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This blog deals, rather briefly, with my two weekends at Lake Atitlan and Tikal respectively. They are two of the best attractions (by all accounts) in Guatemala and I thoroughly enjoyed both. By the way, given how blogs work, you may want to scroll down to my 'Executive Summary' blog below, to get a more general sense of how I have been finding things.
Thus, first Lake Atitlan - I arrived from South Africa via Madrid on the Friday night local time (after a 27 hour excursion ...) rather tired, but keen to get going. Luckily I met Jon Mathews in the student house, and he was heading off to Lago Atitlan the next morning. I decided to join him, and so, having had a few beers in a pub the Friday night, we headed off to find the bus close to the Mercado that was recommended - not quite the chicken buses that typically monopolise the roads here, but certainly no Vegas tourist bus! Post a four hour bus ride, we encountered the stunning site of Lago Atitlan. Compares with anything I have seen; clean clear water; with the site of three volcanoes in the background;and interesting if not eccentric towns dotted around the lake. We had an excellent time exploring; stayed in a great little hotel called .... and perhaps the best was the coffee, meals and beers at Cafe de La Puerta (see late afternoon and early morning pics). Did not do much other than take in the views; eat and drink, and ambled back home on the Sunday afternoon. Perfect weekend.
Tikal - which happened the next weekend - was profound in many ways - in the rain forest, it was extremely hot (I mean proper hot - don't think for a moment Durban in summer does it) and again magical in a 'rain forest way' that I had not comprehended before. The howler and spider monkeys above you whilst ambling about topped this sense of being in a complete different world. Walking through these ruins of the great Mayan empire, I really, and perphaps somewhat surprisingly, got a real and surreal sense of thousands of Maya thronging the 'gran plaza' a thousand or so years ago, and taking part in a religious ceremony (which it appears often included sacrifices of enemies and slaves ...). We stayed at a great little hotel called Mon Ami in El Remate, on the shores of Lago Petzen Itza, beatiful, and somewhat too warm to even cool down in. The scorpion in the room; the 'green parrot snake' (1 and 1/2 meters) by the hammock and the 8 hour overnight bus rides on the Friday and Sunday nights despite, it was utterly awesome. You all need to see it.
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