Our News > May--June

From Travesia in Honduras, we headed back to Guatemala, to the Caribbean coastal town of Livingston. It was a long trip - two buses and the back of a truck to get to the border, and then a collectivo (minivan), a taxi and finally a boat trip to reach Livingston. All on the day Glenn decided to go down with Moctezuma's Revenge (food poisoning), and ended the day with a temperature so far above 100F we didn't want to know what it was! Fortunately the antibiotics we were carrying worked and by the next day the worst of it was over. In retrospect, however, Glenn getting sick was a good thing as we decided to stay in Livingston an extra day or two to let him rest up. As a result we met a whole bunch of truly wonderful people...

Livingston is a fascinating town, with five distinct ethnic groups. First and foremost, it is the only Garifuna (Afro-Caribbean) community in Guatemala. The Garifuna refer to the Latinos in the town as "the Guatemalans", and consider themselves somewhat distinct from the country they live in. Then there is the Mayan population, one-time refugees who came to Livingston due to its isolation (no roads come here) during the civil war. There are a handful of Indians (as in, from India) who ended up here via various Caribbean islands. And finally the tourists - backpackers and yachters. Oh, and some Aussies...

Things started to get interesting for us in Livingston the first day we were there, with people on the street diagnosing Glenn's illness, and making recommendations ranging from sleep, to food, to rum, to potions their grandmother could cook up... We found that the town has 0.2 of a doctor (one day per week), so no wonder most people are self-proclaimed doctors.

Then we went to a restaurant run by a crazy Mexican woman, who will happily tell you all her secret recipes. Hearing Glenn was Australian, she told us she had an Australian woman working for her, but after looking around, we didn't see anyone who fit that profile, and concluded she wasn't working that night. A few minutes later the Guatemalan waitress brings out our drinks, slaps them down in front of us, and with a broad Sydney accent, says "G'day, I hear your from Australia!"

So that is how we met Erika - born in Guatemala, raised in Sydney (population ~5 million) from age 2, came back to Guatemala to visit for a couple of months, now married, with a son, living in a town of 2,000 people accessible only by boat, and where many houses don't actually have addresses - you just have to get directions... Quite the culture shock, and to say the least, she was thrilled to spend some time with some people from "the outside world". This photo shows Erika (centre) with her husband Dennis (left), their newborn son, and various nephews...

After meeting Erika, we soon learned that her husband's grandfather is the official town historian, with her husband being the historian in training, so we had many long and interesting discussions about the town itself. Then Erika told us about another Aussie living there, and a couple of days later we bumped into him - Gerry, a backpacker still en-route from Mexico to Brazil who has been in Livingston since 1988! Then we were invited by Erika to their son's christening, and to meet the rest of the family...

After planning a one night stop in Livingston, we ended up being there for about five days. We were tempted to stay longer, as Gerry had invited us out to his farm, but we decided that we should get moving, before suddenly 14 years had gone by and WE were still in Livingston!

Dragging ourselves away, we headed up the Rio Dulce river, and then on into the Peten - remote northern Guatemala - to visit the ruins at Tikal. This was great for Glenn, to return to this amazing place, nine years after first being here. No ruins can compare to Tikal - the jungle, the wildlife, the pyramids standing 15+ stories high, and just the sheer scope of the ruins from a city that was once home to over 100,000 people.

Our next stop was Belize, where we had to deal with the shock of speaking English for a few days! (After a month away, we would find ourselves sitting in our room at night playing cards - in Spanish!)

We spent a few days on Caye Caulker, just off the coast of Belize. We went snorkeling and slept a lot, but didn't really get to swim as the caye didn't have much of a beach.

Anyway, it was a great chance to really rest between long bus trips! Here is a photo of Theresa battling the traffic on Front Street - one of just three streets on the island. Oh, and the other two streets - Middle Street and Back Street!

This part of our trip made for some great traveling. As we left Caye Caulker our day started with a water taxi trip to Caye Ambergris, then a 20 minute flight to the mainland, and finally a half hour bus ride north into Chetamul, Mexico. However, the seven hour bus ride from Chetamul to our next destination, Campeche was a less-than-perfect way to end the day! (Here is Glenn chilling out on the early morning water taxi trip.)

Now in Mexico, it almost felt like being back home! Suddenly everything was familiar to us - the banks, the money, the beers, and so on. And even though we travelled second class buses in Mexico, the worst bus we took in Mexico was still nicer than the best bus we had taken anywhere else on this trip!

We did the "standard circuit" of the Yucatan, visiting Campeche, Merida, and the ruins at Chichen Itza. By now it was mid-May, which is the hottest time of year in the Yucatan, and we soon fell into a daily habit of being outside during the morning, and then either sleeping or being on a bus (with air-con or at least airflow) during the afternoon. Travelling through villages in the mid-afternoon heat, there was not a sole to be seen on the streets. Even the dogs were hiding in the shade!

Chichen Itza (above) was the last stop on our adventure, before our final destination of Cancun. By this stage we had been travelling for five weeks, had covered more than 2,500 km through five countries. We had taken more than 40 trips in everything from buses to pickups to boats to planes to minivans, and never spent more than two hours waiting for a ride. We had stayed mainly at unrated hotels, or occasionally at a one or two star!

So let us tell you, when we got off the public bus outside our four-star all-inclusive resort in Cancun, it felt awfully good to have arrived!!! For the last week of our vacation we were relaxing in luxury, and not feeling the least bit guilty about it!!! So one last photo from a fantastic trip - Glenn, as sun conscious as ever - enjoying the high life in Cancun!

After such an amazing trip, and six weeks away from home, it is hardly surprising that June was a very quiet month for us, just enjoying being back home in Vancouver, getting used to speaking English all the time, remembering to put toilet paper in the bowl rather than in the waste basket (as is required by dodgy Latin American plumbing), and most importantly, being able to drink water straight from the tap once again!