Guatemala
& Honduras Road Trip
Wednesday, 24
June 2015
We have left
Kanilela in Marina Puerto Chiapas, in Mexico, and ventured out into Guatemala,
with a short side trip to Honduras. Think volcanos, verdant green vegetation,
Mayan ruins, colonial Spanish buildings, mountain roads and, hopefully not
while we are here, major earthquakes. We are travelling with Paul and Judy of
s/v Grace. They are northbound after five years away from Seattle. Their voyage
has taken them down to Ecuador and an extended Panama visit.
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| The route thus far, the green star is Kanilela in Pto. Chiapas |
I have
included a map with straight lines from stop to stop that belie the circuitous
routes the roads generally take.
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| An active Volcano |
We left the
marina at 10:00 and rode with Josh (www.monte-verdetours.com) to
Quetxaltenango, Xela (shaylah) in Mayan, arriving at the Posada Antigua, we
highly recommend, in the early afternoon. After climbing high in the mountains,
surrounded by volcanos, the setting is amazing.
It is a town
with many language schools that friends have attended but really has no large
amount of tourism. Although the construction dates to the early colonial period
and the streets and buildings are much as they were several hundred years ago,
it is a working city, home to friendly helpful people.
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| Mags in Plaza Enrique in Xela |
The surrounding
mountains are intensely cultivated on nearly vertical slopes. All the work is by hand, as no
equipment could work the slopes which are not terraced as they would be in
Asia.
Josh
provided transport for a day trip up to the pre-classical Mayan ruins at
Takalik Abaj and a visit to a finca (farm) producing coffee, rubber, macademia
nuts, rambutan and chocolate. Fabulous trip!
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| Coffee beans |
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| Chocolate pods |
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| Latex Rubber |
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| And flowers everywhere |
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| See our bungalow in the trees |
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| Boardwalk from Santa Cruz pier to Isla Verde |
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| Family climbing hill in Santa Cruz village |
We stayed at
the Isla Verde Hotel at the village of Santa Cruz de la Laguna. It is an 8 minute walk on the boardwalk from
the village pier. The village is a steep 15 minutes up from the pier and is
populated by Kaqchikel Mayans. Proud, somewhat shy, but easy to smile people. We
took another publico trip around the lake with close-up view of several
villages and an afternoon stop in San Pedro.
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| View from Santa Cruz, Isla Verde in small bay |
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| Mags with Antigua behind |
From Lago
Atitlan we travelled by collectivo van to Antigua the original Spanish
government center for this entire area. Antigua is a World Heritage Site famous
for its colonial period churches and architecture and tourism, particularly
from Europe is very big. We were fortunate at Lago Atitlan to meet Tim who’s
son Riley owns the hotel we were at. Tim told us about an inexpensive, modest
hotel, Hotel Burkhard that was close to the center.
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| English project - Interview some tourists |
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| Love this entry |
Antigua
speaks for itself, a great time.
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| Colonial columns |
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| A Seismic event |
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| Another earthquake victim |
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| Andrew and the boys |
After three
days in Antigua we travelled east to the border and crossed into Honduras. We
went from 7.5 Guatemalan quetzales to the US$ to the 21.5 Honduran Lempiras to
the US$ and who knows how the Canadian dollar is doing against the US. I miss
the Mexican Pesos!
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| Second from left - 18 Rabbits ---... look for it |
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| Eighteen Rabbit - a good guy although pretty narcissistic! |
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| The Ball Court and 64 step stairs with glyphs |
We stayed at
The Posada Copan Hotel where Luis and Jose did a great job looking after us.
And I
thought buildings dating to the 1540's were impressive, how about buildings from
500 AD with a heritage in the area dating to 1500 BC? The thirteenth ruler of
Copan, 18 Rabbit, (love that name) did a huge amount of construction that
included the use of a very high relief detail that has lasted much better than
the usual surface carving. They used a base 5 counting system – for 5, . for
zeros, so in the glyphs, look for ---… put together somewhere and you have
found 18 Rabbit's handiwork. Archeology is so easy!
The scale of the site is immense, so again, Copan
can speak for itself.
After three
days in Copan we returned to Guatemala and then to the Caribbean coast to
Puerto Barrios, a large dusty freighter port that also has pangas that run 40 min. to Livingstone.
Livingstone is a small coastal town with no roads into it, at the mouth of the Rio
Dulce River. We are staying in the Hotel Rios Tropical enjoying a distinct
Caribbean feel. We have had our first day of heavy tropical rain, ideal for
working on the blog.
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| Livingston Today, or Why I Have Time To Blog |
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