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Alex Kent

43 Blog Entries
1 Trip
41 Photos

Trips:

On the Varieties of Nature

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/alexkent




Over the Border

La Ceiba, Honduras

Leaving for Honduras was sad - I loved every minute of my month in Guatemala and would really recommend it to anyone thinking of visiting Central America. So diverse, culturally and geographically, and without fail interesting and entertaining.

However, diving called, so we began the complicated slog to La Ceiba on the north coast of Honduras (boat, bus, border crossing, bus, taxi, bus, taxi) and were rewarded by the most fabulous street food of the trip so far. A simple churrasco from a street grill (indeterminate cut of beef, fried rice, black beans, fried plantain, cheese, tortillas) but every single element was perfectly done and the inspired addition of delicious creamy fresh avocado created a gastranomic marvel! As you will probably notice in the forthcoming pages, food has become something of a fixation, and really good food never goes unrecognised!

permalink written by  Alex Kent on September 16, 2007 from La Ceiba, Honduras
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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To The Sea ...

Livingston, Guatemala

From Flores we took a bus south down the eastern border of Guatemala to Rio Dulce, a town at the seaward end of Lake Isabel, and a popular hang out with sailing types, who come up-river from the Caribbean. We caught a boat over to our hotel - a sweet little wooden place built on decking over the mangroves at the edge of the lake and spent a couple of days relaxing, kayaking, swimming in the unnaturally warm waters, and visiting local marvels - a thermal waterfall (and by thermal I mean hotter than I would choose to have my shower) which plunges into a cold water pool in a verdant, sunny little valley at the nearby Finca Paraiso. So nearly a slice of paradise, it was somewhat ruined by the overwhelmingly sulphrous smell of the hot water, but fun nonetheless.

Boats from Rio Dulce travel down river

through the gorgeous scenery to Livingston, a small port town on the Caribbean coast, where we spend our last night in Guatemala sampling the local seafood.

permalink written by  Alex Kent on September 13, 2007 from Livingston, Guatemala
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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In Search of History

Tikal, Guatemala

Our long journey north from Semuc to Flores was interrupted by a mission of mercy to rescue our driver's cousin, who we had passed by chance, passed out at the wheel of his pickup which was on its side in a ditch, its axles at an impossible angle but, testimony to Jeremy Clarkson's exhaustive experiments into the durability of Toyota trucks (if you've seen that episode you'll know what I mean), 20 minutes later it was somehow back on the road and, to our horror, being driven onwards by said cousin who, reeking of alcohol, cheerfully told us that he had been out last night "celebrating" the birth of his new son. Oh dear.

Highlights of Flores included the fabulous 'Los Amigos' hostel and a curious pageant we stumbled across - part 'Miss Flores', part debutante 'coming out', accompanied by the ubiquitous school marching band. The real reason for our trip up here though was a visit to the Mayan ruins at Tikal, so at 4.30am we headed into the jungle to climb the impressive but unimaginatively named 'Temple 4' and watch the Sunrise to the sound of the jungle awakening. The Sunrise, as it turned out, was all but obscured by fog, but the gradual crescendo of screeching parrots and roaring howler monkeys rising from the darkness is something I will never forget. Once the sun was up we set off to explore the vast expanse of jungle and ruins amid the baking heat and suffocating humidity. Jana and I decided to dump our tour group - 30+ people, crashing through the undergrowth, jostling to hear the same explanation and photograph the same toucan - and spent a blissful few hours soaking up the tranquil, ancient atmosphere. We even managed to navigate our way back to our bus without too many complications.

permalink written by  Alex Kent on September 11, 2007 from Tikal, Guatemala
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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To Lanquin

Lanquin, Guatemala

The bus to Lanquin quickly filled up with locals, all animatedly discussing the forthcoming elections. As a nation they seem to have an incredible propensity for cheerfulness despite the ungodly hour of the busyness (business?) of the buses. Lanquin - when we finally made it down the the steep, bumpy, swervy, hardcore track - was hectic - small, dusty and, in the absence of any nice tourist-oriented signposts, totally counterintuitive, but a friendly man quickly came and offered us transport to his new hostal which looked gorgeous and proved to be just that. Three little two-storey wooden cabins nestle in flourishing gardens above the river, and 30 seconds from the entrance to Semuc Champey national park - the sole reason for our trek into this part of the country. There couldn't have been a better location. Semuc had been recommended to me by a friend and it exceeded expectations - a natural limestone bridge 30m long sits at the bottom of a beautiful deep wooded valley. Most of the river's impressive force flows beneath the limestone, but a little runs over the top, creating a stepped series of exquisite turquoise pools - ideal for floating on your back and admiring the butterflies floating in the dappled sunbeams and listening to the screeches of spider monkeys in the surrounding trees.


