Alive and well in Guatemala

Allright. Where should I start... First of all, I apologise for not updating the blog since Belize (ATM Caves). There are two main reasons for that. The primary one is that as we entered Guatemala, prices for internet went up, and availability dropped to almost, almost nill. So I haven't actually had access to a computer for this time. Another reason is that time really flies by here. It's like Belize one day, Guatemala the next an voila, 4 days have passed. But I do my best.. SO....
What was the last scoop. Yeah... the furry tarantula... Great stuff. The next day we packed our bags and headed down to the Belize Guatemala border... And guess what. Belize liked us so much and they wanted us to stay so badly that we had to pay 18 USD just to leave the country... Isn't that sweet... Except for that little detail I really enjoyed Belize. Oh well. After passing the border and avoiding our tourleaders dodgy "pals" who love to exchange our cash into the new local currency with insane commisions we drove on to the beautiful city of Flores. Flores is a small island (take 20 minutes to walk around and about 15 minutes to reach a slightly larger town S:t Helena) that is rather expensive but it has personality. And like its said in Pulp Fiction. Personality goes a long way. But besides the feel to the town, there was really nothing to do. Just walk around, waste the day. Anyway, in Flores, I realised three things. First of all: There is a great restaurant by the beaches that serves killer chicken shishkebabs. I mean REALLY good. The second thing is that Guatemala has really good lager. The third, and this one is a real treat my friends... My bankcard is not accepted the ATMS in Flores. Yay... Need I say that it was not living on the extremely small amount I had exchanged? Anyway. the big thing in Flores was the day trip to a Mayan city, Tikal, Lot of temples, beautiful architecture and lots of howler monkeys, spider monkeys and stuff like that (video/photo evidence available). Long walks though. Took us like 5 hours to get around (including short stops)...
Moving on from Flores. 5 hours on a rather comfy bus (I mean it) we arrived in Rio Dulce. Rio Dulce, is located next to a river (wasn't that a surprise?) which we had to cross to get to a jungle hacienda named Tijax. It was like Trek stop (if you recall), alot of trees but normal toilets and really bad managment. I ordered chicken breast at the restaurant, got a raw, yes raw and bloody chickenleg... Sent it back, still chickenleg... Smegin (*^@$%&*$^(@*).
Oh yes. Another difference. At Trek stop, the only really nasty spider we saw was the owners pet tarantula. At Tijax, there were big ass, nasty spiders everytime you entered your cabin. With FANGS and stuff. But good bless DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide), insect repellent. Got those things on the run. Plus cockroaches but we just threw them into the river and saw how fish devoured them... great fun I say.
Anyway. We spent our day walking a couple of kilometers to a castle outside rio dulce. Castillo de San Felipe I think it was called. Something like that. The castle wasn't that interesting but the walk there! Great. Lot of nature and you pass a few really small town. Recommended.
On the way back I tried my bankcard in Rio Dulce instead. Didn't work. I came to the conclusion that my card won't work in Guatemala... Pardon my french but that sucks ass considering my current financial situation. But no worries. I walked into a bank and got money the good old fashioned way. Armed robbery (I kid). No problems at the bank so I've got some money for food now (yay!). Moving on...
We stayed two nights then moved on to Antigua, where I m located at the moment. There is a lovely active vulcano about 30-50 kilometers away that had a rather violent eruption last month. But we have all been practicing the emergency "duck and cover" routine... Just in case.
It's another town with personallity, the hotel is great and food prices are cheap. My kind of town! We just arrived today so we haven't seen that much but you can expect and update in about 3-4 days.
I'm doing fine, travelling with the group is rather fun. Great people and we do what we want anyway.
I hope all is well with everyone! Cheers friends and see you soon.

