Heini Ulmanen 11/17/17 Heini Ulmanen 11/17/17

Hiking saga continues

The hikey people are back! We were almost lost roaming empty Western Australia beaches and flat-bottomed gorges where hiking boots, not to mention hiking pants, became obsolete and turned into space-wasting items I did not wish to carry anymore.

After a devastating realisation (panting during salsa classes) of how out of shape we truly were the hiking adventures started to scare me. What if climbing Acatenango is a repeat try from 8 years ago in Bali where we set out to climb Gunung Agung during the rainy season and I was not exactly fit for it after weeks of partying in Kuta? Me and my friends still refer to this adventure with disgust and resentment because after climbing three hours in pitch black dark, heavy rain, holding onto a torch while trying to climb vertical rocks we had to turn back. Because it was dangerous. Because “we don’t really recommend doing this during the rainy season” (after they took our money). Screw you Agung.

Luckily Acatenango could not have been more different. Good paths, sunny weather and professional hiking gear got us to the base camp in about 4 hours. Steep climb and definitely not an easy one, not sure if the Bali-me would have made it so effortlessly.

The only thing left to do at the base camp is to look at the Volcano Fuego and take photos. Sometimes I wish I’d have more patience to figure things out well before I have an actual need for it and this time it was my precious camera. I sat on our hostel googling “how to take volcano photos” and a staff member was happy to show me couple of things. And only this way, 7 months after buying the camera, did I found out that my camera actually has shutter speeds up to 60 seconds (I thought 1 second was the longest..). Now I mourn for all the amazing starry sky photos I could have taken in Western Australia!

So, considering I just learned this and never actually experimented with longer exposure times I’d say couple of these volcano photos turned up quite nicely. Of course I missed at least five massive eruptions that would have made even greater photos but then again I heard some people going up there multiple times and before getting the money-shot. I don’t think I have the patience to become an actual photographer, too much waiting around with your thumb on the launcher. Although this part got much comfier when I discovered I can actually use my phone to take the pics remotely. No more sitting on the ground finger placed on the shutter! Downside was that campfire chats distracted me from the volcano and thus I missed many of the opportunities Fuego offered us that night.

Second part of the Acatenango-trip is to wake up around 3.30am to hike to the top (3,973 m) to watch the sunrise. Climbing volcanic sand should be familiar to us after Mt. Doom excursion but doing it in the dark without snow adds some excitement to it.

We were able to see Lake Atitlan from the top (for 2 seconds before the clouds rolled in)

When you finally make it to the top, you freeze your balls of. I brought all the warm clothes I have with me and got a proper jacket from the hostel and I was still struggling at the top. Wind makes -2 C feel like – 15 and taking photos is another type of challenge when you don’t want to take your gloves off. The views are definitely worth all of the suffering and I am just glad we got to see so much as some groups only see clouds or even worse, they get rained on for two full days in addition to not seeing anything..

Walking cinnamon bun at the top wearing everything she owns

Heini Ulmanen 11/3/17 Heini Ulmanen 11/3/17

"The tower sits in the front"

Do you remember the times when Facebook would ask you to write a "status update"? Yes, so do I. But my technologically challenged companion did not know what a status update is. And how difficult it actually was to try describe to someone that has not spend the last 10 years of their life on Facebook..

I feel like this blog is more fitting for our status update. Since food poisonings in Isla Holbox we have been up to a lot. But at the same time not much. Mainly chilling and documenting less of our lives.

- We traveled the rest of Mexico.

A whole week in Tulum, visiting cenotes, hitch hiking (OMG how could we do that in Mexico?!), a lot of rum and cokes at our hostel

Went to Chichen Itza, more about this can be found on the Ruins-post.

- We did a quick pit stop at Belize.

Quick because it's expensive. Shame since this really limits the places people see. Most of the backpacker folks we met stopped only at Caye Caulker and blasted through the rest of the country straight to Guatemala.

