Guatemala 2025 - Days Eleven And Twelve - One Good ... One Not So Much

Thursday - 02/20 - One good day.

We had breakfast at the hotel and caught a boat to the mainland.  Today we would go to Quiriguá, a Mayan site known for its carved stela.  Originally we would have visited Quiriguá on our way from Copán to Rio Dulce but ... things happened so we made the roughly hour and a half trip from Rio Dulce.

A carved altar at Quiriguá.

It was a really warm day when we got to Quiriguá.  We started in the small but well marked museum.  Our 'guide' tried to explain things but we pretty much just read the signs instead of listening to his broken English.

A procession of leafcutter ants.

A Quiriguá Stele.

After the museum we walked through the ceremonial, commercial, and royal Mayan complex.  The highlights were the stela.  The whole complex is rather small - considered medium sized for a Mayan community - but it was interesting.  We also managed to see a little wildlife, namely iguanas and leafcutter ants (who paraded across the path with their bannerlike leaf fragments held high.

We bought some items at the tiendas outside the museum before heading back to Rio Dulce.  Here we stopped at the castle of San Felipe de Lara.  The Spanish fort is situated at the narrows where the Rio Dulce connects to lake Izabal.  The fort was used to stop pirates sailing in from the Caribbean into the lake but the fort was also a target for the pirates as well.  It was relatively small but it was pretty cool.  Definitely worth the visit.

The canons of fort San Felipe de Lara.

After a very satisfying day we returned to our hotel for the evening.

Friday - 02/21 - Why are we doing this?

A parting photo of the hotel bungalows.

Today we were scheduled to take a boat right along the Rio Dulce from the city of Rio Dulce to Livingston.  Along the way we would see a lot of nature, wildlife, and get a view of the fort from the water side.  I was really looking forward to this but, five minutes out from the hotel, the rain began to fall and the Wife and I had to retreat under a large black plastic sheet to keep ourselves dry.  It came down pretty hard.  The water was a little rough and now I know what it's like to be in a garbage bag, in the rain, while being spanked - something I really didn't need to know.  I peeked out from under our plastic covering and saw several things that, on a rainless day would have made incredible pictures (for example, five cormorants skimming the water with reeds in the background - looked awesome) but it was not rainless and my camera does not like water.

We arrived in Livingston, a town with a mixed Mayan, Afro-Caribbean, and Latino population.  It was still raining and we had our umbrellas (our unprepared 'guide' did not have an umbrella or any rain protection at all).  We walked up the main street looking at ... nothing in particular.  After a while we stopped at a hotel to use the facilities and our 'guide' suggested getting drinks at the bar.  The Wife and I looked at him like he was crazy.  We asked if there was anything in Livingston we should see and he said no (!?!).  At this point we asked to go back to the boat.

Even the Livingston sign looked tired and weary.

We got back in the boat and covered up against the rain.  The 'guide' and the boat captain tried to point things out to us but we both had had enough.  We remained covered through most of the return trip even when they tried to show us birds and iguanas on various islands while it continued to rain.  They suggested going to see the fort from the water and we said no.  The rain had washed away any enthusiasm we had left.

The fact is, any guide with any experience would have looked at the weather forecast and would have canceled this boat ride.  It was a total waste of time.  If the weather would have been good I know I would have thoroughly enjoyed it, it would have been a highlight of the trip, and I would have had dozens of awesome pictures to post but the weather sucked.  Our 'guide', once again, had no plan B and hadn't even checked to see if we wanted to continue with the bad weather coming.  Very disappointed.

Lake Petén Itzá through the jungle from our hotel balcony.

We picked up our bags and went back to the mainland where our 'guide' handed us off to another driver who would take us to Flores and Tikal.  The drive was three hours and it was a nice ride.  Our driver spoke better English and the hours passed by quickly.  We arrived at our hotel on the shore of lake Petén Itzá.  The view from our room looked out through the jungle to the lake.

Tomorrow we would be going to Tikal and hopefully we would have a better last couple days in Guatemala.

Pictures can be found in my 2025-02 Guatemala Google Photos album.

