had to remind him.' 
She should be grateful I bring her to such fabulously different out of the way places - very few husbands do!

She spent the day was spent swimming and sunbathing and watching blue bellied golden faced lizards digging for ants beneath our sun loungers, admiring the birds, the black iridescent magpie , watching birds fly by with three inch black fish in their beaks noting she had never seen them dive in for their prey. 'I am pretty sure they are the birds I saw in inland Tasco (Mexico) in the spring so they must have adapted their diet to eat fish.

JOAN and BRIAN see SAUNA behind

There are swallows/martins and brown breasted birds of similar size that perch awkwardly on the reeds looking into the shallow water but I am still looking for the humming birds the German owner tells me he often sees.

He has a pet parrot a beautiful green with a multi-coloured face and wing tips. It's a very quiet peaceful place to be.'

11 November
The German owner, a very pleasant talkative guy, told me he came as a hippie to Panajachel, married a local who still works at the hospital. He showed us his photos of the designing and building first of his house and then gradually building the various bungalow rooms, the base for the ones at the very top had to be hewn out of the rock.

JINAVA HOUSE from the BEACH

Their garden is tended with loving care and full of beautiful flowers and trees, there is a Datura (moon flower) on the beach, yuccas, bamboos with yellow and green striped stems, banana and coffee trees,bougainvillea, poinsettias, many ferns and so many beautiful flowers including lillies and roses with a bunch of them in a vase in our room and flowers lying on the clean towels laid out on the bed. 

We could stay here for ever, muses Joan.

There were two young men eating here last night, one had been in Nicaragua advising on water projects and water hygiene. Tonight there were three women, one from Guatemala, one Swiss and one Belgian advising on textiles - showing how good quality could make good money. They had just been to the village of San Juan where they still weave using natural dies from wood saying cheaper dies run on washing and noting there are few villages still using natural dyes. They were also very helpful in suggesting routes from here up into the hills and then east to Coban, and by Rio Dulce to Livingstone on the Caribbean coast. Advice which we thankfully heeded. 

12 November 
There seems to be more wind today and the lake's usually calm surface is covered in small wavelets, their tips catching the sun causing it to sparkle like jewel encrusted cloth. The little fishing boats are rocking in the waves and the motor launch prow bangs into the waves as they plough from village to village across the lake.

STANDING VIEW over BOAT CANOPY

Brian has had his swim, so it's time for mine. Chocolate pancakes again, then we headed for the bus to San Pablo and then on to San Juan where we went to the quiet women's cooperative the women had recommended last night. We bought a table runner which still adorns our sideboard made of natural dies of orange, blue, browns and beige really very attractive. We walked through the village and then took a boat for 10 quetzals each to San Pedro to experience for the first time a holiday atmosphere with lots of 'Gringo's'. Ate superb fried fish on the lake shore before walking up to the village with lots of gift shops and hurriedly took a bus back to San Huan San Pedro and San Marco.

By this time we had long learned an alternative to conventional buses. Passengers simply stopped by hailing a truck laden with passengers, climbed up and joined the standing crowd in the back. Such trucks run return journeys from one small village to the next for a minimal fixed fee, by changing from one to the next it is possible to circumnavigate the lake. I may not be so observant as Joan of the birds and the flowers but I do learn how to get about strange countries. 

For all the friendliness during the day we were advised of the danger of being robbed if walking alone between villages at night, which restricted our movement, eg seeking new restaurants, more perhaps than necessary. More than anywhere else we had been we were very aware of being far more privileged than any of the locals. Even during the day I remember a man coveting my Canon SLR camera, and desperately wanting to hold it in the small crowd gathered as I was taking a photo of this tragedy - I felt greedy at holding on so tight. 

A FALLING TREE DEMOLISHED A HOUSE

CHICHICASTENANGO

Saturday 13 November
Bus to Panajachel and another to Chichicastenango hoping to be there for tomorrows Sunday market but arrived to find a smaller one in full swing with food stalls around the church of St Thomas which was built in 1500-1600. Spanish style but very simple with blackened altar pieces and paintings no longer visible due to many years of candle burning, we observed people setting light to twenty at a time and sprinkling them with rose and marigold petals dipped in water.

