6/02/10 Funky Monkey

Were to begin?

The other day, ( I lose track out here!) we went to Mal Pais for a canopy tour on zip wires. The longest was half a km long and on another you didn't have to worry about breaking. So I hung upside down, no handed and took a photo. =] Afterwards we found out that Mal Pais translated to bad lands!

The days here seem to disapear! You could surf in the morning, lounge through the midday heat, do yoga or spanish in the afternoon. Surf or body surf in the evening and the days gone!

I really like the way things are done here. Yesterday we went to a local school to look after the children during their beach lesson. (How cool is that!) We don't need CRB checks, no need for million pound insurance cover! At karate I'm covered for £5,000,000 worth of damage! Thet also sprayed the lodge for Dengo fever, a day time malarie that is only temorary. The fumes are non toxic but understandably they asked up to stand around the pool while they sprayed. In the appartment someone wounldn't out as their room mate had trouble sleeping and she didn't want to wake her. Did they have to call the police to remove them from the room? Did they delay the spray until they came out willingly? No they went ahead and srayed anyway. Think of how much health and safety we'd need here. We'd probably need to be a mile from the property and all need to sign disclaimers! Also, yesterday they brought a fridge back for the owners kitchen. They live at the top of the hill with a LOT of steps. So 5 of the employees, Dad, Nico and me used rope to carry it there. In return we got a free beer, or coke in my case.

On Thursday we shed out hire boards and got shiney new ones. I wanted a second hand one but none suited what George and Sam had in mind. So after some quick calculations I realised that the new board would cost me £280. A good £100-150 cheaper than in the UK. I also realised I've been paid by work and have done overtime. Also as its 7' I can sell my current 7' board which is a perfect beginners board and in tourist season will fetch a pretty penny! Also after riding it in the lesson and catching 4 nice waves I know its better than my old board!

I've also solved the E150 charge for bringing boards home. I'm taking Priddy's board as he's travelling until August so its only E75 each now. Still cheaper then a board in the UK!

Rie will find this interesting, tonight I'm cooking a chille for 12 of us. Hopefully it will go down well.

I'm loving this place. Have I said that yet? =]

31/01/10 Funky Monkey

First off happy birthday yesterday to Georgie.

I know I've said it before but this place is lie heaven. I'm definately coming back and I want to bring you guys too. Em will hate the heat but I'll still drag you here. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to stay long so we'd always be the standing out pale tourists! At least with 6 weeks I have a chance of getting close to the locals.

On Friday's surf lesson we concentrated on turns. Afterwards our coach said to my Dad that I was like a robot, told to do something so I do it. I wish it was that easy in the free surf. I know I've only just started trying to correct 6 years of bad habits, but its still frustrating when it goes wrong.

I've caught a few awesome waves and made some text book turns on them, riding the reforms, but these are far between the mistakes.

Everyone else has improved loads. From my group, Sam really charges when he goes out despite riding a NSP! All the guys in the other group are consistantly standing up and people like Fankie and Dad are starting to turn.

On Friday we also had our first yoga lesson. It was very relaxing and some of the positions make you feel very grounded, completely rooted. This is lead by George's wife, Linar (George is our other surf coach.) she's swedish and very good looking. It seems that most of the guys have a crush on her. Its very funny.

Saturday evening we had a BBQ on the beach at Georges. It was so idylic (Again!). The stuff dreams are made of! The idea after this was to go to the Full Moon party further down the beach. Over here the night life doesn't start till midnight so as it was only 9 we had some waiting to do. Come 11, the vodka consumed, most of us were shattered. One 24 year old, one 21 year old, five 19 year olds and an 18 year old all beaten by a 40 year old, Jackie! She went and stated out all night.

One thing thats nice here is you don't go through clothes quickly. Most of the time you wear boardies, in anticipation of going in the sea. The rest of the time its shorts. When you do wear a t-shirt its not for long enough for it to need a wash.

My feet have taken quite a beating so far. They have a number of cuts from sand in the wax. And due to the chance of theft we have to wal to the beach barefoot.

28/01/10 Funky Monkey

This place is idyllic, my idea of heaven. Tonight we were free surfing as the sun set with the moon in the sky, the water temp was perfect. I could have died and been happy!

This morning was our first surf lesson. I was in the more advanced group and one of the two people with short boards, mainly due to my size! We started off with the basic pop up. I needed to keep my hand up but leave them on the board until my feet were on the board. Then we moved too dropping our back knee to the board without loosing balance.

During the afternoon surf I helped Erin catch waves as she was having difficulty.

We just finished the day by playing poker.

