Travel E-mails

APRIL FOOLS!!!!How the HELL did April 1st come about? Honestly? Early travel plans had meat home around now, but here I find myself in Panajachel, Guatemala.So, What have I been up to? What am I doing? when will I be back in Canada?Well, my last e-mail was written... from.... memory, don't fail me now!Copan Ruins! AHA!So, I spend a day wandering those AWSOME ruins -- climbing up and down,around and around, hiking off the trail to see 'mounds' of unescavated mayanstructures, wandering the main courtyard.... One thing about Copan is thatthe entrance fee is $10, and to get into the Caves is another $12 -- thecaves being a mere few hundred meters, I figured "screw that"... but I foundmyself at a cave entrance with the door unlocked... I decided to make a stopin... unfortunatley I was stopped by a worker within a few moments, andasked for my caves ticked. I produced my Entrance ticket, playing the dumbtourist, and he told me, as I knew, that this was not for the caves, andthat I would have to go back to the entrance and pay another $12. I sighed,and mentioned that that was a lot of money for the caves... and what do youknow? He just HAPPENED to have an extra ticket on hand! and I could buy itat HALF price!!! Well... Half price... that's nice and all, but how about$5? Deal. So, I got into the caves, AND got a guided tour from this guy! TheCaves go under the main elevated courtyard and through the OLD courtyard --they built the courtyard over a previous courtyard, so you get to seeunderground temples and wander musty ancient caves. REALLY freakin cool. Thefirst cave is window'd off, as tourists have done some damage to the ancientruins in the past, but was cool to see none the less. The second cave ispart of an extensive network running several kilometers under the currentcourtyard with multiple exits into the city. Now, only about 400m is open tothe public, BUT, when your tour ends and all the caves are being preparedfor a GRAND OPENING of some 2 km in 2 years... AND the workers are on lunchand have left all the gates unlocked.... hehe... you get to explore areasthat will not be seen by the public for years... unfortunatley a flashlightwas quite necessary and I only got to peek in so far. Anyhow, All in all,Copan was INCREDIBLE. I look forward to seeing the next ruins on the list,Tikal.So, After Copan I headed into Guatemala, through Guatemala City, and intoAntigua. I was kicked off a bus when some confusion arose over whether I hadpaid, and while arguing I produced a recipt showing that I had in fact paid(lucky me that they gave recipts) and the driver collected my bag from thetop of the mini-bus that it had somehow made it's way to (even though I wastelling the guy that I DID NOT want to go with them, and was still arguingwith the bus driver, hoping to not have him drive off on me.) After AntiguaI headed to Panajachel and chilled with Murray for a few days, drinking rumand playing bachgammon to the wee hours of the night, and working on thecoffee that I picked months ago.Then came the grand Semana Santa -- Holy Week before Easter. I had made areservation in Antigua to stay at "Tortillas y Mas" -- an unregisteredhotel, and headed there Thursday afternoon.In Antigua I got to see the Guatemalan way of celebrating Easter, and astrange one it is. They make these big beautiful carpets in the middle ofthe road -- colored sawdust, flower pedals, sand, fruits, offerings etc.These are all incredibly well designed, with all sorts of colors, paterns,symbols and what not, and most are about 10x18 feet. Then they have hugeprocessions -- 30-50 people carrying HUGE mohagany floats of Jesus and theVirgin Mary, all depicting different events of the bible, and allprogressing to the crucifiction... in front of these progressions are abouta hundred 'Roman Soldiers' and thousands of purple-robed locals clearing apath for the progression, and spinning the incense burners that tend to comeout in religous events -- filling the air with a thick and sweet incensethat sometimes obstructs all vision. These progressions trample the carpetsmade earlier and leave them a muddled rainbow of colors, after which theyare rebuilt promptly to be destroyed by the next progression. Thousands andThousands of people swarmed to Antigua, many sleeping in parks, churches,trucks, and alleys. Parks bustled with food vendors and the streetsresonated with the ding-a-ling of ice cream carts.A good time, but nothing at ALL like Carnival in Bolivia. This was a muchmore somber time, few drank, things closed up earlier in the evening, andthere was little festivity. Two days of this was enough for me.From Antigua I came back to Panajachel for a night, then went to Santa Cruz-- to the Iguana Perdida, where I have JUST returned from. I took myAdvanced Scuba Diving course there, and chilled out a lot, as it is a rockinhostel with no electricity. Lake Atitlan was nothing like the ocean-- thoughthere were some cool rock formations, TONS of crabs, a few fish (there usedto be over 15 kinds of tropical freshwater fish here, then some americanstatesman decided that sports fishing would be fun here... now we have bass,pickrel, and 2 others in the lake.... mmm sport fishing, who needs tropicalfish anyhow?) and some hot mud.Well, that brings us up to date. Where to next? Tikal, as mentioned earlier,then I will run a savage burn through Belize (more for the passport stampsthan anything else.... mmm.... precious stamps....) and up to the YucatanPeninsula. I figure I will be getting to Canada early May, and I may make astop in B.C. before going' home' to Ontario (That good 'ol saying, "Home iswhere the Storage is")So, there we have it. Still Alive, Still kickin, and making my waynorth-ish... Dreading reentry to "The Norm", "Cable Television", and "work"Hope all is well with all who get this (and those of you who don't... HA!)
Zac