Going to the ATM caves

Our stay in Belize has sofar been very pleasant. We have relaxed, walked around and done alot of stuff. The Hotel Trek Stop here outside San Ignacio has also been very good, except for one small thing, the cabins we stay in have roofs made out of sheets of metal. And guess what. Guatamala experienced alot of rain last night so I cant honestly say we got alot of sleep. But that aside.
We went out with a guide to the ATM caves Actun Tunichil Muknal. These are caves about one and a half hour drive from San Ignacio and a 45 minute walk from the carpark.
The drive over there was about20 minutes driving on roadss, the rest was offtrack, fun and really beautiful. Alot of hills and semi mountains covered by jungle (or subtropical humid forest). Real fun. The guide told us alot about Belize and why it looks like it does (can you believe they pay as much for petrol as we do in Sweden?). After the drive, we took our gear, borrowed some boots and headed into the jungle. 3 minutes after we start trekking, we hit the river which we had to cross. The water was quite a bit over my knees. With wet sock, wet boots, we went forward. We crossed the river 2 more times before we were at the caves.
The thing with the caves is this. The Mayan belief said that the Gods were in the underworld, and caves were a pathway, or a way to communicate with them. So the higher classes went down caves and offered everything from pottery to human sacrifice.
The enterance to the cave was flooded with river water so we had to swim (yeah, swim, none of that sissy knee high stuff) into the caves and then trek in there. We walked almost all the time in water, and had to swim through some quite deep spots. It was great to explore the caves that way (with headlights and wet boots) but we finally reached the mayan grounds, where there were different stages. In the beginning there was only pottery (food for the Gods) but as we walked on, there were sculls and bones. Everything calcified. In the deepest part of the caves that where tourists were allowed, there was a complete skeleton of a 15-18 year old girl, definetly sacrificed. Bloodthirsty gods I guess.
It was a great tour. Well worth the extra cash (Yet again I cant upload pictures but I have alot of good ones I'll show y'all when I get home).
The we got back, ate some dinner and played with the hotel owners pet Tarantula. Cute little thing, kept trying to creep up my t-shirt that filthy bugger(don't worry, I've got photographic evidence of that aswell).That was today.
See you next time.

Belize

And so it became time to leave the touristy Playa del Carmen and head of the the carribean pearl of Central America, Belize. Or to be even more specific, Caye Caulker. Belize is a former British colony, gained its independence in the 50's I think and is a totally cool place. It's more like how I would imagine Jamaica than Central America. Lots of Rastas, everyone speaks english in the notorious Jamaica style (arright man?tooooootally cooool) and its a really kick back place. No stress, everyone is friendly and its all just grooovy man. After a days travel, we finally arrived at Caye Caucker which was exactly like I dreamed Isla Mujeres would be like. Laid back, tourists but alot of backpackers and bbqs on the beach. It's a small island, takes about 20 minutes to go across it but there is a bakery and that all you really need. And of course, DIVING!
We headed of to the closest diveing shop, booked us up and in the morning headed off to Caye Chapel, with a couple of divers and two tanks each. Great fun. Although I got rather seasick on the way there. everything was really awesome. The reefs were a bit boring (mainly brown coral) and the visibility was only 15 meters due to the winds but there was lots of fish life, Blue angel fish, squids and all kind of stuff. And finally we got to put in some dives in our logbooks that were not instructiondives. During the evenings we drank belizian beer (far better than anything Mexico had to offer) and ate fish that was caught the same day. Good stuff. But I kind of miss cooking my own food. It was cheaper alhough I must confess it's good to have great hot meal that aren't that expensive.
Anyway. We left Caye Caulker and headed off to the next spot. San Ignasio. After a day of travel in an old New Jersey school bus (gotta love it) we arrived at this small town like smack in the jungle (well almost, the hotel we are staying at definetly is). The hotel is an environmental hotel which mean compost toilets, and solar heated showers. We have trees as far as the eye can see and during the day we can enjoy a refreshing game of frisbee golf on the nine hole course. Quite difficult actually.
Oh well. It's all good right now. I was so tired of beach towns its actually quite refreshing to be somewhere inland with jungle and less tourists. Belize is just wonderful! Unbelizable!
Peace y'all

GAP

We got tired of Isla Mujeres (still good during the nights but beware of drunk Mexicans ) and went back to Cancun with Janis. He went on the same day to Playa del Carmen and so it was Micke and I left. We stayed at a different hostel every night because as we didn´t have reservatuons, you kind of had to take what you were offered.
We had a pretty good night, went out pubing wiht a guy named Alex from Canada. Anyway, I won´t get into details but it all ended up with alot of walking and quite a few beers. Also we almost got arrested by the cops but they finally decided to let us off the hook scott free! Didn´t even have to bribe them (although they wanted us to).
That was one hell of a night. Definetly one of the top nights in Cancun/Isla Mujeres.
But it marks the end of an era. We are now taking a break from the REAL backpackers life and unloading part of the responsibility onto someone else. We joined up with the GAP tour beacause after calculations back home we figured we would be benefited by all the discounts that come with group travel but still we could do whatever we wanted during the days and nights. We´ve kind of locked us up only on the accomodation and travel part. Anyway, so we´re going to travel with a group now, from Mexico all the way down to Costa Rica through Belize, Guatamala and Nicaragua. The group turned out to be allright. Most are between 25 and 35 years old although there is a couple that is around 50 (but they seem to have good spirit to travel). And so today we jumped on to a bus and headed down to Playa del Carmen, another city like Cancun (read lots of tourists). And it really turned out to be exactly that. Beautiful beaches, but way to expensive and WAY to many toursits (ironic isn´t it that I am complaining considering I am one of them). Well, I can´t wait to get to Belize, with it´s Jamaica feel and great diving (the Blue Hole). And yeah. We figured we´re going to save our money for the Blue hole instead of diving in Mexico. Hopefully the dining in Belize is as good as people say it is.
Thats all for now friends!
Godspeed!

