Antigua

Antigua is a great place to be based for a few months whilst stidying spanish. It is easily located to other places in Guatemala to visit at the weekend, whilst a fun place to live in the week with many naionalities here also studying at the 50 or so spanish schools.
The guest house is a perfect balance between a homestay and renting an apartment. There are some great people staying there longterm and are either studying or participating in one of the many voluntary projects around Antigua.
School is 8 - 12, one to one study with the teacher. This is very tiring but the best way to learn a language quickly. My teacher, Ingrid, is great fun and has the same sense of humour as me so there is lots of laughing and joking during class. However, she still likes to set me loads of homework so most of the afternoon is spent studying!! I have managed to involve myself in a little bit of voluntary work for an organisation called Wings.

Volcan Pacaya

'Smoking pacaya'

Looking into the top of the volcano

Me at the top lookng a bit scared and windswept

This was a great morning's climb up to the top of the volcano, called Pacaya. It is an active volcano and is smoking all the time. A few days after we climbed it apparently some lava was spotted spitting out of the top and about a month ago there was a small eruption. The views from the top were spectacular, right out to the Pacific ocean and south to El Salvador. The weather was good to us all as some friends who climbed it the next day could not see a thing!

It was only a 3 hour hike up and down so quite manageable for us experienced folk. However, the last 30 mins proved a challenge as the ash underfoot was difficult to wade through and threw you off balance if you were caught by the side winds. It was similar to trying to walk up a freshly snow covered mountain - the lava and ash certainly slowed the pace down.

There are loads more volcanoes to climb around Antigua and Central America so expect more accounts of accents in the future.

Sorry for the delay in updating this weblog - going back to school to study is taking up so much time and then I have so much homework to do there is no time left to go on the internet!! However, all is going really well and I am loving learning a new language and meeting so many people here.

Safely arrived in Guatemala

Just a quick note to say that have finally arrived in Antigua, Guatemala after a long trip down from Merida to San Cristobal (14 hour overnight bus) then another 14 hour minibus journey to Antigua yesterday. VERY tiring but well worth it as the scenery was spectacular. Great view of the volcanoes out the guest house. Spanish starts on Monday so need to go and buy my pens, pencils etc for that back to school feeling!!
Hope you are all well, Hannah

Cenotes or Sink Holes

Has a really peaceful day yesterday visiting some of the cenotes or sink holes in the area. The one at Chichen Itza was used for self sacrifice but the ones I visited yesterday were clean enough to swim in (no skulls at the bottom!!).

65 million years ago, a meteor struck the area that is now Yucatan peninsular,leaving a 284km crater. Millions of years later cracks formed just below the limestone surface of the crater{s perimeter and rainwater began filling in the cavities. Overtime erosion occurred and eventually the chambers crumbled, revealing the cenotes below. Many of them are connected with underground rivers.

The water is so clear and warm that swimming in them is very pleasant. Visibility is amazing and you can see up to 15m through the water. When the sunlight beams through the holes above it makes a beautiful reflection in the water an amazing blue colour, due to the minerals in the water. There are stalactites and tree roots hanging from ceiling making it look like something from a film set. Never seen anything quite like it before. The journey to get to the cenotes was quite an experience. After traveling by local bus out to the village of Cuzama, we then had to take a pedal cycle taxi to the truck stop. This was not any old truck - it was a horse drawn 4 man cart along the old tracks around the disused hacienda. The rails must be nearly 100 years old and I couldn't believe that this form of transport was still in use. Great journey to each of the three cenotes and very peaceful (felt a little sorry for both the cycle man and the horse though but all seemed happy). This link has some pics and info about the cenotes in the area http://www.yucatantoday.com/destinations/eng-cenotes.htm

Musical Merida

The city where we are staying at the moment has so much live music all the time. All weekend there was music on the streets, from salsa, to mambo, to marimba,to trove. The local Meridan people all come out and dance on the streets. A great party atmosphere from 9 in the morning until later at night. There was also a folklore ballet performance two nights ago which was interesting to watch. There were 10 couples doing a kind of tap dance style (a Mexican version of riverdance). One of the routines involved dancing on a small wooden box with a tray of drinks of their heads - not one to be tried at home!! The youth hostel has been providing free salsa lessons every night so that has kept us busy in the evenings avoiding other peoples feet (I had a slight advantage from having done Lain American dancing when I was younger).
Also ventured out to a local local fair, which was a mixture of everything from cattle shows to food stalls to a fair ground rides. They also had demonstrations of people diving from huge heights into a dolphin pool and a rodeo with proper cowboys. It was packed full of Mexican families enjoying their day out and wondering why two 'gringos' were walking about the place!