CHICHICASTENANGO SUNDAY MARKET

We found a pleasant little cafe in the main square for coffee and guacamole and went back later for a meal. Later on a multitude of people in different costumes set up stalls ready for tomorrow. Opposite the cafe was a pick up truck full of trainers with eager customers sorting out sizes and pairs to suit them. Two girls were selling and fitting laces from a pile which diminished as we watched. Opposite they were setting up stalls for Sunday.

CHICHICASTENANGO STREET

Market Day Sunday 14 November
Even more stalls with sellers walking the streets. hand embroidered shawls , cloths and blankets, jewelry, bags, purses, fruit, flowers, food, ice-cream candy floss.

The vegetable market was a riot of colour, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, chilies, onions, herbs, celery, beetroot, huge radish, turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber - all so fresh and clean, many types of bean in black, brown, red-brown, yellow, green everything weighed on simple balance scales with no written prices - but Joan guessed the locals know the going rate, acknowledging we didn't have a clue. 

We bought a beautifully carved puzzle for Geoff hoping he would like it.  We saw Helen the French Canadian we had met in San Marco she has now booked into a Spanish class in Panajachel and came here with Swiss Eveline who like us is traveling overland to Coban, she has already been traveling for seven months

The town is full of tour parties from all over Europe being shown around in large groups. We went into St Thomas again, there was a mass christening of about twenty babies in full swing each being taken to the priest by their father carrying bunches of flowers which had been folded into square coloured clothes by their mothers. I'm afraid that several tourists were ignoring the requests for no photographs and were busily filming and snapping away.

We got more money for our onward journey as the banks are open on Sundays. As the market began to close various sellers were doing well selling cheap underwear, children's clothing, toys, American style caps, various bread rolls and believe it or not bagels and customers were buying by the bag load to take home - perhaps for re-sale. 

We found a very slow Internet place with many well used letter keys missing. Nevertheless we picked up several emails from those following our path , learning of Mme Brisson's 80th birthday, Hazel's play and from Martine who had understood some of my Spanish. Joan wonders how Judy's horse riding went. Evidence that I recorded much on the internet presumably in email form as for Mexico proper but never thought to rescue and assemble those records. 

Back to the same restaurant for a supper spent with a 'gagle' (Brian's word) of American quilters. 

NEBAJ

15 November Journey to Nebaj 
Breakfast at Las Brasas very tasty cheeses omlette with fried banana, water melon and twice cooked frigoles then back to Posada El Arco to pick up our bags. Chichi has no bus station so it is neccesary to catch a passing bus. Whilst waiting and hoping at the crossroads above the hotel someone heard me trying to say Sacapulas and directed us to a minibus going to San Cruz del Quiche, the capital of Quiche. Joan records having a very comfortable seat but I was not as lucky for this 16 seater had a payload of 24 people, quite a feat!

After a 30 min drive we arrived at the bus station  in San Cruz where the very same helpful man directed us to the bus for Nebaj. The helper on the minibus took Brian's bag to the new bus and put it on the roof. The empty bus gradually filled up to overflowing, as usual, over a 20 minute wait and picked up still more people on route. We both had comfortable seats for this four hour journey. The road was good to Sacapulas climbing at first then winding down into the fertile valley then crossing a large fast flowing river in the town. After that the road, fairly new but un-surfaced with landslides obviously a continual problem, wonderful views and blue skies as we climbed steeply to Nebaj.

On leaving Brian took a picture of the bus

NEBAJ BUS STATION

Whereupon the two helpers (conductors) joined in the photo good humouredly. The younger boy was a real charmer was the one who collected all the fares on the bus, cajoling the money from reluctant payers.

OUR CONDUCTORS

At the bus station we were approached by a man, Gaspar as recommended in the Lonely Planet we later discovered, who wanted to take us walking in the hills tomorrow - staying in the Ixil villages - for our sins we have agreed!!

We went to the Municipal Offices in the square in the hopes of getting a street map of the town - but none were to be had. Looking around on the first floor balcony we could see a major excavation some fifteen feet deep apparently just to build new gardens. Senor Thomas Raymond came over to speak to us in good English and explained they were building an underground car park with decorative gardens on top, now all was clear forward thinking for a town with few cars. 