Weekly Ephemera #136

• The first half of this week was dedicated to chores.  I paid the first half of our property taxes on Monday and did some overdue cleaning on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• We probably had our last snow of the season appropriately on the last day of astronomical Winter on Wednesday.  It snowed, the wind blew most of the day, and I had my one and only chance to use the snowblower this Winter.
• On Thursday I got my stent (installed during my kidney stone procedure) removed.  The odd sensation I'd felt for the past week or so was gone immediately.  The doctor suggested that a lot of people have a hard time with their stents but it wasn't much of anything for me.  Next follow up is an ultrasound next month.
• With the stent removed I went for a walk on Friday.  Unlike my last walk, I felt fine this hike proving that what I'd felt the last time was, in fact, the stent.  I walked 8.4 miles (15.6 km).  Unfortunately this destroyed my legs probably because it had been forty-five days since I did a 'real' hike.  Next week I intend to get back to my three walks per week schedule.
• I haven't really watched anything special the last few weeks.  Last night, after seeing a reference to it on social media, I watched the 1959 version of "On the Beach".  It was good but I wouldn't want to watch it if you needed a pick-me-up.  Most post-apocalyptic movies/shows I've seen have always had some amount of survivors.  No matter how bad it was, life went on.  Not in this movie.  It ends with extinction and it's kinda depressing.  (You may want to skip it if you are triggered by suicide.)

2025 Spring Solstice

Today is the Spring equinox in the northern hemisphere.  While I have lamented the lack of a decent winter this season, I do welcome the arrival of astronomical Spring.

I hope everyone has a great first day of Spring!

P.S. For those expecting a Guatemala Post, I am taking a brief break and will post the next one on Monday (probably).

Guatemala 2025 - Days Eight, NIne, And Ten - Things Move Sideways ... To The East

Monday - 02/17 - On the way to Cobán.

We'd reached the halfway point of our trip.  Behind us were all the places I'd been before.  Behind us was a surprisingly good week.  The second week would be a new experience for me.  New places and new experiences.  I couldn't wait.

We were picked up at our hotel in Guatemala City.  We had a new guide.  He was quite different from our previous guide.  For one, his English was very sketchy (at best).  Based on the confused look on his face, he was having difficulty understanding me as well.  Over the next five days we would become unsure if our 'guide' was a guide or just a handler.  He took us out to our bus ... yes, an actual short, forty-ish passenger bus ... for a driver, a guide, and two guests.  It was very comfortable but way too big for the places we would be going.  The driver spoke no English.

The only bird we saw at the bird sanctuary ... not a Quetzal.

We left Guatemala City and headed east.  I'd never been east of the city before.  I was looking forward to seeing new things.  Our first stop was the Ranchito del Quetzal.  Here we would see the Quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala.  The first thing we discovered upon arrival is that none of the local guides spoke English.  The second thing we discovered is that there were no Quetzales at the Ranchito del Quetzal.  Apparently at this time of the year the Quetzal moves to higher altitudes.  For the next hour or so we followed our local guide as he whistled bird calls and pointed out the types of venomous snakes in the sanctuary (not very comforting to the Wife), large hummingbirds (the only actual birds we saw here), lizards, and waterfalls.  I did my best to translate the local guide's explanations to the Wife as our guide didn't do squat.  We ended up going through the shop (no magnets!?) and purchased a very nice painting of Mayan women.  I wanted a t-shirt but they did not have my size.

Waterfalls ... without Quetzals.

My question, at this point is why were we brought here?  Our guide was surprised that there were no Quetzals and that the local guide did not speak English.  One phone call from our guide would have fixed that.  Was it worth our time to stop there?  Was there an alternative?  I truly doubt our guide took the basic steps to ensure it was worth our while.

A tiny little orchid dwarfed by its leaf.

The next stop was Orquigonia, an orchid sanctuary.  The sanctuary is in a restored forest surrounded by clear cut hills.  Orquigonia has over five hundred varieties of orchids that have been painstakingly gathered from all around Guatemala.  The sanctuary is known for having the White Nun orchid, the national flower of Guatemala.  Of course we arrive here to find that the White Nun does not bloom at this time of year.  We also find out that the local guide ... doesn't speak English.  Once again I translated everything for the Wife with no help from our guide.  We did see a lot of orchids and the view from the sanctuary lookout tower was pretty so visiting the sanctuary was definitely worth it.  I learned a lot including how small some are (they give everyone a magnifying glass at the beginning of the tour).  We bought a very nice homemade magnet before leaving.

Another orchid, similar to the White Nun ... but not the White Nun.

We arrived at our destination for the next two nights, Cobán.  Cobán is a working class city.  When you read about what there is to see in Cobán, the first thing they do is have you leave the city.  Our bus stopped at a hotel and we got out.  We tried to check in but it turned out to be the wrong hotel.  Once again, our guide (and driver) didn't have a clue.  You would think they would have checked the address of the hotel before we arrived.  We got back on the bus and drove another five minutes to our actual hotel.  Our hotel was split in two by a busy street.  One side had the main desk, restaurant, gardens, and rooms.  The other part was a small number of rooms around the parking lot.  Guess where we ended up.  They told us it was the quietest part of the hotel but that kinda fell flat with us.

We ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed hoping the next day would be better.

Tuesday - 02/18 - Semuc Champey.

Usually your guide would let you know where we were going and what we would need for the day.  Our guide, for some reason, did not want to talk to us about anything.  We knew we were going to the natural pools of Semuc Champey.  I had an image of a resort/spa where we would rent towels, change in nice changing rooms, and swim in the pools.  What we actually got was not as nice as I'd imagined.

Spring water fed pools.

Our bus dropped us off at a convenience store where we got in a pickup.  The pickup had been hired since the road to the pools would have been difficult for the bus to handle.  The pickup dropped us at the entrance of Semuc Champey.  There were few amenities here.  Rough bathrooms.  No towels to rent.  Only street food to eat which, in Guatemala, was an invitation to Montezuma to have his revenge.

The Cahabón river flows under the pools to the lower left.

We walked down a muddy, rocky path which took us to the pools.  The pools are actually pretty cool.  The Cahabón River passes underneath/through a limestone bridge/tunnel 984 ft (300 m) long.  On top of this bridge/tunnel are spring fed pools that flow into each other.  The water is bluish green and very clear.

We changed into our bathing suits in a rickety changing room with muddy floors.  Our guide kept our stuff as we entered the sun warmed pools.  Every surface near and in the pools was smooth, slimy, and very slippery.  This would never pass muster in the US.  The liability alone would shut it down.  I explored the pools and looked at where the river went under the pools.  It was pretty cool.  The Wife had water shoes and I did not.  I just wore my hiking shoes.  I was able to keep my feet under me until I entered a pool to join the Wife and totally lost my footing.

With 20-20 hindsight I should have taken the scenic trail we'd passed on the way to the pools that went up a strenuous half kilometer trail to a viewpoint overlooking the pools.  I think getting a picture from up there would have been more enjoyable for me than slipping and sliding around the pools.

We returned to Cobán for showers and dinner at the hotel.  I can't say I had the best time at Semuc Champey.  The whole place felt like a let down but I don't know if the issue was Semuc Champey or my attitude at the time.  If my expectations have been calibrated properly and I'd done my own research, I think I would have enjoyed it more.  The place is going to change in the next few years.  A new, nicely paved road now leads to the entrance to the park and it is just a matter of time before it becomes more resort/spa like.  Good?  Bad?  Time will tell.

Wednesday - 02/19 - On the way to Copán Rio Dulce.

We got up early because we had a long driving day ahead of us.  We would be crossing the border into Honduras and spending the night near the Mayan complex of Copán.  We left with bag breakfasts and a warning from our guide that there were rumors of protests along the way.

Not long after leaving Cobán we slowed to a stop in some small town where, sure enough, they were protesting the state of the roads.  As part of their protest they blocked the road.  Going around the obstruction would have required a four wheel drive vehicle or nine hours of driving.  It took our driver and guide three to four hours to figure out what we would do.  Once again, our guide did not have any plan Bs.

Finally, after sitting on the bus for hours (except when we went to the convenience store for a snack), we turned around and headed to Rio Dulce.  Copán was officially off our itinerary.  Rio Dulce would have been our stop at the end of Thursday.  Instead we would stay there for two days.

The setting sun with a bungalow similar to ours silhouetted.

We arrived in Rio Dulce shortly after 5:00pm after eleven hours on the bus.  We caught a boat that took us to Catamaran island where our hotel was located.  We ended up in a bungalow on pylons over the river.  The hotel was very nice and full of American expats.  The first one we met was from Council Bluffs, IA - across the river from where we live - small world.  The 'Yacht rockers', as the Wife referred to them, were a bit cliquey and lost interest in us once they found out we hadn't gotten there by boat.

This whole day was a bust. We spent most of it stuck inside our too-big bus watching the countryside go by.  In the end we ended up in a very nice hotel watching the sun go down and the lights of Rio Dulce turning on for the evening.

Pictures can be found in my 2025-02 Guatemala Google Photos album.

