Mexico

My first stop was in Palenque to see the ruins. Again, completely mesmerized and completely drenched throughout my entire visit. I'm guessing October is rainy season in Central America... I'm pretty amazed that after seeing so many Mesoamerican ruins, I'm still impressed at every one. They're all so completely unique. Palenque has a Ruin that the Spaniards called "Palacio de los Cruces" or something like that. This was built somewhere around 730 AD before European contact and is filled with crosses built into the walls. That Jesus guy really got around apparently. Who knew. Palenque was extremely well preserved from what I could see. There were even reliefs in the temples showing Mayan Heiroglyphs still intact (unless they were renovated to look intact which would be dissapointing)

 I didn't go much out in the actual town of Palenque save for getting food 3 times a day from across the street..it was just raining so much and I had a guitar and tacos de pastor, what could I do? I'm just blown away at what crossing a simple arbitrarily drawn geographic line can do for culinary stylings. As I've ranted about before, food here...hasn't been that great. It started getting better and more authentic in Central America but was still nothing to write home about. However,  going to a simple Taqueria in Mexico gets you an amazing meal under $5. So Mexico, you might have one of the most corrupt police forces, governments and armies on the face of the planet, you might have a drug war that's threatening to destabilize and topple the country, you might make faulty electronics and bad guitars, people might say that your habit of fitting 8 people into a VW bug from 1972 is in bad taste but I say that your taste in music and food? Pretty..pretty pretty alright.

I bought a ticket to go to San Cristobal de las Casas which is closer to my exit point of Veracruz. After waiting for the 9:30 bus for 30 minutes, I finally asked someone what time it was and was told 11:00. Apparently I forgot to turn my clock ahead when I got into Mexico. In any case, I ended up having to take two shuttles instead of one and still got into San Cristobal, no problem.

My taxi driver obviously had no idea where he was going and dropped me in front of something that looked like a hostel on a random street near to the address I had written down. It was definitely not my hostel but luckily turned out to be a different hostel with overtly sexual art on the walls run by a nice girl from Oregon. I set myself down and went out to explore. San Cristobal is a small town nestled in the Mountains similar to Antigua, Guatemala I suppose. The streets are clean and full of nice restaurants serving international cuisine (even though tacos were hard to find for some reason, it was easy to get a crepe). I went with a bus to see some of the local villages around. It really feels like Peru around there. Alot of people in the town we visited, Chamula, don't speak spanish, only Tzotzil. It's nice to see that the Europeans didn't indoctrinate everyone. In fact, the Maya here have their own form of religion. A strange form of Catholicism similar to Santeria. A church we visited had statues of the saints with mirrors on their chests and has a floor blanketed with pine needles instead of pews.  It's a somewhat chaotic scene with people speaking in tongues and little kids weaving through your legs. I walked up to the altar and caught a glimpse of two men trying their hardest to break a chicken's neck for some kind of ritual. It was bizarre.  The Maya here are superstitious and have that belief that when someone takes a picture of you, they steal your soul. We couldn't take pictures in the church and even in the plaza when a woman in my group took out a camera to take a picture of a bunch of women, several of them hastily covered their faces with their coats to avoid western soul stealing. Unfortunately for them I got some DL photos with my camera phone since it apparently was beyond suspicion...even the Maya think it's too crappy to take pictures. Regardless, To all the women in the plaza whose souls I now have in my camera: sorry. 

I'm waiting for my bus to Veracruz at 9:45pm. It's hard to believe that this'll be the last overnight bus I take in Latin America. They've become so much a part of my existence that I'll probably have to take them to arbitrary destinations in America just to cope for a few months when I get back

Semuc Champey, Tikal and the rest of Guatemala

I got out of Antigua as soon as possible. Not so much because it was boring and expensive but because two Americans that I met in my hostel got robbed by a trannie. However, they helped the Guatemalan police catch the guy (?) and were then stuck waiting in Antigua for the things that were stolen as well as to give testimony....for 3 weeks. I'm strangely relieved that I'm not the only one relegated to having strange stories about transexuals. It makes me feel better. Anyway, the Americans suggested a hostel to stay in near Semuc Champey. I grabbed a bus to a town called Lanquin which is near Semuc Champey (a natural limestone formation).

Someone started this hostel called the Zephyr which is in the middle of a valley with a river nearby in the Guatemalan highlands. Completely cut off and beautiful. It was the first time in awhile that I've stayed in a hostel for more than two nights. Semuc Champey is a natural "bridge" that goes over an underground river. On top are these amazing pools that you can swim in and also a system of caves. You can walk thru one of the systems lighting your way with a candle. This might seem easy enough but there were a few problems. 1) It's pitch black. 2) The caves have a river running thru them. There are areas so deep where you have to tread water to get thru. Have you ever had to tread water while moving forward with one hand and using the other hand to keep your only light source above your head out of the water? You have? Well then, you know how hard it is. 3) It's not a nice, gently flowing stream. There were areas of whitewater rapids and whirlpools where its hard to walk. I saw my life flash before my eyes a few times. Regardless, it was a ton of fun except for the bats...which still scare the bejesus out of me. No matter how many times people tell me that they're just like rats with wings I can't help think that the only thing more terrifying than the concept of a rat that flies is a great white shark that flies...and who wants that?



