El Tunco

In the morning I went to look for a place where I could exchange the rest of my Guatemalan Quetzales into US Dollar which conveniently is the currency of El Salvador. I had quite a lot left because I had planned to spend at least two more days but of course my plans didn't go the way they were planned (they're plans after all) and now I was being sent from one end of the city center to the other with directions to a money changer which were all different from each other. My bags were heavy and it was very hot and I had to stop for a while to catch my breath when I finally found the office. I got almost 100 $ back though which made up for all the walking. I walked to the parque Bolivar from where the buses to La Libertad left but I had a hard time finding the right bus stop until a nice bus driver took me to the right place, it was marked only by a small sign saying "bus stop" and not which bus or where it went, and I finally boarded the bus out of the city.
About an hour later I arrived in La Libertad, the port of San Salvador which is a sleepy little town that seemed very boring except for its wave, Punta Roca, a world class right point break that is El Salvador's best wave. I didn't stay there however due to the expensive accommodations but moved on to a tiny village a few kilometers along the coast called El Tunco. There were a few breaks there too including one point that broke slower but still looked like fun and I found a cheap place, after another long walk, that had a kitchen and was only one house away from the beach. It was already 4 o'clock and I had a relaxing evening on the deck of my hostel with 'wave-view', an ice cold beer and good food.
I slept well but woke early. I was exited to see my visitors who would arrive around midday and didn't get anything done in the morning, constantly checking my watch but had a coffee and donut with my Internet and a smoothy before I caught the bus to La Libertad. I did some shopping and waited on the corner of the bus stop for a while until I saw them hop out one of the crowded buses in a moment of complete disorientation and helplessness. I quite enjoy those moments (not all of them) and I let them have theirs before I walked over to greet them. It is a strange sensation to meet people who you haven't seen for longer and who you were looking forward to meet. They suddenly appear and are there again and it doesn't take very long to get used to them being around again. I was very happy to have them with me, especially Bekki who had been my travel mate for such a long time.
We went back to our hostel where they overwhelmed me with HARIBO and Nutella before I showed them around and we went out to buy me a board. I had been eyeing one board in another hostel since I had arrived and I had been checking on it a few times during the day and I bought it right before someone else's nose. He literally stood the with the money when I walked out of the gate. It was a 6'2" performance fish, a good board for the smallish waves of El Sunzal, the break right outside our door. The board was in a really good condition and I think I shot a great deal with it, even though I had to buy a new leash as well. Now nothing kept me from going for a long surf until the sun went down and it got too dark to see the waves. We had a great self made meal, the first one I made myself since I left the US (with the exception of the quiche for Helga), and it was delicious. This beautiful day ended with beers and an early but great night with Bekki and Ansgar who, I realized once again, I was very glad to have with me.
El Tunco was great! I surfed in the mornings, we chilled during the days and when the weather cooled down at around 4.30 pm I went for another surf. We cooked our own delicious food, only bought coffee and smoothies,  enjoyed the warm water and relaxed in the shade for most of the day. Those were truly lazy days but it was hard to do anything else because it was so hot. Me made friends with a Canadian guy and a Norwegian girl who had been in El Tunco for a month and were surfing every day and used the time to catch up about what we had done while apart from each other.
It was a sad goodbye when we left El Tunco after only four days but we wanted to move on to see more and surf different waves.
It was strange to be with people again for longer than a few days and to plan food and destinations together and in some situations in the following weeks I realized how much I had actually enjoyed the time I had on my own. However I love having Bekki and Ansgar as my company and I will be on my own soon enough, I just didn't realize how much I valued my time as a single traveller.

New and old company

Let's just say that is me on that wave back there...

