I Learned to Love Beans Again

As a vegetarian, I'm no stranger to beans. Guatemala taught me a new appreciation for beans not in variety, but in pervasiveness. In my house, we ate our black beans runny, amost like dip. In the restaurants, the beans were thick enough that they would stick a decorative tortilla chip in them.

Beans and tortillas are nothing to get excited about here, but they aren't made from scratch! Walking down the street in any Guatemalan town, you can her the sound of women making tortillas, slapping them from hand to hand into a flat, round shape.

I've been back in Chicago for awhile but I failed to blog the last part of my travels so I will do so now. After Antigua and the volcano hike, we headed to Tikal (UNESCO World Heritage Site). I like heat and I think I can take a lot, but the humidity and the temperature were really intense in Tikal. I recommend the sunrise tour of Tikal--it's too hot during the day and you will see more animals in the morning hours. Nonetheless, Tikal is amazing both for the ruins and for the jungle plants and animals. In the central plaza, you can imagine the ancient Mayans because you are surrounded by their altars and palaces on four sides, the largest of which is over 200 feet tall. The earliest monuments date back to the 4th Century B.C., but most of the structure were built between 700 and 900 AD. At the height of Tikal, it was home to 60,000 poeple. By the 1000 AD, Tikal had been abandoned and wasn't re-discovered until the late 19th century. An airstrip was built in the 1970s which allowed the major excavations, giving us the Tikal of today.

Jungle July

After Pacaya, we packed our bags for Tikal, taking the 7am flight from Guatemala City. We arrived at our hotel, Villa Maya, which was eerily empty (rainy season?). Almost like an Agatha Christie novel.

I need to finish this post later but here's the link to Ahmet's photos for now.

Hot Lava

Ahmet arrived on Friday and we got the hell out of Dodge, I mean, Guatemala City. Took a shuttle directly to Antigua, which is a lovely colonial town with cobblestone streets only 45 minutes from the airport in Guatemala City. Yesterday we hiked up the Pacaya Volcano which was unbelievable. The guide took us all the way to where we could see lava flowing and hear the volcano erupt (liability?). Some tourists even roasted marshmallows over the lava. A very unnatural feeling, standing on a volcano but it was definitely a thrill.

We had a dinner at a gorgeous monastery called Casa Santo Domingo on our first night in Antigua. Highly recommend. It's also home to a museum and a hotel. The monastery was built in 1666, but later destroyed in 18th century earthquakes. The hotel, restaurant and museum were built in the restored ruins.

We were on top of hotel reservations for once, but failed to realize that we didn't have our internal flight booked. It's the Fourth of July weekend with lots of Americans here, so after checking a travel agency and the airline TACA, we found out that all the flights were booked. Finally, we found a travel agent that got us a flight at 7:00am, requiring us to leave our hotel at 4AM. Ahh, the value of planning ahead.

Today we are waiting to check into our hotel in Flores, wandering around the town with big backpacks like lost turtles. Tomorrow we will go to Tikal to check out the ruins. Happy Independence Day! We saw fireworks oddly in Antigua.