Lanquin - Chichicastenango

Lanquin - Coban - Uspantan - Quiche - Chichi. 250 km ( only! ) 8 hours driving ( only ? ) in 4 different buses. All the time we were the only tourists. Felt like nobody choose to go this way. Squeezed in between locals. The landscape is amazing, high mountains and small little towns in between. The ride to Uspantan was crazy, exciting and annoying at the same time. 25 people in a minivan for 9 people along a fuckin bumpy road for 2 hours.
Whats the degree for bumpy? - The road to Uspantan :)

The bus driver from Quiche to Chichi was very keen to kill us all and all living beings on the streets. Maybe because he was drunk he couldn't see them, or the bump stoppers who are for breaking - he used them for jumping. The powerful old bus speeded through the mountains overtaking everything what was in his way, every time using his loud honk constantly made him even feel more powerful. Even in a roller coaster without belts you would have felt safer then in this bus. :)

If our head was not crashing against the ceiling, we had the chance to look out of the window. What we saw there was another disaster. Rubbish. In the woods. Tonnnns of it. They drive the cars to the slope reload the rubbish through the trees where it is floating into a small creek where you can have a bath between Coke Cans and plastic bags. This was really mad.
Survived, without serious injuries in Chichicastenango.

ChiChiCastenango

First impression: loud, dirty and everthing but nice - what the city is supposed to be. We left our small hotel ( we were the only tourists ) for having dinner. In this time somebody went into our room and searched our bags - but didnt take anything. We must have disturbed them. I was so angry. I knew it would happen. I had this feeling again when we left the room.

Anyway, Chichi turned out to be quite nice It has one of the biggest markets in Guatemala. In the centre is a very old church where there are still doing rituals and ceremonies in front of it.

We loved watching the tradings on the markets and had the best mangos ever.

The mayan people were dressed different then in other cities. Even more colours catch your eyes. Nearly every woman is carrying a baby on her back, rolled up like a bag. They are sooooo cute and seem never crying. You can get lost on this market, its sooo big.. I discovered another terrible thing. Coloured chicken babys. In lots of colors, just for fun i guess.. I dont wanna know what a chicken baby has gone trough to become green.

The only small street for the traffic is crazy, its packed with little tuc tucs, cars, collectivos, the crazy chicken buses ( who never stop - you have to jump on them ) and even huge trucks. This is a big mess, but its working, somehow.

Hanged out for a while till we continued our way.

Lanquin, Central Guatemala

The way to get there was long - promised 4 hours endet up being 8 hours but the view was very nice. Streets are winding through the mountains, steep gradients without protection and many small villages pass bye till we finally arrived in Lanquin.

This village is located perfectly on a hillside, with a few shops, 2 very old churches, a nice market and lots of indeginous maya people. Its a good place to see the real life.

All familys are living in one small house. They dress very traditionall - lots of colourfull long skirts and long tops covers there body. It seems like every region had got his own style of clothes.

There are over 20 different Maya languages, spanish is just the second language. If you hear them speaking K'iche or Q'eqchi you fall in love with this language. It sounds so beautiful - like listening to a history book.
The kids are so cute, shy and curious in the same moment, you just love them.

We stayed in a very nice place located on a cold river, sorrounded by hills and while toothbrushing you share the sink with cows and horses.

Bat Cave Lanquin

Ever had the feeling of hundreds of Bats flying around you???
This Cave is quite nice with tons of huge dripping and dropping stalagmites and stalactites. While sunset we positioned ourselves on the exit of the cave and waited for the bats. First a few ones flew out, then hundreds. We turned off all lights except one and enjoyed the view of the flying bats hiding out of the cave into the woods.

Semuc Champey

A ride on the back of a jeep is always nice, especially when its going over dirt dirt road with 50% steepness, the whole trip we were busy with trying to keep our asses on this jeep.
Another 45 minutes steep and exhausting hike through the jungle brought us to a fantastic place. The view over Semuc Champey.

The natural pools lies between mountains and have a fantastic colour - from turquoise blue to emerald green. It invites you to jump in and have a bath under the small waterfalls.
It is so beautiful and if I ever will have a pool one day - it will be like this..

Tikal National Park, Guatemala

Flores is the Gate to the biggest Maya City ever - TIKAL. Its MASSIVE, its in the jungle and absolutly stunning.

Over 100.000 people once were living here, started to settle down in 700 Bc. Tikal was famous for there big kingdoms and brutal methods of war fare. Its only 130 years ago that first expeditions started, in 1979 it became a Unesco World Heritage Site with its over 4000 structures. For sure they are not all discovered but the temples you can see were about 60 m high, impressive. You can climb them, very steep ways but the view is specacular. Once again I wished myself back 2000 years ago...

We went into the very early morning to have a bigger chance for spotting birds, especially the Toucan. First we saw some monkeys in the trees, then lots of noisy parrots and finally I spotted Toucans! We saw two of them in the tree and one flying over the ruins. That was amazing. We were so happy about that, even if they were not that close. whhohoooo!!
( In the pic u see the toucan, do you??? :) )

Back in Flores , we went swimming in the lake and had Cocktails in a very chilly place while watching the sunset, like nearly every day. :) Very nice day.