26/01/10 San Jose

Well Dad and I have been right plonkers. Not in planning, just in our minds. We thought the rest of the group turned up last night and we'd head off this morning. No-one turned up yesterday so we got confused. There is a shuttle that runs in the morning to Sante Teresa so we planned on getting that. Fortunately after emailing TTRide we realised the group turned up tonight and after checking with the receptionist we'd booked for 2 nights. What idiots!

24/01/10 Flores

The journey back was uneventful. Dads gone for a swim in the lake and I'm sitting by the side watching the world. Everything is incredibly peaceful.

A perfect end to a brilliant week.

24/01/10 Jaguar Inn

We spent 6 hours in the park today. We entered it at 6am, when it opened and made our way to temple 5. At the top you have a severe sense of vertigo. It's just so steep and so far down!

Two spider monkeys swung by on the edge of the clearing, unfortunately I didn't have my camera ready. That was basically all you could see through the mist. This, however, proved to be my fortune. As I left Dad up the temple I wandered off to find complex C, I ended up in the Grand plaza, although I didn't realise this. The ruins had a great effect, looming out of the mist. The tops only just visible. It really added to the majesty of the Mayan stone work. I made my way around the ruins and climbed one next to temple 1 and , both of them ominous in the fog. At the top my leg gave way, making it a long and painful climb back down!

Dad and I made you way to temple 4 about 8:30. Temple 4 is the largest in the Tikal complex and faces east in worship to the Sun. Some people had paid extra money for a sunrise tour at temple 4. We knew something they didn't! The sun may rise at 6, however, due to the mist you can't see it till 9ish when the mist drifts away. So they saw nothing! Due to chance, luck or fate we had settled down just as the mist started to clear and temple 5 appeared above the tree line. Accompanying this was a collective gasp of awe. Minutes later temples 1 and 2 loomed out, followed by one off to the far right, who's name eludes me.

Without the mist it got a lot hotter, quickly!

When we got back to the hotel we had another shower, simply because we could. Then with clean clothes (Even socks!) we waited for or lift back to Flores.

23/01/10 Tikal Jaguar Inn

We got up at 6 today and left at 7:30 to avoid most of the midday heat. They said it would be a 5 hour trek, however, we'd need to wait till 3:30 to buy out ticket for the ruins as it would include the following day then. Therefore, we walked at a slower pace with larger rests. Again it seemed cooler again, this may just be the tree cover.

All of this was good as we had to cary our own packs today. This was partially because no horses are allowed in Tikal but mainly because of the path.

On the first day the trail was well trodden and wide enough to drive a car dwn, yet it was the ardest slog. Day 2, the path was wide enough for two to walk abrest but narrowed to single file by the end. Day 3, however, was proper jungle. If our guides weren't there I wouldn't have realised there was a path at all. At points, tree's had fallen over the path so we had to make wide detours to go around them.

This was the path!

When we were 5 minutes from the ruins our guides went off to get changed. They came back, smart shoes, crisp shirts, aftershave and combed hair. We were all wearing the same clothes for 3 days, hadn't washed, or brushed our teeth. In short we STANK!

At the hotel I discovered the 3 best feelings ever!

1) Washing off 3 days of jungle grime off.

2) Brushing 3 day dirty teeth.

3) Putting on clean clothes.

As close to bliss as possible!

22/01/10 Camp 2 Tikal Park

I knew we had to walk today and after spending loads of time at Camp 1 I figured it obviously wouldn't be a long walk. 3 hours, a mere stroll in terms of yesterday, helped by the fact it was cooler today.

Camp 1 was a clearing in the jungle and had buildings, however, Camp 2 was much better. The only cover was a palm leaf shelter to sleep under. The tabel was sticks laid next to each other and tree's interupt our camp regularaly. Its brilliant!

Our guide found a tarantula, which in their Mayan language, Xinca, is called an "Am". It was put on Ben's leg and wouldn't let go of his jeans until our guide picked it up by a leg. He said it wouldn't bite us unless we bothered it, whilst flicking it!

22/01/10 El Zotz

Last night we slept in hammocks. It's much safer than it sounds, they could completely wrap around you. I slept really well until 4ish when I got cold. Yes, cold near the equator!

Yesterday another tour came in. An American called Ben and an Austrian called Alex. Fortunately they both fluent Spanish and are very kindly translating. However, I'm surprised by how much I understand due to words making sense or sounding similar.

We were also lead to a nearby cave and got to see the millions of bats fly out for the night. Despite their numbers it was over in about 30 seconds. Apparently they have a king bat that stays in the cave to protect it and when they get back they fly around it for half an hour before settling down.

This morning they cooked us pancakes for breakfast! Pancakes, in the Jungle! They even had maple syrup. I don't even get that at home!

