Earthquakes and Banana Cakes

Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171871&id=510568119&l=855c25dc3c

After enjoying 3 weeks of Guatemalan home cooking from our host family (lots of previously undiscovered vegetables, refried beans and unexpectedly, hot dogs) we were on the road again, shoehorned into a minibus for the 5 hour journey to the town of Coban. Except that due to a teachers' strike which inexplicably involved a series of road blocks around Guatemala City, a flat tyre and some road works we didn't arrive for a delightful 11 hours, by which time we were ready for a long and rejuvenating sleep. Unfortunately Mother Earth had other ideas and we were rudely awakened at 5am by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake rattling our hotel room. Not the most relaxing day of the trip...

We spent the next few days getting back to nature - squinting at the world's tiniest orchids (and plenty of beautiful regular sized ones), touring a coffee plantation and soaking in the amazing turquoise pools of the paradisical Semuc Champey. This enchanting jungle gem is well worth the bone rattling drive up and down twisting mountain roads it takes to get there. At Semuc Champey the Cahabon River runs underneath a 300m limestone bridge topped with terraces of startlingly blue and green pools where intrepid backpackers such as ourselves can spend happy hours swimming and generally lounging. Prolonging the outdoorsy vibe, we spent that night in what can only be described as a shack in the jungle - otherwise known as the Jam Bamboo hostel. Luckily they did pretty good pizza, and the only insect life we encountered (despite the lorry sized gaps between the planks of our bedroom walls) was a humongous mantis-type creature next to the bathroom sink. It's amazing what you can get used to.

Next stop and one of Rich's trip-makers was the jungle-clad Mayan ruins of Tikal. We arrived at sunrise, when the birds and howler monkeys are at their most active and the tour buses have yet to descend en masse. Getting up at 4am paid off - we were among the first in the park and had a whole pyramid top to ourselves for long enough to eat breakfast.

Final calling point was the unusual town of Livingston. Hyped by the Lonely Planet as a fascinating example of a Garifuna town (the Garifuna people, a mixture of native Indians and shipwrecked African slaves, originated on the island of St Vincent and later migrated to the Caribbean coast of Central America), we were impressed by its laid back vibe, abundance of choco-bananas and banana cake and the excellent boat journey along the Rio Dulce river to get there. We were less enthused about the general seediness, disappointing local speciality "tapado" (less coconutty seafood stew, more watery bowl of fishmonger's leftovers) and distinct lack of things to do. Still, worth the trip for the choco-bananas :)