Transportation photos

Thanks to Tips From The Top Floor, I get my digital photography better and better. What a great show. One of the tips they gave there was to take pictures restricted to a specific subject. Here's the result of my transportation series... Enjoy.

Transportation

I'm still sick here in Xela, almost no simptoms so it's not that bad. The doctor looked positive today. I guess tomorrow I'll know if I'll go to some treks starting Saturday, or just head straight to Honduras for some diving (hoping that the lower altitude will speed up my recovery).

Thanks everybody for the wonderful feedback,
Eitan.

Fuuuun

Hey all,
Been a bit sick in the last couple of days. It's probably something that I ate, but I knew it was coming from the start. The doctor warned me it's a 30% chance per month to get sick, so for 5 months I had a 83.19% chance of getting it at least once. Last week was the first time :)
At least I have fun even when sick here. The cinema costs 6NIS in the morning and 12NIS at the afternoons and evenings, so it's really a shame not to catch up on every possible movie I can. (I still refuse to go to pirate screenings which aren't rare at all in Guatemala). I also have some great people sick with me in the dormitory, which quite resembles a room in a hospital now. We even have a volunteer nurse that is sick with us.
Traveling in the small vilages around lake Atitlan and Xela is simply breath taking. Every vilage has its oun quirk, and they are all warm, colorful, interesting and unique. A couple of days ago Yoni and I took a day trip around lake Atitlan. Everyone warns you about robbers that wait every day exactly in the same place. So you know between which vilages you can walk, and between which you need to catch a pick up. Riding the pickups we could actually see the robbers smile at us with their matchetas while farming the land. Quite reliable this whole robbery warning stuff. Which led me to the first auto-zevel-style-hitchhiking, when the back of the pickup was full. It's a unique hitchhiking style when you place one foot on the bumper of the pickup, and the other one is hanging free in the air, both hands are locked on a metal that was welded to the vehicle. Real fuuuun. Kids, women and goods come on and off on the way all the time, paying 0.60NIS per ride.
One of the vilages, San Pedro, is now known as 'kfar ha-yeladim' (kid's vilage). This is due to the absurd number of kids we found there. We arrived on the morning break from school (10:00-10:30), and saw just tons of kids pour to the streets from everywhere. Kids selling goods in stores, kids playing in rain pools on the roofs, kids making ropes and kids taking care of each other. The guy in the municipality (still using type writers in there...) explained us that each family has 5 to 12 kids, and all the adults have to go to farm around town - so in daytime at least, the vilage is just packed with children.

In another vilage Yoni got to show off his basketball skills during the intermision from a real professional girl basketbal game. You can notice how he looks like a giant in the pictures. A girl in a traditional dress is one of their stars actually (image soon to come).

And today, we went to see a really corny church. They say that they have audio-visual performances in there, though we arrived to a funeral concession, so it wasn't that happy. A couple of people got brooms and they swept the church's floors after getting all the benches on a vertical position. Of course, on the way there we got 'stuck' by yet another march with nut crackers and kids dressed in neat uniforms marching to the sounds of drums. Really cute. (Again, pics soon to come).

That's it for today,
With the 'flash floods' and 'tons of rain' that my weatherman forecasts me for the next days, I'll probably blog again soon. Tuesday and Saturday I plan to go hiking to some volcanoes here around Xela. And then start heading to El Salvador, which has 4 times more women than men due to their civil wars. Should be interesting to see that.

Signing out,
Eitan.

Pregnant, broke, stoned girl getting drunk with a violent boyfriend in Guatemala... Oh my.