Out for a morning surf

Our hostel is the house in blue and this picture was taken right from the beach

Sunrise in El Salvador

More busing

Again I got to spend the whole day on a bus. This time it took me all the way from Flores, in the north of Guatemala, to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. It also was my longest bus trip so far but with my Argentinian friend Brenda's help I had found a public service that only charged me about half what the tourist places did and it was still pretty direct.
It was the 8th of March and Bekki and Ansgar had arrived in Costa Rica from where they would take a long distance bus to meet me in El Salvador to meet me that very day and I had been waiting for news about the refund of my ticket which I had to pick up in Guatemala City. On my last night in Flores I got the mail saying that I could even pick up the check in San Salvador which was great for me because I could travel straight through to where I wanted to go without a nerve racking and time consuming stop in Guatemala City.
So I took the direct bus and surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I had thought. It did get crowded and it was hot and a very long trip but the seats were more spacious than others I had frequently been on before and also nice and soft. There is not much to tell about the trip which was very uneventful and boring except once when we had to stop for a while because a big truck had tipped over but it was even more interesting for me how keen the people on my bus seemed to be to see if something bad had happened and I had this strange feeling that they were hoping to see blood... We stopped only once for 20 minutes and I was lucky that I didn't need to go to the bathroom. I also noticed that this was my first overland border crossing outside Europe which was kinda cool... Apart from that seriously nothing happened.
When I arrived in San Salvador I went looking for a place to stay near the bus station, got some money (after a panic minute where I had to realize that all the banks were closed and I had less than ten dollars left) and went to the market where I bought some food for Bekki and Ansgar because I figured that they would be hungry after a 18 hour bus ride. Back at the hotel I checked  the Internet and found a message from Bekki saying that they would take another day. I was too tired to be annoyed or disappointed and fortunately I could change rooms and get some money back, I had already paid for three, before I ate alone and went to bed. Lonely for two more nights before I would meet the two in La Libertad at the beach.
I was in Guatemala for just over two weeks, which was not even nearly enough time to see a few things properly, and I loved it for most of the time. The few days I didn't enjoy where mainly because of the long distances, or rather the dreadful infrastructure, and some other issues that didn't have to do with the country directly which is full of great places, history and culture and definitely worth a visit if you haven't been there yet.

Wonderful Tikal

My days in Guatemala were counted and I really didn't have much time, enough time. There are just too many things to see in this wonderful country and I didn't like the way how I had to rush through to see at least some.
I moved around on shuttles most of the time, usually I hate shuttles, because they are more expensive and you miss a lot of the essential experience of the country you travel in, but I wanted to get from one place to the other as fast as possible so I had no choice. This next transport I took went from Semuc to Flores, a small town on an island in Peten, the most northern province of the country from where I was going to visit the legendary Maya ruins of Tikal. The trip took about eight hours but I shared the bus with a lot of people I knew from the hostel and former shared shuttles which made the trip more fun, even though it was still very exhausting. I also met new people with whom I shared a dorm in Flores and who wanted to join me for my Tikal trip the next day.
I had to say goodbye to Thalida and Elisa that night, who were on their way to Belize and didn't have time for the ruins. The time we shared together was a lot of fun and I am very happy that I met them, they made my long shuttle rides feel a lot shorter than they were and good company in Semuc.
My new travel mates for the next days were Brenda from Argentina and Garrett from the US, both wonderful people who brought me back to buying my own food and preparing lunches and so on, which was a lot cheaper and also more fun.
We got up at 4 o'clock in the morning to get the first shuttle to the ruins so that we could enjoy them without the crowds but that seemed to be a common thing and our shuttle there was already full with people. It wasn't all too bad though because the park is huge and we roamed it all by ourselves without seeing very many people. The bus to the park took about an hour and the entrance fee was 150 Q (about 20$) which is very expensive for Guatemalan standards but it was an official ticket and definitely worth the money in the end.
It was quite cold in the morning and foggy and it only cleared up when we left the park in the afternoon but it was good that way because when the sun did come out it was almost unbearably hot. Unfortunately it concealed the views from the top of the big temples but you can't have everything, can you?
The park was amazing! We decided against hiring a guide and walked the trail the opposite way than most people do to avoid the crowds and save the best part, the central plaza for the end. The whole area is so incredibly big, I think it was something about 16 sq km, and there are temples and ruins everywhere, some uncovered but some also still underneath a big pile of jungle. The Maya seemed to have built a new set of temples every 20 years to celebrate the end of a ka'tun and leave the old ones where they were which meant that there were a lot of simple temple complexes with two medium sized pyramids facing east to west and two altars in the north and the south, all over the place.
Temple IV seemed very unspectacular at first before we looked up over the tree tops and found the tip of the temple high above us in the clouds. It is the highest building (I think it was 64m) in Tikal and the lower half is still covered with vegetation  but you can climb it and the views from the top are amazing, even on a cloudy day.

The view from temple IV

It was incredible to walk through those grounds and see the huge temples and structures, some of which the Maya had built over 2000 years ago, and still be in the middle of the jungle, almost by yourself. We saw monkeys and bush turkeys, a capybara and hundreds of birds and for long periods of time we didn't see any other humans at all.
We saw the plaza of the seven temples, the lost world (the place with pyramids from a much earlier period, the pre-classic, around 700 BC), the big temple of the south and of course the main plaza with it the massive acropolis and the beautiful and world famous temple of the jaguar.
The main plaza is really beautiful and the views from the high temple are breathtaking. You can see other structures poke out of the surrounding canopy, the temple of the jaguar in its full glory and the plaza where in Tikal's prime more than 100 000 people gathered for celebrations.

