This trip is truly my first chance to immerse myself in new cultures.  And the more I learn about Guatemalan culture, the harder I find it is to explain how we do things in Canada.

In Canada, we often think of countries like Guatemala as “have-not” countries riddled with violence and poverty.  What we don’t bother to consider are all the positive aspects of the culture.  Like:

• The abundance of fresh, local, and organic fruit and vegetables.  If mangoes aren’t in season, you can’t buy them.  If you purchase fresh meat, odds are really good that the animal was raised just outside (or maybe inside) town and was slaughtered that morning.
• Less waste. If something still works, it’s not replaced every few years with something newer.
• Everyone takes public transportation.
• Less debt. While the average person does not have much money, they are also not in debt.

In Canada, on the other hand, the average person is in debt and will spend between 25 and 30 years of their lives that way.  We borrow money to pay for what I now realize are massively oversized homes, new cars, and bigger and better stuff.

After ten or fifteen years of living in the same house that we still owe the bank money for, we will somehow find the extra cash needed to renovate it or buy a bigger one.  It’s the same with buying new cars.  Worst of all, despite our high salaries and “high standard of living”, our food is rarely fresh or local.  The majority of it has traveled farther than we could ever hope to.

Now, try to explain to a Guatemalan that our way of life is superior.

Now don’t get me wrong… Guatemala is not Utopia.  It has more than its share of problems.  According to the World Bank, 51% of the population is living at or below the national poverty line.  Many families in San Pedro live off of beans and tortillas three meals a day, as they can’t afford to buy the fresh produce or meat in the markets.  Recent history is full of bloody violence (that I can’t help but feel some guilt for as a North American).  Non-profit organizations can be found in every town and city to help poor kids go to school and get enough to eat, as there is no government assistance.

Still, the people I meet in Guatemala are HAPPY with their lot in life.  They accept that there are many economic and governmental problems, but are still hopeful that change will happen.  They value their family, their friends, and their health above everything else.  Work stays at work and as for money, they get by with what they’ve got (with a smile on their face).  They know that life can be hard at times, but they never forget to really live that life.  Not a bad way to live, huh?  It makes me question the Canadian mindset that bigger is better and that we should spend our entire lives working to accumulate stuff.

Before we left, we sold our house.  Sell vs. Rent was a big, long drawn out debate for us… and the fact that our house was “too small” definitely factored into it.  In retrospect, our house was not too small.  In fact, it seems huge now.  (As my Spanish teacher says, it was a mansion).  We actually had a whole room we hardly ever used except to store stuff that we never used.  How can that be too small?

Every day I encounter new ideas that challenge and shift my worldview.  I am definitely not the same person that stepped onto that plane three months ago and I already have a different set of priorities for my life.  If Guatemala has taught me one thing, it’s that less is more.  Now hopefully I can live that principle.

While many Guatemalans we have talked to have not had the opportunity (re: money) to travel their own country, those that had all told us that Semuc Champey is the most beautiful spot in the country.  And I think they’re right.

Semuc Champey is only eleven kilometres outside of the town of Lanquin, but it takes about 45 minutes in the back of a pick-up to get there.  The ride is incredibly rough and bumpy, but we proved that even a bottle of champagne (for Ashley’s champagne birthday celebration) can handle it… almost.  The champagne blew its own cork after chilling for an hour in our hostel’s fridge and half of it hit the floor.

We bought a tour to Semuc Champey from Coban.  We paid 300 Q (about $37 CAD) per person, which included transportation from Coban to Semuc Champey, one night’s accommodation at a pretty nice hostel, all entrance fees, and tour guides.  We costed it out, and this is about the same as all the individual pieces.

The tour started with a sweaty half hour hike up to a mirador (or lookout).  From there you can see the attraction that Semuc Champey is famous for… a natural limestone bridge over Rio Cahabón, with a series of stepped pools of cool, flowing river water.

From there, we carefully descended the slippery path to a spot where we could hop into the pools for a swim.  With the instruction of our guide, we jumped, dove, and slid down into a series of refreshing cool water pools.

At one point, the guide had us sit down on the limestone, cross our arms in front of our chests, and slide down 10 or 15 ft as if the waterfall were a water slide.  Unfortunately, my typical clumsy ways got the better of me and I banged my elbow so hard that my entire arm went numb.  Which isn’t the best feeling when you drop into water that’s deeper than your head.

  Ashley’s elbow post-Semuc Champey

I wasn’t about to let a silly accident spoil my time though, and loved every minute in the pools.

