Central America

Sharing is Caring….

May 28, 2009 By Jillian

**This post was created prior to the earthquake of 5/28/09– We are NO longer in Utila.**

Let’s face it, we do a lot of what most people would call “extreme” sports. We mountain bike, whitewater kayak, compete in off road triathlons and do as many adventure races as possible. Generally if there is an adventure sport/activity out there we want to try it. For one reason or another, neither of us had ever tried SCUBA diving. Not exactly a sport, but certainly an adventure. I have a hard time snorkeling, really who likes to breath through a straw, so when we inquired about taking classes in DC last fall I was needless to say, thrilled when it turned out to be too expensive. However that was not the case in Honduras and after almost every traveler we met moving north or south was going or had been to the Bay Islands we felt compelled to include it in our journey.

I’ll be completely honest with you, we only learned how to SCUBA dive because we were in Honduras and it is the cheapest place in the world to become certified. We figured that since we’re traveling around the world, we might as well get certified since showing up at the Great Barrier Reef and not being able to dive would just be lame. (Although I later found out that Australia is full of sharks.) Plus, this trip is all about new experiences. Therefore, we headed off to the Bay Islands of Honduras for a PADI Open Water Course.

At the recommendation of our friends Tracy and David (two years around the world themselves!) we signed up for PADI Open Water Certification at Underwater Vision on the island of Utila. Thrown into the reading right away, we read the part about sharing air with your diving buddy and well, we were glad to have each other as buddies. Admittedly I did not share well in Kindergarten, or in 4th grade, especially when it came to Barbies, but its been a long time since then and I can safely say I would share my air with Danny, even if he never shares his ice cream with me!

An hour into our confined water dive I was shivering 3m down practicing how to clear my mask and share my air. Needless to say the heavy equipment and dry air, coupled with the temperature underwater and extremely low visibility made for a lousy first diving experience. The next day, 30 minutes into my first open water dive I was 12m down staring into the home of a lobster surrounded by coral and big tropical fish. It was about 180 degrees away from the confined water dive and I felt like I was in a deep sea aquarium. The feeling of breathing underwater was surreal, I didn’t even notice how deep I was until I looked to the surface.

Over the next five dives (we did a few fun dives as well after our certification), we swam in what seemed like an endless aquarium of tropical fish, coral and even some wrecks. We learned the unofficial rule of wetsuits, “don’t pee in a wetsuit, especially one that isn’t yours” and how to gracefully, if somewhat awkwardly get in and out of a tight wetsuit.

Although I have nothing to compare it to, the diving around Utila was incredible. Excellent visibility (except for the first day) and nothing but beautiful coral reefs, blue water and thousands of marine creatures. We saw entire schools of fish and even swam with a sea turtle! Unfortunately our timing did not coincide with Utila’s famous whale sharks and there were no sightings of manta rays or other large marine animals. Swimming underwater with all the marine life I felt a little like Ariel (sans the red hair, but with the sidekick) from the Little Mermaid and I’ll admit that I sang “Under the sea” into my regulator more than a few times. Maybe that’s why I was having buoyancy issues!

So now that we’re certified to dive, who is coming with us under the sea? I hear you can dive with Penguins in South America….

Shaken not Stirred

May 28, 2009 By Jillian

Survived last night’s 7.1 earthquake with no injuries or damages.

Although we didn’t feel our first two earthquakes in Guatemala, this one was unmistakable. Shaken awake somewhere around 3am, at first we were unsure what was going on. Groggy one of us finally said earthquake. For what felt like minutes we held each other waiting for the shaking to stop, unsure of what else to do. (They don’t teach earthquake preparedness in Elementary School in Pennsylvania or Florida!).

Even though it was dark we were jostled awake with such force and could actually see the house shaking. When the quake started to subside we shouted for the others in the house and started to get outside but with everything still moving, only moving less, and things being so dark, progresss was slow. We waited for aftershocks which never came as neighbors began walking up and down the beach checking on people. One exclaimed….”I ain’t never seen anything like that before and I’m from California!” Worried about a tsunami, we sat and waited for awhile until sleep got the best of us. Unable to find any news on our radio, and realizing the worst was probably over, we cautiously assessed the house for damage (lost a few pieces of wall art and the toaster managed to make its way to the floor) and eventually went back to bed.

Power was on again by the time we woke up this AM and we even have running water. The Associated Press indicates that it was a 7.1 earthquake off the northern coast of Honduras, a few kilometers north of Utila, the island we visited last week. More information can be found at the USGS. We’ll check out our village and post pictures/video of anything interesting.

Copan

May 26, 2009 By Jillian

The last of the big mayan ruins, we’d heard mixed reviews about Copan. Some travelers loved it and said it was their favorite while others put it on the definite waste of time list. Our border crossing and trek to the Bay Islands put us right in its path so we decided to go for it.

Arriving in the town of Copan Ruinas about 9am we dropped our bags at the shuttle company and walked the 2 km from the town to the actual ruins. Like Goldilocks and the three bears, Palenque was touristy, Tikal was huge and Copan was just right.

Nestled in the jungle the incredibly well preserved ruins of Copan were unlike both Tikal and Palenque in almost every way. Not only could we actually make out the carvings on the stelaes and the carvings on the buildings, the general atmosphere was peaceful and well maintained. All of the big Mayan ruins we’ve been to have been impressive, but the surrounding environment and the feeling of the ruins had a much stronger impact on us than Tikal or Palenque. Copan was impressive and immediately striking, so striking that it almost felt like walking through a movie set of Indiana Jones. We were able to go up most of the pyramids and ruins, but the greatest part of the entire site was a hieroglyphic stairway. Unlike anything we have seen at Palenque or Tikal, the hieroglyphic stairway gave me a real idea of what the city actually may have looked like.