Year of construction: 700 BC

Temple V

The temple of the jaguar and the north acropolis on the left

Temple of the jaguar

A picture of me 2000 years ago...

The north acropolis

Brenda, Garrett and I were reading our way through most of the information and I think a guide would have been helpful to understand more of the things we saw but we loved it to be on our own and roam the grounds how we wanted to. Our little group was in great harmony, sometimes slow, sometimes a bit faster we got around the whole park in about 8 hours and I am very happy, that I had those two with me that day. It was very special.
Tired but very happy we left the site at three with the shuttle. We stopped in Santa Elena, a town only separated from Flores by the lake, to get food and organize our next steps. Brenda was going west, Garrett east and I was heading south the following day. It was more than 12 hours after we had left, that we arrived back at our hostel, my legs aching and my head full of those beautiful images I was lucky enough to see.
I am very glad that I decided to come here after all and that I had this great day with those wonderful friends, even though that meant not getting much sleep and being on buses for more than 18 hours.

Semuc Champey

I decided to take a shuttle to my next destination because it was somewhere in the nowhere that is the center of Guatemala and even the shuttle took eight hours to get there not to speak of public buses with transfers and heaps of crazy people packed around me. Max helped me to find a 'cheap' company and it turned out to be a real advantage to speak Spanish, not only because you understand what everyone is talking about but also because it is a lot faster.
Of course the bus was late but that gave me enough time to wake up and prepare mentally for the tour. I was the first one to get on the bus and we picked up six other people, four of who were German, before we finally left Antigua. The ride was terribly long and the seats were very uncomfortable and didn't have any headrests which made it even worse but I enjoyed the company of my fellow travellers a lot and we tried to make the best out of it.
Everything in my body was hurting when we finally arrived in Lanquin, after over an hour on an offroad track without suspensions, at my hostel, the Zephyr Lodge. It was a beautiful place on top of a hill with a 360° view on the surrounding fields and mountains, an open air bar and common area and a very friendly vibe. I checked in together with Thalida and Elisa, two German girls from the bus with whom I got along well. The dorms were packed and there was hardly any space to put my bag but I didn't spend a lot of time in there anyways.
I was still not feeling very well and really exhausted from the long trip so I went to bed early and tried to sleep while the party outside was just getting started.
I had put my name down for the legendary "candle-cave" and Semuc Champey tour, however when I woke up the next day I was told that there were not enough people and that they wouldn't do it. I was very disappointed because that was why I had come here in the first place but Thalida and Elisa were doing a tour as well but with a travel agent from town and so I joined them because I didn't have enough time to wait one day. I didn't end up going with the two girls but I still had a great group and we had a lot of fun together.
We were picked up by a pick-up truck and driven down to Semuc Champey all cramped on the back. The drive was almost an hour long and I was happy to be there when we arrived at the entrance to the caves. Everyone changed into their swimmers and we followed our guide Carlos (he liked to call himself Santana) to a big swing over the river. I was the first to go because I was keen to do it, I had worked my way to the front with pushing and shoving, but I think that most people appreciated that someone was willing to test how safe the thing actually was.
It was safe. And great fun! The trick was to let go at the very last moment to get almost 5 meters into the air and then pray for a good landing. My second time I tried a back flip-sort-of-thing which went wrong and I only turned halfway and landed on my face but I wasn't the worst. People were hitting the surface in every thinkable way and some of them looked very painful.
After everyone was happy we went back to the "camp" where we got a small candle in our hand each and walked to the cave. We got a short introduction and were sent into the cave with lit candles and our guide at our tail. It was almost spooky at first but the deeper we entered the cave and the more we waded, climbed and swam, the better it got. Sometimes you had to put the candle between your teeth and climb up a narrow ladder underneath a small waterfall with the water pounding on your back or even the tallest of us lost the ground underneath their feet and had to swim, one armed, through the darkness. At the end we got to a place where we could jump off a narrow and slippery ledge into a whole that wasn't very wide at all before we turned around and went back the way we came from.
It was an incredible feeling to be in that cave without any other light than that of our candles and swim through pitch black water. I loved the tour and was very happy that I had decided to spend the money on it. And it wasn't quite over yet.
We tubed down the river for a while which was relaxing but not very exiting and got a little bit cold after a while before we crossed the river and had lunch. After the lunch break we entered the national park of Semuc Champey and hiked up to the view point "El Mirador" from where we could see the amazing limestone pools from high above. It was an incredible sensation to step out on to the platform and look down to see this natural wonder and I don't think that I can describe what I saw so I'll just leave that part to the pictures.

