Day 6 – Tuesday Feb 29/12

Today we decided to move to a new place, the Iguana Rana hostel that is down the street from Casa Amelia. This is the same place that we came for the fire spinning a few days ago. It is a fairly new place, only open for about 4 months, and the new manager has been making big changes and improvements each day. It’s pretty cool here and the people are very nice. They have room for about 9 people (even a private room) on the main floor and more beds upstairs. They have free wifi, a bar, and the best thing is a kitchen that is open to guests. Here are some photos of the place.

After moving to our new place, we went to the burrito shack for our usual meal of tacos $10q ($) and game of crib. After that we went to the Cafe Amelia to do some work, enjoy the patio and have some delicious beverages. I had a strawberry smoothie $17q ($) which was great and later on had some cream of asparagus soup $20q($) which was questionable. I am not sure there was any asparagus in it, more likely celery and onions, and it was more of a broth than cream soup. It tasted alright and came with a piece of toast which is great because I’ve been craving bread lately, most food comes on corn tortillas.

It was a long day of work and after that I was ready for a walk and some supper. We had passed some street vendors with food setup in buffet style. I think I’ve been in central America long enough to chance eating some street food so off we went. There were 3 vendors out this night, all with slightly different offerings. I wanted to get something from each vendor, so from the first vendor I got a plate of 3 enchiladas for $5q ($). I think they had pork in them with some seasonings and veggies. The second place I got 3 tostadas $5q ($) each one with a different topping of some meat and veggie mixture. This place also had a nice big chocolate cake which was what I was really after, but after the food I was feeling pretty full. I opted to just get a drink of sorrel juice $5q ($) which was quite nice to wash down the meal. After that we went back to the burrito shack so Travis could get some vegetarian tacos. The street buffet food all has meat in it.

Back to the hostel after that for some socializing $15q $() with the other guests. Travis was the DJ for the evening.

Total for the day $62q ($8.73)

Day 5 – Monday Feb 28/12

Today it was cloudy again and a bit windy. I went downstairs and the owners of the hotel were outside talking about the weather. They looked very concerned but I couldn’t see anything too alarming.

I had an order of toast $12q ($) while I watched the hotel manager tie down the tent they have over the front entrance. It rained for a while and I did a bit of work until it stopped. Then I was ready for some lunch so I went next store hoping the taquitos place would be open, but alas I think they only open in the evening. I was happy to see the sandwich shop next door was open so I thought I would give them a try. I got 2 tostadas for $15q and they were excellent. I ate in the cute little lobby area of what must be the adjoining hotel.

Today was a fairly restful day. I worked in the hotel room since it was stormy outside. We went next door for taquitos $10q ($) again that evening and then over to the grocery store for more water $7.35q ($) and I was totally craving a chocolate bar $12q ($).

We spent the rest of the evening working and then watching a movie in the room. So I did manage to finally get the photos off my camera and ipad into my computer so I could post them up here. These are mostly photos of the inner streets of the island, another post will have the photos from the outer ring beside the lake.

Total for the day: $96.75q or $13.63 CAD

Day 4 – Sunday Feb 27/12

Another cool and overcast day, actually a relief after the supper hot (35 c) days we’ve had prior to this. I got up and had my usual orange and protein shake for breakfast and went downstairs to write this blog. I was surprised when I finished to see that 2 hours had passed! I decided that today I was going to start taking more photos of the stuff we were doing.

I felt like getting a fruit smoothie $17q ($2.39) so we went to Cafe Archeologico Yax-ha (the Spanish school), another place Travis knew the owner, and stayed there to work for a few hours.

By then it was time for lunch so we headed back to the burrito place, this time we got tacos, 3 for $10q ($1.40). They are pretty good looking are they not?

Tacos from the burrito shack 3 for $10q

We played crib again and then had some ice cream $6q ($.84) in the plaza. It was unusually busy that day with lots of tourists around. A fellow came up to us and gave us a make-shift flyer about a new hostel in town where they happened to teach fire spinning, and he was the teacher. So we decided to follow him back and check it out. Turns out the hostel (the Iguana Rana) is the one owned by Travis’ friend and we had planned on going there anyway. There wasn’t much going on but we decided to come back that evening to watch the show.

Then we walked around the outside of the island and I took a bunch of photos, you can see in the gallery below. So many scenes worthy of painting I’ll have to get out my canvases when I get home.