We did the (rainy) Caye Caulker for three nights. Liked it more than Isla Holbox, maybe due to absence of blood-thirsty mosquitoes but would not spend more time there. We opted out from the snorkelling tour everyone did, mainly because it was a lot of dollars but also because every tour operator feeds the sharks, the fish, the sting rays... The time of this type of interfering tourism should come to an end.

Other town worth mentioning is San Ignacio that's famous for all the cave action. Only I did not get any as the first day the ATM caves were closed due to rain (surprise, surprise!) and the second day I was suffering from food poisoning. Yes, again. Richie did the Crystal Cave-tour as ATM was still closed an apparently it was epic, awesome, amazing - use any word Americans would use to describe a regular day at work. Very challenging and adventurous so not sure how I would have endured there..

Highlight of Belize was our hostel (D's) and specifically the owner in San Ignacio. The friendliest, most helpful guy we have met. Drove us to the ruins, helped us when we were down with the food poisoning, helped Richie get a refund from the tour operator who tried to shaft me, bought lots of beers for him and Richie while I was in bed with food poisoning, drove Richie around looking for food (which he got food poisoning from) and gave us a lift to the Guatemalan border the next day, while we had food poisoning. The hostel/guesthouse was awesome quality for money, never seen a bathroom like that in a hostel..

- Next up was Guatemala and as of today, 3th of November, we are still here.

Tiny town of Flores in the middle of a lake, Star Wars- ruins (officially known as Tikal), looong bus rides to and from Lanquín, a cave tour I was able to attend, the blue pools of Semuc Champey, the cold town of Antigua, tiny turtles and a resident mini-pig called Potato at El Paredon and finally studying Spanish and living with a local family here at Quetzalenango (Xela) for the past week.

My favourite phrase came to life at the beach destination El Paredon. After spending three days mainly laying at the pool/beach/bed and drinking beer it was time to go home in a small shuttle. Our fellow ride companions asked if the front seat was free and the driver answered "The tower sits in the front". I think all of you know who the aforementioned tower is..

Quetzaltenango (Xela) views (and the tower)

What's next?

We have wrapped up our Spanish studies and instead of returning to the warmth of beach destinations, we chose to embark on a 7-day trip over the mountain ranges to a small town called Todos Santos to celebrate Día de Los Muertos. And four of the seven days we were hiking.

We haven't really hiked since New Zealand and we were out of breath after salsa classes. In other words I think we are in a shit shape.

But now the hike is over so we did make it! Photos and stories to follow once all the laundry is sorted, boots cleared from mud and once we've had couple of nights with more than 5 hours of sleep...

Heini Ulmanen 10/26/17 Heini Ulmanen 10/26/17

Let's talk about ruins

Enough about food poisonings for now (even though we have suffered a couple more), time to focus on serious stuff – ruins. Pyramids, temples, houses, ancient privy systems and did Mayans really disappear into space?

Each continent or country offers one or two typical activities for travelers and after a while you feel like you have seen them all. "Them" being:

Waterfalls (South-East Asia)
Temples (South-East Asia)
Gorges (Western Australia)
Ruins (Mexico, Central America)

But to my surprise, I got more excited the more ruins we saw and could have continued forever. I even considered booking a 6 day trek through the jungle to see the biggest Mayan city, El Mirador, that is mostly still uncovered. It’s not a surprise though that my travel companion has had enough ruins so I’m not sure if I could’ve stomached a cranky Irishman for six days in addition to all the mosquitos and not showering. One day, I’ll be back for El Mirador..

After weeks have passed I do have a bit of trouble telling all the ruins apart and there’s really not that much to tell about them that Wikipedia can’t help with so I will save you from millions of photos and explanations similar to the very informative signs at the ruins (“Here is a building. It might have been a temple or a house or a palace. It faces west and it has five stories.”) We stopped reading the signs after a while.

Here is a quick summary from best to “worst” experience to help you choose if you need to!

1.     Tikal, Guatemala. Mayan.
2.     Xunantunich , San Ignacio, Belize. Mayan.
3.     Palenque, Mexico. Mayan.
4.     Tulum, Mexico. Mayan.
5.     Teotihuacan, Mexico. Not known.
6.     Chichen Itza, Mexico. Mayan.

