It feels like everyone we’ve met in Mexico & Guatemala has been carrying the same Lonely Planet Central America travel guide that we are.  Maybe the reason we keep meeting these people is because we’re all using the same guide book… and we are all on the Lonely Planet trail.  Anyways, I’ve got a crazy place for you that you won’t find in the book.  And it’s definitely worth a visit.  Ready?  Are you sure?  Because we weren’t.

About an hour and a half from Quetzaltenango (Xela), in the middle of nowhere, there’s a magical little enormous place called Xocomil.  Xocomil is a water park of North-American style epic proportions that no one would ever expect in the middle of Guatemala.  By the way, Josh… thanks for giving us the heads up about this place!

The park was created by the Guatemalan Recreation Institute for Private Sector Employees, IRTRA, whose mission is to develop recreation projects for the employees of the companies affiliated with the Institute.   By Guatemalan standards, the admission fee is a hefty 100 Q (about $12.50 CAD… cheap at home, but crazy expensive here).  Employees of the IRTRA get in free.

To get there, we took a chicken bus from Xela to Retalhueu (known locally as Reu) and asked the driver to stop at Xocomil.  He dropped us off on the side of the highway.  As we got of the bus, we were thinking that we had once again ended up in the wrong spot.  But once the bus pulled away, we saw this giant sign emerge across the highway:

As we walked through the endless concrete parking lot towards the entrance, we found ourselves giggling uncontrollably from a new sort of culture shock.  So far, I had been busy coping with the daily struggle of dealing with an unfamiliar culture with an unfamiliar language and an entire population that was in a very different economic situation than I have ever known.  Now my brain had to reconcile the fact that I was experiencing a very North-American style oversized and colourful monstrosity in the middle of one of the poorest nations in Central America.

The inner kid inside of me took over.  I spent the entire day giddy with excitement.  It was hot and sunny, and we felt like we were coming out of hibernation after two months in the cool highlands.

After changing into our bathing suits and paying for a locker, we walked around the park once to get our bearings.  This took the better part of an hour (the park spans 832 000 square feet)!  We spent the rest of the day at the park, and it was definitely worth every centavo of the entrance fee.

I still don’t know how this park didn’t make it into the Lonely Planet, but you can consider it to be a pretty authentic Guatemalan experience… we were the only Gringos there!  The water was the cleanest I think I’ve ever seen (maybe because of all of the “no orinar” signs) and unlike the rides at the Xela fair (which I’m pretty sure were once used to torture prisoners), I had no doubts about the engineering and safety of these slides.   And if the water park isn’t enough entertainment for you, there’s a theme park next door called Xetulul.  It has a rollercoaster with eight inversions, among other things.

Here’s some of our Xocomil highlights in pictures:

Nido de Serpientes… seven slides in one!

Mike on the Lily Pads – it was pure entertainment to watch people face plant here

One of the kid’s pools, complete with a massive bucket of water that comes crushing down on your head

Fake Mayan Temple (a.k.a. The Snack Shack)

Another kid’s pool, with the million plus gallon wave pool in the background

Us on El Caracol (which we redubbed the Toilet Bowl, for obvious reasons)

Lazy River Tumala

Ashley on the Crazy Carpet slide, with what feels like a near vertical head-first drop

The X-games style ramp slide

Translation:  Don’t pee here or you will be expelled from the park. Though I only saw these in the stairwells, not by the pools?

Wow, I can hardly believe that we left home 100 days ago today. When I say it out loud, it sounds like a long time. A really long time. Especially when compared to the insignificant number of three – as in “three months,” which is what I was using just a few days ago to describe the length of time time we’ve been on the road.

Infobox:
In 100 days of travelling, we have visited 3 different countries, slept in 16 different beds, and eaten more than our fair share of local street food. Some of our favourite activities have included: Spanish classes in San Pedro, swimming with whale sharks in Isla Holbox, water caving in Semuc Champey, snorkeling with nurse sharks & stingrays in Caye Caulker, and climbing volcanoes in Guatemala.

So, how does 100 days feel? Like a long relaxing vacation. In truth, 100 days is about the perfect length for a vacation. If I could have a job where I could take 100 days out of every 365 as personal days, I would be quite content to work and holiday until the day I died.