The pools from above

This is the river flowing in underneath the pools

I departed from the group a little and followed the path down to the pools where I saw, that the majority of the rivers water actually went through underneath the pools. It was a powerful rapid that would kill anyone who jumped or fell into it and stood in such a contrast to the tranquil pools that were lying there in quietness and a light peaceful turquoise. I walked further down to the top most pool where I undressed and dived into the beautiful clear water. The water cascaded down from pool to pool and you could jump and slide down little waterfalls into the next basin. We spent over an hour swimming, jumping and sliding and until the end I found it hard to believe this perfect beauty that was pure nature.
It wasn't warm at all though and we packed our stuff together and left when the first fingers and lips turned purple. On the way back I bought a piece of locally made chocolate which had a very interesting taste, not particularly good or bad, and huddled together with everyone else on the back of the pick-up truck that took us home.
I got off at another hostel where some people from my group were staying who had invited me to join them in their sauna. It was a tiny little room with a fire place outside that heated up quite well and it was right at the river which was nice to cool down in. I stayed there until I felt warm enough and walked back to my hostel to get some food where I met up with Elisa and Thalida again who had just come back from their trip as well. We had a lot of fun that night and met a lot of great people, I learned a new game, and had three lovely wood oven pizzas. To round of this almost perfect day one of the hostel staff, who had been a chef somewhere, came out of the kitchen with a tray of the best brownies I have ever tasted. It was like biting into pure soft and airy chocolate with big chunks of more chocolate in it. Amazing!
It had been a good day with a lot of fun with new and old friends, a lot of adventure and great food at the end of it. What could you possibly want more...

Max

Only two days after I had left La Antigua my cousin Lennart told me that my good friend Max was there at the moment, volunteering and traveling through Central America. What a surprise... He had been there for a while and I was there too but had no idea that he was there. We even were in the same town at the same time but didn't meet. I contacted him and we agreed to meet in Antigua on Thursday which was also on my way to the north of the country.
Before that I went back to Helga and the kids who I was missing a lot and who had asked whether I wanted to come back for another day or two. I took the boat back in the afternoon and surprised the kids (Helga hadn't told them that I was coming back) when they came back from school. It was nice to see them again and we played around, walked the dog and went out and had an ice cream together. The next day we had to say goodbye again but it was a happy goodbye. I had lunch with Juan and Olga and took off around noon to get to Antigua.
I got a ride from a nice Guatemalan lady, Mary, who had been visiting a German friend at the lake who hooked us up, which I was very thankful for because it spared me from a 3 hour ride on a chicken bus. She dropped me off at the parque central the meeting point Max and I had agreed on at 5pm but I had a look for a hostel first to get rid of my bags. I ended up staying in the same place I had stayed before, even though I didn't really like the place due to the staff that didn't seem to like me very much either (I think because I didn't drink and buy them drinks...), because they had breakfast included and it was a very good breakfast...
30 minutes later I walked back to the park but failed to find Max. He was a bit late himself and when he came to the park, he found me (funny enough) listening to a wind ensemble that was playing nearby. Max and I who had been playing together in a similar ensemble for about 4 years met, in Guatemala, in a park full of people in that spot... Life certainly is comical.
It was great to catch up with Max. He was living with a local woman and had taken a month of intense Spanish lessons which made him a good Spanish speaker to my untrained ears (he said he was still really bad), he was teaching stuff like English and maths in a local Mayan school and when he had enough time he went for weekend trips to cool places in Guatemala. His stay was coming to its end and he was done with his teaching job so he had a lot of time and he was going to Cuba for a week after the weekend. We went to his place where he ate before we went over to a German friend from Hamburg, Kati, who was doing a similar thing there. We drunk cheap rum(2.60Euro), talked about Germany and I listened to them go on about all those foreigners (mainly Germans) coming to Antigua and making it impossible to learn decent Spanish. Later at night we went to a Salsa bar in town that had live music and was packed with people. It was good fun and I was quite buzzed, for the first time in Central America, when we were kicked out by the security when they closed at 1 o'clock. Max took me back to my hostel where I fell into my very uncomfortable bed for a long and (seemingly) never ending roller coaster ride...
The next morning was hell! I woke up feeling sick and I spent most of the following 5 hours running between my bed and the toilet. I don't know if it was the alcohol (diarrhea rum how Max called it) or because of a bug that I had caught because I hadn't been very careful about what I ate but what I know is that I don't want to experience something like that again. I won't go into all the details (even though I know that some of you are waiting for exactly that... :)) but it was bad!
The whole thing was accompanied by a nasty headache and wobbly knees but I couldn't let Max down when he came for the third or fourth time that day to pick me up. We went for a slow walk and the air and the movement did me good because I felt so much better, that we could even go to the market where the smells, good, bad and neutral alike are very strong.
I somehow made it through the rest of the day feeling better and better as time went. We bought a movie and watched it with Kati (ironically it was about being sick) and had a quiet night. I hung out with Max for one more day and we had a great time. He is such a cool person to hang out with and it was so much fun that I met him so far away from home and he could show me around his Antigua for a few days. He is one of those friends to me that I don't hang out with very often but when we do, we have the best time and get along really well. I hope that I can see him more often when I get back to Germany because he is a very good friend!

