I recommend giving plenty of time to down load all the images. Perhaps it would be best to work on some other things while this is happening.
Guatemala!
What a trip that place is.
One of the things I love about traveling in developing nations is the
diversity, and fresh point of view.
Between Monday and Thursday I put in a little over 41 hours and was completely wiped out. We boarded the plane on time however we ended up sitting on the Tarmac for over an hour. This intern caused us to miss our flight to Guatemala. In just about any other city this would not have been a problem, however the smog of LA combined with my asthma, allowed all the bacteria from the rest of the sick people on the plane to take hold and I wound up with a nasty case of pneumonia. I didn't know it when I got off of the planes. So we decided to just recover for a day in Antigua however at the end of the day I was much worse. Below are to images, they depict the most prominent volcano around Antigua the first one shows a church off of the central square and the second one shows just one of the streets around the city.
We contacted a lady in Antigua, who ran a hotel there. We had stayed
for one night the previous trip, but it was a very expensive place . She
just happened to know an excellent endocrinologist (I'm diabetic),
in Guatemala City. We went to see him and within hours not only had a diagnosis
but they began administering antibiotics, and in a total of two days I
was out. we went back to Antigua, and rested their for another day or so
and then headed out to lake Atitlan.
While there, we stayed at arc de Noe. The place features very nice lake
front views and absolutely incredible seven course dinners. The main city
which provides access to lake Atitlan, is Panajachel. When we were there
in august of '95 it was much quieter than it is now. After grabbing
a drink at one of the restaurants, we headed down and got on the ferry.
At this point the only way to the other towns around the lake is the ferry.
These little towns are still very pleasant and quiet and a great place
to recover from pneumonia. We stayed there for five days, took a few hikes
around the lake, and made a trip to the market at solala. Unfortunately
I forgot to bring my camera with me on that trip. The structure you
see above is the main office and dining area, as well as the kitchen. Behind
the structure are few small single rooms, and to the right, are several
more small cabins strung along the shoreline. The next three images are
from our walks around the lake.
As you walk along the shore towards sancristible you hike up and down
along the mountains. After the first up you see this place.
One of the things I find truly amazing is how steep some of the farms
actually are. Just walking along the path traversing this field I
tried to hold the camera level but not very successfully. The path was
so steep that I ended up holding the camera at a bit of an
angle. As a result this image isn't quite as clears the original
because I had to rotate it, in order to give it to the proper orientation.
A hill or two later you come upon this view.
As you get to the flat aria in the picture above, the path goes
through this place shone below.
Next we headed up to Todosontos and decided that March is not a good
time to come to Guatemala. While you could tell that it would be
gorgeous if there were more rain, the lack of rain there made much of the
landscape what we would call golden in California. Most of the rest
of the world would say brown. Also there were about six Forest fires burning
around the town. What looks like a bit of Hazes and the picture below is
actually smoke from forest fires. Still, in spite of everything I
would have to say that Todosontos is a gorgeous place. Huehuetango
From Huehuetango we caught this bus. Caroline the woman sitting just
in front of the baskets of chickens, and next to Susan was helping to run
a Spanish School in Todosontos. Later she would lead Susan, myself
and some other women on the hike to the highest peak in the Todosontos
range. Shortly after pulling out of Huehuetango, Caroline had the
bus driver stop and the four of us got up on the roof to really enjoy
the ride on the way up. It was about a three hour ride from Huehuetango.
At one point Susan and I decided it was getting too cold to ride on top.
We started to scramble down a ladder in the back of the bus, and as Susan
was trying to get down her hat blue off . Now Susan is stuck at the top
of ladder with her dress caught on it, and I am about five feet behind
the bus grabbing her hat. The bus driver decides to take off. I dash
back to the ladder, jump on and everybody starts to yell. That
was kind of scary, I thought I was going to get left behind
.
The large greenish roof in the middle of town is the marketplace. If
you place your cursor on the hillside directly above that large green roof
in the center of the picture, as you slide down, the first large structure
you come to is directly across the street from the place where we stayed.
Hiking down the hill from the spot where the shot above was taken,
are many small farms. I stopped at the one below to play with the
little boy and his pig, the mother did not look too happy however when
she spotted Susan taking this picture.
The next day we hiked to the top of the tallest mountain in the Todosontos
range. Once again you can see the smoke in the air. You can just see a
guy wire holding up a transmitting tower in the lower right hand corner
of the picture.
This was a concrete marker at the base of the transmitting antenna,
I believe it indicates we were at 5125 meters in elevation. A meter is
39.37 inches.
We had taken a 6 a.m. bus to the trail head to the top of the mountain,
However on the way back no buses were in sight so we hitched a ride in
this Laurie.
Overall the kids we saw in Guatemala were extremely well behaved.
From a material point of view these kids appear to have nothing,
but there is much more to life the material goods, and these kids have
it.
While staying in Todosontos we found no need for alarm
clock. When the buses arrive they blow their air horns. Wen they
are ready to leave they blow their air horns. Unfortunately the first bus
arrives at about 4:30 and departs at about 5 a.m. As a result we
decided to catch the 6 a.m. bus and head back to Antigua.
This woman and your child what the first bus depot where we transferred
buses. Bus depots were almost always associated with a market.
Unfortunately we ate breakfast at this market and got some beans which
must have bin to thick, thinned with water and then never really heated.
We both got a tiny bit sick from that.
What should have been about a three hour bus ride turned into almost
a six hour bus ride. We thought it was as a result of this fire. From the
time the bus came to a stop until we got to this fire was almost three
hours. About one half hour later, we passed an accident, which looked
really horrible. It looked as though a pickup truck had crossed the
yellow line and hit a motorcycle cop. The cops face was all bloody
and the face of what looked like the driver of the pickup, was also kind
of bloody, and it looked as though that accident had actually caused the
fire.
We spent one day and in Antigua before heading out to Coban. Below
is a picture of central park in Antigua. They have a tree there which if
full of purple blooms and it's quite striking. The second shot is another
sort of typical seen, Having someone tried to sell you something very nice,
but you don't really want.
Actually the place we went to was outside of, Coban. To get their we
took a Pullman bus to the city of Coban. From there we took a chicken
bus to the town of San Juan Chamelco. There and below you can see Susan
on the final leg of the journey in the back of a small pickup truck.
Below is the place we were heading. It belongs to Don Jeronimo
AKA Jerry Makransky.
Staying at Jerry's place was one of the highlights of the trip.
He cooks great vegetarian foods and provides three meals a day. He has
a couple of solar panels on the roof, which provides electricity for his
CD player and a laptop notebook computer. He was having trouble with
the solar system and needed some help but his computer so I traded him
fixing the solar system and some computer lessons, for a free nights stay.
Do to Ltd. know, the river writing a through his property was too low
to answer to inner tube, he did hire these kids however to guide us to
a walk to a nearby mountain peak.
As we caught the bus back from San Juan Chamelco to Coban I was lucky
enough to snap this picture which gives the buses their name.
Even on the high class pullman buses, at cross road stops tons of vendors
jump on the boss and try to sell their goods. Almost always a great
variety of food.
Other
trips. My home page
I hope you enjoyed these pictures, please send me and e-mail and let
me know what you thought.