PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

A note before we begin: All those that say you are visual people, this is for you. I will probably still get wordy but with the amount of pictures, you can make up the story as you go along and I don't want to hear you complain. That means you Eseems.

There are a few things the people who have been to Guatemala usually leave out when describing it, but then again, they usually have come from somewhere else before their that is just as beautiful or home. They most certainly didn't come from Belize.

Entering Guatemala City
The trip begins with a boat ride. We all made the mistake of assuming it was a ferry of sorts being that it was $20us to ride an hour. We were wrong. It was the type of boat that only holds at most 15 people and let's just say its not a real smooth ride. You may get a little wet.

Upon pulling up to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala you start to notice something. The sky seems to be a little bluer, the air is a little cleaner, the streets seem to be taken care of: you are in a different country and it is evident even from the sea.

We got onto a bus not long after for the 6 hour ride to Guatemala City. I had heard rumors of these buses, but my standards on what a nice bus is has drastically gone down since my time as a PCV began. Litegua (the bus company) is an inspiration. All other buses in the world should follow from their example. We had a double decker bus with A/C and movies to boot. It had a bathroom on the first floor and all the movies were Kung Fu. My personal favorite along the trip was "Blood Sport" which any boy that was born in the 80s knows all about Frank Duks and Chung Li but somehow other people never watched the re-runs on TBS as a kid and saw the same man destroy the world. I guess you can do those sorts of things when you are JCVD. If you dont know who JCVD is, you should be ashamed of yourself.

We pulled up into Guatemala City and it was the land of the free. Well, kinda. They had these things called overpasses, bridges, multiple lane roads, painted lines on the roads. It was infrastructure at its finest. Not to mention there was a McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, or Taco Bell on every block. It's worse than being back home. These aren't just your run of the mill fast food joints either, they are all supersized to the max. We saw a Taco Bell with 2 drive throughs, 3 floors, and a play place. While I didn't eat in Guatemala City, I wanted to.

Another thing I wasn't aware of is that Guatemala is apparently the capital of the world when it comes to pinatas. You can get them life size and in any shape you can imagine. Pinatas, once again, will be something I hope to have at every party I ever host for the rest of my life. They span the generations and bring people together better than our good friends Jim, Jack, and Jose.


We took a taxi from Guatemala City to our final destination of the night in Antigua. The Lonely Planet says that if you are looking for traditional Guat, you wont find it in Antigua. They couldn't be more right, but who cares. This place was heaven on earth. Surrounded by 3 volcanoes at 5,000 feet elevation, it was amazing. The architecture was out of another time when things like art mattered. The churches were mostly destroyed into ruins but their beauty still lives on.

Same church from the front, or the half still standing
We took a tour of the city (something I would have never done but that post will come, there are just somethings you have to do when travelling with the old folk.) and were guided by the most pretentious, opinionated woman I have ever met who's job it is to tell people about a city and a country. She was great telling what things were, but don't ask any questions. If you do they better be simple and stupid questions. Don't ask about social issues or anything that may require deep thinking. Her answer for everything: "its the economy." I guess she wasn't prepared to lead a talk with well travelled doctors and 2 PCVs who eat, sleep, and breathe development.

city hall, some fountains, and girls in traditional Maya attire
The really nice thing about travelling with the older crew was the nice hotels we stayed at. I couldn't believe some of them. Emily and I said we were going to parade around and tell people we were on our honeymoon, but we were both lame and went to sleep most nights before 9. I guess the village life is taking its toll. Gone are the days when I used to stay up til 4am every night and wake up at noon.

Our first "honeymoon suite"

a crypt where the Maya would bury their dead underground

inside a church that is half crumbled but still allows sunlight in for services

little Maya girl, a courtyard of our hotel, and a pure jade mask
The tour was like most any I have done around the world. They always try to make you buy something, but what they should have figured out is if we hustled you down to half your original price for the tour, we probably don't have any money to be buying Jade. I guess some people don't read between the lines.

Em and Minor walking, Macaws, and a church after a wedding ceremony


"friends forever", me feeling rich (beginning of the trip)

Emily getting hustled at the market


One of the most amazing things about the entire trip was the luscious amount of plant life. We aren't sure if its due to the altitude or how much Guatemalans just seem to take better care of everything. It probably has something to do with the amount of tourism in this part of the country but every single detail was covered. The culture was bustling with excitement. The women were always dressed in their traditional Maya attire.


flowers


Some of the coolest things were being set up for the big Easter celebration coming up. They make carpets out of sawdust. The streets are lined with them. They are beautiful and then they walk on them and mess them all up. Then make them all over again. It seems like a lot of work, which just goes to show how much detail seems to go into everything that happens here.


After staying in Antigua for 2 nights, we travelled by a van to Chichicastenango. Say that name 10x fast, its fun. It has the biggest market I've ever been to in my life. It went on for what seemed like days. I had so many kids trying to come up to me and sell me things that I had to make a game out of it. You offer me something I dont want for Q40 (about $5us) and I will offer you back Q5. Those kids are going to be pissed, but then their next asking price is Q20. Even though I still dont want it, the kid has me thinking now. Then I realize Im the one the game is played on and I quit and in the end usually win. Emily on the other hand, she will buy anything and get suckered by anyone. She is cute, but I think it may have helped to have my cheap ass by her side to tell her no. Just as I enjoyed having her around to tell me to buy something.


These things are carried around for parades. They are very large and take up to 60 people to carry. ChiChi market at its best and a bunch of kids trying to sell me anything they own outside a church billowing with smoke from inscents.

more chichi market, gringos that are pretending they fit in... but obviously fail, and the "cheap" buses of Guatemala
When reading the travel buses, they always talk about the "chicken buses" as being the cheap way to travel. They are like old school buses on crack. If you compare their "cheap" buses to Belize's "best" buses, I assure you Guatemala will win. Hands down. They are chromed out, have music blaring from them, roof racks, and are much cheaper than any bus you'll take in Belize too.

Our lovely tourists turned Maya
The food in Guatemala may have just been the best part. We had things like vegetables and beef. I know, it sounds crazy, but they even cook with spices and oils there that arent just lard and vegetable oil. It was amazing. Ever heard of Olive oil? Guatemala: 1, Belize: 0.

Lake Atitlan
From Chichi we stayed that night at the Lake Atitlan town of Panajachel. It rained most of the night as I've said before, we were lame and went to bed early so there wasn't much to see. Pana is a hotspot for travellers going to other places on the lake, but it seems that no one stays for long.

I was in the front. Em in the back. I knew that we'd make it if we just never stopped paddling. About 30 mins in, I looked back to see Emily in the middle of a daydream and inquired as to why she was not paddling. She told me to shut up and that was that. Or was it? Not more than 20 seconds later we just both happened to lean too far to the left for a paddle at the same time a wave hit our little canoe. As you can guess, we flipped.



Now, 100 yards from shore in the middle of a huge lake is quite a problem. The canoe was too full of water to flip over. Both of our cameras would be lost and we'd have to somehow swim to the nearest shore to empty out the canoe.





We spent the next few nights in San Pedro which was a great town pretty much run by tourist for the purpose of attending language schools. You can learn Spanish here for a week with a 1 on 1 tutor and stay with a host family with all your meals included for about $90us a week. That is amazing. I will be doing this on my next vacation for sure.



The last night we ran off to Antigua to meet up with Jeannie and Minor one last time before trekking back to Belize. We left the next morning at 5am on a bus to Guatemala City and then back to Puerto Barrios and onto Punta Gorda. Completely broke, without a camera, and intact with a bag full of atleast twice worn dirty laundry. It was a success in every aspect of the word.