Surprisingly, way more than I care to admit, I find myself thinking of work (as in the job I quit), sitting down to a glass of scotch with my good friends back home, eating a hamburger with a side eggroll at the Gateway Cafe, and wondering if the Town Hall building has fallen down yet. It’s just so hard to come to grips with the fact that this whole trip isn’t ending next week, or next month, or even next year. It really does still feel like a vacation.

We think a big part of the reason our trip is still feeling like a vacation, and not a lifestyle, is because we’ve been treating it like a vacation. We’ve been doing a lot of touristy sight-seeing, staying in touristy areas, and more importantly not working. It’s been a lot of fun, but I think we’re ready for a few changes.

Self Discovery:

Self discovery is a big part of our trip. We both left home thinking that we were going to travel the world, and in the process discover ourselves and what we want to do for the rest of our lives. At first, it was more of an undertone, but now it’s become a major focus in our trip. We don’t have anything figured out yet, but we are starting to learn a bit more about ourselves, and at least have a few ideas of things we know we like, and a few more we’d like try.

• We Like Having a Place to Call Home:

One of the things we’ve learned about ourselves is that we don’t like travelling quickly. We both really enjoyed our time in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala, where we stayed for 6 weeks. We liked getting to know our favourite market vendors, having our own kitchen, not having to pack our things up every day, and not having to spend 30% of our lives on buses. We liked sight-seeing and being tourists too, just not for long stretches of time.

• We Don’t Need a Big House:

When we chose to sell our house to embark on this trip, one of the big arguments in favour of selling it was that the house was too small for us. It seemed only natural that when we returned home we would have to sell it and buy something larger anyways, so why put up with the hassle of renting. That perspective has changed after seeing the size of houses people live in here in Central America. When we think back on the house we sold, we almost feel that it was slightly too large for just the two of us, and anything bigger would be more than unnecessary.

• We Feel Better When We Don’t Drink:

This is two part, we feel better in the morning because of the lack of hangover, and we feel better when we look at our bank account. In the last 100 days, we have consumed a total of 1 box and 2 glasses of wine, 6 beer, and a couple ounces of rum. We really appreciate what we do drink, but we rarely crave it, and get by just fine without it. And yes, the last beer I had was enough to get me drunk… it’s kind of fun being a lightweight again.

• We Want to Volunteer:

Not working has actually been a little difficult to deal with. Not so much from the “we need more money” point of view, but more from the point of view that we’ve had 100 days to ourselves, and we haven’t really accomplished a whole lot. We want to start mixing in some accomplishments to look back on with our touristy fun, and we can’t think of a better way to do that than to volunteer some of our time to help someone else. We haven’t quite figured out what to do or where yet, but we are both ready to try our hand at volunteering.

• We Want to Become More Spiritual:

This is a really weird thing to say for us, but we want to develop some sense of inner spirituality. I’m not talking about following an organized religion, or any specific set of teachings, but about developing a stronger set of personal beliefs and principles and changing our behaviours to better reflect them.

Thinking About the Future:

After 100 days of spending money, and not earning any to replace it, it has become obvious that this lifestyle is not sustainable. Sure, our travel funds are still holding out okay at 96%, but one day they are going to run out. Hopefully before that time comes, we will know what the next step is for us. Right now, we just have a few ideas, and a few things to try out before that time comes.

• Return to our Careers:

We’ve tried the traditional careers (Mike being an Engineer, and Ashley a high school math teacher), and it may just be that we will return to that lifestyle when this is all over.

• Work on a Farm:

We really want to try our hands at farm life. We both envision a small farm as a wonderfully rewarding job and healthy lifestyle. Not the kind of grain farms we have in Saskatchewan, but a really small family farm like they have in Guatemala. We love the idea of having fresh eggs, milk, cheese, with organic fruit and veggies every day. We expect it will be incredibly rewarding to have a direct hand in the production of the food we eat. Of course, that’s easy to say having never lived on a farm and experiencing the realities of the work, so we’ve decided that at some point on this trip we will try our hands at farming. We don’t know who’s farm, when, or where. Suggestions welcome.

• Start a Hostel:

One idea that’s been burning us up a little bit, is the thought of starting our own hostel. We are quickly learning what makes a hostel good or bad, and we already have a list of ideas that we’d incorporate into our own place.