NEBAJ SOON TO BE NEW MAIN SQUARE WITH UNDERGROUND CAR PARK

Our new acquaintance had spent fifteen years in the army and done a spell in the British Embassy in Guatemala City. He was now working for the police and hoping to develop tourism in the area by providing tourist police and teaching the locals to keep their town free from rubbish. A society used to tomales in corn or banana leaves now had to deal with rubbish in the form of indestructible plastic bags and bottles. Joan noted this town was not as bad as many others, he is clearly making a difference, concluding we will remember this man for he was so pleasant. 

We walked passed the Artisania stalls selling woven bags, cloth shawls hupiles and head dresses to intricate for me to put on! 

Then got into conversation with a Dutch couple in an Internet cafe cum Spanish language school.They had been travelling Guatemala, Honduras and Belize flying in and out of Cancun in Mexico, they hadn't enjoyed Belize but every where else had been great.

Our policeman explained the three towns in the Nebaj area were Ixil people who spoke but didn't write their own language. Today the children are taught to read and write it using text books written by a lady from the US who had lived here for twelve years and during that time had learned their language. 'I'm afraid Brian and I don't agree about preserving old minority languages - he thinks they should be left to die out'. There are apparently 25 different tongues in Guatemala alone.

The women's costume here is very elaborate - we saw three women in the style yesterday in Chichicastenango market. The embroidery and back strap weaving is very intricate. Many of the women here are war widows, the war which finished in 1996, just eight years earlier, was fought by guerillas in the mountain whole villages also being destroyed.

16 November
Up early for breakfast, ejote - eggs french beans and rice, in the square where we met up with our guide and Andre his eight year old son.    

Together we walked up and up and up with beautiful flowers  and views, I did see my humming bird in a pine tree, I suppose that comes from having flowers. I called out Colobri, Spanish for humming bird, and Gaspar came running because he thought it was a snake. He said that here the humming bird is called Hijo de Quetzal, son of the Quetzals, which also has irridescent feathers but is very rare. It seems common enough to me for I have seen several!

BEANS BEING GROWN as second CROP UP MAIZE STALKS

FARMING FAMILY JUST OUTSIDE NEBAJ

There are raptons? overhead and the sky is blue, pity we left our sun cream at the hotel in Nebaj. 

ANDRE DEMONSTRATES WELL KNOWN GAME

We walked with few stops o the top of the mountain where we admired the view of Acul down in the valley ahead. A French party of six to eight people came by they were on a five day trek - lucky us! 

LEAVING NEBAJ

We were very tired and acing when we reached the village where we were staying at La Posada Ixil Dona Magdalena a wonderful wooden building with a garden all around with lilys, geraniums, hollyhocks and canna lilies, colourful bushes and roses climbing the tree in front of the door.

OUR WELCOMING HOSTESS

As for live stock there were hairy pigs, three dogs, hens with chicks and turkeys. Magdalena was there with her daughter and two delightful grandchildren, Evelina about two and her brother about five - a very happy family. We had a very welcome chicken soup when we arrived with good pieces of chicken. Andre gnawed the bones we left. He looks well fed but often says he is hungry, he is an engaging boy with a cheeky grin. His mother died following a stomach operation so his father brings him on the treks. Later Joan decided he was a naughty boy who stole two wieners from Magdalena's kitchen and has taken a liking to her watch - I shall have to make sure I get it back!   

At lunch there was a Canadian lady from Alberta and a Dutch physiotherapist from Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He said there were no jobs in Holland but lots in Britain.

We walked around the village before a long wait d for our supper, again simple but very nice. So was the Camomile tea courtesy of Liptons who seem to sell all over the world but not much in Britain.

AZUL STREET SCENE

We were offered a sauna which Joan accepted then worried how she would cope, a three foot high door in the side wall full of wood and smoke, completely dark inside - still 'nothing ventured nothing gained'. After supper we were told it was ready and could candle in hand detect a brick fireplace with glowing embers a huge tub of hot water perched on top and on the bench was another tub with a cold water tap, over head was a blackened clothes line for our clothes.

