The Guatemala  Mexico Trip

I left Denmark during a heat wave and arrived in Guatemala City in rainy weather and 15 degrees centigrade. I was picked up at the airport and driven to my residence in La Antigua. I was signed to start school in Spanish for 4 weeks. The school was every weekday from 08.00 till 12.00 and 14.00 to16.00 hours

There are many of Monasteries in town belonging to different orders of monks: Franciscans Capuchins, Dominicans etc. They are all doing social work. The monasteries and their churches are scanty rebuilt after the great earth quakes. The remains are ruins surrounded by beautiful gardens. I used my week-ends to take trips around in Guatemala. These trips were arranged by local travel agencies.

The first week-end trip went to Tikal and started at 04.00 in the morning. We drove to the airport in Guatemala City; and had one hour’s flight to Flores. From there we drove two hours to Tikal. We were shown around in the complex for 3 hours. The buildings are spread in the jungle. We were free to wander around after the guided tour. The next day at 12 hours we returned the same way.

The second week-end I had two one days trip. Saturday I climbed the Pacaya Volcano. We started climbing a steep path for 1 ½ hours. At the end of this path we met the end of the lava stream. We went on along the lava stream, a grey solid crust with red glowing hotspots and heat radiation. We were there during the day, but many people visit Pacaya during night in order to see the glowing lava in the dark The Sunday trip went to Panajachel at Lake Atitlán. The town is very tourist minded, but the lake is very beautiful.

The third week-end went to Copan 20 km inside Honduras. I slept at a cheap hotel in the city of Copan las Ruinas. The town should not be confused with the archeological park with the Maya ruins.

The ruins are worth seeing and so is the museum. The tunnels were not worth the very high admission price. There was a 1 hr time difference between Honduras and Guatemala. Nobody told us, not even the driver.

The last week-end went to Monterrico at the pacific coast of Guatemala. The beach was full of black sand (volcanic) and it gets so hot in the sun that you cannot walk barefoot. The black sand looks as dirt when you get it on your feet’s. The surf breakers were man high and it was impossible to get on the other side of them. The third time I tried I was turned over and my shorts became full of the black sand.

I went on two trips arranged by the school. The first one was to San Andres not far from Antigua. We saw the fruit market and a temple for San Sebastian. It is a religious sect and has nothing to do with the Catholic Church. Part of their teaching is spiritual cleansing. Open fires smoking of cigars and spraying with pure alcohol are part of their rites.

The second trip went to a former coffee farm (finca) now a museum complex. There is a museum for the coffee production, and another museum for local music instruments.

Casa Popenoe is a former mansion in Antigua which I visited with my teacher. It was ruined after an earth quake. The ruins were bought in 1929 by the American botanist William Popenoe who was an employee of United Fruit. He rebuilds the house and furnished the house with antique furniture found on auctions in Antigua. He lived there till he died, and his two daughters still live there.

I left Antigua on a Tuesday for Mexico City. I was picked up by my guide in the airport. He drove me to hotel Metropol, Louis Moya 39 in the centre of the town. The next day we went to Teotihuacán on a whole day tour. On the road we visited Basilica de nuestra Señora de Guadaloupe.  Guadaloupe is the patron saint of Mexico. The old Basilica is sinking into the ground, so there is built a new one which is better founded.

The ruin complex starts with the Citadel with the temple for Quetzalcóatl the feathered snake. This fantasy animal plays together with the Jaguar and the eagle a great role in the Indian mythology.

The pyramids of the sun and of the moon were very impressive. The whole complex is situated along a very broad avenue called The Avenue of the Dead.(Calzada de los Muertes). The palaces for the priests were the last place we visited.

Back in Mexico City I had only half a day to see the town. It was too little time. I saw Templo Major close to Zócalo. Here are the remains of the original Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. It was placed on an island in the lake Texcoco when

Cortés arrived in Mexico 1521.  The Zócalo plaza was filled with political protesters protesting the outcome of the newly finished presidential election. One half hour before it closed I managed to get into the museum Museo Mural

with Diego Riveras famous Mural: Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda. On my way back from the museum a hailstorm started. I have never seen anything like this before. Huge pieces of hail (ice) was floating on top of the

small rivers in the streets.

The next day I flew to Oaxaca. The city was dominated by a teachers strike started three months before. The central part of the town with Zócalo, Alameda and Cathedral was closed down for cars by the strikers. There were

speeches and demonstrations every day. Earlier the governor of state let the police force attack peacefully demonstrating teachers. There had been casualties in this attack and as a result of this, the center of town was occupied now

for three months.

