here’s another picture of the lake, just at the end of sunset. it’s taken from the roof balcony of casa amelia hotel (…with the fastest internet south of the border)

Contrary to what i’d heard, Flores is not half submerged in water (hugh) or an enchanting island (david). so far, it seems like a nice layover, but maybe not a destination. (i enjoyed coban more). but let’s start with the good:
1) the wifi at this hotel is insanely fast — faster than even at home…and is finally letting me upload all the timelapse photos (minus a few days, which i accidentally lost).
2) the lake is beautiful, warm and calming.

but the….less….good:
1) its very hot and humid. you sweat just sitting still. i thought i might be exaggerating (being from the cool san franciscan climate), but even the locals are complaining.
2) about 3 months ago, they decided to put all the power lines underground. so all the streets and sidewalks are torn-up. it’s a bit like walking around on a snow day (very few cars), only there are huge holes you can fall into. as one of the locals notes, it’s kinda stupid that they started this construction right before the rainy season.

note: gps location may be slightly off (gps time is off)

the castillo de san felipe de lara has been built/rebuilt over the last 400 years. originally used to defend the lake from pirates, it’s now a national park. the fortress is pretty small, but a bit like a maze, with many rooms and levels (the whole fortress is no more than 2.5 stories tall, but some levels are a few feet up…others 2/3 of a story high….etc.

how is it that the admission for this fortress + guide is only 20Q ($2.5), whereas the ruins yesterday were 80Q ($10)?

sitting on a dock looking over the rio dulce right now. it’s really calm….and the cool breeze helps relieve the heat. it’s a sauna here. and flat. although you can see a mountain or two inthe distance.
and how’d i land this pristine location at the bahia paraiso? well, i was looking for the castle around here….which ended up being closed. on the way back, i figured i’d stop in to see what the price was here: $180. but the security guard’s friend (cornelio) owns a house in here in the resort, which he rents out to families. i get the whole house to myself (with ac), plus access to the stuff at the resort for $20. not too shabby.

note: this happened about 1hr earlier
the ruins at quirigua are pretty cool, but a bit expensive for guatemala ($10). a bunch of 1000+ year old glyphs carved into huge sandstone towers. plus steps to an old temple. but i enjoyed admiring the nature/wildlife more. it’s set in huge plain surrounded by trees. some of the trees are awesome. there are also lizards which run on their hind legs (couldn’t catch a picture). the other pic is of an ancient drill used for teeth. the peg/round disk spin together, and the block (with string) gets pushed up and down. it’s like an old fashioned yo-yo or firestarter — pretty cool.

note: this actually happened about 1hr east from here
so, passing is a given when driving in guatemala. it saves both your time and lungs. you lose track how many times you’re ‘forced’ to pass…but maybe 10-20 per hour? you also ignore the dotted lines, beecause they’re not often enough…and sometimes in illogical places.
that said, i passed a car on a solid line on a bit of a curve, which hid the police car on the other side of the bend. i noticed that after our string of cars passed him, he started following the pack. being paranoid, i turned into the next street, which led into a nice little town. the road was good, so i kept going.
eventually i ended up back on the main highway, without a ticket and without paying a toll (according to the AAA map, it’s a toll road…but that might be wrong). most of the road was fine but there were a few streams i had to fjord (is that how you spell it?).

ADMIN NOTE: FOR THOSE UNAWARE, THE BLOG POSTS (WITH LINKS TO PICS) CAN ALSO BE VIEWED FROM THE GPS PAGE. SIMPLY CLICK ON THE YELLOW DOTS ON THE MAP OR ON THE TIMES WITH * ‘S NEXT TO THEM

currently writing from a nice hostel in coban. they’re playing elevator music in the background. (POSTNOTE: it turns out the music is coming from the restaurant which shares the same space. the restaurant ‘el bistro’ is by far the best meal i’ve had since i started the trip. the food (european style) is awesome and so is the service. it’s basically a 4-star restaurant, in a casual setting….and where entrees go for $8-15.
so, it turns out that the road north of lanquin turns suddenly from a nice paved road into a shitty dirt/stone road….which is on a hillside and about 50km long. after a couple miles, i came to my senses and decided to head back. looks like i’ll find another way to tikal.
it turns out that my decision to head back was correct. about 30min later, as usual, there was rain. this time it was quite bad. it even hailed stones about 1-2cm in diameter. i’m quite certain the sentra and i would have had to stop. in fact, when in coban, there was one relatively steep cobble street. near the top, the senta’s front tires weren’t gripping (i wasn’t slipping…but wasn’t moving either). i would have been much more nervous doing that on the edge of a cliff.
but two good things came out of this offroad experience. 1) i no longer hate topes (tumulos in guatemala) or cobble stone as much; and 2) i no longer feel the desire to travel on the world’s most dangerous road (in bolivia, google it!…it’s pretty insane).

offroading

today the sentra and i went offroading! it was painful for both of us.

this morning i drove from salama over to the grutas de lanquin. the road is typical most of the way there. when i say typical i mean that half of the time it’s like a beautiful country road; the other half it’s like a beautiful country road, but you’re stuck behind slow moving trucks that belch out tons of black smoke….sometimes obscuring the road. most roads are 1 lane (in each direction), have a lot of bends and are up/down hill a bunch — unfortunately, these small roads are also the main arteries for the country, and so about 1/3 of the vehicles are trucks….but that’s for another post.
as frustrating as the roads are, the road from the main highway to the grutas de lanquin was a bad dirt road. it was actually more stone than dirt….and more boulders and sharp rocks. plus it was on a hill. after 30min of breaking my shocks [in?], i arrived at the caves…..which are awesome. see the pics below. if you hold your mouse over the picture for a second, the caption will appear describing the picture.
ushi and i were going to continue on to semuc champey, but the dirt road got even worse. before it was hard rock….here it was loose rock. just like the cartoons, the sentra wheels were spinning, dirt was flying…but nobody was moving. at that point, i decided it wasnt worth it, and moved on.

churches are often the nicest buildings in the towns of mexico/guatemala so far. is this a cause or effect of the strong christian presence here? similarly, radio outside the capital is almost 50% christian….some even broadcast people preaching (on weekdays too).

church

spending the night in salama, a small (non-touristy) town. speaking to one hotel clerk, business is doing fine (which is probably true, as they were 60% sold out, and the neighboring one was sold out). ended up staying at another hotel, where i befriended the owner’s son (20 years old). jaime took me out to el tejas, which is a restaurant about 2km east of the salama. it was deserted (a little strange?), but the food was good and cheap. we each ordered their specialty….i forget the name…but it was turkey broth with a side of avocado, rice and a dense roll (kinda like a big gnochi, only made from corn) — which you mix all together in the broth. it was good. on the way back home, we stopped by a disco, which was completely empty.