Isla Mujeres

We took the ferry from Cancun over to Isla Mujeres, the Island of the Women, to enjoy the beaches on a perhaps not as touristy locatation. We were a bit wrong on that point.
The island is just as overpriced as Cancun, just as many tourists and totally lacking culture.
But i can understand why the place is overpriced. The Yankees are just throwing money around and don´t even bother to barter. Now everyone is so used to be getting paid these outrageous prices and they refuse to negotiate. Exampel.
Me Micke and Janis decided to rent a couple of bikes to go around the island. There were two stores, renting the crappiest bikes I´ve ever seen. They wanted 100 pesos for them.100 pesos for crappy bikes like that! And not even 24 hours but from 9 til 5. We got them for 70 pesos a piece but still, what a rip off!
But the tour was nice. The island has a perimeter of about 20 km, quite nice views aswell. And we got some exercise aswell!
But I think we´ll be heading back to Cancun where the hostel has a KITCHEN! Might aswell tell you what I think about the Pocna hostel on Isla Mujeres. Fuckin arseholes. Not serviceminded at all those spoiled brats... But sure. As long as people are willing to pay, the island will go on like it does...

Cancun- A springbreak bonanza

Hello ladies and Gentlemen.
After a short while of inactivty on the blog side I figured it was time to update you about the condition of your favorite backpackers.
We left for Cancun the 10th on a rather luxurious 24 hour busride. Yeah, I know we should save money but considering the 24 hours we really couldn´t stand sitting on anythign remotly resembeling the Siem Reap bus.
Anyway. Moving on...
We arrived in Cancun, found the hostel and did the only thing possible in this american resort they call a town. Went to the beach.
We accidently arrived in Cancun during the period when american collages are having breaks for a few weeks. And most of the people go to some tropical place like Acapulco or.... Cancun.
The beaches are great, it´s like being on a island. There is a 18 kilometer long road with beaches on both sides of it. You just have to pick where you want to go. The waves are good, the water is warm, and the women are well... american. Rather drunk rather early but still quite of lot nice people out there.
So this is the deal. The beach during hte day and whatever during the night.
The first night we went into to some nightclubs (you just haveto hate cover fees, the´re really picking the tourists, us included, dry with those) but they were all sausagefests more or less. Not to mention the music was to much influenced by Hip Hop and RnB... Definetly not doing that again...
With the first night rather failed, we decided to try a different (and cheaper) approach. Micke, I and a german dude named Janus, simply party alittle at the hostel and then simply go out to bars that have some springbreak parties! Pure, simple and definetly awesome!
All the Americans have bought like package deals where they get an open bar at different places every night. All we had to do was sneak into the open bar area (just to be kicked out by the security guards when they noticed we didn´t have our "drink all we want" bracelets that could be bought for 35 dollars) and have a few drinks until, well... security did their sweep.
But even kicked out we had a great time. We sat on the beach outside the bar and talked to the people who were on the beach. Majority americans, quite drunk and very loud (that goes for the Canadians aswell). We had a pretty good time...
The following days it was the same.
Beach during the days, cooking our own food in the evening and parties during the night.
But now it´s time to leave this American colony and go to Isla Mujeres, another tourist resort but with beautiful dive sites, so perhaps we´ll get the possibility to get some diving done aswell.
Uploading pictures still doesn´t work but have no fear... Sooner or later we´ll find a computer that doesn´t mess up bloggers upload function...

That´s all for now.

The man of faith....

