Another Chapter In The Travels of BraveSirRubin! : Guatemala.

Hello All.

I just came back from a wonderful trip to the wonderfully wonderful Guatemala.
I shalt use visual props (no, sorry, no pantomime) in the magnificent form of lovely pictures (mostly of my lovely self, logicly) and I do hope that you can have a wonderfully wonderful experience seeing this wonderfully wonderful shitload of pictures. Fasten your seatbelts, the emergincy exits are at both of your top right and left screen corners (for IE users, ofcourse), Labeled "Back" (or an arrow, if you have too much spyware on your adress bar) and a nice "x", not to be confused with the picture of the two boxes next to the X, which will only get you rid of me temporaly.

Now, if you are ready... here's the story:

Left on a cloudy night on the day o the 5th of July, arrived at Guatemala City (the capital for those of you who are geographicly challanged), and went to an hotel, nothing special. Next day went to the Israeli and Honduran consulets to leave some papers, and to get a Visa back to Honduras... "I shall not be another Elian!", I declared.

That same day, in the afternoonish, we left to the beautiful old colonial town Antigua. Antigua was established by Cortes, and his band of brothers (or murderers... do read "Guns, Germs, and Steel"). Lovely town, has a very colonial geeling to it, yet also is very tourist orriented, especially packpackers... lots of "hip" people.

The pictures!:

This is me on the two main fountains of the central park in Antigua. That park has such a tranquil feeling to it, you sit on a bench, some one sits next to you, and you start conversing. I have made so many aquaitances... Ranging from the local drug dealer to an old Spanish writer, Diego.




Here's the old Spanish cathedral near the park:



Sitting in the museum of the colonial occupasion.



Reading "The Idiot" in the park.



Ancient clock arch on the backstreets of Antigua.


A better view of the fountain:



Relaxing in the Hotel:




Having a Gallo beer in a local bar with my friend Irene, and her boyfriend Ariel. Tastes good, that Gallo, Guatemala has a wonderful beer variety, about 10 localy brewed beer (which is alot, compared to Honduras which only has 4).

The bars and pubs are amazing places, you meet so many people, dance... I actually learned to dance Salsa in a disco bar... always full, always a good atmosphere...
Cheers!



The next day we decided to climb the Pacaya volcano. Irene and I were with a wonderful group of people, a very international group. 10 people from Holland, Germany,Austria, Ireland, Guatemala, Honduras, and Israel. The volcano is a good 3000 meters above ground, so it's not the easiest of hikes. (usually takes a nice 6 hours).

The initial hike was calm, pleasent, here is the first nice view we saw:



and then the colour contrast of the vegetation with the volcanic ash:



Whenwe reached the very button of the volcano, all hell broke loose. IT started raining uncontrollably, and winds that could blow a person off his feet blew... We all got soaked and started trembling, it felt like a good 5c there.

The tour guide wanted us to go back down, but we saw the peak in the distance,



and decided to go for it.

Here is Irene posing before the climb... she didn't make it, got down right when we began.


The climb to the peak was terrible, so bloody challanging, it was 0 degrees celcius there, the hands lots thier feeling,the rainwater on the hair froze, the climb was on a slope yay steep: / with curves and alot of thick ash. We had to truly push ourselves and stop every 2 minutes to make it.

In the end, we won.

Me on the peak:



Here is my German friend Hans in the fog on the peak:



Then, the clouds cleared up, just for a second, no magma was visible, but it could surely be felt... lovely smell of sulfur. I took this picture while the clouds spread apart:



and then this one from a tad lower:



climbed down from the volcano all shaking,fighting the cold. Our bus back to antigua was kind enough to turn off every 5 minutes... so it took us a 5 hour bus ride to get back...

That night, before falling asleep... we visited a beautiful church:



Next day, we went to Panajachel, located on Lake Atitlan, it's a very friendly town, the lake is beautiful. Panajachel used to be a so called "central american hippie heaven" before the Guatemalan revolution... Now it's just a nice tourist attraction, lots of live music.