• Becoming Location Independent:

Over the next little while, I’m going to try my hand at learning to be a web programmer. If it works out, I’d like to offer programming services on a contract basis through the internet. I’m a computer geek anyways, so I doubt I’ll mind the work, and the advantage of being able to work from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection, and being able to take time off form work when I like is really appealing to me. Likewise Ashley has had similar thoughts about performing contract editing, transcription, and translation (Spanish -> English).

Conclusion:

We’ve really enjoyed each and every moment of the first 100 days of our trip (even the rough ones, looking back on them) and wouldn’t have done anything different. We are loving the journey and are hoping that over the next 100 days our heads transition from feeling like this is a vacation to feeling it is a lifestyle. I expect the next 100 days will be quite different than the first, but there’s no way to really know, is there? If nothing else, I think we’ve embraced the motto of the island community of Caye Caulker for this trip… Go Slow.

When Mike and I found out that there was a parade of beauty queens for La Feria Internacional de Independencia in Quetzaltenango (Xela) we knew we had to check it out.

This girl had the smile and wave down

I was expecting maybe twenty or so beauty queens… I mean, if they have their own parade, there must be a lot of them, right?  Well…

So cute…

There were actually about 105 beauty queens by my count.  Oh, and one beauty king (though his sash looked a little handmade, so he may not have been legit).

One of the Miss Mayas with a handsome little escort

It took an hour and a half for them to pass by.  All I can say is I’m glad I wasn’t at the pageant where they were crowned… can you imagine how long that would take?

Besides the titles of Miss Quetzaltenango, Little Miss Quetzaltenango, Miss Maya, and Little Miss Maya, there were representatives from other departments of Guatemala and other Central American countries as well.

My favourite titles?  Without a doubt, Miss Municipal Employee and Miss Female Prisoner.

You can’t always have a smile on your face…

Three Little Miss Somethings

I know what you’re thinking, you’re imagining that we got all pissed up in Xela, bought a bunch of cheap drinks, mixed them all together and came up with a bunch of campy names that we just couldn’t wait to tell you all about. Now listen close… for once, your wrong. Or, maybe just mistaken.

Contrarily, the drinks I’m about to tell you about contained no alcohol and not a drop of our own creative juices went into their design. These are just everyday drinks of Xela, Guatemala that we purchased off the street like hundreds of other people each day.

Orange Juice ‘n Egger:

In one word, delicious. Unless Ashley is saying it, in which case the word becomes vomit. Of course the Spanish have their own way of saying it “jugo de naranja con huevo”. The drink is made exactly the way you’re imagining, oranges are freshly squeezed by hand into a glass and complimented with a whole, raw, room temperature egg or two, your choice. No stirring required for this simple delicacy. In truth, it tasted like extra rich orange juice, until you got to the yolk which broke on my tongue delivering a strange yet complementary flavour. Mmm.

In life, the simple things are often the best

Corn Batter Delight:

It’s real name is Atol de Elote which, in English, means a corn drink made from cornflour. To me, it tasted somewhere between corn bread and muffin batter. It was warm, thick, sweet, battery, and had a nice bit of texture from the corn that was crumbled atop of every mug. It was delicious, warming, and filling all at once.

Like Guinness, it’s a drink that eats like a meal

Ponche de Leche:

I figured milk punch was a clever enough name that I didn’t need to cheese it up. I have no idea what’s actually in it, but if I had to guess I’d say milk was heated to a scald with cardamom and a bit of rice flour. They serve it warm with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Out of all the drinks we tried in Xela, I think this was our favourite. It tasted a bit like a chai tea latte… warm, soothing, and perfect for a cool rainy night.

Does she look excited? This was her second one so she knew what she was getting

Pineapple Soup:

Not really a soup, but it is served with a small plastic spoon. I’m fairly sure it’s just water, pineapple, papaya, and apple heated and served. They call it “caliente de frutas” meaning hot fruits. Tastes like warm apple cider. It’s warm, but not boiled too long, as the fruit still have all their texture. I really enjoyed this drink, and give it a close second to the Ponche de Leche. Likewise, perfect for a cool rainy night after your shorts have been soaked through and your shoes flooded.

Hard to tell from the photo, but I’m really cold

Caliente de frutas

After more than a week of wet and chilly Xela evenings and a tiring climb up Volcan Santa Maria the day before, we figured it was high time we visit the volcanic hot springs at Fuentes Georginas.  We visited the main office in the city, and arranged a trip out to the hot springs for 115 Q (about $14 CAD) per person.  This included round trip transportation, about 2 1/2 hours at the pools, and entrance fees.

