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ANTIGUA & PANAJACHEL, GUATEMALA - APRIL 10 - 14

On the 10th, I caught the 6:30 AM ferry from Livingston to Puerto Barrios. Puerto Barrios is the only seaport for large freighters on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala. It is big and dirty with a bad reputation for crime with nothing to do according to my guide book so I just caught a bus out to Guatemala City then on to Antigua. The ride to Guate City was a steady climb from the coast. Most of the population of Guatemala is in these highland that range from about 1200m to 1800m above sea level. I can see why as the temperature is similar to a nice Vancouver summer day and evening and the humidity is only a little higher than Vancouver's. Guate City is a sprawling city of rolling hills, fast food outlets, nice neighborhoods and very poor shanty towns. It is the largest city in Central America at about 3 million people and has the reputation of being the most violent. My guide book only really mentions museums and nice restaurants as the main points or interest in Gaute City so I decide to not stay and only use it as a transportation transfer point.

Guate City has a garbage problem with trash everywhere. Unfortunateley, the rest of Guatemala has a bad trash problem too, so did Belize. The sides of the highways and roads are covered in garbage and everyone thinks nothing of throwing a plastic bottle or any other trash out of the bus or car window as they drive or as they walk down the street. Guatemalans also like to burn their gargabe which is starting to cause air quality problems. The government is trying to get people to stop burning and offers weekly garbage pickup but most locals keep burning their trash. I see the trash burning at many locations in towns and cities while taking the bus everywhere. The only exception is Antigua which is very clean which adds to its beauty.

At Guate City, I transferred to a shuttle bus to Antigua which is only about 40km away. Antigua is a beautiful city in a small valley surrounded by moutains and a volcano. Too bad between the smog and cloudy weather I never really did get a good look at the volcano that looms above the city skyline. It used to be the capital of Guatemala and was the 3rd largest city in Cental & South America next to Mexico City and Peru into the 1700s. A series of of earthquakes from 1650 to 1750 did significant damage to the city but it was rebuilt bigger and better each time. In 1773 a large earthquake levelled the city and the Spanish government decided to move the capital to the neighboring valley where present day Gaute City is located. This was not a popular decision and the government had to pass a law making it illegal to live in Antigua and it remained abondoned until early in the 20th century. Now, much of the city has been restored although there are many building outside of the center of the city that still remain in ruins. Antigua is the best preserved colonial Spanish city in the Americas and is a UNESCO heritage site. Having said all that, I found it a little boring as there is not much to do if you are not taking a Spanish class, shopping or just hanging out in one of the many cafes or restaurants.

I had planned on staying 3 nights but after a day and a half I decided to move on. I did go on a short hike up a mountain to the north of the city to a nice park, Cerra de la Cruz, with a large cross at a lookout above the city, again too bad the volcano was almost invisible in behind the city. There is also a very nice central plaza with some historic buildings and a central park. I tried to sit and relax on a park bench and read but between the very aggressive shoe shiners and the women selling Guatemalan textiles and jewelry, I was soon driven out of the park. I was even wearing sandals and the shoe shiners still tried to convince me to have them shined. The women were the most aggressive and basically would not leave you alone until you left the park. I stayed at a decent little hotel called La Casa de Amarilla but each room was on a main inner coutyard and whatever time the first patrons were up is when everyone woke up as the walls were very thin and breakfast was served in the courtyard. Antigua has the same police and military presence but they seem to keep it more discreet with mostly sidearms and just afew assault weapons.

So on the 12th, I'm off to Panajachel at Lake Atitlan. As I'm walking to the bus station, a helpful man offers to walk me there which was great as I only had vague directions to the station. Next thing I know I'm at a small travel agency and I'm told the bus would pick me up right there in 20 minutes. It turns out to be a small 12 person shuttle van and it picks up a number of other people at their hotels. I find out later that Antigua has a little industry based on these smaller shuttles at more than double the price of a nice coach style bus, so I now avoid these small shuttles. I did meet I young guy from Texas on the shuttle named Connor. He's a volunteer working here in Guatemala until his school term begins and we swapped stories of our travels so far. The drive to Panajachel was very interesting and the last part was very steep downhill on very narrow roads. Lake Atitlan was formed when a volcano exploded about 50,000 years ago. The explosion was so severe it vapourized everything in Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize and part of Mexico and Honduras. Ash would have been spread as far south as Panama and as far north as Florida. It left a huge crater in the middle of the mountain highlands. During the next 25,000 years, 3 more volcanos rose up around one side of the lake but they lie dormant now. The result is a large lake surrounded by very steep mountains and 3 volcanoes. The lake is over 5kms deep in the middle and all lake life clings to the shallows within 100m of shore. Thousands of years ago, man introduced a small fish to the lake. This fished thrived and there was quite a fishing industry until someone introduced Large Mouth Bass to the lake. Now both the small fish, the fishing industries and many of the birds that ate the small fish are gone.