The Lake:



Next day, we went to the sunday market at Chichicastenango. Lovely lovely place, has the true feeling of a bloody cheap flea market with such wonderful things in it.





We then went back to Guatemala City, where I took a photo of a modern holocust memorial.



This was a wonderful trip, thanks for checking out the obnoxious amount of pics.

Right now, that flu that was supposed tocatch me on the volcano cought up with me....I'm bloody sick.... at least, I picked the right day to be sick...when I'm back at home.

It's good to be back.

Cheers, and thanks

Pavel

 

Some of your pics didn't show up, but it looks absolutely incredible there. i especially like the one of the church steps with the mist coming in.....just a perfect pic.

 

Awesome pictures! Thank you for sharing them, Pavel I actually couldn't wait to see them!

 

Looks to be a beautiful place.

The church (I think it was) is my most favorite pic. The lights shining through, gorgeous!

 

Fuckin Tight!

 

beautiful!

 

How awesome...keep them coming....

 

Thankyou all for the lovely comments

I have fixed the pics that didn't show up, should be good now.

 

wow, awesome photos. I love the natural beauty of them, and especially the brooding sky in that cathedral photo.

 

Thank you

That's my main focus in photography, to capture something natural together with every "unnatural" thing. I love nature, and try to fit it into every photo I take.

 

hi pavel, its mel (melissafaye68)....lovely pictures, and you are a lovely guy!! its so great to see you . keep in touch buddy.

 

those pictures are amazing, almost makes you want to visit. how much did the trip cost?

 

Great pics. I didn't know there were all those beautiful sites in Guatemala. Thanks.

 

Thank you all

The trip came out more expensive that it usually would because I flew to Guatemala with my parents, and then separated from them.

The flight costs 200$ two ways, and the Guatemala City hotel costs some crazy price (like 50 per night). After that, I stayed mostly in Hostels raging from 5-10$ per night... eating is a tad expensive...meals range from 3-6$. So, that would be around... 700$ with gifts and such. (it cost 2000$ for me parents, but they chose to live expensively. )

 

Aye, that 's right tops, mate... you're handy with the kodak...
and please, give my regards to Irene!
oh, you happen to know what the roads are like, safe for two wheels hopefully? And those prices, is that in greenbacks?

 

Cheers to that.

The roads are not even safe on four-wheel... Alot of busses and vans get stopped and mugged, which is why we spent alot of extra cash on air...

The country is just off a 30 year civil war, and the roads are still extremely unsafe.

ay, that's dollars...

 

Well I must say, that's very good to know!
The opposite of boring ol' north america. you at all familiar with other central-american roads? I'm not hearing good news regarding el salvador and nicaragua... I need to get down to Panama, alive preferably, wanna keep the feet to the floor kinda deal. Anyhoo...
where to next for BraveSirRubin?

 

There's a highway.

called "cross American Highway"

Highway #1.

It goes from Cali, all thw way down to Chile. IT can easily bring you to Panama, yet it is not safe all the way. I would much rather recommed flying. The cost is lowered, and Panama City is a big international hub, so there will be good prices. Check www.travelocity.com or such for rates.

I've been to both El Salvador and Nicaragua. El Salvador has some beautiful beaches, other than that, nothing. Nicaragua has beautiful Jungles, other than that...nothing.

Next for me? Probebly the islands here again in August. School starts on the 11th... so, maybe i'll fly somewhere in December. Maybe Mexico.

I will probebly be in Florida for a couple of days on the beggining of August though...

 

Jungles and beaches (and booze and bitches), that's just about everything to me.
That's cool, mate, thank for the advice eh!
(no offence, bitches... alliteration purposes only.)

 

hahahha No worries, anytime.


Booze is a-plenty though.... this is the Rum Continent.......... endless amounts of cheap ass beer and rum!