Bienvenidos a Guatemala

(note the live turkeys in the basket... welcome to Guatemala!)

As soon as we left Tobacco Caye we headed straight for the Guatemalan border. After a sweaty 3 hour chicken bus ride sitting on our backpacks, all passengers were unloaded at the last dusty town in Belize several miles from the border. We then hired a "taxi" (really just an old man using his barely-running station wagon) to travel the last few miles to Immigration. The border crossing was very chaotic, primarly because we were entering the true abyss... donde nadie hablan ingles . We were headed for the Mayan Ruins at Tikal, which entailed another 3 hour ride on an unpaved road - true adventure in the middle of nowhere.
One thing about indiginous Central Americans is that they are tiny people. It's great for me because I feel tall, but unfortunately Scott's head did not clear the ceiling of this particular minibus. Not a problem for most Guatemalans... but a problem for a 6 ft American. Without complaint, Scott made many friends on the crammed bus speaking his gringo Español as we got a glimpse of Guatemala. The people here must rely on their own resources for supplies and food because we didn't see a store for hours. Only rows of corn and horses, pigs, and cows roaming freely (unless tied to a tree on a short rope). Life in Guatemala had a different feel... The people were definitely poorer than we had seen, but yet, happier. Friendlier. Mostly uncontaminated by tourist contact. We made our home in the small town of El Remate, 30km from Tikal, for 3 days. This town was situated on beautiful Lago de Peten Itza which was peacefully free from motorboats .
Visiting Tikal provided a purer glimpse of Mayan Ruins in contrast to the tourist trap at Chichen Itza. The ruins are situated in the entangled jungle, full of toucans, howler monkeys, and the fer-de-lance, a snake that can kill a human in 30 minutes. yikes... Despite my efforts to spot one along the narrow walking paths through the dense jungle, we escaped certain death. The most spectacular moment at Tikal was arriving at 6:30 in the morning to experience the jungle come to life without a sole gringo nearby.
Next on the tour was an extended journey to the heart of Guatemala. Although the "highway" map may show a mere 100 mile trip to your final destination, the journey takes hours. This was partially due to the beautiful mountainous terrain, but mostly attributed to the many random stops for no apparent reason. One highlight of the journey was a ferry crossing, overloaded with cars and even a semi-truck. The entire ferry was propelled by a tiny motor attached to a submersed garbage can:
We visited Coban for a couple of days and we realized that we needed more Spanish skills - and quick! Few spoke English, so we limped around on the few phrases we knew but everyone continued to be extremely helpful and friendly. Coban is a bigger city (around 20,000) and although most still wore traditional clothing and spoke Mayan, there were modern shifts occuring. A large group of Mayan and Spanish women were marching in the streets with signs demanding the end to discrimination towards women. The same day, we witnessed a large group of excited teenage boys running around in the streets wearing eerie black and white masks asking for donations toward their "cause". We assumed this had something to do with conteracting the women´s demonstration but later understood this demonstration was unrelated and intended to raise money for an extreme political group... not sure what they stood for but we avoided them at all costs.

coffee plants in Coban

Coban is situated high in the mountains with a climate conducive to growing coffee. One would think it would be easy to get a delicious, fresh cup... right? Wrong! All of the good coffee is exported to (mostly Starbucks in) the US and Europe leaving the locals to suffer with bitter, nasty coffee camoufloged with plenty of sugar. We visited a coffee farm to learn about the growing process and to see the coffee beans actually being scooped and weighed manually for each exported bag. The tour included a delicious cup of coffee fresh from the farm - and this was the good stuff! Coban also so served as a launching point for Semuc Champey, which is a national park established to preserve a natural formation of clear turquoise blue pools conncected by cascading waterfalls. This park is in the-middle-of-nowhere, Guatemala, so it took plenty of patience and arm strength to remain standing in the back of our truck-taxi while completing the final 10km of death-defying road.
Another interesting formation in this region are the many limestone caves. Since our hostel offered a $3 candlelight tour of one nearby, we had to check it out. We began walking through the cave on the muddy floor until the water began to cover our feet, then our knees, until before long we were swimming in deep water, holding our candles above our heads. At the terminal end of the cavern, our guides tried to get us to jump off these dark 20 ft. cliffs into the micro-pool. Safety Patroler Rachel didn´t even need to step in... this was evident madness. Aside from a late night craving for water with absolutely none available, these were good times and a great introduction to one of the big themes in Guatemala- Safety isn´t First!!!