1. Tikal, Guatemala.

Best. Ruins. Ever. Massive area in the jungle, a lot of it is still covered in hills and trees. Has the tallest pyramid (70m) after El Mirador. And a Star Wars scene was filmed from the top of that pyramid! The experience is so much better than any other ruin because there are no souvenir sellers inside the area. The guided tour was also excellent, it lasted almost 4 hours, the guide knew everything from animals and nature to the actual history of Mayans and Tikal. Also, we got to see toucans!

The ruler here was unusually tall -almost 2 meters. Thus for once only Richie could see out the windows from the master bedroom!

Cost: 34 USD including transportation, entrance and a guide

2. Xunantunich , San Ignacio, Belize.

This was not on our “to-do” list but as we were in San Ignacio and the owner of our hostel was the best ever and offered a drive to these ruins, why not see them?

This place is also very much in the jungle and a lot of is not restored yet. There was almost no-one there and we got to explore the pyramids on our own. Climbing the highest pyramid was a bit nerve-wrecking as it was pouring down rain which made all the rocks very slippery.

Cost: 6 USD including entrance, bus back to town

3. Palenque, Mexico.

Same story as with the previous ones, it’s good because it’s in the middle of the jungle. You can climb some of the buildings. Our tour guide was not the greatest through and there are souvenir sellers here inside the area.

Also if you have ever heard of stories about Mayans and aliens or Mayan disappearing to space, this is one of the places where “evidence” of this was found. And by evidence, I mean that some self-trained pseudoscientist Erich Anton Paul von Däniken told everyone that a decoration of the Mayan ruler K'inich Janaab Pakal, found in his tomb in Palenque, depicts him riding a spaceship.

See, it's clearly a spaceship! — See, it's **clearly** a spaceship!

Cost: 4.40 USD entrance only, we did it as a part of a wider tour and added a guide for 10.50 USD each.

4. Tulum, Mexico.

The ruins here are not that impressive, it’s more about the setting next to the beach. I do remember studying Mayan culture a lot during upper secondary school but I can’t remember us learning about the culture being a naval one.

There are no souvenir sellers here inside the area either which is a bonus but then a huge minus is hordes of American tourists everywhere. Go very early or very late to avoid this (we went very late).

Cost: 3.6 USD entrance only

5. Teotihuacan, Mexico.

This was the only non-Mayan place we visited. And to my surprise it’s still not known which culture built Teotihuacan.

You can climb the Pyramid of the Sun (biggest one) and half-way to the Pyramid of the Moon.

Bonus fact: The Pyramid of the Sun was destroyed with dynamite in the hopes of finding gold. Thus majority of it as of today is not original but restored. And during the restoration they build one terrace too much.. talk about making mistakes at your job!

Cost: 8 USD including entrance and round-trip bus from Mexico City

6. ...and the last place goes to Chichen Itza!

Maybe the most famous Mayan ruins and thus also the most touristic one. Souvenir sellers fill all the paths and areas and you can’t walk anywhere without hearing a sales pitch. Massive tourist busses coming from Cancun multiple times a day, people posing for photos (and boyfriends going above and beyond trying to take the perfect pyramid photo of their girlfriends). We also heard that the guided tours offered by hostels & hotels were pretty average, guides abandoning the groups after 1 hour of basic stories and cliché’s.

We opted for self-organised bus trip there and eaves-dropping on other groups here and there.

Coolest part was the biggest ball-game field and knowing that during the Spring and Autum Equinox light hitting the main pyramid staircase forms a serpent.

I don’t know if I would skip this as it is “a 7th Wonder of the World” but also those lists change every year and Chichen Itza got into the list through a corporate sponsoring. Definitely the worst overall experience.

Cost: About 25 USD entrance + round-trip bus from Tulum to Chichen Itza

Now we'll be ruin-free for a while and have to fill our days with something else. That has lately been waterfalls, laying on the beach or pool and re-reading Game of Thrones books (god I forgot how boring the fourth book is).