BED REST WITH GASPAR'S SON ANDRE

We stripped off and enjoyed 20 minutes washing and soaping in beautiful soft warm water. 'An experience literally as warm as toast not to be missed'. We got into bed and slept well in a dorm shared with Gaspar and Andre, so Joan records she kept all her clothes on.

17 November
After a good breakfast, hot water for coffee, scrambled egg, a big bowl of beans, not washed and reheated, home made tortillas and boiled platina (banana). Tortillas are not usually my favorite but here they are made with freshly ground maize -still milky- making a wet dough with a taste much better than commercial ones. They are hand patted into shape and cooked on a hot plate over the fire.

We had walked around the village, by 8am the sun was lighting the walls of the mainly wood walled tiled houses, the mist was creeping back up to the surrounding hilltop and the wood smoke fires were starting up once again.

SUN RISE in AZUL

The women were starting to weave - mainly hupilles of very intricate patterns. 

AZUL VILLAGE WEAVER AT WORK

The headdresses of these Ixil people are about eight feet long and eight inches wide with four tassels on each end. Not souvenirs for tourists, we are almost the only outsiders here, but for everyday wear. It is wound round the plaited hair to hold it in place then tied over the crown so the four tassels are arranged on either side.

AZUL VILLAGE SHOP

AZUL PHARMACY

Hearing music from very loud speakers we walked up to a largish wooden with palm leaves pinned around the walls and coloured streamers along the verandah thinking it must be at least be a birthday party or wedding. Very smartly dressed ladies with immaculate head dresses. But no, it was a church service, presumably non conformist and definitely Sunday best dress this Wednesday. My recollection is that it was run by US evangelist missionaries.

We walked over to a farm we could see on the hillside near Azul, thinking the countryside was like Switzerland without the snow but with plenty of lush grass.

CHEESE MAKING FARM other side of VALLEY

The farm's specialty was making cheese and we arrived at milking time with about twelve Jersey and six Hostein cows. We were taken into the dairy to see the ripening stock of cheeses, some were quite fresh still floating in the brine and the rest at various stages of maturation., some with a green mould forming on the skin. We bought a mature goats cheese, tasty and very different from Welsh soft goats cheese.

As we walked out of the village we passed the hacienda belonging to the owners, looking very Alpine with chalets for rent beside it. We followed the gushing river down out of the valley passed little waterfalls. Gaspar made Joan a cross of flowers with the aim of keeping her safe but she almost immediately fell flat on her hands, managing as usual to protect her artificial knees as first priority. We eventually reached a road junction where we waited for a pick up, not quite what we expected - a lorry full of logs. They put down a ladder for us to climb in - a new experience every day better than a cattle truck I guess wrote Joan.

First stop on the trek back to Nebaj was the cemetery of the dead from the recently finished war. There had been a terrible slaughter of the local fighters by the government forces. Our guide Gaspar was clearly keen to expose us to the tragedy and clearly used it to collect money, one hopes it goes to good causes

AZUL WAR MEMORIAL

AZUL WAR CEMETERY

LOCAL MEMORIAL CHURCH to  WAR DEAD in wooden SHED

Back to our hotel Turansa, Nebaj and a different room with two beds but a welcome shower. Then some shopping in town buying some Christmas presents bags for the grandchildren, head scarves and woolen coloured juggling balls which I gave away to Geoff only to my shame stole them back. Great grandson Owen now plays his first word 'ball' with them. We found the bus station and identified what we thought was a bus starting next day at 5:30am for Coban.  

NEBAJ east to COBAN and LIVINGSTON

Thursday 18 November
Unexpectedly no bus to be had at the bus terminal, presumably it had already left. We were told to take the bus now leaving for Sacapulas,though understood little more. The bus put us off with a few others at a deserted misty junction east outside Nebaj at 6:30am leaving us wondering about the next step.

WAITING IN HOPE - CROSSROADS OUTSIDE NEBAJ

The Coban bus we should have caught in Nebaj arrived full to overflowing so we had to stand through Cunan, a clean looking town and prosperous town compared to Nebaj, and almost the whole way to Uspantan. Presumably it had left Nebaj early and done the usual circuit around town to pick up passengers.

The long day's travel west to east across Guatemala stands as the most interesting bus journey we have ever made. 