Hidden in the depth of the pools, there were fish that apparently love to nibble toes and feet.  Having a fish nip at your heels is a bizarre sensation… one that isn’t particularly pleasant.  I understand that in some parts of the world, people pay money for this kind of “fish pedicure”, but I can’t understand why.

We eventually climbed back up the waterfalls and steps of the pools to return to our stuff.

After ordering lunch at our hostel, we grabbed some tubes for a nice, relaxing 20 minute float down the river.

On the walk back to lunch, our guide climbed up on the guard rail of the bridge and started joking about jumping off.  We all thought he was kidding/crazy as we considered the water flowing by about 40 feet below him.  But then he jumped and did a swan dive into the river.  Everyone kind of stared at each other in shock, until he quickly swam to the shore, ran back up to us, and asked who’s next.  After that, it was every man for himself.  All but one of the guys in the group took turns jumping in.  Not to be outdone, I stepped up as the first female to do it.  Once I climbed out onto the rail, I realized I may have bit off more than I could chew so to speak, but there was no turning back.  I rallied up the courage and jumped.  About half way down, I realized I was still falling.  It was a great sensation to plunge into the river (and more importantly, to resurface).  I would say it was even better than the time I went bungy jumping in New Zealand.

The bridge Mike and I jumped off

After a much needed meal, we walked about 5 minutes to the Grutas K’anba, a water cave system.  We got a new set of guides who passed out candles to everyone in the group.  For nearly two hours, those candles were the only things between us and total darkness.  It’s important to note that the caves are filled with water, and at many spots in the tour, the water is deeper than your head.  We’d have to swim with one hand, while struggling to keep both our heads and the lit candles above the surface.  At a couple points, the guides grabbed the candles we had babied so carefully and blew them all out… sending us swinging on a rope through a waterfall, or dropping through a small opening into deep pool in complete darkness.

The day we spent at Semuc Champey was worth every penny that we paid (and then some) .  There was enough going on that it could have easily filled two or even three days, or like us, you could cram it all into one.  If you’re planning a trip through Guatemala, this is definitely a must-see location!

You can see more photos from stunning Semuc Champey in our photo gallery.

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?

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

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

 

“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.

 

To me, San Pedro La Laguna was a paradoxical town where you always had to walk uphill to get where you’re going. Seriously, it’s the town our Grandpas always talked about – you know… “I had to walk uphill both ways to school”? That’s San Pedro.

San Pedro La Laguna, from Volcan San Pedro

We lived there for six weeks, and the sounds of the town will forever be burned into my memory. So I thought I’d share them here…

Tortilla Making

It doesn’t matter what time of day it is (5 a.m. or 9 p.m.) or what part of town you’re in (except for Gringoland, which we usually avoided), you can always hear the slap-slap-slap of tortilla making somewhere nearby. We didn’t encounter a single machine pressed tortilla in San Pedro… each one was handmade and delicious.

You can always find tortillas at the markets, but you need to follow the sounds of tortilla-making to someone’s home for the best ones…

Explosions

Several times throughout the day, there were loud explosions from fireworks and firecrackers. Even after six weeks, I still jumped every time I heard one of the big bangs. We asked around and learned that the explosions are part of local celebrations… birthdays, political gatherings, the purchase of a new chicken… it seems if anything happens of note, there must be a bang to go with it.

Marching Bands

Marching bands appear to be ingrained in Guatemalan culture. Every school has one, and the matching feathered caps to go with it. They have a huge competition for Independence Day (September 15). Since any good marching band needs practice (and so do the bad ones, which we heard our share of), we had the pleasure of waking up to the sounds of them some days (at 5 a.m. on election day) and hearing them throughout the streets of San Pedro nearly every day.

OK, this marching band isn’t actually marching… and it’s in Xela… but you get the point

Turkeys

I can’t forget the turkeys. Chickens, roosters, and turkeys ruled the town. We often heard them scratching on one of the corrugated tin roofs nearby and we woke up/studied/fell asleep to their cries each day.

Turkeys on a roof

Political Rallies & Songs

Because we arrived about six weeks before the election, and left the day after, we were serenaded with the sounds of nightly political rallies. Our hotel happened to be half a block away from the incumbent mayor’s political headquarters. His name was Chico Mendoza and he had three of his own songs. They were blasted from about 8:00 p.m. until 11:00 or so. We later found out, as we were walking through Centro in Xela, that he actually just ripped off popular songs by rewriting the lyrics. Nonetheless, here’s our favourite (we even have a dance that goes with it, but I’ll leave that to your imagination):

What are some of the sounds you’ve come to know (and love) at your favourite travel destination?