The day I allmost got pickpocketet, almost driven over by a bus - and starred at by almost the entire population of Guatemala

I didn't know whether i should cry or laugh.  I went for the latter.

On my way from Antigua to Guate City, I sat next to this seemingly friendly guy on the bus. He helped me finding the right spot to get off, so I could get on to the point were I was suppose to meet Monica's brother. Standing waiting to get off the buss(with my big backpack on my bag) he stands very close to me, and with his hand covered by his jacket puts his hand down my pocket. 

Since i've been pick pocketed once before in Sierra Leone, I was not a moment in doubt about what was going on.  I took up my wallet and indeed my plastic card was missing. I looked at him very determined and told him to give me back my plastic card witch he had in his hand under his jacket. He said something about not having it, while putting it into his handbag. (Very indiscrete, since I saw him doing it..). I pointed and started talking louder, that he had it in there and that he should give it back to me. And when it became too embarrasing for him, he took it up(again very indiscretely) and dropped it on the floor - and then pointed and say "its there" and then picked it up and gave it to me, as if it had been there all the time.

So yeah I got my card back just as the bus arrived at my stop.

What makes the situation even more funny is that the plastic card he took, was my 10 Dollar IYTC Card...(International Youth Travel Card), which wouldn't be to much use for him...

(I don't carry any major valuables in my wallet when traveling). But then, you cant see what card you steal when you reach down someone's pocket.

As "Pim" from " Drengene fra Angora" once said it " Sad.......but funny".

So I came off the bus, and found myself a taxi to the place where I was suppose to meet Monica's brother. While trying to cross the street, this bus nearly ran me over. It seemed like it speeded up, just as it saw me(Maybe it did?). So I had to take 5 huge and very quick steps with my big backpack in order to avoid getting hit....

I eventually made it to the square known as the Obilisco, (there's an obilisc in the middle of the square). However, due to the rush hour, Monica's brother was a bit delayed so I had to stand for 30 minutes with my big yellow backpack and my blond(i didn't have time to dye it) hair, while I was being starred down by every single car that drove by. ( The square is basically the center of a major roundabout).

So yeah, what am I even doing here, and who is Monica??? Monica was a kid I meet when I was Junior Leader(JC), at a CISV Village.  We spoke a lot back then, and she told me to write here if I ever made it to Guatemala. Which I eventually did. So now I'm here.

Spending the weekend together.

So yeah, I left Eva and Laura in Antigua today.

I spent the last week together with them in Antigua. Antigua is a very beautiful town, and in comparison with rest of guatemala, very safe - so it was a very nice place to stay for a week. Monday I was a bit ill so I didn't really do much. Tuesday I felt better and I went to a pub to watch some champions league football. In the evening I went with Eva and Laura to a bar that had Happy Hour. 

Wednesday I took hours of spanish with a private teacher. It only cost 33 Quetzales(20kr, 4 USD) an hour and you learn SO much! Im seriously thinking of taking some more classes when I get further south.

Thursday I went with Eva and Laura to see their project in the morning. They are volunteering as teachers as a school for very very poor kids. I helped out with some kids who are academically weak, but very very nice and funny. I really enjoyed my time there, and it reminded me of my time as a teacher in Denmark.

And yeah, then today I made my way to Guatemala.

Ill stay here for the weekend, and then its my intention to go up towards Tikal(some nice Maya Pyramids)  and eventually make my way to Belize to do some Scuba Diving....but we'll see how long it takes before I get there...

 

Climbing a Vulcano and Riding a Chicken Bus

I think its time for a little update on my part. Last time I was in touch with you was eehh.hmm..let me see...Some time ago. Well it feels like a long ago, cause I've experienced a lot since.
Lets start where i left you guys.Which was In Huehuetenango(locally just known as Huehue).
I had been emailing a while with this Danish Guy called Emil, who is biking around in central America, and he asked me if I wanted to come hike with him on Vulcano Tajumulco. I thought the idea sounded great, so instead of going on from Huehue to Panjachel, as planned I instead decided to go to Quetzaltenango(known as Xela).
I went to some random bus in Huehue which said "Terminal" on the front, believing that it would take me to the bus terminal. And it did, just not the 1st class, but instead the "Chicken Bus" Terminal. Having no clue how I ended up there or what to do now, a guy yelled "XELA XELA" and pointed at me whereas I answered "si" and was pointed in direction of a bus. "Chicken Buses" are basically old American school buses, painted in different colors - that go everywhere in Guatemala for very very cheap. Think I paid 20 Quetzales(13kr) for a 2 hour trip.
After 5 min. ride the driver suddenly pulled of to the side, and went out of the bus indicating that he needed to visit the bathroom. So the entire bus had to sit and wait for 20 min, until he was done. In the mean time we had the chance to buy something from one of the fifteen salesmen who came in and held great speeches about their amazing products, such as "the pen with built in Calendar", or an "anatomy-book"(don't ask me why the heck a guy thought he could sell and anatomy book on a chicken bus, but the situation itself was quite entertaining)
.
Eventually the bus driver came back, and we made our way to Xela.
In Xela, I found a cab and went by a nice Hostel.