We chose to go in the afternoon, after hearing how nice the pools are in the rain.   Since it’s rainy season in Guatemala, there was about a 99% chance that it would rain that afternoon.

The ride up to Fuentes Georginas was rough and windy.  We both crawled from the mini-van feeling a little ill, but the misty setting at 2400 m elevation made us quickly forget about our queasy stomachs.

View from near the entrance of Fuentes Georginas

We walked through the mists to pools, which were enveloped in steam.

The main pool and the kids’ pool

The pools are fed by hot, sulfuric water from the Zunil volcano.  The mountains rise up dramatically and I couldn’t help but feel we were in a very spiritual place.  Until I saw the local guy across from me shaving with a disposable razor – that was more than a little gross.

There are three separate pools at Fuentes Georginas, though we spent 99.9% of our time in one of them.  There is a kids’ pool, which is the coolest, and an insanely hot pool that I’m pretty  sure would blister your skin if you spent more than 30 seconds in it.  (I wouldn’t know, though, because we only got one foot in up to the ankle before we cried out in pain and gave up the attempt).

The crazy hot pool that we were too big of wimps to go in

The pools are relaxing, beautiful, and incredible in the cool rain, though they do have a few dead bugs and some creepy guy’s beard hair floating around in them.  Nonetheless, I would highly recommend a trip out here if you’re in the Xela area.  Especially if you’re overdue for a shave.

Soaking the aches away from our volcano hike

 

When we said goodbye to San Pedro to head to Xela (Quetzaltenango) it was to visit the  “Feria Centroamericana de Independencia.”

The fair was worth checking out, but as you may know from a previous post, we wish we had known a few things before we left.  So here’s our top 7 tips on attending the Xela fair:

1.  Despite the fact that it’s called the Independence Fair, you don’t actually have to go on Independence Day.  The fair runs for ten days and unless you like snuggling with thousands of complete strangers while walking past the food stalls, the rides, and the games… choose another day to go.

2.  If you hear from your taxi driver, your local guide book, your hostel owner, and the drunk guy on the chicken bus that you shouldn’t take anything more with you than the cash you need for the day, you should trust them.  You don’t know better than them, so leave everything else safely locked in your hostel room.  If you really really want pictures to remember it by, draw them by hand (see below).

3. Don’t underestimate the mad skills of the Guatemalan pickpockets.  Ever.  When you hear that every pickpocket in the country will be there, consider that one of them may be able to outsmart you.

4.  If you ignore my advice in #2, remember that a zipper on your pocket does not constitute an adequate defence for your camera against a pickpocket.

5.   Neither does constantly moving.

6.  Everyone has heard of the “spill something on you” pickpocket tactic, but don’t ignore the tiny old lady elbowing your back and butt tactic.  Even if you’re used to it from shopping in the markets, this old lady may have other intentions.

7.  If you decide to ignore all of the above advice, at least try this… if you absolutely positively must carry the camera and you know pickpockets are about… loop the camera strap around a belt strap on your pants so you will likely probably maybe feel the tug on the camera before it’s gone.

To sum up, I can definitely say the pick-pockets here are artisans. I kept the camera in a zippered front pocket in my pants. I thought for sure I’d notice any attempt to unzip a front pocket. Nope.  Now instead of pretty colourful photos, you get to admire Ashley’s hand-drawn pictures of the Xela fair.

So what about the fair? It was big. Really big. With tonnes of people and food stands as far as the eye could see. They sold roscas (a sweet cookie made just for festivals), churros, french fries, chicken, tortillas and beans, licuados, and some of the best cheap pizza we’ve ever had.

Then there were the rides. Ashley is fond of saying that the rides look like Cold War era torture devices re-purposed to fair rides by hanging a sign indicating the price of a ticket. There were a couple of rides similar to what we have at our fairs at home, like the zipper, the gravatron, and the ferris wheel… but they had a few twists. For example, the zipper looks like it was manufactured from light weight angle iron by a fifteen year old kid in shop class. The gravatron has no walls, and the ferris wheel turned at obscene speeds in both the forward and reverse directions for an ungodly length of time.

