When people tell you it is dangerous to travel in Mexico now don't believe them, or maybe you can believe a little, but let us tell you our experiences.....
We decided we wanted to back track and see the part of Guatemala we had always wanted to see but did not have the time to 4 years ago when we visited Antigua. As many of you know we have a kitty called Kira who is a wonderful addition to our cruising life, but sometimes can be a royal pain in the neck when it come sto travel. We have to find someone to care for her and a safe place to leave our boat.
This time we chose Huatulco and a very kind man named Pelican John who helped us out while we went inland via bus. .He fed her and watched Batwing
OCC is a well reputed and clean busline that travels all over southern Mexico. Tapachula, Chiapas, being the only city close to the border from Huatulco reachable by OCC, we chose that as our place to rendezvous with Erica, who was flying in to Mexico City, then taking a bus to meet us. (In retrospect she should have flown into Guatemala City, but we did not know when we made our plans for her visit that she would be joining us for the Guatemala trip) We learned from each other that both of our buses were stopped in the middle of the night to be searched several times and our bus was delayed over an hour due to protests along our route in Chiapas.
Coordinating our bus arrival in Tapachula Mex with Erica's arrival by bus from Mexico City,(we only had to wait a few hours), together we took a quick bus to the border where we entered Guatemala with lots of assistance from the myriads of border people pestering us to change money, use them as guides to show us where to go to get stamps in our passports and what bus to take to our destinations, etc----a big jumbled confusing situation. We had to firmly tell them to go away so we could think!!(At this point I want to recommend to anyone wanting to go from Mex to Guat and back to Mex, bring plenty of Mex Pesos for the return trip or on the return trip have plenty of Quetzales to change into pesos--ATM's are non-existant at the border)
After a couple bus changes and help from a wonderful Guatemalan woman --we called her our angel--we arrived in Xela (Quetzeltanango) by dark. Money being our priority, we hailed a taxi for $10 to take us to ATM machines and then to a decent hotel/hostel--the Black Cat, which we highly recommend. $75 Q per person($10) but it includes breakfast from their menu---good value.
A good night's sleep makes for a great attitude and onwards to
ChiChi(Chichicastenango) for the famous Thursday market. Wow what a scene! So much to see, tons of woven Guatemalan goods and carvings. We were overwhelmed! We even witnessed two funeral processions coming out of the church, complete with priests/shamans? and rituals and dress.
Chichi is not too far from Panajachel, the town where one can get a boat to the many pueblos around Lake Atitlan, so we bussed to "Pana" and headed to the town of San
Pedro via one of the public launches. As per advice from a fellow traveler we met in Chichi, we looked for Hotel Casa Elena. For a measly 75 Q for three of us ($10) we stayed for three nights.
Now this town has had a bad rap in the past--hippies and druggies wandering around stoned and methed up, but after a purge a few years ago by the local Indigenous, this town now is quite nice and congenial. There is still the under current drug thing as witnessed by us briefly in a room close to ours, but the main drug of choice is the COFFEE!!WONDERFUl! Every piece of property has coffee trees and everyone gets their coffee roasted and bagged for personal consumption. More and more this coffee is organic. Of course we had to bring some back with us........
There is much to do here, sun bathe, swim, kayak, hike the volcanoes, visit nearby pueblos for the cooperative weavers and their natural dyes and products (San Juan) visit the oldest pueblo Santiago where Maximon is kept and worshipped. He is the god of health happiness love and wealth , invented when the Spanish arrived. One should be prepared to give Rum, cigarettes, and money to the shrine when visiting. Santiago is the heart of the Mayan culture in Guatemala and people hold dear their Mayan culture, traditions, and dress. Photos will show the vibrantly colored bird embroidery of the men's trousers and women's huipiles.
We enjoyed the many coffee shops and the thermales or hot pools and explored the gringoized as well as the traditional side of the city.
