All the rain in Lake Atitlan actually caused large scale disasters all around the country, with several deaths and injuries caused by mudslides on the roads. With this knowledge my travel agency told me I would not be able to leave the lake for at least 3 or 4 days, a delay I didn't have the time for! So, after speaking to some locals, I decided to do it their way! Instead of the direct shuttles I had taken previously in Guatemala, I took a tuktuk to the first mudslide, clambered over it, and continued onwards on several "chicken buses", so called because of the sheer amount of people that crowd onto them, bringing with them chickens, construction materials etc. After a night stopover in Quetzaltenango I took sveral more chicken buses to the Mexican border, and then several minibuses untill, after 36 hours of travel I finally arrived in San Cristobal! It was a long and pretty uncomfotable journey but it was fun and sometimes a little scary to be doing it with the locals, alone!
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| Mudslides |
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| Chicken bus |
San Cristobal is a lovely colonial town up in the mountains (over 2000m of altitude) with a great atmosphere and lovely people. If I could stay here longer, I definately would! It has some beautiful churches, a crafts market where you can find anything and everything, great bars and clubs and cheap, good food! The perfect combination.
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| Sumidero Canyon |
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| "Christmas tree Waterfall" Sumidero Canyon |
Not far away is Sumidero Canyon, which I took a morning trip to. We were taken on a boat up the river and through the canyon, where we were able to take in the spectacular views, waterfalls and even spot some crocodiles! Because of the amount of rain recently, lots of rubbish has been dragged down by the rivers currents, and seeing it was a powerful message in favour of envirnmentalists.
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| Rubbish in the Canyon |
The following day I also took a very long trip to Palenque, some of the most impressive Mayan ruins around. The coach journey was 5 hours each way, not helped by road blocks caused by striking teachers. After we eventually were allowed through we had lost a lot of time, and were only able to spend half an hour at Agua Azul, a beautiful waterfall, before heading to Palenque. The ruins were impressive and beautiful although, as spectacular as they were I prefered Tikal's ruins for the more natural jungle feel of them. I had a lovely wander around in the scorching sun though, working my thighs climbing up and down all the stairs. On the way back we had a quick stop at another waterfall, called Misol-Ha, another beautiful natural feature!
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| Agua Azul |
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Palenque ruins
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In the evening, I found a second burst of energy and had a great night out with some of the guys from the hostal, enjoying a few drinks and lots of dancing! When I returned to the hostal I discovered someone else in my bed...! Luckily there was a spare room for me!
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| Sunset on the way home. |
Next stop Oaxaca!
Love Soph xxx
OH my GOD!!!! Talk about an epic journey to San Cristobal! Glad you made it there safely with the locals :)
ReplyDeleteAnd someone just appeared in your bed? AHAHAHA, funniest thing. I read the last sentence wrongly - "Luckily there was some spare room for me". I thought you clambered into the same bed!!