May 2011
37 posts
GUATEMALA - DAY 13
El Final. I have returned to Antigua. It´s always a weird feeling coming back to the place I began almost two weeks ago. I even came back to Casa Jacaranda. This time, there are people here.
Today´s shuttle ride from Languin to here was about seven hours. I sort of started to hate our driver, though. He kept picking up hitchhikers to make some extra cash. At first, I admired him for it,...
GUATEMALA - DAY 12
Today, I was a mess. First, I had too many litros de Brahva last night and probably should not have added that Guatemalan Kiss cocktail as a nightcap. Doing so meant I woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom extremely badly. My first difficulty was that I couldn´t find the light switch. Then, for the life of me, I couldn´t pull the knob to unlock the door. In my tired,...
GUATEMALA - DAY 11
I think this is Day 11. It is so hard to keep track. I do know that I only have three days left. That makes me sad.
Really, all today was was a nine hour shuttle ride. It was kind of amusing. Several times the driver parked the van, left it idling with us in it, and ran off somewhere to do something. We had no idea what. Buying drugs? Quien sabe?
At about the seven hour mark, we stopped...
GUATEMALA - DAY 10
If I failed to make it clear, Flores is damn hot. Before coming to Guatemala, I made sure to check current and historical average temperatures. So I packed jeans and flannel PJs for the cool nights. I was not prepared for what I am facing. This means I have no other choice but to sleep naked. So it goes. With no A/C and a single ceiling fan, plus all the nocturnal jungle animal sounds, I...
GUATEMALA - DAY 9
It is hot. The kind of hot that right after you take a cold shower, you immediately start to sweat again. I reached Flores around 5:45am. That was after a 5 1/2 hour bus ride to Guate City. Riding through, it held no appeal to me. After also reading about how unsafe it is, I will just go back to Antigua before heading home. We waited only one hour at the bus station before boarding a...
GUATEMALA - DAY 8
Waiting around for my bus to Flores that leaves in two hours, sipping on a Bloody Mary. With traveling, there is so much empty time, but I never get bored. It is just part of the experience and is to be expected. The bus will go from Xela to Guate City, leaving at 3:30pm and I will have a two hour layover in the capital. Then I transfer and reach Flores around 6:30am tomorrow. For both...
GUATEMALA - DAY 7
Today has been a pretty quiet day. Slept in until 10am and went to Cuartito Cafe for my second time. I like it a lot. Most likely I will go again tomorrow. It is easy to lose track of time there. Before I knew it, three hours had gone by. Time flies while reading and talking to friends on gchat on my phone thanks to the easily obtained wireless throughout Guatemala.
My main activity today...
GUATEMALA - DAY 6
Forgive me, people, I have been day drinking, but I will try my best to recap this day. Woke at 6am to take the shuttle to Xela, which is just what they call Quetzaltenango. We stopped at a Shell station to wait for another bus to come get me. I have no idea where we were because I fell asleep. The wait at the station dragged and there was a midget standing outside the door of the station. But...
GUATEMALA - DAY 5
Only been here five days and my english is already being infiltrated with spanish. I keep going back and forth. When I dont know the correct word in spanish, I make it up. Not spanglish, but a completely corrupted word that resembles spanish, but I should actually be embarrassed to speak out loud. But hey, I am American. No shame.
Today I took a six hour tour of the towns around Lake...
GUATEMALA - DAY 4
Had to get up at 6am to catch the chicken bus to Panajachel, which is on Lake Atitlan. The ride lasted about three hours, arriving at 10am. Chicken buses are just festively painted old school buses. I even have seen some with the names still on them of the school districts in the United States that they use to belong to. There were several other backpackers on the trip, but it was mostly...
GUATEMALA - DAY 3
There’s volcanic ash in my shoes. Being that today was supposed to be the rapture, I wanted to get in a volcano hike before we all died. Antigua has three volcanoes around it, but Pacaya is the active one. So I booked a 2pm tour. It’s not one of those things you can do on your own. You have to have a guide take you up and down.
The shuttle to the base of Pacaya took roughly two...
GUATEMALA - DAY 2
Slept in this morning. It’s nice being able to. Maybe 9am isn’t actually sleeping late. I awoke to Dido on repeat being blasted on the stereo. I suspect the Hostel Jacaranda employees were unsubtlely trying to get me up in time for breakfast. It worked. So I got up and let them make me food.
Afterwards, I explored some more of Antigua until my 1pm bicycle tour. I arrived at...
GUATEMALA - DAY 1
“Are you going north or south?”
“Jesus, I told you I’m staying south. I’ll be fine. I’m not going to die. Oh, you meant north or south terminal.”
You see, my parents serve as my airport taxi for whenever I travel. I appreciate what they do, but I hate the lecturing and guilt trip they try to lay on me. True, they gave me life and it is part of their...
"WRITTEN IN THE BLOOD FROM A VICTIM'S LEG"
Boing Boing has some great and graphic coverage of the massacre in Guatemala that happened over the weekend. Ok, after seeing the pictures, perhaps I will skip Tikal, after all. Since they have no problem showing bloody scrawled messages on walls, it has to make you wonder how bad the censored photos are. Normally, I don’t even like to get traveler’s insurance or vaccinations, but...
GETTING REAL EXCITED FOR GUATEMALA →
While I have been trying to keep track of what’s currently going on in Guatemala since I’m only days away from going there, it looks like I’ve been missing some headlines. Yes, I’ve been looking at the weather and if there have been any volcanic eruptions lately, but I need to keep in mind that Guatemala is right below Mexico and is part of the drug trafficking route. The...
RUST BELT MARKET PREVIEW NIGHT
This is the official opening weekend for Ferndale’s new Rust Belt Market, which has turned the old Old Navy building on 9 Mile and Woodward into its home. To celebrate, they hosted a supposed invite-only preview party last night, but really, anybody could come. A great turnout was on hand for music, beer, food and checking out the goods.
Since Cinco de Mayo was the day before and I was...
VIVA LA RAZA
Don’t know how it happened, but I almost forgot about Cinco de Mayo this year. This would’ve been especially shameful since I planned far in advance for Paczki Day and even made sure to take that day off. To be fair to my Mexican half, I needed to spend yesterday in Southwest Detroit drinking cerveza with my people. Lucky for me, it just so happened to be one of my days off this...
HAPPY MOUSTACHE MAY!!!
I’ve been obsessed with Whiskerino and Moustache May for years now. I’d spend hours jealously poring over the genius photos, rooting for my favorites to win King Beard or Moustache Mayor, wishing I could grow facial hair and join in, too. It wasn’t until last year at the end of Moustache May did I learn that I could have still participated as a “lurker”. So, for...