Time being of essence, we moved across the bay to the pueblo of SanMarcos, a mecca of New Age practises, yoga, meditation, vegetarianism, lots of classes and rasta clothing. There is even something for the non practising visitor---meat and blues. Every restaurant had wonderful food. With only three nights we experienced great burritos and soup at Blind Lemon's. Carlos Funk gave us a personal concertat our table ---it had to be at least 1.5 hours non stop !!!! Incredible! What a talent. Here is his link
http://www.youtube.com/user/carlosfunk49?feature=mhum
Not to be missed is the experience of finding the Japanese restaurant by first finding the soccer field, then walking partly thru the field along the side,till there is a part in the weeds and one follows a path through a gate and finally into the outside gardens set up as a restaurant. Excellent Miso soup, curried chicken, and and egg and rice dish to die for, tea and sake. Topping off the meal a complementary bite of cheese cake and scoop of ice cream.....$20
And last but not least the Cooperative Ganeesh with its 10 different restaurants, one each night, rotating menus, and consistent bar with unique tequila shooters sugar and salt on the rims, limes with sugar and ground coffee. Three meals and 6 drinks all for under $40 a splurge!
Whoops forgot to tell about the accommodations.....well we followed the advice of Lonely Planet as do many travelers and ended up in Unicornio, a unique but run down backpacker place. Having just gotten sick, we were interested in the hot showers which never appeared--only cold water. The new manager is overwhelmed with the need to upgrade the beds, the electricity(showers) and many other details, but graciously allowed us to take showers in his house. Muy Amable! Meahwhile after paying for 2 nights we had a pow wow and decided we needed to find another place to stay. We were amazed to find a more upscale place with private bath for 2 thirds of the price of Unicornio! Hotel Quetezal---Another lesson, do not judge a place by its cover, always ask and not assume it will be more expensive. Hot water, thick mattresses, clean walls, lovely kitchenette. We moved in for two nights and had a great deal inspite of having paid for the other place too. It is amazing how hot water and nice surroundings improve the morale.
Things to do in San Marcos--volleyball, which Erica played on our first day, free classes given by health practitioners like Dr Bill a chiropractor/healer who helps the mountain people by de worming the children. He also is using a new healing modality called BioElectrical therapy which is outlawed in the US, and other healing methods. He doesn't charge for his services. Meditation-- free sessions, improvisation contact dance, impromptu jam sessions, swimming and jumping into the water from a platform built for the tourists. Very tranquil. More to come including photos........
So the photos are posted on following posts and I am continuing the story.
while in San Pedro we discovered the tour group Green something and made arrangements to leave the lake by shuttle, thus avoiding all the hassle of finding the correct chicken buses to get to the border.
Our mistake was in not having our guide book with us in making the plans as we bought tickets to the border of Chiaipas, LaMesilla, but it turned out we bought tickets to be the wrong border crossing. After crossing the border we had another 4 hours to go to get to our town where we had purchased bus tickets back to our boat and airport (Erica)--Tapachula. Not too big a problem except for the fact we had very little money to change to pesos and there were no ATM's to get more Pesos. In fact we had to buy tickets to a different town --Huixtla-where our buses also stopped because the tickets were cheaper, and we would then have enough pesos to buy lunch! Once we got to the Town of Huixtla we could get more money and have no problems. Great plan in theory but how were we to know that halfway into our trip to Huixtla, there would be a roadblock in the mountains --striking mine workers and ---our bus was stopped. We had to take our bags and walk a few Kilometers to where we hoped we could find another mode of transportation to get us to Huixtla. And we had to figure out how to pay once we got there.............no one was interested in taking the dollars Erica happened to have--until a nice young man offered to load around 7 of us into his pickup and take us to the other end of the roadblock as the distance to walk was longer that we had first been told. Hiking in unfamiliar area with a crowd of jeering strikers was a bit unsettling for us as we walked the gauntlet of quite a few people along side the road. It had become a big event and it was getting dark....The nice young man helped us carry bags the last km which he could not drive, and accepted Erica's 5 dollar bill. To our surprise and great relief on the other end were several transport vans, and we were on our way again, in time to make it to the bus station. There we waited a couple hours for our buses--we would spend 12 to 20 hours more on the OCC buses to Huatulco and Mexico City. More roadblocks and stops and checks by military and immigrations officials. Erica's bus even had a 2 hour stop. Yep Mexico has many stops and checks for it's buses .........Big moral of the story, take enough local currency and pay attention to your border crossings, the exact names are very important!!
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