Back at the hotel to do work for a few hours and then we headed out for supper. This time we tried the little shop a few doors down from the hotel. We ordered veggie tacos, and what we got were taquitos! They were so good! I’ve never had them before but I will again. We got 3 for $10q and that was enough to fill us up. They were filled with potatoes and seasoned veggies and had a great tomato sauce and more veggies and sour cream on top. Feeling pretty happy at finding that place we headed back to the hostel for the fire spinning show and happy hour drinks 2 for $15q ($2.11). It was pretty awesome, there was music mixed by one of the guests from Holland and the place started filling up as the night went on. We had good chats with some of the locals and with the fire spinner, who was traveling around Guatemala performing various places. You can check him out on Facebook at: Juan Fernando Reyes Morales.

Tacos from the burrito shack 3 for $10q

Near the end of the evening it became necessary to get some mix for our drinks so we went to the local 24/7 convenience store where we ordered what we wanted through a small window as the security guard looked on. 2L pop $18q ($2.54)

Total for the day $106q ($14.93)

Day 3 – Saturday Feb 26/12

Today I woke up and decided to work on my spreadsheet. I had an inkling of an idea that I was not approaching the finances for the trip the right way. After figuring out what I had left and knowing how long I wanted to stay in Guatemala, I came to the conclusion that I needed to be a lot more frugal with my money. Good thing I figured this out after the second day, but too bad I didn’t do this before I left. I would have brought more money to buy clothes.

Anyway, that gave me a new perspective on the prices for things in Flores. When you can only spend $40q on food you have to be more selective. I wasn’t going to spend $15q on a glass of juice when I could get a whole plate full of food at the burrito place for the same.

Lucky I had bought some oranges at the grocery store so I sat outside and savored every sweet and juicy bite. Then I went downstairs with the laptop and ordered a glass of water. (on the menu a glass of hot water is $4q!) It was time to try my first protein shake (strawberry) which was pretty good. And the micro ants that swarmed the empty glass must have thought so too.

We eat one meal a day at this place

Today was a bit of a cloudy day, looked like it was going to rain so I didn’t go for a walk. I worked for a while and then we headed to the burrito shop for lunch. This time we had super burritos which were only $11q ($1.54). They look and taste pretty good. The sky had cleared up a bit so we sat in the plaza and played crib after we ate.

Then we headed back to the mall, we needed more water and wanted to have a better look around than we did the first time. This is when I found the ice cream shop that had 2 for 1 cones for $10q (1.41). The last time I was in Guatemala we stopped along the road in a little town and I got a cone and even though I had no idea what flavor it was, I think it was one of the best things ever. Now I know what the flavor was – Hawaiian fruit punch. I got the same one this time. We got a gallon of water for $7.35q and I got a 1 litre plastic jug to make my shakes in for $12.00q. Total of $19.35q ($2.73).

Back at the hotel it was time to do more work and sit downstairs in the lobby cafe watching people go by. They have great coffee there for $5q ($.70), but it is $7q ($.99) if you want cream. Imagine my surprise when of all things, a parade started coming across the bridge. Apparently it was part of the celebration for Mardi Gras, which we had already heartily celebrated on Fat Tuesday in San Ignacio. The costumes were great and everyone was in a celebratory mood.

I managed to get some video of the parade, it’s amazing how fast that many people can walk by. I have no idea where all of them went, it seemed like there wasn’t enough room or places to hold them all.

Shortly after the parade had passed a huge storm blew up and it poured down. We had to leave the patio because the rain was blowing in on us. So we just went back to the room and made supper from the leftover tortillas and veggies from the grocery store. It pretty much rained all night so we didn’t go out again.

Daily total: $86q ($12.11)

Day 2 – Friday Feb 25/12

Today I got up early and went for a walk around the perimeter of the island. It took about 45 minutes and it was a beautiful, sunny day. It was about 7:30am but I didn’t pass too many people and there were really no businesses open yet. Hardly any cars or bikes out either. There are a lot of motor bikes here, more than cars I would say, which is quite a bit different than Belize where there are mostly 4 wheel drive vehicles like isuzu troopers, jeeps and trucks. There the main place you see motor bikes is around Spanish lookout.

Anyway, I got back to the hotel, got my computer and ordered a glass of fresh orange juice for $15q($2.11). It was so good that I got another one.

Now here I must digress and advise you that I am writing this blog a few days into the future. In this future I know that I can only spend $40q a day on food or whatever, but it isn’t until Saturday morning that I will have this revelation. So on Friday I am spending money like crazy. Heres how it all breaks down. By the way, yes! I did set up a spreadsheet to keep track of all this. I love my iPad.