Minding our own business in the tv room yesterday, we stumbled upon a rather interesting man named Steve. With a book about the Bible in his hand we started discussing Mexico city and religion and soon realized that he was a Catholic. Not only that, he was a man of faith, real faith. You could see it in his zealous eyes. And so the evening went on with us playing Spades (totally kicked everyones arses, never played the game before). Anyway the thing is, we learned that in Mexico city, is located the "Virgin Mary of Guadalupe". A sacred painting in the christian faith and considered by many to be a miracle. The legend says that the Virgin Mary appeared to a profet and (you can read the rest of the story somewhere else if you're interested) voila, almost all of the Indian population in Mexico was converted into Christianity.
The stange thing about the painting is that noone know really who painted it, it does not decay (as normal painting do) and ultrasounds,X-rays and infrared reading have shown very strange results. Just the fact that the last 500 years hasn't destroyed it is a very odd thing but people say it actually is getting more bright and vivid.
Micke and I couldn't resist the urge to go and see what all of this is about (+ as I am Catholic it is considered one of those places a christian should visit in one's life). So off we went, travelling through the town and finally we arrived at the Basilica de Guadalupe. It was quite an experience. I mean, alot of people were there looking at it and it was something special. Could be my mind playing tricks. Maybe...
Well. After the visit at the Basilica de Guadalupe, we arranged our stay in Cancun for which we will be leaving of friday. The bus should take about 24 hours but at least we'll see a big part of Mexico. Expensive fare though. 1000 SKR...
After all the administrative thigns were done, there was not much left to do than going to the park and having a relaxing afternoon reading a good book.
Pretty calm day but it got me thinking about how many really cool and odd people you meet at the hostels. Always a good place for discussions.
Thats all for now.

Wear sunscreen and see hte Pyramides.

Another day, another place to visit. That is the burden of the travelling men. We decided the day before that it was time to visit THE toursit site of Mexico. Teotihuacan, the ancient Mayan pyramides, buried under the mud and dirt for hundreds of years until 1905. It is stil not entirely explored. Enough about where we're going. After a brief breakfast (mmm. Scrambled eggs) we got o talking with a girl from Germany. Alfie. Travelling alone she wanted to come along with me and Micke to the pyramides. Well, the more the merryer. Soon our roommates Gyn and Matt wanted to go along aswell so what the hell. It was technically the whole room and Alfie that went on to the pyramides. A brief busride through town and a not so brief busride to Teotihuacan (although the busdriver picked up a couple of guitarplayers / mariachis who played for about 15 minutes.. ah nothing like a bus of mexican singing) we arrive at the spot. Great place. We entered and started walking around the ruins of a civilisation lost. Didn't even need a guide as Matt was an excellent narator from his own guidebook. I'll upload some pictures later on but currently the computer at the hostel refuses to recognize my memory card reader... Stupid computer... We walked around, me wearing a T-shirt and shorts and respectuffly declined all the useless stuff the vendors wanted to sell. Probably dismisse about 50 of them. Moving along. After spending the entire day at the pyramidsite and walking around in the scorching sun, we decided to head off home. An even longer bus ride this time and I finally got to see how polluted the Mexico really is.
We ate lunch at a (too) fancy restaurant when I decided to show my friends the ultimate symbol of western gluttony. I took them to Krispy Kreme (those who have heard of them know what I am talking about and those who have not have really missed out).5 people split a dozen doughnuts and I must say I have never seen a box of doughnuts go down that fast... yum yum.
The rest of the evening was spent rather quietly at the bar on the first floor of the hostel, sitting and talking and having a few beers. Pretty good day I must say. Except when we realized we have gotten a rather bad case of the T-shirt sunburn...
Today, Micke and I visited the business centre of Mexico city and walked 4 kilometers to the "lungs of Mexico city". A park. Actually rather big park, 4sq km. We spent the day trying to get rid of the T-shirt burn... My I look silly but nevermind. Iäve got lots of tanning to do before we leave.
Hope all is well!

Some food for the mind...

Greetings friends!
Well, now that yours truly has recovered from all the festivities it was time to entertain ourselves with the beautiful views of Mexico City.
Once again we headed off to the downtown centre Zocalo which also is the place where alot of cultural spots are located.