There are a number of towns and small cities around the lake which Panajachel is one of. Although the views driving down the mountain to the lake were great, it was very overcast and we could not see the volcanos across the lake. A couple of mornings it was almost clear but there were always clouds hovering around the volcano hiding the upper elevations. That first late afternoon at Lake Atitlan there was a heavy thunder storm that lasted about an hour. This was a recurring theme as it happened each of the 3 days I was there. Too bad as the sun is supposed to set between a couple of the volcanos and I was really looking forward to seeing that but is was always too overcast or raining at sunset.

The next day I spent the afternoon at the Reserva Natural Atitlan which is an old coffee plantation turned into a nuture reserve. I learned a lot about how coffee is grown. The best coffee in the world is grown at least 900m above sea level. The altitude ensures a harder bean to resist the cooler weather and harder beans make better coffee. The second major factor with coffee is the amount of sun exposure, during the day growers want sun light on the beans for no more than 40% of the day. To achieve this, the coffee farmers grow a forrest with a high lush canopy but lots of rooms between the trees for the coffee plants. With the rate of deforestation, coffee plantations are now the largest habitat for birds and animals throughout the Central America region. Other than a couple of parks, El Salvador's natural forests are 100% gone leaving coffee plantations as the only other place for wildlife other than the parks. Guatemala is not far behind in terms of natural forest as are most of the other countries in the region other than Belize.

The hike through the mountainous plantation was great. There were many suspension bridges that crossed a couple of small rivers that the trail wound through with one very nice waterfall. There were Howler Monkeys in the trees and I was able to get a picture of one. The forest was alive with the sound of birds. Birds here are so much louder than the ones back home and there are so many differnt types. There were a few spectacularly coloured birds but they would not stay still long enough to have their picture taken.

The next morning I went on a boat tour of the lake stopping at 4 different towns; San Marco, San Juan, San Pedro and Santiago Atitlan. San Marco was very small with about 3000 inhabitants. There is a large gringo hippie presence and is popular for backpackers looking for a quite place to stay. In San Juan, 4 of us on the tour hired a Tuk Tuk (small powered bicycle cab) to tour us around, inluding the driver it's amazing that we all fit. San Juan is known for the textiles and we visited a cooperative of local women who make cotton cloth and the showed us the whole process which is amazingly labour intensive. We also visited a plant that transforms coffee beans into coffee. Apparently Guatemala produces some of the best coffee in the world.

San Pedro seemed to be a haven for artisans. Everything in Guatemala is very colourful and the art work did not dissappoint. I really like some of the paintings as they had a great use of colour and some very intersting points of view, often from straight above or a scenic view with people looking at the view so only their back was visible. I almost bought some paintings until I thought of how big my pack is already.

 Last last town was Santiago and it is the largest town at Atitlan; population of about 55,000. We only had 1.5 hours at Santiago so myself and 2 nurses from Kamloops hired a guide to show us around. His name was Juan, he was 11 and spoke perfect English. He first took us to a little temple in a house up some alley that was dedicated to Maximom, the Mayan god to the underworld who symbolizes male sexual verility and brings rain to fertilize the earth. It was pretty hockie but they have a big festival in October to celebrate him and of course they wanted us to leave an offering which was cash of course. Then we moved on to a very large 450 year old catholic church. I'm suprised it took this long to get me in a church, there certainly are a lot of them. I was surprised to learn that 40% of Guatemalans are Anglican and our guide Juan refused to come in the church because he is Anglican. We then had just enough time for some cervezas. That evening I had a very nice steak dinner with 2 women I met on the lake tour, one was from Switzerland and the other from Japan.

Next day I'm off to Coban, then Monterrico and then El Salvador and Honduras. I'm really looking forward to getting my dive certification at the Honduran Bay Islands. There's been a lot more rain in the last week and rainy season is fast approaching, hopefully Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama won't be too wet. Still aiming to be in South America sometime in July. Hasta Luego.