$40q ($5.63) on half the hotel room
$30q ($4.22) on 2 glasses of orange juice
$35q ($4.93) on breakfast which was an enchilada
$19q ($2.67) on a pineapple smoothie
$20q ($2.81) on super strength 1000mg vitamin C
$135q ($19.01) at the grocery store

Total for the day $279q (39.30)! Totally over my daily budget of $83q ($11.69).

I spent a good part of the morning checking email and doing bit of web work and looking at the view outside the hotel. I also figured it was a good time to try out the sketching program on my iPad so I took a few minutes to fool around with that. The picture is below.

After that I ordered breakfast which was pretty good although not what I am used to calling an enchilada. Then we headed out to walk around and visit some of the other hotels and cafes where they had free wifi. We ended up at a place called Casa Amelia, and we sat in the adjoining bar to do some work. There wasn’t enough electric outlets for us both to plug in the laptops, so I decided to just sit on the patio and do more sketching. It seems like for all the electric outlets in our hotel and this place only the bottom plug works. I can’t wait to have a solar powered tablet that has a bright enough screen that I can work outside in full sun and still see it clearly. Alas, I had to be content with the beautiful scenery and a fresh pineapple slushy while I sat on the patio doing another sketch.

After finishing some work we decided to go to the grocery store which is located off the island in Santa Elena. Really it is a short walk across the bridge. The grocery store is in a mall which is pretty good sized as malls down here go. I guess it would be comparable to a large strip mall except it had 2 levels. There were a bunch of empty places where stores were coming soon, and a food court area, a pharmacy, a few computer and electronic stores a book store and a bunch of clothing & shoe stores. I was pretty impressed how cheap flash drives are compared to Belize, but then everything seems to cost more there. The mall is only a few years old but it already has a burger king and fast food chicken place outside.

The Mall in Flores, Guatemala

The grocery store had a fairly good variety, though not as much as a Canadian store would. Definitely more than the Chinese stores I’m used to in Belize. The goal was to get some healthy and non-perishable food to take back to the room. I also needed some things that were not in the hotel as I had expected, namely shampoo and hand lotion. Of course I had to get some water as I drink about 2L a day. I ended up getting some oranges, cassava and corn tortilla chips for snacks, and some protein drinks for the morning meals.

After that we went to the pharmacy to see if I could get some vitamin C, which I also take on a regular basis. In Canada I could never find anything higher than 500mg, but these are 1000mg. I like to take 2000mg/day when I feel under the weather and it fixes things right up. They aren’t chewable though, you drop them in water and they fizz up. They taste kinda like tang. They had a package with 10 for $20q but in Melchor I got a package of 36 for $46q so I think I will stop there on my way back to Belize.

After that it was suppertime, so we walked back to the room and made little tortilla sandwiches and watched a movie on the laptop.

Daily total: $279.00q ($39.30)

Guatemala – Day 1 – Thursday Feb 24/12

Day 1 – Thursday feb 24/12

My challenge this time is to travel for as long as I can on $200.00 CAD. The goal is to last for 2 weeks. I am going to try Guatemala again, I didn’t get to see much of the country in the last visit. This time I am going to Flores, which is a small “island” west of Santa Elena. It is only about 3 hours from Belize so it is suitable for a weekend trip.

This is a Tuk Tuk

I had a lot to get ready before I could go. Since I wont be back before the end of the month I had to take care of the rent and bills before I left. I got a house-sitter to look after the plants, house and animals. I stocked up on food for the house, filled the car with gas, recharged the phone credit since every Tues and Thurs until the election is double up triple up. Who knows when the next one will be? The government has been doing lots of good things in preparation of the election on March 8, one of which is fixing all the terrible roads in town. My car and I are so grateful for that. I also had to clean the house, make the guest bed and do laundry and dishes, put away stuff from the back deck and bathe the dog.

So finally I got the backpack filled with all the things I would need and by 1:50 we were standing on the side of the road waiting for the bus to Benque. we had good timing because it came about 2 minutes later. The bus was $3BZ which is $1.50 CAD. We got off at the station and walked up the hill to our friends’ hotel, The Benque Resort and Spa they were giving us a ride to the border which is only 9 kms from my house by the way.

