Travel (trāv'əl) - Guatemala

As both of you know, I recently came back from a month-long trip through Central America. I visited Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua (blech), Costa Rica, and Panama. Let's start with Guatemala.

Guatemala: Grow Free and Fertile

First stop in Guatemala was Guatemala City, but we'll ignore that, partly because I was there for less than 24 hours and partly because all Latin American capital cities are completely skippable. My next stop was Flores, which is on an island the size of, I don't know, the East Village. It could be smaller. It's basically just a jumping-off point for getting to Tikal, which is about an hour away by bus.

Tikal is an ancient Mayan city that's about four times the size of Flores. Half of it is hidden under mounds of dirt, so if you ever get billions of dollars, I suggest funding an excavation, cause the stuff that has been dug up is awesome. Tikal is where the ewok island (ewok planet? ewok village?) from "Star Wars" was set, if that means anything to you, which I doubt. There are all these giant temples that you're allowed to climb, but I'd recommend just climbing like two, because the stairs are steep and scary and probably like fifty temple-climbers a year fall to their deaths. Plus, the day after I went to Tikal, my thighs were killing me. The stairs are very steep and narrow - perfect for tiny Mayan feet, I guess, but shitty for huge New York feet.

Anyway. Other stuff to do in Flores: swim around Lake Petén Itzá. The water is really warm and clear and beautiful and I spent hours floating around, doing nothing. Caveat: the lake is filled with tiny, sardine-like fish and they will swarm around you. I also had a good time shopping in Flores.

While I was in Flores, I stayed at this hostel called Youth Hostel Los Amigos. I don't remember much about it. The pros were that it was cheap, the cafe had good food, and it looked like something out of "Swiss Family Robinson" - all the wooden ladders and vines hanging around and all that. The cons were that it was loud, hot, and buggy, but that's just an unavoidable part of hostel living.

The next place we stayed was Finca Tatin, a hostel about 45 minutes from Rio Dulce. This is a good place to stay if you want a relaxing stay in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, in the middle of nowhere. There are no shops, no restaurants, no neighbors close by, and you can only get there by motorboat. It's made up of a couple buildings on poles in the middle of a muddy swamp, right next to a lake where you can go swimming whenever you want. You can go swimming at midnight; they won't stop you. There's a rope swing and a sauna, so if you want to do the sauna-lake-sauna-lake thing, that's available. You can rent kayaks, if that's your thing. It's basically a place to get away from It All. If you wanted, I suppose you could go to Rio Dulce. I have two memories of Rio Dulce: pantsless toddlers and the stench of rotting meat. But you can go if you want.

We also spent a night in Livingston. Livingston is right on the beach; you can see Belize across the water. And it's gorgeous. It actually looks like a movie set. But you can't swim in the ocean there; it's covered with dead fish. If you want to go swimming, you have to go to Los Siete Altares, which are seven hot springs. They are fantastic. Very buggy, though. The whole town is pretty buggy. All of Guatemala is pretty buggy. Bring some strong bug repellant.

Anyway, that's Guatemala for you. Stay tuned for the rest of Central America!