Jaibalito

I didn't really like Panajachel as a town, it was loud, dusty and smelly and I hoped that I would find some peace in one of the smaller towns around the lake. I picked out two that looked quiet and went with the cheaper option, the "Posada Jaibalito" which was owned by a German guy who baked his own bread. Very curious about the last I boarded a boat from one of the docks at around noon which took me to Jaibalito. As I stood on the pier where the boat had dropped me off and the sound of it's motor disappeared towards San Pedro La Laguna it seemed to be completely quiet for a second. I breathed cleaner air, I had as much time I wanted and I felt good! For the first time back on the road it felt like I had found what I was looking for, not because I didn't like the earlier stages but because for the first time I could really kick back, relax and see what the day would bring for me.
The "Posada Jaibalito" is a small hostel not far away from the lake with a few shared rooms, hammocks in a nice chilled atmosphere. The trees give a lot of shade which makes the place seem colder than others which is nice during the day but can get a bit chilly in the evenings. I checked in and had a late breakfast (traditional Guatemalan with eggs, rice, beans and cheese) that came with a slice of good looking bread. The bread really was amazing, probably the best I had tasted in months, even though it was simple without too much trara.
I did nothing for a while before I wrote a bit on my blog and continued to do nothing. Isn't life wonderful? Rune, my Norwegian room mate showed up sometime in the afternoon, he was a very interesting guy, and we had a nice conversation, dinner and a beer together.
I woke up early the next day to do Yoga and meditate, Rune did that every day, but I had a hard time getting up so I only joined him for the meditation. We chose a spot right at the lake that had amazing views and he told me what to do. I don't know if I did it right or if what I did deserves to be called meditating but to focus the mind and try to forget about everything that is around you was a nice way to start into the day. My attempt was interrupted by a young dog jumping on my back, playfully trying to bite my head but Rune also had to leave and it was a lot harder to do by myself.
I went for a hike to the next town, Santa Cruz La Laguna, and beyond until the trail stopped halfway up a headland and left me no choice but to turn around. The trail wound along the edge of the lake passing beautiful properties and revealing scenic views of the lake and its surroundings.

Since I have no photographs that I took myself to show you I will try to draw you a mental picture of what I saw: standing on a hill, maybe 30 meters above the water the lake spread out underneath me, gleaming and glittering in the sunlight. It is big enough that I have to turn my head to see from one end to the other and still some corners and pockets are hidden behind headlands and hills. Three volcano peaks (actually it is only two, the "Atitlan" and the "Toliman" which has two peaks)line up perfectly across from me in a straight line looking almost the same and a smaller uprising closer to the lake, the "Cerro de Oro" that looks exactly like the "snake that swallowed an elephant" from the story "The Little Prince". Further to the right another volcano rises close to the shore, its shape forming a perfect triangle, at its foot the village of San Pedro la Laguna which shares its name with the mountain. All around the lake it is easy to spot the small villages and cities, white dots on the line that separates lake and highland and where there is no village the surrounding hills come down to meet the lake. It is a clear day, only a few clods crib the perfectly blue sky but close to the water a refreshing wind blows without which it would be too hot for a hike. It is a majestic view from where I stand, simple beauty in its pure form and I almost feel something like sadness that I can't share this moment with someone else.
The rest of my day went by like the last one had ended, with good food and company and loud 'gospel' music from one of the six different churches in town. I really enjoyed the quiet time that I had in Jaibalito where I discovered just a tiny bit more of myself and found the peace that I needed to fully recover from the trip here and settle back in into the backpacking life.