Tikal

Yaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnn... more Mayan Ruins... but these were different. They are deep in the Jungle. They are huge, well preserved and surrounded by amazing wildlife. Welcome to Tikal, the best Mayan ruins i`ve been to by far.

Straight out of an Indiana Jones movie (although a scene in Star Wars was shot here), this site is north of Flores and is well known to be one of the best. Along with a bunch of other backpackers, we hopped in a minibus at 4.30am and hit the road. We arrived around 6am just after sunrise in the hot, sweaty jungle where we were met by our guide Cesar - a Brooklyn born Guatemalan.

Tikal was one of the most powerful Cities of the ancient Maya and was at it`s peak between 200 & 900 AD. The site has a selection of well preserved/restored pyramids, some of which we were able to climb. Once at the top, you are above tree-level and the views were spectacular, across to the other Temples and Pyramids and far out across the Jungle. The air was filled with noises from the Jungle, the most eerie being that of the Howler Monkeys, who scream at each other across the treetops.

I`ll spare you the detail, but if you`re interested, find out more about Tikal here.

Back in Guatemala...

From the beautiful Belice Cayes I hopped on a rickety old bus with no AC and headed back to Guatemala. The mission, to check out the northern lowlands. So I crossed the border and made a bee-line for Flores. A beautiful little town on a small island on lake Peten Itza. The plan, along with my fellow backpacker friend "Shane the Aussie", was to find a nice Hostel and set up camp for a week and do some more Spanish Study. And long story short, that`s what we did.

It was the perfect spot to relax and focus on learning a bit more of the lingo. All in all a great week. Days were filled with study, laying in hammocks sweating in the boiling heat, swimming in the strangely warm lake, watching documentaries, chatting to locals about stuff and chatting to fellow travellers about their adventures. As always when studying, the week flew by, so now i`m en-route back up to Mexico to catch a plane to Vegas for Will & Lyd`s Wedding next week - via a selection of beautiful beaches and towns to enjoy the World Cup in.

Snorkeling Heaven

I went Snorkeling again yesterday on a beautiful Sailboat with a bunch of fellow backpackers. We spent the day at three different sites and it was without question the best Snorkeling i've ever done. I forgot my camera, which was a really good move, so i'll use the power of the interweb to describe what we saw.

We swam with Manatee's (pictured above), which was the most amazing underwater experience i've had, we were lucky to come across them apparently. It was amazing to swim alongside these huge, placid animals, they just hung out with us in the deep blue water, really amazing. Next up we swam with huge Turtles, Sharks, Sting Rays, Manta Rays, Moray Eels and tons of tropical fish. A really amazing trip, i'm excited about diving the Bay Islands in Honduras now, that's meant to be even better somehow...

Caye Caulker, Belice.

Right now i'm on Caye Caulker, an Island off the coast of Belice. Formerly British Honduras this little Central American countries first language is English, which feels quite strange after so long in Spanish speaking surroundings.

The cultural change from Guatemala & Mexico to here is huge, This is the Caribbean proper, with the majority of Islanders being black rather than latino. The people here are amazing, super chilled and super nice. The most refreshing aspect is that when you talk a local person, they're not trying to sell you shit.

Yesterday I went spearfishing on the reef, a short boat ride off the island coast took us to stunning water bursting with wildlife on the worlds second largest reef after the GBR in Australia. Another great day in the tropics which ended in a barbecue of our catch. Tough times...

Map Update

Exciting news, i've updated My Google Map.

A Little More Mexico...

From the bustling towns of Campeche and Merida I headed to Isla Holbox, a tiny, stunning and surprisingly underdeveloped island off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. Here I found a great little place to stay in some basic beach Cabanas, where I stopped for a few days. My time was filled pretty much with sitting in hammocks reading and laying on the beach. I also did a little fishing, where we were joined on the way back to shore at sunset by 7 or 8 Dolphins, which was pretty special.

After Holbox, I headed over to Isla Mujeres, a similar size to Holbox but dramatically more developed to service the day trade of fat, lazy tourists visiting from Cancun. A great spot for Beach Volleyball, swimmimg and people watching.

Then I headed South to Tulum, the home of a fantastic beach and some famous Mayan Ruins on the coast above the beach. A nice little spot to hang out for a day or two, but as with most places in this region it's a little expensive and geared up for vacationers rather than backpackers.

All in all it's been a great couple of weeks here, good to be on the move, great to be on the beach, but at the same time i'm looking forward to getting South into the less developed countries like Honduras & Nicaragua.

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.