After Uspantan we went even higher the hills being steep and bare with just a few pines. We came over the top where there were almost no homes in land too cold to farm and into the next valley where we crossed the river on a single track bridge only to climb up the other side through stone quarries and at one point picked up a dozen workers who lived in villages near San Cristobal across the Mexican border. The road was unmade except in towns, almost the direct opposite of rural Cross Canada Highway I (Brian) remember in northern Ontario from the 50's, where towns like Elliot Lake were simply a quagmire and it was difficult to avoid drenching pedestrian in mud.

We started to pick up mothers with babies and children filling the bus full again as there was standing room only, but by San Crisobal we were down to 18 passengers. Then from single track unmade roads we suddenly hit tarmac and the driver speeded up stopping for no-one until we reached Coban and civilisation after a seven hour journey. There had been just two stops to add water to the radiator though in desperation I remember stopping to pee in a village shopping street, hiding up against the front of the bus praying the driver would notice me! - I doubt any other passengers had been on board so long. At one the bus boy took his can down to water source where women were collecting water in the striped containers' of the type we had seen in the market at Chichicastenango, balanced on their heads with elegance and grace.

We drove down to the centre of Coban close to the Hotel Dona Victoria, walked back to El Parke and had a look at rooms in Hotel Central which were dark and cold looking although the courtyard was nice, then to La Posada, possibly the best tourist hotel in town where a room was available for just one night which we took.

Joan crossed her fingers hoping the plumbing work in progress on the shower would be completed that day. Nevertheless the hotel served a wonderful lunch of soup and stuffed peppers.

That afternoon we took a taxi to the Orchid Collection an orchid nursery just outside town. (The beautiful Monja Blanca orchids, the national flower of Guatemala, were in flower around the window boxes of the houses.)

They had 300,000 orchids of several thousand species growing on bark covered by mats in shaded plant houses but unfortunately only miniature varieties were in flower due to the season. Clearly orchids are vital to Guatemala.

The old man who took us round and was very helpful though clearly not expecting a sale and generous in sharing detailed information. Their technique is reproduction by division of plants,  apparently it is very difficult to reproduce orchids from seed. Some of the flowers were less than 2mm across so small you wouldn't notice them in the wild. The plants are now protected by law in the forest but deforestation will inevitably take its toll. 

Tree ferns are also used as shade in some areas, those we saw were about 25 years old. He also had azaleas, bromelia and an enormous horse tail. Whilst we went through the shaded houses we could hear birds calling noisily, a group of thrush sized ones with flared yellow tails were invading the orange trees for supper.

Having remembered the route we walked back to the square for a pizza and the Internet, Joan records having caught another cold. T good nights sleep but even though this is a more expensive hotel she could have done with another blanket. 

19 November 
The morning shower was OK followed by an excellent breakfast and then a leisurely walk around La Posada's garden revealing a pool with three very beautiful metal frogs, one being part of the tap handle. Also a fine carved frog in stone carrying a baby on its back.

There being no vacancy we looked for another hotel and experienced some confusion, being sent in differing directions as there were three different hotels with the name Hoteles Dona Victoria. The one we found was an extremely friendly place with a large courtyard where a large group of workers were having a buffet lunch, and in the evening a large family group of forty or more from babes in arms to seventy year olds like us and yet a third group of beauty contestants from Guatemala City preparing for a contest in the town theatre tomorrow.

That afternoon we went to a coffee plantation but no-one was available at 2:30 so we found a nice place for coffee. Casa D'Acuna is a hostal type accommodation surrounded by a beautiful garden with a nice gift shop where we bought a nice shell ring box for Judy- hope she likes it because I do records Joan. 

The coffee plantation was just around the corner from the Parque. Cafe Diesel Dorff began in 1888 by a German from Hamburg who founded Finca Margarita for coffee growing plus a factory for processing the product. 

COFFEE BEANS

We saw the ripe red beans picked by hand as they ripen put through a masher to extract the beans from the berries, washed in a water tank for twelve hours before being pumped to the drying area in the sun, the best beans settling to the bottom, finally roasting and cooled, those for local consumption being ground the rest being exported to the USA and Europe.