Apparently the howler monkeys call out at 2-3am, and according to Mayan traditions they are calling to the gods for rain. Fortunately for me I slept through that. At the moment I can hear them calling in the distance. It's a ferocious sound. Imagine what it would be like for the first western settlers!

Also during the day the jungle is so quiet, but at night the noise is tremendous. I wish it was the other way around!

This morning we went to the lost temples in El Zotz. On the way our guide showed us all the medicine they got from the plants, sometimes Ben had to translate. He never seemed annoyed for which I'm very grateful.

We came across an ants nest which the guide hit to bring out the warrior ants, which were massive! He picked one up and let it crawl on him, then he passed it to Alex and it shortly bit him in between the fingers. It bled more than I expected. Ben let one bite his fingernail and wouldn't let go, eventually he pulled its body off!

Later on our guide explained a Mayan dance and asked if we wished to see it. Once we'd agreed he headed off and mentioned that the Mayans danced naked! Fortunately he cam back fully clothed and wearing a palm leave costume.

From the top of the second temple it is said you can see temple 4 of Tikal. So I expected it to be quite close. It wasn't! Off, far on the horizon you could just see the top of it!

21/01/10 Camp 1 El Zotz

We got up today and were driven to a community, who would be our guides for the trek to Tikal.

We walked for 6ish hours over 20km in 30C so unsurprisingly I'm exhausted! To rub it in one our 3 guides was about 10 and looked like he was walking to school! Plus two of our guides wore flip flops!

In hind sight I'm glad we have horses (or as Russell calls them "orses!") to take our packs as I would have totally destroyed!

The trek said we'd have a bilingual guide, if so he must not have been told. However, the language problem is nothing we haven't overcome with points and actions!

I'm too tired to know what to write, but its been a great day.

20/01/10 Flores

I started the day at 4am today. Only 4 nights I went to bed then!



We got into a tiny plane which only had 4 rows. It was a short journey, but I was fascinated by the terrain. Guatemala City was surrounded by mountainous hills. That is to say, hills that have a mountainous quality to them. It is built on flat ground, however, punctuating it in places are valleys without rivers, very random. Due to the hills, when you take off the city is blanketed by low lying cloud. As we progress north east, other area's, low lying enough, have their own cloud cover. Then it became flat with a barrier of hills between the rest and the plain, it almost looked man-made. When I say it was flat, it was compared to the hills before it, but really it looked level with bobbles on covering it, like an enlarged piece of sand-paper.



When we got to Flores it was beautiful, surrounding a lake.



Landing, the airport is tiny, very rural. I'm instantly in love. We leave the plane and walk across the airstrip, whilst another plane parks. The departure lounge is one room. There is no passport control as only national flights land here. So no grumpy men to meet us!



Baggage collection is a small ring conveyor belt leading outside. It could fit in a room in my house. They might as well have driven the suitcases in and let us get them ourselves.



To me this opitimises travel!



Our hotel is surrounded by more expensive ones, but we're only here for 2 nights so I really don't care.



The entire country reminds me of Turkey so far. They even have a similar viaduct over the road.



By 8am the heat is already proving itself. The sun is very strong and the air is very humid, any more so and I may as well be in the lake! I've just realised Emma would not enjoy this so far! =P

My only problem is I've already read 4/10 books and the journey home is 15 hours. Although its overnight so I may be able to sleep.

I'm looking forward to me shower and shave tonight.

19/01/10 Guatemala City

Our flight left at 12:05am, on time and 11 hours later landed at Guatemala an hour late. Therefore, our connection to Flores took off without us.

Currently we're in a hotel provided by Iberia and booked into the 6:30am flight tomorrow.

I'm shattered so over and out.

Here goes!

As the first few are boring and short I'm putting them up together.

18/01/10 Madrid

Due to my Fathers cautiousness at travel, due to his experience, and my willingness to let him be so he's happy, we left the house at 1pm today. In the taxi we made good time and got to Heathrow at 2:30pm. However, it is now I remember our flight doesn't board until 19:40! And of course you can't book in until 2 hours prior to then.

This was the first of my realisations of my Dad's travel insecurities; not my last that day either!

Our flight was delayed to 20:30 and when we got on it, it was practically empty.

At Madrid we had a shuttle service to the hotel but weren't told where to find it. I was happy to go with the first airport assistants advise but Dad had to ask 3 more people, who unsurprisingly all said the same thing! =O

Sleep for me, Guatemala awaits.

Start

I'm going to make this page a journal of all my travels.
I've just gone to Guatemala for a week followed by 6 weeks in Costa Rica on a surf trip.
This will be the first of many travels and I wish to eventually document them all on here!
I'm going to add an entry from my travel journal a day, I didn't write everyday so you won't have to wait for 7 weeks to get them all!

Hope you enjoy reading them half as much as I enjoyed doing them!