Guatemala - 2010

Day 5 - Sat., July 24- Monterrico

Some of the road was bad, but not much. What I mostly remember is the smell: a lot of diesel fumes. The lack of air conditioning is only bad if the van stops.

Volcanos, palms, and sugar cane (I think). The van was of course all foreigners and mostly from New England. Actually, I was one of the few that was in Antigua studying Spanish. The others were traveling the country. These vans are much more expensive than the buses, but a lot faster and safer.

The second of three major stops we had. The first was to help another van. For this one the driver was unsure of the depth, so he waited until another vehicle went thru, to see. The third was a police checkpoint, which is very common (and sometimes unnerving) in hispanic countries. This one was very friendly the other travelers said. The police have a lot of power and are sometimes corrupt.

Dan and Anar. Dan was born in Guatemala, has dual citizenship, and moved to Antigua from New York 10 months ago to start a comic book store. Here is is 1/10th the cost. Anar is traveling Central America for 3 months from Israel. They have been hanging out for a few weeks in Antigua. We talked together almost the entire way to Monterrico.

Notice the dark beaches. For Guatemalans, light colored sand is unusual. This is volcanic sand and VERY HOT to walk on. Even if the sand gets into your sandals it is uncomfortable. A few swimmers run as fast as they can from the hotel to the water. I finally saw one coming back and by the time they got off the sand their face was in a lot of pain.

Also, I guess I didn't get a good picture of the waves. They are actually quite big. Dan said one pulled him under for a while.

I was told there was a turtle sanctuary in Monterrico. Here it is.

And this is one of the examples of their exhibits. Their "museum" was looked like it was made by children: very local. The interesting thing is that I had to fill out a government form when I entered, which means it really is supposed to be a government sponsored sanctuary. Hmmm.

 

Here is the back end of the sanctuary, where they have the camans. I love this: notice the sign and to where it is pointing: under a tree. This is the path. Perfect for the short Guatemalans, but a bit difficult for me.

Another sign I found interesting was keep quiet in the sanctuary because the sanctuary is surrounded by hotels blasting loud music. I call this nature with a latin beat.

(Click to enlarge) The best part of the sanctuary was that part of it was "kind of" in the woods. There were a few birds flying around and I scared up a few reptiles. Twice I scared up large iguanas that were too fast to capture on film.

And of course, there several of these beautiful butterflies. I didn't think I'd get one of these to stop long enough.

One of the skinny in Guatemala, where the OK and the poor are obvious by how well fed they are. This is how it used to be in the rest of the world, too.

Most animals here are very skinny. Horses and cows will cause you pain to look at them.

There are some well fed dogs. They actually have well off owners, walking them on a lease.

Hmmmm. And it is common in the US for dogs to be overweight and need special, low-calorie food.

Dan and Anar invited me to a drink and teach them Perudo. They picked it up very fast and got good at it quickly.

We ordered the nachos, which was a mistake. The "chips" were fried tortillas of some sort. While we were eating I would have to cough (hairball). Apparently something about the flour or something was getting stuck in my throat. Dan felt it too.

Dan ordered me my first pina cola (without alcohol, of course) and it was pretty good. [I'm having another right now.] I did't have much cash, so I needed to pay with credit, but needed 100 Quetzales on the bill, so I paid for their drinks, too.

They were very fun and even invited me to Reilles bar (near the arch) Saturday night.

Johnny's Place is in the guide books and seems to be the only game in town. All the other places are abandoned. The only activity seems to be laying around in the sun or drinking. There are a lot of white bodies here. Mine stayed well hidden.

OK - the BEST part of the turtle sanctuary was that they helped me get a tour of the mangroves. I actually had to have them convert a US$20 to pay for it.

Here is my guide: Caesar. Notice the coconuts in the tree.

Here is his boat launch next to his house. It is very run down here.

Here are the mangroves. These are actually the roots, which extend down into the water.

Here is a termite nest. Hard to see, sorry. They are about 3 or 4 feet in length.

These are a kind of water lilly called Ninfa. Often when you move close to a large area of these you are met by a bunch of clicks, which are grasshoppers jumping away from you.

The river is actually a fresh water, natural canel. It is a major transportatioin route. This is a ferry. Some even carry cars back and forth.

There is a shore bird in the middle. Click for a closer view.

We were passed by four kayaks. They said they got these from an agency, probably in Antigua.

Just more flowering lillies and some sort of heron.

Turns out that my camera is so slow that I couldn't capture anything that happened fast. The most surprising of these was the cuadrojo (four eyes) fish. We were in a smaller part of the canal when something jumped foward, skipping on the water. It happened again. The fish jumps along the surface. I soooo wish I had a picture of that.

 

Here is Caesar, again, my gondolier. I was very happy that he didn't speak any English. And his dialect was a bit different.

Notice the hole in the center of the root.

In this area was the other animal surprise: I got to see what the Cosa Rican's call the Jesus Christ lizard (here: Cortete). It runs so fast that its webbed feet help it to run on the water.

My tour had been at the worst part of the day: 2 p.m. Of course, it is better in the morning and evening, but this was my only time. And it was a bit short because I had to get back to the van at 4.

I gave a good tip to Caesar and somewhere ended up dropping my last bill of money. So I was absolutely broke - no ATM or credit here.

I was very hungry when I finally arrived at Elsa's and was very thankful for dinner.

It made me think about how much we eat in the US (because we can) and about how uncomfortable I was for 5 or 6 hours without food. Imagine if I didn't have a credit card or a place to go for dinner back in Antigua.