Laid out in almost neighborhoods, we explored the main square, climbed the high pyramids, the temples and the tombs. The quietest place in the entire site was the royal palace complex. Ancient custom dictated that people were buried in their homes so the palace complex also served as the royal burial grounds. A quiet group of ruins in the back of the site, we climbed down into the royal palace complex and sat amongst the rocks. Maybe we liked Copan better because of its beauty and preservation, but I think we appreciated it more after studying spanish in Guatemala and living amongst indigenous people.

Like Tikal and Palenque, there was an outrageous fee for foreigners compared to locals. I think it was 50 lps for locals and 285 lps for foreigners, ouch. In reality though, as long as the fee is going to support the heritage site and improve facilities/museums/conservation efforts I don’t really mind, but its rough looking at the price chart. Maybe we should implement similar pricing in America! Balking at the cost, we didn’t pay an addition $12 to go into the tunnels. Turns out we didn’t miss much, Danny walked into one tunnel anyway and confirmed our decision not to pay for them. 🙂

Besides the ruins, Copan is also home to a flock of Macaws. Fortunately we were traveling with a Danish couple, Henriette and Anders, who matched our personalities. Danny and Anders took hundreds of pictures while Henriette and and I enjoyed the shade. 🙂

Bye Bye Xela

May 21, 2009 By Danny

Having trouble writing a post about leaving Guatemala and entering Honduras so I thought I’d put it all into bullet form 🙂

Played trivia three times in Xela.
- First two times won a massage because I knew the bonus question but never got to use the massages. Last time we came in strong second for actually winning but the topic that evening was Guatemala history and it was also the only time Guatemaltecos came to trivia….clearly a fix!
Wanted to hike to Laguna Chicobal
- Holiest place in the Mayan world, believed to be the center of the world.
- Inside the crater of a dormant volcano (yes…..another volcano)
- Lake is considered holy because clouds seem to float into the crater, bounce off the lake and out of the volcano
Talked my teacher, Anabella, into going to Laguna Chicobal, she had never been….3+ hours of hiking
At the lake I found the only place in all of Guatemala without a million plastic bottles
I like the idea of a lake as the holiest place in the world rather than a wall…better view! Mayans are onto something.
Clouds seem to be bouncing off of lake…then fog rolls in.

Fog does not bounce off lake.
Begin walk downhill to bus.
Fog turns to drizzle.
Get lost.
Drizzle turns to rain.
Find our way.
My teacher and I get soaked.
Get dry during bus ride back to Xela.
Get back to Xela ahead of the storms, so they can rain on us again as we walk home from the bus.
Get my first haircut since being unemployed…cost, $1.50.

Leave Xela & go to Antigua.
Get up at 4am, when drunk people are stumbling home, and wait for shuttle to come pick us up to take us to Copan.
Man with station wagon comes instead, claims to be shuttle. I am skeptical but he knows my name.
Pick up other people, who we later learn to be Danish, and we meet in the dark before sleeping on each other in this man’s station wagon.
Wake up in Honduras. Standard Guatemalan roadside pollution of plastic bottles and potato chip bags is suddenly missing.
This must be what Dorothy felt like when she entered Oz.
Go to Copan, with the Danes, and have a nice time….more on that in the next post.

Hike and Help, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

May 15, 2009 By Danny

Recently we paid for and took a hike up the Volcan Santa Maria with Hike & Help here in Xela, Guatemala. A non profit that supports libraries on local communities, we chose to go with them because their guides are actual Guatemaltecos rather than gringos. I have recently begun to dislike the concept of gringo ¨vacationing¨ in a place and in the process taking jobs away from locals. This particular hike took place at night, during the full moon, and so it was a special occasion for all of us.

This was about the point where my good feelings toward our guides ended. While I don´t think groups need to be hand held, there are a few points that I thought should have been discussed before heading up the mountain given that the group had very mixed experience.[ad#final-review-ad]

Meeting at their office at midnight we were quickly on our way to the volcano to begin our hike. Given that we were beginning at 7500 feet and climing to 12,400 – during the night, when it is both dark and cold – I expected there to be some discussion, even in Spanish, on the effects of hypothermia and the importance of regulating your body temerature in addition to telling us the importance of staying together. This never happened.

The hike up was a difficult one and it was not long before some participants began to fall behind. One person even began vomiting shortly after the start of the hike. Quickly we split into two groups, one with the front guide, who was tearing up the mountain at breakneck speed and another group with the enfirmed.

Generally the pattern was to hike with him very quickly, work up a sweat, then sit in the cold for 20 minutes allowing the sweat to cause shivers while the slower portion of the group caught up. Walking slowly, in the middle became our best option as we could take more frequent breaks for less time but then we were alone, in the dark, in a stange country…why did we hire the guide? Additionally, the fact the group was almost never together and the majority of the hikers had no hope in keeping pace with the first guide meant that had we encountered more trouble it would have been a much longer time before help would have arrived as the guides would not have known. This breackneck pace was repeated on the way down only without a single opportunity to rest our exhausted, trembling legs.

I do not belive these guides were malicious but rather that they are not actually qualified guides. I write this as someone who has wilderness first aid training in addition to having led many groups on hikes and other adventures. I do not belive these guides, themselves, have had any training in wilderness first aid, hypothermia, group safety, or anything other training a paid wilderness guide should have. Luckily there were no repercussions this time but it really is only a matter of time before something serious does happen.

In the end, I do not recommend using Hike and Help as an outfitter when in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

Sharing is Caring….

Shaken not Stirred

Copan

Bye Bye Xela

Hike and Help, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

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