COFFEE BEANS DRYING

They also grow pimento gourda (all spice) green, cardoman, g sugar cane, nutmeg and pecaya - a bush used as a vegetable which also serves to provide shade for the coffee bushes protecting them from strong sunlight, also some very old tall trees. Joan saw a beautiful brilliantly red robin sized bird in the coffee bushes, though our lady guide said she had never seen one before. They own five larger plantations, I think this small one was mainly as a tourist attraction, where they are also planning to grow cinnamon.

We saw ripe coffee bean bushes growing from seed six and twelve weeks old but it would be four years before they started to produce berries. The main crop is Aribica with some Amarilla and Robusta type as well. The original owner was also interested in Mayan culture, archeology, beliefs and herbal medicines with a collection in the National Museum in Guatemala City.

But perhaps the fondest memory is this picture of the fine wooden paving near the house.

BEAUTIFUL WOODEN PAVED PATH

Saturday 20 November  Bus Journey to El Estor
Brian went to get money from an ATM for we are not sure there will be one on our next stage of the journey. We set out not sure how far we would get but hoping to make Livingston but we ended up short in El Elstor, once a nickel mining town now becoming  a quiet tourist retreat on Lake Izabel.

The journey was very long, slow and winding along the Palochic river, sometimes alongside the river at other tomes hundreds of feet above it. It was tarmac until Tactic afterwards it was unmade but with few potholes the main approaching traffic being pick up trucks and heavy lorries, making passing places or backing up the name of the game.

There was a baby only a couple of months old close to Brian who had recently been operated on for hare lip and cleft palate. It was on the bus for several hours with two very caring parents. It is normal for locals to breast feed their babies on the bus in other to get them to sleep during the long bus journey. Joan could see they had many problems of keeping clean as demonstrated by the technique of simply shaping the milk into the babies mouth, thinking that it wins over bottle feed and represents a different way of life. The beauty contestants in the hotel yesterday would have gone unnoticed in Swansea with their mini skirts and halter neck tee shirts.

The views from the bus were superb, grassy topped pine covered
mountains were topped with clouds. The valley grew bananas and oranges together with tall ones unknown to me covered in cheese plants, bromelids and orchids but none in flower. As we neared lake Izabel the valley floor widened with cattle like ours but also a frilly necked hump backed Indian variety accompanied by the inevitable egrets. Joan saw more than fifty in a single field

We stopped a couple of times to deliver cardboard cartons to shops, all like Brian's rucksack went on the roof. Frequent mentions only of my large rucksack seem to indicate I was in the new mode of carrying for two, caused by Joan's double knee replacement.

Both the driver and the conductor have their wives with them who since we didn't reach El Estor until dark at 6pm will presumably stay overnight and drive back tomorrow. We found our way to a Hotel Vista al Lago, once the general store which gave the town its name.

THE ORIGINAL EL ESTOR now HOTEL VISTA EL LAGO

Clean too with a fan which worked well once we had discovered that 1 = fast and 5 = slow!

Then to Hugo's a great place to eat Brian made the right choice fish, I had chicken with lots of good vegetables, followed by ice cream and coffee. Hugo told us he had a hotel just a fifteen minutes walk along the shore ideal for swimming in the lake, where he kept iguanas, a deer, cats and dogs to add to the attractions. It sounded great but time was running out.

Sunday 21 November El Estor to Rio Dulce
We watched the ramshackled old wooden boat with a corrugated tin roof as protection against the midday sun morning boat come into the little pier outside the Hotel Usta at 8:30.

MORNING BOAT at EL ESTOR

LAKE SHORE at EL ESTOR

It was full off boxes of vegetables and fruit plus people with bicycles. The lake border is full of water hyacinths, the waters edge has pretty blue balustrade along the lake shore, a sign of increasing relevance. They are constructing a posh looking new hotel in concrete  next to our hundred year old wooden one. The social club's crest calls El Estor paraiso de Mauti, Dept IZABEL, Guatemala Manache.

Nowhere was open to serve breakfast a cafe agreed to serve us with coffee by 9:30 and eventually offered wheat flour pancakes (tortillas) with beans and cream. By 10am our bus was ready to leave for Livingston but they could not change my 100 Quetzal note from the ATM, a passing girl ran off with it in a mission to get it changed but was only spotted as the bus was about to leave, for a moment Brian thought she would keep the money but spotting her in the crowd at the last minute she settled with us both and all ended well. 