Weekly Ephemera #135

• I got back the prostate biopsy that was taken during my kidney stone removal.  Unlike my first biopsy, performed in 2022, which found no evidence of prostate cancer, this biopsy showed Gleason score 6 prostate cancer in two of the twelve samples.  The Gleason score goes from 6 to 10 with 6 meaning low/very low risk of growth/spreading of the cancer.  The suggested treatment for this is watchful waiting.  I will likely get biopsies annually from now on and my PSA will be monitored.  If the Gleason score goes up, further treatment will likely be necessary.  That said, it could take years for the cancer to progress, so I consider this just another sign of aging.
• Spring is quickly approaching and some of the first signs are making an appearance.  This week several Robins, Redwing Blackbirds, and Mourning Doves made their first appearance in our backyard.
• Pre March madness madness has arrived at the Homer's Travel's household and the Wife will be spending some quality time in the She-Shed until all this basketball craziness is over.
• I went for a walk this week.  I kept it short since only a week had passed since my kidney stone procedure.  Due to some very mild discomfort (probably because of the temporary stent inserted during the kidney stone removal) I decided to hold off on walking until I get the stent removed later this week.  I still managed to walk 5.6 miles (9.0 km).
• I hope everyone has a happy and safe Saint Patrick's Day tomorrow.

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Hope you all are having an irrational ℼ day.

Guatemala 2025 - Days Six And Seven - Antigua

Saturday - 2/15 - The night of the candles.

We left lake Atitlán and drove to the old capital of Guatemala.  Antigua was the Spanish capital of the region from the 1500s until 1773 when it received major damage from an earthquake.  Three years later the capital was moved to where Guatemala City is currently located.  Our guide/driver dropped us at our sprawling hotel.

A small part of the plaza filled with candles.

The Wife wanted to go to early Mass the next day so, after eating dinner at the hotel, we scouted out the short route to the central plaza where the cathedral was located.  The sun was going down and the central plaza was filled with candles.  This was part of the festival of candles where the plaza and some side streets are lit up with candles, food and crafts are sold on the streets, and people mingle.  We did some shopping just off of the plaza before heading back to our hotel.  The candles would have been prettier if we'd stayed until it was darker but we are reverse vampires and are rarely out when it is dark.

Sunday - 2/16 - A walking tour of Antigua.

The Wife got up at 5:00am and walked to the cathedral for Mass.  When she returned around an hour and a half later we went to breakfast, checked out of our hotel, and met up with our driver/guide.  He parked the van closer to the central plaza and, from there, we started a walking tour of Antigua.  We visited churches, former churches used as hospitals, tree lined streets, old colonial buildings, and earthquake damaged ruins (both old earthquakes and the big one of 1976).  Antigua was much more touristy than I remembered.  Homes in some areas were very expensive.  Everything felt bigger and more crowded than what I remembered.  As we walked we noticed Fuego volcano burping smoke and ash.

An earthquake damaged church.

We ended up at the central plaza where we took a short break in the shade  before we visited a jade factory.  Everything at the factory store was beautiful and expensive.  We decided not to purchase anything there.  We did stop at an indoor artisan market not far from where our van was parked.  We didn't find anything we wanted there either.  I looked at a 'jade' mask but I don't believe it was actually jade and the seller said it was and priced it as if it were.  I walked away when he showed be a cheap looking reproduction of a reproduction.

An arch used by cloistered
nuns to cross the street.

We stopped at a food place and bought some sandwiches and snacks for the road we got back in the van and headed back to Guatemala City.

Up to this point we'd visited places I 'd been before.  We had a great guide who knew his stuff and was very talkative.  The weather also cooperated.  We really enjoyed what we'd seen and done and it was interesting to me seeing how things had changed and how my memory played tricks on me. Next week we would be going to places I'd never been before.  I'd never been in the eastern part of Guatemala and everything we saw this week was in the west.  I was really looking forward to seeing new things.  Unfortunately the luck we'd had the first week did not continue during our second.  

Pictures can be found in my 2025-02 Guatemala Google Photos album.

Book: Danial Suarez's "Delta-V"

My fourth book of the year was from an author I've read before, Daniel Suarez.  It's been fourteen years since I read "Daemon" and "Freedom".  His new book, the first of two, is "Delta-V", a near future science fiction book about asteroid mining.

There are really two parallel tales in this book.  The main one is the selection, training, and launching of the asteroid miners.  The secondary tale is about the subterfuge and law bending used to finance the asteroid mining mission.  The main tale is well written and interesting.  The secondary tale stretches credulity.

Credulity is a variable.  If I'd read this book when it first came out in 2019 I would have really struggled with that secondary tale, but now, after a couple months of the President and Elmo, I could start to see something like this happening in our 'new world chaos'.  Along with this I found it weird that the American life seen in the background of the storytelling was so normal.  I struggled to understand how we could get from where we are to where the book is in the mid 2030s.  This has always been an issue for me.  I once stopped reading a Clancy-esque war drama after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  I just couldn't get over how the world in the book could no longer mesh with the real world.  I guess you could say, in terms of near term sci-fi, we have reached the singularity.

