Guatamala, Interrupted

It´s been quite a while since my last update, and I apologize for that. Things are going well here. After I left Placencia, I took a boat, a bus, and two more boats to cross over to Guatamala.
The border crossing was fairly simple out of Belize, and only slightly more complicated into Guatamala.

I was instantly struck by how much more complex it will be to get around in Guatamala and Honduras. Frankly, my Spanish is terrible (read: nonexistant), and not many people here speak English. Luckily for me there were two girls, one German, one Argentinian, both who spoke Spanish, that were taking the same route as me. They helped me through the process and were quite patient (and amused) by my pathetic attempts to communicate with the locals.
Another thing that´s going to make it awfully tough traveling here, is that there is a huge banking crises right now in Guatamala. Apparently two of the largest banks in the country have gone bust, and everyone is (understandably) panicking and pulling their money out of the banks. This means that none of the ATMs have any cash in them. The only way to get money here right now, is to go into the bank and actually withdraw it through a teller. A far more complicated process than just pushing a few buttons at the ATM. Oh well, this is not an insurmountable problem, and these kinds of experiences make travel memorable as well, right?

The town I first came into in Guatamala was Puerto Barrios. Border towns are generally unpleasant round the world, and Puerto Barrios should consider changing it´s slogan to something like: Puerto Barrios, a great place to change your bus!

Entering Guatamala one immediately notices one thing: guns. There are lots and lots of guns here. So many in fact, that the immigration office has a sign out front requesting that people please not bring there handguns inside. Businesses all have armed security standing watch outiside, and one can instantly tell how much money the business makes by what kind of weapons the security outside are holding. Furniture and electronics store guards generally hold large menacing shotguns, whereas banks are guarded by smiling, helpful locals holding large semi-automatic rifles. I didn´t see any guards at the mini-marts or liquor stores, but I believe the owners wear jackets in this heat for a reason.

I tagged along with the two girls I´d met (Jessica and Maria), and they helped me withdraw money, and get our ferry tickets to the final destination of the day: Livingston, Guatamala. Livingston is a town which can only be reached by boat. It feels largely more Belizean than Guatamalen due to the enourmous Garifuna population who have made it their home. The sunset was beautiful as the boat appoached Livingston, and by the time we reached the port, the sun had set, giving the town a cool, distinctly Carribean feel. Many of the buildings were of a French colonial style and the main road was lined with shops and restaurants catering to travelers of all different budgets. Livingston, I presume, is a tourist trap. As these sorts of places become more set up for travel, the line between them and their Dineylworld doppleganger becomes increasingly blurred. Which, I suppose is why I ended up staying at the Hotel California.

Welcome to the Hotel California
The Hotel California is not a lovely place, it´s a flop house. But at $8US dollars a night including a private bath, it´s within my budget, and would have to do. Jessica and Maria went off to eat dinner, and I went to my room to take a shower and sort out laundry. I got the impression that I may have worn out my welcome with my two new aquaintences, and so I kept my distance from them for the remainder of my time in Livingston.

After I felt refreshed, I headed out to eat and ran into Richard and Eama, the British couple I´d left behind that morning in Placencia. They had left several hours after I did, and arrived just after me. Their connections apparently working out a tad bit more smoothly than mine. I joined them for dinner, and we all signed up to take a walking tour of the town in morning.

The walking tour the next day was exactly what I needed. A opportunity to get some excercise, see the town, and meet some other travelers. The tour was led by Francis and Eddie, two charming local Garifuna who kept me laughing throughout the day. While I can´t say the tour was especially informative, it made it a whole lot easier to have someone who knew how to get around to guide us.

Our tour took us to a local Catholic church, a colorfully painted cemetary, and then to a beautiful lookout point above the city. From the lookout we could see the ocean, and far away in the distance, the edges of both Belize and Guatamala. A bit of a Golden Traingle within Central America.

We hiked down to a boat landing where we took a canoe down to the beach. The beach wasn´t all that nice, but after hiking all day in the hot sun, a dip in the ocean was definitely in order. Next we hiked down the beach and then up to our final destination of the Seven Alters. The Seven Alters is a series of freshwater pools, which is fed by a small waterfall at the top. The pool at the top is shallow around the edges with a rather steep and immediate drop off. Since I´m not all that strong of a swimmer I stuck mostly to the edges, splashing around and cooling of again.

Later that night, I went to see some live Garifuna music at a local bar. Garifuna music is largely percussive, and similar in many ways to African music. The setup was several drums, turtle shells, a conch shell, and call and response vocals. The band played a short, energrentic set, and afterwards I headed back to my hotel for some sleep.

Dulce de Liche
The next morning Richard, Eama, and I all took a small boat out to Rio Dulce, a small town on the main land of Guatamala. The cruise itself is really the attraction here as the river is surrounded by beautiful jungle, mountains, and cliffs. We stopped along the way to see some caves, and a natural hot springs, arriving at the town of Rio Dulce in the early afternoon.

After finding a hotel, I walked down to the water and sat watching some local kids fishing. The evening was mostly spent sitting outside the hotel on patio trading rounds of beers and conversing with Richard Eama. This would be our last night of traveling together as in the morning I was to head for Honduras, as they headed further into Guatamala.

Bananna Republic
The next day was largely taken up by a long bus ride from Rio Dulce to the border of Honduras. I was joined on the bus by a travler from New Zealand named Bryce. An electrician by trade, Bryce was currently on a year long trip through South and Central America. This was not his first extended vacation, as he apparently alternates about a year to a year and a half of working and saving money, with nine to twelve months of travel.
The border crossing intoHonduras was largely uneventful, and once we´d arived at our destination of Copanas Ruinas, I was happy to see that the cash machines were working. No banking crises in Honduras. Bryce and I decided to share a double room at a hotel to save some money, and after finding accomodations had a nice dinner of chicken and rice.

the $25,000 Pyramid
The big reason travelers come to Copan Ruinas is to see the Mayan ruins of Copan, which are about one kilometer outside the city. The site itself is lovely, surrounded by lush tropical forest, and filled with colorful birds(including parrots). Bryce and I got to the ruins early to avoid the crowds, and spent about two hours exploring the grounds. The main thing this site is known for is the intricacy of the carvings, and the large sculptures which adorn many of the temples. There is a nice museum nearby which houses some of the most well intact pieces that have been excavated on the grounds.

There are many mounds of vegetation nearby which are clearly temples that have yet to be uncovered. Archeologists have also found several intact temples buried underneath the ones ones currently on display. These are largely inaccessible to the public, but they have created a full scale replica of one which is on display in the museum.

I´ll be leaving here tomorrow and heading to Gracias, Honduras to try to take a guided trek in a nearby national park. I´m not looking forward to another long day of travel, but alas, such is life.