Reaching panajachel, we settled John, Kelly (fake name) and Steve (also fake) in a cheap hostel. John and I in one room, Kelly and Steve in the other. The evening was nice, John took me to see a boxing match on a T.V. in a crappy bar, and everything was peaceful. Weird boxing match, though (are they all like that??). Mike Tyson faught an Irish guy, McBride, and just gave up on the 6th round. He later told to the camera that a man should know when to stop, and that he did this anyway just for the money, not in an intention to win. I went to sleep while John, Kelly and Steve went to a pub. The next thing I woke up to were people shouting outside. I told John that these American people are so stupid, and tried getting a sleep anyway. Then we heard the girl screaming 'you hit me in the stomach when you know I'm pregnant???' 'This isn't your child, anyway', and some crying and yelling of the guy, and dirty stuff I can't remember. I still tried to sleep, but John got serious so I put on my shoes and went out to silence the stupid americans. Then I understood these were Kelly and Steve yelling. They were both drunk, and apparently Steve freaked out badly when Kelly told him she was pregnant. They were both locked in the room, and we were afraid to make things worse by getting in. Pondering about it, John offered to call the police, so we started waking up the owners and calling them. Meanwhile we are just hoping something really bad won't happen. A couple of minutes later, that seemed like an eternity, Steve started packing his stuff and going out. (The police never showed up). We made sure Kelly was OK, and John went out to see what's going on with Steve. Steve was devastated. They had a talk, but then Steve decided he wanted to swim in the lake. John was a lifeguard in England, and I heard so many times how 9 people end up drawning each weekend in the summer of Israel, so we both knew what this ment. We couldn't leave him like that. We tried to make him go to sleep, but he was drunk and not so reasonable, so I stayed to keep an eye on him, and John went to see what's going on with Kelly. Steve got into a really creepy psychological mood. He had a really bad harada, and I thought he was becoming suicidal. Meanwhile I found out Kelly takes lots of cocain, he himself is broke and dependant on her not so much money. A lovely couple. So I took him for a walk. (he wasn't violent anymore). Returning to the hostel, we found out John had fallen asleep so hard in the locked room, that I couldn't wake him up. Even an umbrella I throwed at him from a crack in the window didn't wake him up. We had to wait a bit and try again. So I took Steve for another walk. When the market opened at 6:30 we grabbed a bread and some bananas. Steve was getting sobber, so I let him strawl away, and I tried get in the room again. This time I managed to wake John up. I had too much adrenalin, so I couldn't sleep in daylight, though. I went to take a cold shower. It was one of the coldest I ever took. And the water stopped right when I finished to shampoo my head. Luckily the water came back on a minute later, but this was really a chinese torture for a long while. I got on the next boat to San Pedro, met some great guys from Israel, and we went to celebrate Shavuot. I hope Steve and Kelly are more reasonable when they aren't on substances, or else they will just keep getting into trouble... I just had the best time in the next days in San Pedro, leaving this crappy night behind me. Good stories are to come on my next blog.

Signing out,
Eitan.

Stolen Wallet - the full story

Well, there's no much to tell... It's been weeks that every third day I hear about roberies from first hand, so my luck got envy. Getting on the chicken bus from Antigua to Panajachel, while 'helping' us put our bags on the roof - the guy was kind enough to make our pockets lighter also (Mine and John's). So, a budget enough for five days in Guatemala got stolen (100$). The internet call to the bank in one of the towns on the way was quick and efficient (less than 2NIS for more than 20 mins). I've already got some more travelers checks exchanged, a room to stay in and a good meal. The city looks good, tomorrow I'll go to some markets around here and start jumping into Lake Atitlan. Hopefully some photos will also follow soon.

Cheers,
Eitan.

Stolen Wallet

I'm on skype now with Leumi Card to cancel my credit card. Lucky they stole only the wallet (shame it a had 100$ I just changed, though). And I'm here with John, Kelly and my traveler's checks so I'll get over it, but it is still angering a bit.... Oh well... I'll post again when I'll reach Panachachel / San Pedro on lake Atitlan.

See ya,
Eitan.

Antigua

Yesterday I went to search for a tripod to my camera in Guatemala City. 3 shopping malls with 10 photography shops didn't have any. Not even Fuji (pronounced in Spanish with a 'heit', which is quite amusing). At last I found one in QuickFoto, after about 4 hours of search, but it is quite big - so I'll wait a couple of days more to see if I bump into a better one. At least I bumped into an aftershave I'm really happy with - the new Aqua por Hombre, so it wasn't all for nothing.
A couple from my hostel performed in a café here in Antigua last night. A really great show which made us all very happy. All in all the atmosphere here in Antigua is great, so I'll check about a language school and maybe stay here for a couple of days more. The prices for a private tutor here are 10 times less than in Israel, so it looks like it's quite worth it. (9 shequels/hour instead of 90 shequels/hour...).

Our happy table


The band... (They met a week ago, and already have a really wonderful show)






Bye for now,
Eitan.

Language instincts

Someone told me a couple of months ago that he can't pick up languages. "Some people has a natural gift for learning languages, and I am not one of them. For me it's a bigger effort". Judging from the tourists here, it seems EVERYONE pick up Spanish when they are on the right circumstances, regardless of any parameter I can think of. Of course, when traveling with someone that takes over the conversations - it's hard to learn. But I guess there is a natural instinct that helps in learning new languages, and it is waking up if you have to deal with it. It reminds me an interesting experiment I've heard about a couple of days ago in This week in science. When a group of children were given different tasks of calculating change in a noisy marketplace in Brazil - their success rate stood on 98%. Given the same tasks written on a paper in a quite classroom, dropped their success rates lower than 64%. Apparently, we just have the instincts to do calculations, and it's this formalization that can make the studding harder for some people. I guess the same is with languages - it's just these formal ways of teaching that can make it frustrating sometimes.