Despite this I liked the book and gave it four stars out of five on Goodreads.  It was interesting enough that I have added the sequel to my reading list.

Guatemala 2025 - Days Five And Six - Lake Atitlán

Friday - 02/14 - Arriving to Lake Atitlán

We left the market in Solola and drove to Guatemala's second largest lake, Lake Atitlán.  On the way we stopped at a viewpoint.  From here you could see the volcanoes on the south side of the lake.  In the middle of the picture are the twin volcanoes of Atitlán and Tolimán.  To the right of those is the volcano of San Pedro.  The lake itself is a collapsed caldera and is very deep.  The viewpoint also had vendor stalls and we bought a few treasures.

Lake Atitlán and its volcanoes.

We left the viewpoint and headed to our hotel on the shores of the lake.  We were too early to check in so we had some lunch out on the veranda overlooking the pool and lake.  As we ate a pretty good lunch several helicopters came in and dropped off guests with their luggage.  Nothing says 'Income Gap' like arriving at your hotel in a helicopter.

The view from our balcony.

We checked in and went to our room.  Our room's balcony looked out over the lake, pool, and the extensive hotel gardens.  We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the gardens admiring the flowers, going to the water's edge and dipping our fingers in (it was a cold lake), and chilling at the bar.

Saturday - 02/15 - A boat ride around the lake.

There are eleven towns and villages on the shore of the lake.  We would be visiting three.  The first was Panajachel.  Panajachel is a tourist place and we didn't spend much time here.  We parked our van, took a Tuk Tuk (something introduced to Guatemala after I left) to the harbor, and got on our boat.

One of the many San Juan la Laguna murals.

A short boat ride took us to San Juan la Laguna.  Several of the towns around the lake compete for tourism quetzales and San Juan is no different.  The town has decorated its streets with murals, bright colors, and hanging street decorations.  The mural artists from around the lake are famous and do commissioned work all over Guatemala.

Decorated streets.

After visiting some of the better murals we stopped at a cooperative where we learned about the local Mayan weavers.  I left with a hand woven T-shirt.  From there we went to a chocolate factory where we learned about cacao.  The Wife discovered that white chocolate is not really chocolate (I've told her before but it took a Mayan chocolatier to convince her).  We tasted various levels of dark chocolate.  The dark chocolate in Guatemala is sweeter than in the American dark.  I would say 80% Guatemalan chocolate is about the same as 70% in the states.  I tried 100% which was obviously bitter but not nearly as bad as I expected.  We left with some white chocolate, 70%, and 80% bars.

We returned to our boat and went to a town that we added to our itinerary, Santiago Atitlán.  The Wife wanted to visit the church here where the heart of an American martyr is kept.  Stanley Rother, known as Padre Apla to the local Mayan people, ran the mission in Guatemala from 1968 to 1981 when he was murdered by the Guatemalan army who accused him of rendering aid to the rebels.  In 2017 he was beatified by Pope Francis.

We returned to our boat, returned to Panajachel, and tuk tuked back to our van.  We left the lake and headed to our next destination, the city of Antigua.

Pictures can be found in my 2025-02 Guatemala Google Photos album.

Weekly Ephemera #134

• On Tuesday I went in to have a kidney stone removed.  Recovering from that procedure pretty much knocked me out for the rest of the week.  To clarify, one of the drugs I am taking to facilitate passing of any small stone remnants easier, has a side effect of reducing your blood pressure.  This has resulted in me being a little dizzy and lethargic.  I have to take it for two weeks and I'm sure those will be a fun, lethargic, and dizzying two weeks.
• It snowed overnight after my procedure.  I would have loved to clear the snow but couldn't so the Wife had to.  This Winter is turning into a bust for me.  Barely any snow at all and the most we've had happened while we were in Guatemala so missed the fun.  It doesn't feel like we had a Winter at all.  Next week we're hitting 75℉ (24℃).  Phewy!
• On Friday I purchased plane tickets, bus tickets, and made a hotel reservation for the Wife's Camino part two.  We are flying into Madrid late May and will take four to five weeks to finish.
• Hope you sprang forward today.  I had a hard time getting to sleep on Saturday night and I woke up a zombie today.  I don't remember Daylight Saving Time hitting me this hard before.  I wish we would just stay on standard time.