The rainbow country: Guatemala travel experience

Guatemala is the beginning of a long journey that will lead me and my adventures cdompagna of Ilaria, until the tip of the Yucatan, Mexico.
It 'a very colorful and interesting, full of history, culture and colorful markets.
The climate is pleasant and not hot as one might think, because the Guatemala a country is relatively high.
The only part where it crashes heat is the archeological site of Tikal, in fact, it is advisable to visit it at dawn.
Not fly directly from Italy.
Ila and I took an Alitalia flight to Miami, then the airline up to Guatemalan Guatemala City.
There are places to get a bang, including connection and a little different .... a splash. In Miami we had to wait 7 hours (including 2 lost to pass the passport control, which is crazy).

 

At the dawn of a hot August morning I and my companion in adventure Ilaria we wake up in a coma for racing to take the Malpensa Express, use Terminal 1.
Climb on board walk (there is not even a shuttle), the captain informs us that upon arrival in Miami we will wait for a shower.
The flight is a disaster because the board is totally non-existent. Forget to help us even to eat.
Fortunately, the poor pilot gets there and, after 9 ½ hours, landed in Miami under a shining sun.
Ila and I will make a queue of more than 2 hours in customs, but only in transit. The comic thing is that while in transit, we can leave the airport and walk to Miami and since we have 7 hours between flights and the other. In the face of security.
The brain is not connecting and once more on board to rock us asleep so do not even realize that they are landing.
Arrived at the hotel in the evening (but it is evening or the next day?) We are informed that the alarm is scheduled to 4:30 am because of movement at Tikal.

Practically only after having touched the bed leaving for Tikal by plane.
Tikal is an archaeological site hidden in the jungle. The site is very good indeed, there is few people (mostly local), but has a strange smell.
The dilemma is dissolved early. The land is full of leaves that smell of cedar nut.
The place is also infested by poisonous snakes, jaguars, monkeys that are screaming to a similar to that of the jaguar when it is angry, cicadas that appear when power saws are singing, crickets who make the reverse side of cricket as we know, crocodiles, in short chi più ne ha più ne metta ...
Anyway jokes aside the site is huge and quite interesting. Sin is only a torrid hot and humid.
Left the site in speed pass by the lovely town of Flores, located on the edge of a great lake-colored Caribbean Sea ..
In the evening we return to sleep in Guatemala City, but we advise to turn, it seems there is a curfew and it is very dangerous .... mah ....

To go to the marketplace of Chichicastenango, we must take the legendary Panamericana that last year in Peru I was so impressed-Well I must say that the version Guatemalteca than Peruvian is much more easy, it seems a highway to 4 lanes. The point we are going but is on Falda S. Andrea. The streets of central and south america always provide very interesting insights. Along the road are the famous and colorful local buses bards also a celebration by the same people on board. Basically you are getting, but never get off the view of people on board. In the midst of this a kind of handyman controller version Superman manages to handle the crowds inside and outside the bus, above and below the roof, to be stopped or running, to see that everything goes well, even the recovery of the baggage that often overload the roof comes off when the bus is moving.
Superman also acts as a mirror and GPS satellite antenna indicating when the driver is the case or the time to overtake. Obviously the best time for this maneuver is, if possible, on the curve with solid line, and if there is a better off. Needless to say we risk the frontal practically every corner. The maximum reach him undergoing a triple pass (you understand, but one surpasses us, it surpasses any other in turn), in turn, with the hill. Yes, the Panamerican Guatemalteca (like the rest of the roads) is a succession of bumps single, double and triple, with mega-road inclines and gradients, curves and hooks muy peligrosa.
For this reason, obviously, once again, the edges of the road are a series of crosses. As we come to the market we see the edges of the road, obviously mad at points and unthinkable, the carts with fruits and vegetables prepared with harmony, as the shades of color and with respect to shape and size. Incantevole seem frameworks!
The Chichicastenango market is very touristic, but not painful, in fact give us the mad joy, negotiating and dilapidating our assets and buying everything, even what we do not like. Guatemala is mainly this, and the rainbow country crafts.
To get an idea of a market we see another, which I do not remember the name, only local. You notice the difference immediately because here no one buys anything. There is mainly food, like meat hanging in the air with built-fly and mouse on the counter that starnazzano hens imprisoned in networks, pigs on a leash, seeds, cereals, shrimps, all strictly for non-protected land, flowers, raw tissues other than we have bought ourselves. The children were afraid of us, you see that are not accustomed to the tourist who knows what they think of us with all the technological equipment hung from the neck? Laugh ... and then run away.

We transfer to Antigua, the city that I liked most in Guatemala. It 'simply wonderful, full of little house of two floors (the area is of earthquakes) by the thousands of colors (my favorite is the green water). It seems to stay in Pompeii Vesuvius Before the ... the city seems deserted, there is an unusual peace and quiet. The peace is soon interrupted by a momentary eruption of volcanoes surrounding the city. Everything under control, no disaster Pompeii style!
Antigua course to alternate the visits, as the plantation of coffee, than the traditional market. In a chiesettina resisted in part to an earthquake strikes me a phrase: "the soul, there is one, what happens if you lose?" Meditate gente ... ....
We have meditated on the fact that the evening did not go out after 9 am because the police is no longer in service and become corrupt and that there is a curfew for the tourist because "out there are crazy!" ! It will be us ... it was a city seemed so peaceful ....

Atitlan, the stage today, is a town situated on the edge of a beautiful lake surrounded by a series of volcanoes. The most important are 3 which greeted our arrival with a smoke (as from ladder). Double eruption in 2 days.
The stalls are not lacking anywhere in Guatemala, colorful and inviting other purchases ... even here ... just can not do without it. ...
Atitlan by taking a boat and go to visit 2 villages true in the sense that they are still intact (and decadent).
I do not remember exactly the first name of the village, perhaps because it is not anything special.
In the afternoon we go to Santa Catalina, a most picturesque country where women are trying to weave panels and colorful tablecloths.
However the beauty of this country, apart from nature, these are market towns with a thousand colors.

Also along the PA go from Huehuetenango, and then in a remote village called San Andres Xecul, where we come in marzipan chiesettina of Hansel and Gretel.
In a courtyard of a house where we enter for the event we also show how to color cotton. It 'a very charming procedures.

We head towards the border Guatemala - Mexico and for the occasion we are escorted to safety by the police (and it gives you the minimum security). It seems it is mandatory because it is a remote area and not the courts, where local bands enjoy plucking tourists passing through. E 'una police for tourists called polishing. Mythical polishing after a few km we lose, or maybe we sow and we lose them. Anyway we went on a horse and we feel really safe. Not even the police managed to stay behind.