The border crossing was pretty easy, as it seems to always be when you just walk across. Since I am a resident I didn’t have to pay the $37.50 departure fee from Belize. I just had to show my passport and get a stamp. The money changers were waiting outside the building. Last time I went I got $3.65q : $1 BZ. This time they offered me $3.50, but I bargained them into giving me $3.55, every little bit helps. If I would have had USD, I could have gotten $7.40 : $1, which is a small bit better, enough to buy 8 delicious ice cream cones in Guatemala. (we found a place that sells them 2 for 1 at $10q)

For those of you trying to figure this out in Canadian $, my $200 turned into $1420 quetzals. Since I want to stay in Guatemala for 2 weeks that means I can spend about $100 q/ day, or $14.08/ day. This is a totally new way of traveling for me, I’m used to calling a travel agent and trying to save up as much money as I can for a trip, which is usually between $1000 – $2000. That means I can’t go on many vacations, but this way I can go on a trip much more often, and it is surprising how much less it costs to travel when you stay away from the other tourists.

Alright, so once we crossed the border on the Guatemalan side we walked across the bridge into town and found a collectivo to take us to Santa Elena, which is just outside Flores. It was about a 2 hour ride and cost $30q ($4.22CAD)each. We had to put our bags on top of the bus where they were tied off with rope. At times there were up to 18 people in the mini van getting on and off at the frequent stops along the way, but it wasn’t too squishy. Well, I don’t mind sitting close to people and the windows were open so we had a nice breeze. The countryside is so beautiful but we were going too fast to take pictures.

When we got to Santa Elena we got a tuk tuk, which is a motor bike with a little “rickshaw” type seat on the back, sort of reminds me of the tea cup ride at Disneyland. We only had to get across the bridge to the island but we had a lot to carry and it had been a long day. The tuk tuk was $10q($1.40CAD).

Our hotel was pretty much the first one after the bridge and was called La Canoa. It is a pretty decent place and we got a good size basic room with hot water and 2 beds for $80q/night ($11.26). There is a restaurant downstairs where they have great coffee and food and free wifi which is fairly important to me to do work. There is a nice deck with tables and chairs just outside the room where we can sit and look over the lake to Santa Elena. It is very pretty. Check out the video to see our view from this deck.

After dropping off our bags and freshening up we went for a walk. The island of Flores is built in concentric rings outward from the top where the Spanish built a large catholic church on top of a Mayan temple. There are about three ring roads which you can access by way of alleys every block or so. The street are cobblestone and the building are close together and painted bright cheery colors. It is so pretty here. We made our way past a little bar in the alley near our hotel that has different events every night, like ladies night, karaoke and sports nights. There was no one in the place when we went by. We carried onto the top plaza area, past the basketball courts where there were lots of people playing ball. I noticed there were lots of people doing this when we went to Mexico too and stayed in Tulum and Chetumal.

Our destination was a burrito stand where we could get a huge amount of food for only $15q ($2.11) including a coke. We both got the number 2 combo plate which included a super burrito, a taco and a tostada with a drink. It was enough food to fill 2 takeout plates and pretty tasty, although a bit greasy if you got the meat or carne version with beef. They also made a veggie version for us.

After that was a walk around the outside ring road along the lake. We passed many hotels, restaurants, shops and ice cream places, as well as an outdoor buffet with tables full of colorful and tasty smelling food and drink. I got a glass of sorrel for $5q($.70), which is a traditional caribbean red drink made from hibiscus flowers. One of my favorites we make it at home too. We also stopped at one of the many ice cream shops and tried their wares. A float was $17q($2.39) and a cup with one scoop was $6q($.84).

By this time we were getting tired so it was back to the hotel to check email and go to bed. It was a long day but the bed seems comfortable and the fan blocks out the street noise pretty well.

Today’s Total: $114 q or $28.66 CAD

Calico Jack’s Zipline

Good day. Today we had an unexpected adventure, we went to the zipline just down the road from our place. We had heard about it a few times but never had a chance to go. I haven’t been on one for about 20 years but Brad has been working at taking limbs off the huge cedar near our house, and using the harness and rappelling down from up 10 stories high. It is about 150′ high and the trunk is 3 feet in diameter at the base. I have been trying to film that process to show all of you, but my technology has been failing me miserably! I may be able to piece together something, but Murphy’s Law has been working here, every time the good stuff is about to happen the battery goes dead, or the camera stops recording on its own, or some other thing.

Anyway, the zipline place we went was very impressive with great views of the mountains and trees in the valley. They had built a nice variety of very sturdy platforms with zip lines under, over and through the canopy of the forest. We went on all 11 platforms and attractions – the highest was 55′ high and another was 500′ long. The runs ranged in speed from 15 mph up to about 45 mph. Those were my favorite, but the only problem was that it was over too quick. I was just starting to get a good breeze going and have a look around at everything when I had to pay attention and slow myself down so I wouldn’t crash into the platform.

Anyway, here’s a video of me coming in for a landing.