Anyway, I met some really cool Swedish dudes who proved to further embarrass me and cement my opinion of American education. These guys probably spoke better English than me (ok, definitely spoke better English than me) and most of them were atleast trilingual at the age of 21. They also were good musicians and some of the smartest people I've met on this trip so far. We need to clean up our act or I need to marry a Swedish person and move there. Or both. Yes, I admit it to my friends who have always called me a closet European. Europeans are in fact better than us in almost every way. Except for the fact that we had Motown...like in the 60's.

I left for Tikal which is on this cool little island in Northern Guatemala. Got a cheap room right on the water for next to nothing. Tikal itself was a great experience. It was raining almost from the moment I got there and I didn't bring any rain gear but the rain made the ruins almost completely deserted and really, well, a true spiritual experience. Like Machu Picchu where it was raining too, I felt like I saw the ruins as they were supposed to be seen. The land of Tikal available to walk around is pretty massive and I was privy to see alot of immense pyramids and temples without a soul around. Climbing to the top of Temple IV too, you can see why George Lucas used it for a scene in a Star Wars movie. I'd definitely go again. I'm going to try and dry my clothes before going to Mexico tomorrow but deep down I know...that's not going to happen.

Copan to Antigua

Went to Copan two days ago to check out the ruins. Definitely on a smaller scale than any other highly touted ruins in Mesoamerica but definitely worth a visit. That's all I can think of to say. Although the town of Copan itself (1 km from the actual ruins) is full of tourists, which makes sense since the ruins are its mainstay, it's a nice little town nestled into a valley. Honduras is EXPENSIVE. Atleast compared to Nicaragua. A private room in a hostel in San Pedro Sula was $42 which I haven't seen anywhere. I'm finding that I like impoverished countries alot better. Not only because I can buy cheap combs and batteries but also because, well, they're not as nice and developed. People my parents' age (no offense Mom, I love you) eating in nice restaurants with napkins made of actual cloth eating off of porcelain plates in a town is a sure sign that its been westernized and too culturally paved for my comfort. Antigua, Guatemala (a 5 hour shuttle ride over the border) is much the same. A really pretty town actually, beautiful old churches and clean streets. I can see why aging retirees love it here so much. It's a safe, clean bubble to experience a country from. There's not actually much to do or even see here that you can't see in about a 2 hour stroll around the town is the thing. Antigua exists because of tourism, not the other way around. I can't imagine what you would do here if you weren't taking spanish classes or doing a homestay. It's kind of like Sucre, Bolivia...just more expensive, without as may things around it to see, more tourists and with a McDonalds and Burger King. I like much more having the chance to run into a native Guatemalan on the street rather than another person from my own city. Call it cultural anonymity...I don't know. I'm going to take a shuttle up north to Lanquin which is a lot less developed to see a natural formation called Semuc Champey. More to come later...

Honduras

The past week has been spent in a farm called Bonafide, also on Ompetepe. Bonafide has a completely different feel than Inah Inta. It's run by an American named Chris who experiments with different tree and plant species to see which ones are cultivatable for use by locals on the island. It's a much more academic experience than any farm I've ever been in. There is a big emphasis on Permaculture which is essentially the concept of how to live and work with the land in your immediate surroundings. The people here know alot of information about the subject and its a pretty consistent topic of conversation. After a month of being filthy and covered with sandflies though, I'm ready to get back to the real world of crappy Central American hostels and drunk Australians. I guess it's no news now that I leave for the States in less than a month which is a surreal feeling.
I had the most painless border crossing ever into Honduras. I just gave my passport and entry fee to the bus driver and he did everything on both sides. Everyday should be like this. Honduras is actually alot more expensive and developed than I thought. An hour within getting into San Pedro Sula (a city in the upper northeastern corner of the country) I was sitting in a Wendy's eating a double cheeseburger and watching American Football. I don't feel guilty about doing this anymore. I've been eating rice, beans and fried plantains for over a month now. I'm entitled. Anyway, if you're going to kill yourself with oversalted, high fat food I still contest that their is no better way to do it than with American fast food. We're good at what we do. I am, however, still unsure about what the implications are that a Wendy's Cheddarlover's Hamburger tastes exactly the same in Honduras as it does in Chicago.... Regardless, the effects of Globalization are not lost on me. The further north I go, the more things look like, well, America. I wouldn't even know I was in a foreign county here actually unless it wasn't full of short Mayan looking people. Literally every business is American and this isn't relegated solely to food. From my fat assed seat at Wendy's I was staring out at a Payless Shoe Store right next to a Goodyear. I'm not sure if American companies are really just the most efficient and business saavy or if people here demand American products more? Either way, I'd rather not be in a place like this. It's so much more expensive and all the local culture seems to have been blasted off the face of the planet a la San Jose, Costa Rica style. Tomorrow I leave for the Copan Ruins for a few days and then into Guatemala anyway so it'll be a limited experience....