This bus had individual seats but little space to move around the bus. Joan records I was uncomfortable with my hip but never the less the journey along the lake shore was pleasant with lots of  soft brown and white frilly necked cows, bullocks and egrets sitting in the shade. Much of the wooded land had 'Private, keep out - no wood cutting' notices.

The small town of Rio Dulce our destination was at the very end of Lake Izabel is where the river goes through a canyon to the Carribean Sea. It is a yachting centre very popular with Americans escaping the expense of living in the USA notable for being the point where the bridge crossing the river has the longest span in Central America, apparently it takes 30 minutes to cross by foot but in this sticky heat we didn't bother to try. We were stopped by  man offering the nearby Hotel Posada del Rio Grande. It was cheap, clean a comfortable bed and most importantly a good fan with a spacious balcony overlooking the river.

Bruno, the man in the Travel Office, recommended the evening barbecue which was obviously the meeting place for the whole yachting fraternity. I counted thirty boats and a gin palace from where we were sitting. The BBQ meal for 40Q was pork steak sausages, mash potatoes, sweet corn, salad with avacado and  dressing plus three glasses of excellent Cuba Libre, not to mention the very popular happy hour. We booked tickets for the BBQ and a river trip tomorrow for Livingston.

Our seemingly empty hotel suddenly filled up with new arrivals at 8pm but we were ready for bed

Monday 22 November.  Trip to Livingston
The boat left at 9am which after picking up passengers from around the bay actually started proper an hour later by which time it was raining. 

Soon the rain stopped leaving us to enjoy the trees and the birds, mainly pelicans, egrets and white herons. On leaving the River Dulce we entered a large possibly salt lake and then to Bud Island where cormorants with their wings spread out to dry were nesting in the trees.

On to a lagoon full of water with houses around and many paddlers in dug out canoes, some stationary for fishing, the route was indicated using water bottles as markers.

Our attention was drawn to hot springs bubbling up from the water. The canyon had white vertical rock walls. The woman and child next to us were dropped off at a landing stage with about thirty dug out canoes piled under a shelter, which we assumed by villagers living hidden from view on the steep hillside. To Joan's delight there was a black humming bird about three inches long flitting from branch to branch in a nearby tree.

Passed a long landing stage full of lines of frigate birds, terns and gulls, it was a long disused remnant of the days when Livingston was an active seaport on the Caribbean. Now it is inland of the lazy sleepy coastal town full of dark black West Indian Afro skins - a huge unexpected transition of mood.

THE CARIBBEAN COAST AT LIVINSTON, GUATEMALA

We had been advised to try Topado fish soup and located it in a cafe near the sea, but it seemed to be fish cooked in a chicken stock, OK but not the delicacy we had expected. The waiter was of Indo- Mexican descent on holiday from the university in Mexico city, his father had been born in Calcutta. 

LIVINGSTON, QUATEMALA'S ONLY CARRIBEAN

As we walked along the streets we were greeted by many inhabitants eager to explain this was an Afro community one said he had first learned from an Englishman, but apologised that his accent had deteriorated from later teaching from an American. They were all friendly, - generously so. In town we found the real thick Topado soup made of fish, squid, shrimp, vegetables, platinos and potatoes.

We had ignored people walking back to the boat in early afternoon, ignoring the fact that this was low season and there might be just one boat a day. We arrived just after 3pm to find the return boat had just left. We had to pay 60$ to hire a boat to ourselves - rating this our first mistake of the holiday.

A LIGHT FOR THE IMPENDING NIGHT

A rapid return in fact in fading light we even had to stop at our drivers home to collect a lamp, delivered by a beautiful girl, perhaps his daughter, in a red dress wading waist deep to meet us with a small torch - she was sent back to get a much bigger one, no doubt needing a boats light for safety reasons on his return journey home. He had an helper standing high in the prow watching out for other boats and floating logs, dangers the driver could not see from his position. 

Back to Bruno's to eat in the rain at a table set for 16, 4-6pm was happy hour two more Cuba Libres and two neat rums all very cosy and crowded. - a happy hour to remember. Tomorrow we are off to Flores and Tical.

























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