Later that evening(Tuesday) i meet up with Emil. He told me that the tour he had been talking about had been cancelled due to too few sign ups, bus if I wanted to we could do the tour on our own. Since I was already there, I thought it would be stupid not to try to climb the volcano, so we agreed to meet next morning to see if we could find a place where we could rent sleeping bags, and sleeping mats(since I didn't bring any).
Next day, after renting sleeping bags and packing, we headed of to Volcano Tajumulco. It took us around 3 hours to get to the starting point, with two different chicken buses. So at 4 o´clock we started the hike. After almost 3 hours hike, it became dark and we decided to camp at something that looked like an actual camping place. (at least it was filled with trash...so someone must have been there before us).

Due to the high altitude, we were unable to lit a fire so we had to survive on the bread and tuna we had brought. In the night it was freezing cold(below 0 Celsius), so I praised myself lucky for bringing my skiing underwear, which kept me warm.
Next morning at 5,00, Emil woke me up and we spent another hour climbing the rest of the way to the top of Tajumulco(4200 Meters). The view at sunrise was amazing! Really fantastic!
On our way back, we got lost on our way down, but ended up finding the right way anyway. There were no buses from the starting point, so we hitchhiked one hour to the nearest city, from where we caught the chicken bus back to Xela.


Yesterday(Friday), I took the bus to Panajachel, on the shore of Lago de Atitlan, where I meet up with Eva and Laura(from UWC). It was fantastic to see the two again, especially here in Guatemala.

We spent the day sailing back and forth across the Lake to see the small villages. Tomorrow we're going to Chichi, to check out a gigantic market. It'll be lots of fun.

What way did he go?

I added a google Map function, so you can see what route a took. Might be helpful, if you dont exaclty know where in Guatemala "Huehuetenango" i located...

Enjoy!

(Go a bit upwards on the map to the right, and you should be able to see my route)

En update vedr. Boblen

For en god ordens skyld synes jeg lige jeg vil dele nedenstaaende information med jer.
Saa ja, der har vi svaret paa hvorfor der var saa mange Bobler i San Cristobal.

(En stor tak til min far for dette lille insigtsgivende indslag:-)

Hej igen Jacob,

Glemte at kommentere på din iagttagelse om de mange mexikanske VW-bobler.

VW har i mange år produceret biler i Mexico.

På den mexikanske fabrik fortsatte de med at producere de gamle bobler indtil for få år siden.

Dels fordi de var populære, billige, enkle og driftssikre, og dels fordi myndighederne ikke før for nylig stillede de samme krav til sikkerhed og ren udstødning som stilles i Europa.

Faktisk blev der en overgang importeret VW-bobler fra Mexico til DK af entusiaster som ville have "en rigtig folkevogn" selv om de var teknisk forældede.

Ankom til Guatemala(Huehuetenango) her til morgen. Ikke saerligt turistet, men folk er enormt flinke og rare - hvilket jo tegner godt for min fortsatte faerd i Guatemala.
Regner med at tage videre til Lago Atitlan imorgen, med mindre jeg finder paa noget andet i mellemtiden.

Hasta Luego....

Frio Frio!

Kaeft jeg froes igaar nat. Der er piv koldt om natten her. Er stadigvaek I San Cristobal de Las Casas.
Igaar tog jeg sammen med den Israelske pige ud og saa en Maya landsby en halv times koersel fra San Cristobal. Ikke nogen saerligt spaendende tur, maaske skulle man have haft en guide med. VI saa i hvert fald nogle utroligt smukke syerske-huse. (Artisan Workshops?) og en masse boern der ville saelge os baade det ene og det andet.
San Cristobal er i sig selv en utroligt smuk og idylisk by. En af mexicos smukkeste siges det. Den ligger temmeligt hoejt oppe i bjergene, og som jeg konstaterede igaar nat kan der blive temmeligt koldt. Alle husene i den centrale bydel er bygget i samme koloniale stil, og alle ligger i et fint net af gader og straeder. Der er en hel turister, men ikke nok til at det oedlaegger byens gode atmosfaere.
Derudover er der helt vildt mange Folkevogns-Bobler. Aner ikke hvad de laver her, og hvorfor lige boblen er saa utroligt populaer. (og vi snakker den gamle version). Maaske er det fordi den let kan snige sig rundt i de smalle ensrettede gader. Hvad ved jer, der er i hvert fald mange af dem.

Min Israelske rejsepartner tog videre til Puerto Escondido idag, og jeg tager muligvis til Huehuetenango i Guatemala imorgen tidlig. Har ikke helt besluttet mig endnu. Indtil videre bliver jeg i hvert fald en dag ekstra. Der skulle vaere nogle utroligt smukke "Canyons" heromkring, men paa den anden side er der saa mange forskellige ting jeg gerne vil se paa vejen, og man kan jo ikke se det hele. Saa ja, det maa jeg lige finde ud af.

