Mexico (Around the World Trip)

April 25-26 - San Cristobal De Las Casas

It took a couple of chicken buses to get us to the border, and then a taxi between the two immigration offices. I was happy to be done with Guatemala`s transportation system (or so I thought at the time), because the small, uncomfortable old school bus seats are not meant to fit adult-sized knees. Plus we were constantly wondering if our backpacks were going to fly off to roof rack during death-defying turns on the mountain roads. I do have to say that the Guatemalan buses are the most efficient, affordable, friendly, and well-used public transportation system we have seen yet. No matter where you want to go, during daylight hours there will be a bus leaving within minutes, and although frequent switching of buses is sometimes necessary, the next one will also leave within minutes. The buses are often very crowded, to the point of fitting 3 adults and a kid or two in each seat plus a few extras standing in the aisles, but the fares-collectors always seem to worm their way through collecting their quetzales, and willingly shimmy up to the roof like monkeys to haul up sacks, baskets, and anything else that needs to be transported. Anyway, my knees were happy to say goodbye to it all, and once across the Mexican border, we found to our relief our next ride was a plush minivan, and by late afternoon we arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas.

It is said that San Cristobal and Antigua, Guatemala should be sister-cities...indeed we found that they looked and felt very similar to each other. It was raining again when we arrived, and we found a quirky guesthouse and had some supper. The next morning, our plan was to visit a nearby canyon and then continue on our journey to Oaxaca that night and then eventually Mexico City. After buying our bus tickets, we chatted with the guesthouse owner, and she told us about the contagious swine flu spreading rapidly in Mexico City. We went and did some internet research, and decided that it would probably be better not to go there, since all schools and museums were closed, and more importantly, we didn't really want to get sick.


April 25-26 - Back to Guatemala!

So, we spent the whole day trying to figure out how to avoid Mexico City yet somehow make it to our next flight in Costa Rica. We finally found a flight out of Guatemala City in a couple of days. Which is how, the very next day, we found ourselves retracing our steps back across the border into Guatemala, in what turned into another very long day of traveling. We landed in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan for the night, and although the rains had cleared the skies and the view across the lake was beautiful, we couldn't stay long. The next day we continued on to stay a night in Antigua, where we would catch a shuttle for the airport in the early, early morning.

Although I had no real desire to travel on more chicken buses, our trip from Panajachel to Antigua included four of them, switching in each major town in-between. Even with all the switches, I think we made the trip in record time, faster than the direct shuttle, because there were always buses waiting, and more importantly, because the drivers all seemed to be practicing for the Indy 500. Once again, to our amazement, our luggage didn't fall off the bus and is still in our possession.

***From here, we spend a few days in Guatemala (again) and then Costa Rica before heading to South America***

Tinum...A Vacation To Isla Mujeres

After, oh, about three months in Tinum, we am starting to believe that everyone in the world (except us) is less than 5 feet tall and speaks Spanish. It is also getting oppresively hot, as the weather builds with the humidity that will soon cause the rainy season's afternoon thunderstorms. Yesterday when I got home from a bike ride, it was 96 degrees inside the kitchen, who knows how much higher out in the sunshine. So it is sometimes fun to escape the village for a while and regain a sense of perspective, maybe feel a little air-conditioning. The Island of Isla Mujeres, which is just off the coast of Cancun, is a great place to cool off in the surf and indulge in exotic foods that village folks have never eaten (like pizza!). Enough said...see you on the beach!

Tinum...Can You Imagine

As some of you know by now, we have arrived safely home from our adventure in Tinum, and landed in...Iowa...another adventure. But for our last couple of weeks in the jungle, we were counting the days we had left rather than the 4 1/2 months we had already been there, and reflecting on the crazy and weird things that we had seen and done, that seemed almost normal because we had been there so long. Here are a few of them...


Can you imagine that...

...we haven't heard a phone ring this entire time.

...we can count the number of times we have ridden in a car...on one hand.

...no one in Tinum has ever seen a dishwasher or a clothes dryer.

...very few people in town have a bathroom.

...the lady down the street has never heard of or eaten at a McDonalds.

...every day it is 99 degrees F and perfectly sunny (until the rainy season, of course).

...during the rainy season, every day is hot and sunny and humid, with thunderstorms every afternoon.

...all cement is mixed by hand with just a shovel.

...no one that lives in Tinum has ever seen a mountain, a lake, a river...or snow.

...for over four months, we haven't watched television.

...everyone in town (including us) washes all their clothes by hand.

...every time we want a hot shower, we have to build a fire to heat the water.

...all the corn used for making tortillas is planted, harvested, and carried home...by hand, using no machines.

...everyone does all their cooking over an open fire.

...the village just down the road from Tinum still has to haul all their water out of a well using only a hand-drawn bucket.

...all of our groceries get home in bicycle bags via the thirty-mile round trip to the town of Valladolid (nope, no ice cream for us)

...it was so hot inside our house that the candles melted...which is the only picture that seems appropriate to include in this, my last Tinum story.

Tinum...The Wildlife

Sometimes when I write a story, I have to look for pictures to enhance the descriptions within the tale. This time, I am looking for stories to tell about the pictures...but maybe they describe themselves after all. Over three months, we have sometimes literally run into the creatures pictured here (like the lizard clinging to my hammock as I went to hang it up one night). Some of them actually sat still enough for us to run and find the camera and snap a shot of them. Others, like the iguanas that love to perch on stone walls, also love to run off when we get close. So I don't have pictures of everything..most notably the hummingbird that flew into the sala today, and the mouse that just happened to be running around in a plastic bag that I pulled out of the cupboard. Not to mention an oversized rat-like creature the size of a cat that lives in the backyard and only comes out at night. When I see a snake, I run the other way, and never mind the camera. Even though my guidebook says that the mouth on a Coral snake is too small to bite anything but the webbing between fingers and toes, I feel only moderately better considering how often I am wearing flip-flops. And the armadillos are slow enough, but where's the camera when you need it, right? But a few times we have been lucky with the shutter, mostly with the lizards, of which there seem to be lots of variety amoung them. The big one that is clinging to the sala doors is over a foot long, not counting the tail, and runs on its hind-feet like a dinosaur out of the movie Jurassic Park. The geckos, which are maybe two inches long at most, can cling to anything, and we've just discovered that they love to chase laser lights (and you wondered how we would fill our time here!). There are many beautiful butterflies out in the forest, some with brilliant hues of blue and green and yellow, but since chasing butterflies can be futile, I admire them from a distance, and only take pictures of the stupid ones that fly into the house and can't seem to get out again. So there you are for now, hope you enjoy our animal pics...and wish us some more shutter luck!

Tinum...My Mural

When the guy at the paint store sent me home with the wrong color of blue, our bathroom became caribbean blue instead of light blue, and started to resemble an underwater scene.  So I decided to help it out a little and paint a mural, so my mom sent some paint bottles down with my aunt and uncle when they visited, and I began to paint.   What turned out...is a work in progress....I hope to continue the next time I go to Tinum as well.