In short, I believe Guatemala has been a spectacular experience because I have chosen to travel alone. Beautiful friendships have been made along the way with a travel agenda all my own. I have hiked over ancient Maya ruins in Tikal, trekked by foot and car into remote reaches of the northern lowland jungles to observe abundant wildlife and walk among more Maya ruins that very few have heard of or know about, undeveloped sites not open to tourism that necessitate a local guide. The best part of these remote sites is that you can pitch a tent and sleep in the ancient cities. To go to sleep and to wake up in these forgotten temples is beyond words.
Where I have traveled in Guatemala there are no backpackers or tourist buses. I take the back roads and rocky mountain passes in my 1986 Land Cruiser, this has made for some very colorful travel. Maya hamlets and villages lightly populate the dusty roads where the men and women wear traditional clothes. Each Indian community has its brilliant costume of many colors. Remote places where the sounds are Spanish or one of the local Maya languages, of which there are more than twenty. The Maya Indian represents over 1/2 of the population of Guatemala.
I will admit I see them entirely from the exterior, like a film with brilliant color but silent. They are opaque and mysterious to the other 1/2 of Guatemala let alone myself the complete outsider. Some days I feel deeply in it, both smooth and comfortable in the environment, other days spent in reflection I realize that I am really removed from where I come from.
The mountain setting of Todos Santos is stunning even for this traveler who grew up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and hiked them regularly as an adult. At over 7,900 feet the air is dry and cool for a change (the lowlands were brutal with heat and humidity) and the green mountain sides are filled with terrace farming of potatoes, cabbage and corn. Striking. I took a two day hike in these mountains passing through areas where there are no roads, no cars, no phones and no electricity -it is the heart of Maya lands. There lifestyles are remarkably preserved by way of customs, language and bloodlines. Rich cultural dimensions in mouth gaping countryside.
I will admit I see them entirely from the exterior, like a film with brilliant color but silent. They are opaque and mysterious to the other 1/2 of Guatemala let alone myself the complete outsider. Some days I feel deeply in it, both smooth and comfortable in the environment, other days spent in reflection I realize that I am really removed from where I come from.
The mountain setting of Todos Santos is stunning even for this traveler who grew up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and hiked them regularly as an adult. At over 7,900 feet the air is dry and cool for a change (the lowlands were brutal with heat and humidity) and the green mountain sides are filled with terrace farming of potatoes, cabbage and corn. Striking. I took a two day hike in these mountains passing through areas where there are no roads, no cars, no phones and no electricity -it is the heart of Maya lands. There lifestyles are remarkably preserved by way of customs, language and bloodlines. Rich cultural dimensions in mouth gaping countryside.
After language school in Todos Santos I will leave Guatemala for Honduras to continue the journey south. The feeling coming over me these days is that I started as a tourist who became a traveler and now this is giving way to the deeper sensation that this is an odyssey.
To continue in next Dispatch about the family I lived with and Guatemalan food.
To continue in next Dispatch about the family I lived with and Guatemalan food.
Reply to remarks from readers:
The question of photography has come up more than once. I was careless in Mexico and lost my camera. It has been replaced, however, the love affair I had with previous one has not carried over to the new one. So, I capture images in words these days. Perhaps my lust with the camera will return, then I will have pictures to share.
I will continue to post several Mexico Dispatches mixed in with ones from Guatemala.David,
Todos Santos, Guatemala
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