Happy New Year!
Happy new year, everybody! We hope that this new year brings all of you peace and prosperity.
We are celebrating the new year in style. For the night of the 31st, we'll be spending the night at a bungalow at a volcanic hot spring in Fuentes Georginas, ringing in the new year by soaking in the hot water. We will be spending the rest of the long weekend lazing on the beach near the Mexican border. As you may have noticed, we decided that cold new years are passe.
Los Acuerdos de Paz
Yesterday marked the 13th anniversary of the 1996 “Acuerdos de Paz”, which ended 36 years of armed conflict in Guatemala. While there have been some celebrations here and there, this seems to be mostly an occasion for people to remember that things have not improved all that much for the majority of the population in the last 13 years. But before we start on this, we should probably start with a little context to the few who for some strange reason might not be familiar with the history of Guatemala...
First Week in Xela
After so much vacationing around, we decided we needed a little rest and headed west to Quetzaltenango, aka Xela, Guatemala's second biggest city. The original idea was for Matt to take more Spanish classes while I did some volunteer work with kids during the week. Weekends were going to be spent hiking volcanoes and taking in all the sights in the mountains around. We haven't had much luck turning these plans into reality, but we've had an interesting time here so far...
Vacation in a Vacation: Lago de Atitlan
The last stop on our vacation within a vacation was Lago de Attitlan, often described by Guatemalans as the most beautiful lake in the world. As you will see in the photos, it is indeed very picturesque, a beautiful blue, surrounded by hills and volcanoes, with traditional (and/or touristy) villages perched on the cliffs.
Vacation in a Vacation: Livingston
After a couple of days using our jungle bungalow as a base to explore the region, we decided to head off to a new place. Tuesday started off with a refreshing swim, followed by a 2-hour boat ride to our next destination; the Garifuna enclave of Livingston on the Caribbean Coast.
Vacation in a Vacation: Ruins of Quirigua
On old piles of stones day 2 (Monday), we took on our third Maya ruin, on the impressive site of Quirigua. Quirigua was a Maya city founded around 200 CE and a dependency of the aforementioned Copan for centuries. In the course of time, however, it began to grow and contest the rule of Copan, and shortly before 738 CE, its ruler, K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat, refused to pay his tribute to the King of Copan, 18 Rabbit. 18 Rabbit launched a military expedition to punish the impetuous administrator, but the army of Quirigua captured him. They executed the king in 738 and won their independence.
Vacation in a Vacation: the Castle of San Felipe
As enchanting as our jungle lodge was, Matt just could not stay away from the Old Piles of Stone. Sunday afternoon saw us heading for the Castillo de San Felipe, a 16th century Spanish fortress built to defend the area against... pirates of the Caribbean.
Vacation in a Vacation: Rio Dulce
After the 11 hours in a roasting bus that we talked about last time, it is fair to say that we were quite exhausted by the time we got to Rio Dulce. This time, however, the gods were merciful, and they sent us not a storm, but a shuttle to what turned out to be a particularly nice jungle bungalow on the lake shore.
Vacation in a Vaction: Eastern Guatemala
After four weeks of intensive Spanish classes in Antigua, we decided to take what is usually called a "well-deserved" vacation before heading west to our next destination, Quetzaltenango, aka Xela. After much looking and asking around, we figured that going east on the chicken buses, with a change in gigantic, scary Guatemala City, was a little more than we could handle, so on Friday we finally booked our ticket to Rio Dulce through a travel agency in town.
A good place for donations
In this holiday season, many people are in a giving spirit, but are not sure where to send their cash since so many charities are mostly either a money-sink or a scam. However, we just spent a week with the folks at Pop-Wuj and we can attest that this is a program worthy of your hard earned dollars/euros if you should be so inclined.
Iximche
After hearing much about Matt's enthusiasm for old piles of stone, our host family generously offered to take us to the town of Tecpan, the first capital of Guatemala and, most importantly (some would say) site of the Mayan ruins of Iximche.
Santo Domingo
One of the more interesting sights in Antigua is the museum in the Santa Domingo hotel. The five star hotel is built into the ruins of what was Antigua's richest monastery before the 1773 earthquake. The museum is without doubt the best in Antigua.
Monterrico – Nature Reserve
As mentioned in the previous post, we took a guided boat tour of the mangroves while in Monterrico. We saw many interesting species of plants and animals, and we could not fit all of the pictures into the gallery for Monterrico itself. So here they are!
Monterrico – Beach
No old piles of stones or volcano climbing for us this week-end, but two days of enjoying the sun and splashing around in the waves at our first Guatemalan beach. It was in fact a week-end of many "firsts" for us: our first "tropical beach" lined with coconut trees, our first black-sand beach, our first hotel right on beach with views of the ocean, our first warm-water ocean swimming (which Matt enjoyed a lot), our first ceviche (fresh raw seafood marinated in tomato and lime juice-delicious!), our first time seeing many species of birds, etc. etc.