We didn’t actually ride any of the rides at the fair, partly because of their suspect design standards, and partly because Ashley was getting over a stomach bug that she caught the day we left San Pedro. None the less, it was still a fun experience.  We even overcame our new-found fear of pickpockets and returned another day for more fair food.  Without a camera of course.

“Dos minutos mas…”, our guide Santi called out.

But to me, those two minutes seemed like an eternity.  I couldn’t catch my breath, my heart was threatening to beat right out of my chest, my stomach hurt and I was dizzy and lightheaded.  It took every ounce of strength I had to take another step.  Despite Santi’s prodding, I plopped myself down on a rock and put my head between my legs to keep myself from throwing up.

The city of Quetzaltenango “Xela” is surrounded  by volcanoes and we couldn’t miss the opportunity to climb at least one of them while we were there.

Volcan Santa Maria, from Xela

We weren’t totally sure how safe it would be to climb one by ourselves, so we hooked up with a fantastic tour company called Quetzaltrekkers.  Quetzaltrekkers is entirely volunteer-run, with 100% of profits going to a local school that the company operates for needy families.  Public schools can be expensive to attend in Guatemala, so Quetzaltrekkers pays for the land, the building, the teachers, and the supplies that poor families need for their children to attend school.  The volunteers pay for their own food and accommodations (only earning money through tips), so that more money can go to the project.

We decided that the volcano for us was Santa Maria.  It has an altitude of 3772 m, and there is a lookout over Volcan Santiaguito, which erupts roughly every hour.  We paid 250 Q (just over $30 CAD) per person for the full day tour, which meant a 5 a.m. start.  The tour included meals, snacks,  and local transportation to and from the volcano.

Watching the sun rise at the base of Volcan Santa Maria

At 5:30 a.m., we arrived at the trail head and started to climb with a dozen or so local Mayans.  They do the climb five days a week, and perform religious ceremonies at the summit.  The path was steep and slippery, but we were surrounded by fog and the scenery was beautiful.

Morning fog at the base of Volcan Santa Maria

As we climbed, the fog gave way to clouds and we continued our ascent.

Trees in the clouds

Since it was only Mike and I and our guide, Santi, we set a pretty good pace.  We stopped about once an hour for a water or snack break, but quickly got moving again.

Santi spoke a few words of English, but we spent most of the day conversing in Spanish.  He was good about talking slowly and clearly, and there were few words that we didn’t understand.  Guess our Spanish classes paid off!

The last 45 minutes of the hike were tough.  Really tough.  Not because the trail got steeper (it was really steep the whole way up), but because my body was rebelling against the high altitude.  I’ve never really experienced altitude sickness (once, on a mountain in Yellowstone, I noticed it was harder to catch my breath than normal, but I quickly acclimatized), but here it was in full force.  I took at least 10 breaks in the last 45 minutes, and the last “two” minutes took more like ten.

But I got there.  And I celebrated by sitting down on grassy spot and watching the cows.  Yep, that’s right… cows.  It was so cloudy, the only thing we could see at the summit were the cows on an adjoining peak.  Santi told us that there was no way we would see Santiaguito erupt in the dense clouds.  Four hours of climbing for what?  Cows?

If a cow can climb the volcano, anyone can

Maybe it was the altitude sickness still messing with my head, but I didn’t mind.  Of course, I would have liked to see Santiaguito blow its lid, but the summit of Santa Maria was still spectacular.  It truly felt like a sacred place… surrounded by clouds, and the sounds of Mayan singing and religious chanting, it was magical.

Mayan singing and Chanting

Mike, on top of the world

We rested for about an hour at the summit, enough time for my stomach to settle so I could enjoy the lunch Santi brought.  It was actually a feast… bread, tortillas, homemade peanut butter, homemade jam, boiled eggs, beans, tomato salad, and trail mix.  It was here that I discovered a PB & J sandwich is actually a MM & M sandwich en español.  Who knew?

Me and Santi, enjoying the view (if I look a little sick, I was)

As we descended, I just kept feeling better and better and better.  The altitude sickness wore off, and I could use the full powers of my concentration not to slip on the wet rocks on the way down.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to climb down the mountain, and a short chicken bus ride later we were back in town.

Knowing what we know now, we could have done the hike by ourselves without a problem.  There didn’t seem to be any security issues on the mountain.  But for once, we didn’t mind forking over a bunch of money to this tour company because we knew we were making a difference just by taking a hike.