Ud over det jeg ser og oplever, har jeg det generelt godt. Har moedt rigtigt mange interessante og sjove mennesker, og isaer Backpacker-hostel opholdenen er et godt moedested for solo-rejsende. Her er overraskende mange folk, I alle aldre som kommer rejsende hertil alene.
I Merida snakkede jeg med en amerikansk mand paa 40, som havde besluttet sig for at flytte til et varmt sted 2 maaneder, hvor han kunne laere spansk, og saa faldt valget paa merida. (Han arbejde som noget It-konsulent, som aabenbart kunne ordnes over internettet).

Derudover moedte jeg, tro det eller ej, en pige jeg gik I skole med paa Birkeroed Gymnasim. Lousie (eller Lo) gik i klasse med Helene, og hun havde vaeret nogle maaneder paa hoejskole I Costa Rica og var nu i Merida. Verden er nogle gange lille.

Jeg snakkede med Eva og Laura I Antigua, og glaeder mig meget til at se dem begge. Ved ikke helt hvornaar jeg faar tager der ned. En eller anden dag, kommer jeg jo nok dertil.

Well well, saa fik jeg alligevel skrevet en del, og kompenseret for de forrige mangelfulde indlaeg. Jeg har desvaerre ikke adgang til min Ipod(hvorpaa jeg har mine billeder) herfra, saa det bliver ikke til nogle billeder denne gang. Too Bad. Proever at opdatere med billeder en eller anden dag.

Nu vil jeg gaa over og laegge mig i en haengekoeje, og laese en bog. Det tror jeg nemlig lige jeg kan overskue.

San Cristobal de Las Casas

I made it to San Cristobal de Lasa Casas last night.
After saying goodbye to the two Australian Twins in Merida(they were off to Mexico City) I meet up with a girl from Israel(who I had spoken to in Merida) in Palenque. Very interesting always to travel with new people. In a few days time she´ll be going on to the west coast, whereas I think ill be heading towards Guatemala. Not sure yet exactly. But I guess thats where ill go. Well see.
The pyramids of Palenque were fantastic; located in a jungle environment with much fewer tourists than in Chichen Itza, and the ability to climb up all the pyramids. Definitely a place worth visiting.
I only spent 1 night in palenque, and went on a "water-fall" tour the coming day(yesterday).
The tour took is by some amazing waterfalls, and the most fantastic blue river. Im stil not sure why the river was blue.. but blue indeed it was. I ate lunch with the Israeli girl, and two other backpackers, one a funny/crazy elementary school teacher from California and a guy from Botswana(how cool is that?????) .

Anyways, ill might meet up with the Botswanan guy at some other point, hes going to Belize as well to do some diving..so yeah. Thats my plan as well.
After seeing the waterfall we went in this little volkwagen bus to San Cristobal, which is a 5 hour ride on small mountain roads. Located in the south mexican highlands, san cristobal can under no circumstances be considered a warm city. last night the temperature dropped to 7 degress celcious. uff uff, after coming from warm Yucatan.
Anyhow: the city is veyr very beautiful and has a wonderful atmosphere. All house are the same colonial style with different colors and small gates.
Definitely worht a visit.
I dont know what my plans are for the coming days, but I guess time will show.

Uxmal, Cenotes and Campeche

I took the bus to campeche this morning. Im only staying here for the day before going on to Palenque in the evening, on an overnight bus. The city is very nice a pretty, but for some reason completely day. I have this feeling its a national holiday today, or something like that, but since I dont have a guidebook. (why dont I have one???stupid me) I have no clue.
Anyways, I've been spending the last couple of days in Merida together with to Australian girls (who happened to be twins), very entertaining and funny people.


Sunday, we want on a tour to see the Mayan Pyramids of Uxmal, which was a fantastic sight. They are just as fantastic as those fo Chichen Itza, but less touristy and the feel a bit more authentic.



Yesterday we went on a Cenote tour, which was completely Amazing. Cenotes are big sink wholes, filled with the clearest nicest fresh water. Kind of like a natural well.
We visited two different centones where we snorkled, and then had fantastic Mexican lunch.

Arrived in Merida

I made it to Merida yesterday evening. Merida is a very lovely typical mexican(yucatan) city, with a nice and warm atmosphere.

The bus I went with felt more like a spaceship, with gigantic seats and television, and coffee stand in the back. Quite cool.

I spent the morning taking a free guided tour around at the old central square, listening to various stories about the different buildings and famous people who helped create this place. etc. quite interesting but our guide was not very good at english so it was quite difficult to keep track of what he said.

There's a Carnival going on at the moment(i figured out last night when i arrived) so I think ill spend the coming days partying at the Carnival and perhaps see some pyramids or snorkel in some cenotes(sink holes).

The interne here is quite fast so I uploaded some pictures from my stay at the "floating Island".

This is us helping Richie to make nets of plastic bottles, which will then be attached to a pallet which will be a component of the Island.

The floating Island at sunset.

Me and the initiater Richie. Standing in front of his little ourdoor (on land) camp.

All food was cooked here over open fire.

Me and a dutchman named Erik, on our way back to the ferry towards Cancun.