The cathedral, a magnificent place although one cannot help to question if grand places like it didn't actually take people away from the most important fundamental values of religion. Because, what is really important? God, Jesus and faith. Gold and splender can take the focus away from those things. Not to mention it was used as a tool to control the masses.
Also included is a picture of the market place. Quite crowded, quite big... Everything for everyone.
Moving along...
We went alittle of to the Museo de Bellas Artes which was currently hosting an excibition called Eternidad fugitiva. Eternity caught/trapped. It was mainly an photo/video exhibition about events from the last 50 years. Earthquake in Mexico city, the Tsunami, The dictators of Europe, war and all that kind of stuff. Quite fascinating what can be caught on film and how it can be edited. But it wasn't all about that. Also there was a quite interesting part about how the perfect proportions of women have changed over the last 100 years. People and standards do change indeed.
Yet all these thing kind fade in comparision to the murial that was on display. It was the Man in the middle of the universe by Diego Rivera. Technically it was a statement of his own beliefs, painted over an enormous canvas. It represented the good of Socialism versus the evil of Capitalism and Imperialism. Capitalism was represented by the first world war, corruption, infants treated like animals and government repression in the form of police violence and such. The Communsit/socialist side was Lenin happly in a crown of all kinds of people, Trotsky, Karl Marx, happy and struggeling workers fighting for justice... All that kind. And inbetween those two sides, the man in the middle of the universe. I won't bother you with my analysis of the work but I need to say, Diego Rivera was married to Frida Kahlo, a very very good friend of Trotsky so I don't know if it was there he got influenced or he picked his partner and friends after his beliefs of political system but the murial was definetly prosocialisit.
Intrigued by Diego Riveras murial, we decided to head of to another museum dedicated to Diego Rivera. Quite astonishing works he had painted... Indeed he has qualified to my 10 top artists list.
And so the day went by...
I see that my friend Mikael is complaining about the Mexican food. I need to clarify one things. In Mexico they put meat into everthing and I mean everything. Personally, I love this. I see meat wherever I go! But, as Mikael is vegitarian (and we are on a strict budget) we decided to cook our own meals (read cook as put a tortilla into the microwave). It's cheaper and Micke doesn't have to worry about the meat because quite frankly I havent seen one vegitarian meal on any of the restaurants menus... I can understand that he is frustrated about this. And I don't mind cooking my own food. Cheaper and probably more healthy...

Una Cerveza por favor...

Ahh. First day in Mexico City. The city of culture, entertainment and smog... No need to be a smoker here.
We arrived at the Hostel Amigo, a place with lots of backpackers, a free breakfast and currently no water in the showers. Except for the last point (which will be temporary we hope) the hostel is really good. Everyone is friendly and during the evenings there is a nice little bar serving Mexican beer for reasonable prices.
But there is no point in staying at the hostel all day now is there? We decided to take a strol around Zocola, downtown and heart of Mexico City. Many cultural spots are located around it so we're probably going to exploit our student discounts in order to expand our minds. Not with chemicals but with culture.
We saw the parlament, the great Catholic Cathedral and one of the biggest markets I have ever seen. There was no end to it. Vendors screaming frantically in order to get your attention and hopefully relieve you of the burden in your wallets... Funny thing though... Most of them were selling the same stuff. I mean, there were at least 30 vendors selling Mach 3 razor blades and even more people were selling cheap tourist souverniers. Probably we should dig around to see where the good stuff is.
Anyway. As a good backpacker it is important to respect the local culture. And is there a better way then embracing the tradition of Siesta.
Indeed a great tradition so we took a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day (to hot to just strol around anyway) and decided to hang out a little at the hostel.
Our accomodation consists of a 6 bed male dorm. Our dorm mates are Guyn from Japan, Some dude from Holland, another dude from Nepal and Jeff from Italy. Quite calm people so we counted on getting a good nights sleep. That was before...
Before we hit the bar of Hostel Amigo. Cervezas a plenty for all the boys and girls. After a couple of watery beers (read Coronas) people started buzzing about a great night club outside downtown. The Bulldog. The salespitch was pay 300 pesos (for simplicity, you can read pesos as Kronor) for general admission and you get six drinks. Also this was supposedly THE place in town where all the young people of Mexico city gather which of course meant, lots of women and lots of dancing... How could we turn down a proposition like that.
So out we went. 30 people from the hostel decided to go so we rented a couple of cabs and headed into the unknown.
The place was awesome. Crowded, lots of dancing and alot of women. They actually served a rather okey Gin and Tonic (little gin, lots of tonic but what can one expect when the drinks are included in the enterance fee.
I met a quite cute mexican girl and we danced the night away. More or less to 4 am. Micke also found a rather lovely girl to entertain with his 1337 dancing skillz.
The music was loud and the place was jumping. It was nothing less than Kick Ass.
Well, we returned to the hostel at 5 am... And went to bed... 4 hours later it was time for breakfast. Some sort of spicy taco thing... If this goes on I'm probably going to get an ulcer...
Hope everything is well with all of you back home.

Martin

BIATCH part II

And so we're off again on an exciting and adventureous journey.
Just wanted to inform everyone that we are currently in Mexico City.
More updates coming VERY soon.