I'm currently in Antigua (Guatemala) for a couple of days, so I have the time to write a bit of my latest thoughts :). Thanks to all of you who gave me wonderful feedback. And let me know what you think about this blog, I'd really appreciate it.

Cheers,
Eitan.

Las Marias

Already the way to Las Marias started good - it's a two hours bus ride from the nearest town. The last 45 minutes of them on an unpaved road. Then another 20 minutes on the back of a truck with another 10 farmers, jumping on muddy hills with one of the most amazing sceneries I have ever seen. Reminded me a lot some drives we had on Vider's Magnum close to Dir Mar Saba a couple of years ago. The place is a couple of cabins on the bank of a river, ran mostly by local people in their early 20s - that do a terrific job of making the stay there enjoyable and fun. At the evening everyone eat together the same dinner, and when the generator goes off at 9pm, people just sit and play cards, tell funny stories, and bugs fly and fry themselves on the candles. Frogs jump by at night, rare birds wake you up at sunrise, and butterflies hang by during daylight. Amazing scenery, and locals with yet another mayan language.
At last my salsa lessons began to pay off. After dancing so much, it was quite an experience to take a shower, though. Rain was pouring outside, the water were cold (but who cares?), and the only source of light was a candle I could carry with me to the shower (which was of course, like the rest of the place, a wooden shack). I still can't decide if it is safer to shower with these electrical heaters that have wires electrifying you under the dripping water. We had a 2 hour tour inside 3km long caves where we had to swim, holding a candle in one hand, climb waterfalls (inside the caves), and jump from 2 meters high (also, 1 hour inside the cave...). Phew, what a weekend!

Snorkling in Belize

No, I didn't return to Belize, just using a bus wait for a little blog...
Anyways,
I only did a short snorkling there, mas o menos 3 hours, but it was enough to discover some new muscles I can strech. Not as many colors as in Sinai, but it sure gave me lots of motivation for the coming scuba lessons in Honduras. They have in Caye Caulker a place that is called 'The Shark Alley'. It's a place where 2-10 tourist boats arrive to, and sharks without teeth demonstrate how they suck little fish. Quite interesting. You get to step on some stinger fish, the guide incourage you to give them a little massage, and after 45 minutes you part le shalom. On another reef there I got to see this giant fish with 2 small fish sucking his back like small fins. Too bad my disposable underwater camera doesn't have a zoom yet, so I guess not much will get out of it, but I still cross my fingers. We found a squid, some (kipodim?), got our backs burnt really badly, and happily returned to the hostel. Tired, but happy. This was, of course, for a shower - in which the water smell just like see water. And after each time you take it, you feel just like you need a shower :)
Well...
I'll run to my buss to Semuk Champei now... Don't know if I can write from there, but I'll stay there maximum 3 days.
Cheers,
Eitan.

Hola de Tikal

I spent the last couple of days in Flores (Guatemala), with the highlight being a trip to the ruins of Tikal. Marvelous sunset and sunrise with all the animals waking up, and amazing pieces of history. Of course, the people you are with make the difference, and I was lucky to have wonderful people. Juan, the guide that showed us around the place (red shirt) just radiated love to what happened here, which inspired us all. Definitely the best tour I had in years. And the company of Maria, Deana and Amra was simply great. Thank you all.

Even better than expected, Guatemala is simply great. Lots to see and do, nice people, cheap and fun.

From the top of the "Mundo Perdido" pyramid, you can see tops of some of the temples just after sunset, with the howler monkeys screaming in the background.

(Got a haircut 2 days ago)

The "Grand Plaza" of Tikal, with Temple I on the far side. The circle in the middle was laid a couple of years ago, so that the Maya people of today would be able to come and have ceremonies. Left of it, these are not tombstones, but stones that held pictures of important events - strengthening the importance of the rulers.


The forest that started growing on top of the site after it was abandoned, just blasts through the limestone of altars, pyramids and other structures.


A mask in the Grand Plaza.


You can see here part of the water tunnels that helped moving water between reservoirs when they got filled. The rain water, gathered in pools, was enough to sustain the agriculture needed to support around 130,000 people at the peak of this site - in the 9th century. A drought (resulted from over deforestation?) is considered the most reasonable explanation for the Maya's decline and fall.


Cheers,
Eitan.