Mexico

Finally, i`m in Mexico, heading for the Caribbean Coast via some pretty amazing places en-route. San Cristobal De Las Casas was my first stop, which was a stunning town, but was at high altitude and was cold and raining. So I headed to lower ground for the warm Jungle of Palenque, where I linked up with an Aussie and a Mexican America and we spent the day at the Mayan Ruins of Palenque and at the incredible Aqua Azul Waterfalls.

Next stop was Campeche, where I met a cool French guy who was an Archeaologist and he had just spent 2 months in the Guatemalan Jungle excavating a site of Mayan ruins. So, armed with this fountain of knowledge we headed to a buzzing town called Merida, which was our base for a visit to the Uxmal Ruins, which was a great trip when accompanied by my French friend who enlightened me on many Mayan nuggets of information.

So far it's been a great few days in Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula is hot and sticky, the people are great and tomorrow I head to Isla Holbox in search of the opportunity to swim with Whale Sharks.

The meaning of 'Tenango'

Many places here are called "something"- tenango. This is because the word Tenango means 'place of'. So where I am now, Quetzaltenango, means - place of the quetzal. The Quetzal is the rare national bird of Guatemala and also the name of the currency here. Places where there are many tourists out here tend to be known to the locals as Gringotenango.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson.

Quetzaltenango (Xela)

At an altitude of 2300 meters, Guatemala´s second City took a couple of days to acclimatise to. I´m here for 2 weeks, studying more Spanish at a great little school in the town centre. When I signed up I also signed up to stay with a local family. I was picturing a staying in a stunning colonial house with a beautiful central courtyard bursting with plants and fresh fruit. Perhaps also a couple of hot daughters in their early 20´s to practice my conversational skills with too... Instead, I ended up spending a week in a cold, damp, windowless ´space´out the back of a small shop that sold hammocks, footballs and boy scout uniforms. My host lived alone and was an ageing local lady, however her 5 kids and 8 grandchildren lived nearby and were always around. It was great for a week to learn Spanish and chat with locals of all ages, but one week was enough. Now, i´m staying in a great hostel and am fending for myself without having all my meals cooked for me every day.

Adventure Sports Ego's

Whilst working my way through the north western highlands of Guatemala, I have encountered many adventure travel companies selling myriad trips and tours in the surrounding countryside. Some of these are Guatemalan owned and run, but most are operated by tourists/expats (who think they discovered the country). Most of the time the 80/20 rule applies, where 80% of the staff are very cool, approachable and helpful. However, you can guarantee that there will be that 20% or so who usually conform to the following generalisation/category/tribe:

Usually in their late 30's/early 40's (sometimes older) these people are socially inadequate and cannot converse about anything beyond their job and how great they are at it. Back in their hometowns they are not popular and don't have a large social network - they are very small fish in a big pond. So to become a 'big fish' (in a small pond) they get into Adventure Sports, to express how cool and edgy they are. Then they find a remote spot in a small developing country to work on cultivating an oversized ego and an attitude to customers that would resemble that of a Parisian Couture House's response to me entering their store in a pair of pants and a tramps overcoat.

By placing themselves in a transient environment, where backpacker spass through daily, these people further their ability to massage their ego's because not only are they the key to an 'adventure', they also know everything about the town/area that they're in. Thus inflicting the countless lessor mortals (tourists/backpackers) with a weak attempt at being the 'cool connector' in town.

I had the pleasure of experiening the pinnacle of this observation last week with a company called Quetzaltrekkers in Xela, where the unnescessarily large crew of staff flipped the 80/20 rule on it's head and are currently commanding a strong position of almost all staff being rude, arrogant, unhelpful and dangerously self adoring.

This trend got me thinking about tribes, not in terms of Maya tribes, but traveller tribes. So I think this may be the first tribe of many that i'll identify throughout my trip under the new category heading 'Tribes'.

Other tribe thoughts so far include; Flashpackers, Gap Yah's, Aging Hippies, Mid Life Crisis's, Decision Makers, Shipwrecked Cast Wannabe's, and a few more.

My Route Map

It´s a lazy sunday and Spanish text books and audio tapes are driving me crazy. So, i´ve set up a Google Map of my route so far and will continuosly update it as I go. Thrilling, I know.

You can link to my map here and also in the ´links` column on the right of this page under the name ´My Google Map`.

Enjoy.

Lago De Atitlan

So I have just spent the week in the stunning Lago De Atitlan as I start to move towards Mexico. Surrounded by hills, mountains, jungles and 3 Volcanoes, this warm volcanic lake is the perfect spot to relax and explore. I stayed in a great little Hostel called La Iguana Perdida in a tiny village called Santa Cruz, which was a perfect base for the week and had a steady stream of interesting people passing through.

My week was filled with a little study, some hiking, kayaking, zip lining, yoga, rock jumping, swimming and exploring the villages surrounding the lake. Mayan culture is in full effect in this area which is very interesting to see and begin to understand. Western culture is also well established around the lake in the form of some epic houses on it´s shores, where Westerners who have settled here live and wealthy Guatemalans come to relax.

All in all it´s been a great week, a perfect rest after the tiring 6 weeks in Antigua and it has set me up for another couple of weeks studying in Quetzaltenango (Xela).