The following day I went on a whole day’s excursion in the neighborhood of Oaxaca. The first stop Was to see the Arbol de Tule, a very big Cypress tree. The next stop was Mitla a ruin complex of Zapotec Temples. Mitla means the

place of the dead. The very special in these ruins are the mosaic embedded in dried clay. The local Catholic Church was build on top of one of the ruins. The most spectacular of the ruins was Grupo de las Columnas. The next visit

was to an Indian collective where the members was dying, weaving and selling their produce of carpets. All carpets was made of Wool, and we saw the washing dying carding and weaving. The dyes were all natural. The red

Color comes from Cochinilla a tiny insect collected on the cactus. The insect is dried and it gives a Beautiful red color.

   After lunch I was driven to Monte Alban north of the town. It is a ruin complex of a Zapotec township placed on top of a mountain and with a beautiful view over the surrounding lowland. This complex was bigger than Mitla. At a certain time in history it was abandoned, and the archeologists doesn’t know why.

The next day I flew from Oaxaca to Tuxtla-Gutiérez via Mexico city. I was picked up at the airport and we drove first to the Sumidero canyon. Tourist boats are sailing into the Canyon, which ends before a big dam and and a power station. I saw many waterfowls mainly herons and one crocodile on the way but unfortunately it started raining.

My next hotel was in San Cristóbal de las Casas. This is the provincial capital of the state of Chiappas. This state is peaceful today, but it was renowned for the Zapatista rebellion in 1994.

The following day was dedicated to visit the neighboring Indian villages. San Juan de Chamula was the first village. A religious sect has conquered this village. They worship Saint John the Baptist more than Jesus. They are separated from the Catholic Church. We started at the cemetery. The color of the crosses tells us a story. Black means that the deceased was old, and white that they died young. Those in between had blue crosses. The church has no chairs but the floor was covered with fir leaves (needles), and there were thousands of wax candles. The air was full of incense. Many people were praying or in trance. It was not allowed to take pictures. People not belonging to the sect are outcast from this village.

On my way to the next village San Lorenzo de Zinacantán I visited a local family. I was served tapas and I saw the weaving of blankets. The residents of Zinacantán are ordinary Catholics and they have for a long time been hostile to the residents of Chamula. Here they cultivate flowers mostly carnations. The soil is fertile and both societies are relatively wealthy. Many families have a car often a pickup. In Chamula they grow vegetables. Each village has specialized and that gives higher income.

Back in San Cristóbal I visited Na Bolom the house of the deceased Danish archaeologist Franz Blom. He died in 1963 and his Swiss wife Trudy died in 1993. She was a photographer. They participated in the excavations of Palenque, but they did also fight for the rights of the Mayas, and for the preservation of the rainforest. Their house is now a scientific institution, and it includes a hotel and a restaurant.

I was driven from San Cristóbal to Palenque in a car. We descended the mountains and went into the lowland and the jungle. We passed Zapatist villages where the people were very poor. The jungle soil is not very fertile. The Agua azul waterfall (blue water) is very long and has many cascades. I went for an hour alone along the cascades. I stayed one night at a hotel outside the city of Palenque.

The next day I went to the airport in Villahermosa, and from there I flew to Merida. I was picked up and driven to Hotel Panamericana. On my route to Villahermosa we visited the ruins in Palenque, which was excavated  by Franz Blom among others. Templo de las Inscripciones is the most famous but also Palacio with the tower was impressive.

Merida is the provincial capital of the state of Yucatan. I stayed one day in this city, and I saw Plaza Mayor, and the huge indoor market, the cathedral and the Arts Museum.

I drove by bus from Merida to Playa del Carmen south of Cancun and I stayed four nights at Hotel Shangri La. All rooms are cottages placed directly on the beach sand. I used most of my time on excursions. The first excursion was to Chichén Itzá a big ruin complex placed in the middle of the peninsula. The most impressing building is El Castillo a very big pyramid. Grupo de las mil columnas is another big building complex..El Caracol (the snail) is an observatory for the stars. On our way home we were served lunch. Included in the trip was a bath in a Cenote (subterranean river). The rain started and nobody cared for a bath.

The next day excursion was a trip to Cancun on my own. I sailed to Islas de las Mujeres, but this place were too tourist minded. I went out for a swim on the coral reef with a group

The last excursion was with a company specializing in tours into the wilderness. The wilderness was a Maya grand family living in the jungle. They had two big Cenotes in which we could swim. Again we rented the diving equipment. In the first cenote we went in 50 – 70 m under the surface of the earth. There were still air over the water and we were swimming in the surface of the water.

The whole of the Yucatan peninsula consists of limestone with a lot of cracks and bursts. These are full of water and form subterranean rivers. Our guide had an underwater torch and we could see many small fish. After the swim we were served lunch, and then we drove to the coast for a dive in salt water on the coral reef. We were paddling in kayaks from the shore to the reef.

Then the vacation was over. I flew from Cancun over Miami to Madrid and from there to Copenhagen. Return