Chichen Itza

Wow!! Even though there are so many different ruins here in Mexico, this one is very impressive. Maybe a little touristy and too well trodden, but very well restored and amazing all the same. It actually rained whilst we were there, but that didn't hinder the enjoyment and wonder about the place (although it did make climbing the 91 steps of the pyramid a bit slippery!!).

The main pyramid (El Castillo) is 25m high and reflects the Mayan calendar. Each of the nine levels is divided in 2 by a staircase making 18 separate terraces that commemorates the 18 20-day months of the Vague year. The 4 stairways (I only climbed up and down the north one, which was hard enough!!) have 91 steps, plus the top platform, makes 365 - the number of days in a year. During the spring and autumn equinoxes, light and shadow form a series of triangles on the side of the north staircase that mimic the creep of the serpent (snake). The serpent ascends in March and descends in September. This phenomenon happens because of the accurate design of the pyramid it's alignment with the sun. It demonstrates just how clever the macaw really were.
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Chichen Itza also has the biggest ball court of all the ruins in Mexico. The stone rings are still present high in the side walls and carvings can still be seen depicting how the game may have been played. It is thought that the two teams wore elbow and knee pads and hit a rubber 2 -3 kg ball down the court, but not using their hands. Hips, forearms and feet were used and the ball was only allowed to bounce once. The idea was to get the ball between the ring but apparently this rarely happened. The stone carvings depict beheadings after the game, which some say is the loser and some say is myth. Others say it was the winner that was beheaded and that it was a privilege to be offered to the gods!!


The other amazing thing at Chichen Itza is the huge sacred cenote (sink hole). It is 60m in diameter and 35m deep. Many skulls and burial pieces were found during excavation providing evidence that the Mayas (and maybe later the Toltecs) maybe practiced self sacrifice here. It is thought that people were cleansed in the steam bath at the top of the well, fed hallucinogenic mushrooms and threw themselves into the water, eventually dying. It is believed that the cenotes were an entrance to the underworld (life of the dead). Going to visit some more cenotes in a few days time and will explain how they were formed.
Of all the different ruins visited, each one has had something different to offer. Monte Alban was probably the most peaceful and it was amazing that the top of the mountain was flattened! Although Chichen Itza probably made me understand the most about the Mayan culture. I recommend that everyone comes and visits Mexico - it's such a great country to travel in!

Photo's from Campeche

These are a few photo's from Campeche now that I've managed to figure out how to put photo's onto the weblog, although i haven't worked out how to add text or format them in a line yet!!

I've had some sad news recently from home and so have not felt too enthused to write much so I thought that photo's would be easier to show what I've seeing.
Hope everyone is well,
H
xx

Palenque ruins

Now in Campeche, on the Gulf of Mexico before heading north to see the ruins at Chichen Itza. After leaving the cool mountains of San Cristobal de las Casas it was back to the warmth of the jungle in Palenque. The guest house was cool, set right in the jungle just outside the Mayan ruins. Lots of live music in the evenings so have done well lately for partying!!! The jungle makes an excellent backdrop for the ruins themselves which date back to about 600 AD. One of the most important temples is here and lots of people come here just to see the tomb where the ancient Mayan king Pakal was buried in 683 AD. The tomb wasn't actually discovered until 1952 by a Mexican archeologist.

Also went to some waterfalls nearby and Agua Azul to chill out in the sunshine. It was lovely to swim in the fresh, cool water instead of salty sea water or chlorinated pool water.

The collection of bites is increasing nicely - lots of mosquitoes, red ants, fleas or bed bugs (not sure which), sand flies and I'm convinced a caterpillar bit my neck the other day but everyone else just laughed at me! It wasn't a typical mossie bite and it still hasn't gone away after 5 days. Obviously the insects all love my welsh blood here.

Having a lazy day today and catching up with jobs like laundry, letter writing, reading, cooking, sleeping, and then participating in the day of the dead celebrations later on (will write more on that in another posting).