Just over the river from our hostel ("El Portal") were the Las Marias caves which one can tour by candlelight - and so it was, that I foudn myself swimming (rather lopsidedly) through a pitch black cave as I struggled to keep a lighted candle aloft with one hand and keep myself afloat with the other. As if that wasn't enough, the tour included climbing up a raging underground waterfall, scrambling over rocky outcrops with unseen potholes disappearing into nothingness (lit candle between teeth - thank god my hair was wet by this point) and, to top it all, our guide suddenly disappeared into the gloom to reappear (or at least his light reappeared) suspended impossibly several metres above our heads from where he plunged into the blackness and landed with a splash in an unseen pool. For some reason I decided it was a leap of faith worth making, so I followed in his steps and clambered up the wall of the cave to balance on a precipice - unable to stand up because I'm too close to the roof of the cave, heart thumping, sick with adrenaline - and somehow convinced myself to launch forward, aiming for a spot the guide was vaguely illuminating in the inky water. Terrifying, probably crazy, but the most fantastic 'two fingers' to health and safety regulations, and utterly exhilarating.

permalink written by  Alex Kent on September 9, 2007 from Lanquin, Guatemala
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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The Journey North

Coban, Guatemala

My third and final impression of Guatemala City, where we (Jana, from Spanish school, and I) had a bus change-over on our journey north, did nothing to convince me of any redeeming merits, but people-watching in a bus station is always rewarding, and the sheer number of locals who constantly seemt o be making long cross-country journeys still confuses me - the National Express services certainly don't sell out, hour upon hour. Where are they all going?

The journey to Coban was uneventful in itself, but rendered memorable by our unfortunate seating allocation, which placed us directly beneath the only working speaker on the whole bus which, because of its solitary task, was cranked to full volume and played local adverts and maddening Central American pop non-stop for four hours.

Coban itself was also unremarkable, but the parque central boasted a pupuseria (see El Salvador) which more than justified our evening stroll, and we even managed to find a cash machine which actually dispensed cash - a minor miracle in most areas. The follwing morning saw the arrival of the long-awaited election day, and ushered in a weekend of national inactivity - Saturday to vote, and Sunday to celebrate the end of the 24hr drinking ban (but of course). As a result, public transport was expected to go to pot and most travellers we had met were planning to sit the weekend out and get on the road again on Monday. Determined to press on however, we asked around and heard that there might be a bus departing early on the Saturday morning for Lanquin - the town we needed to reach, so we booked a 5.30am taxi to the bus station .... naturally the only time Guatemaltecans are ever early is when you have just crawled out of bed bleary eyed at 5.15 in the morning, so half asleep we arrived in town and found a very suggestable minibus driver who seemingly on the spot agreed to run a service to Lanquin. Miracle of miracles, we noticed me was parked right outside a panaderia where, miracle of miracles, an angle of a lady was just stocking the shelves with freshly baked banana bread and boiling her first batch of coffee. Evidently fortune was on our side!

permalink written by  Alex Kent on September 8, 2007 from Coban, Guatemala
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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Back to Antigua

Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala

Back to Antigua for a couple of days.

Trek up nearby active volcano called Pacaya ... full details to come.

P.S. I sincerely apologise to my loyal fans for the severe time lapse since my last post - this is now being remedied. And I would further like to apologise for the lack of photos in the forth coming entries. Limitations of internet availability and storage space have contributed to a brief breakdown in the system, but all the photos are hopefully winging their way to safe storage in England in a matter or hours, from where I should be able to get hold of them and upload them so you can just look at the pretty pictures and ignore the words. x

permalink written by  Alex Kent on September 6, 2007 from Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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Into the unknown .....

Panajachel, Guatemala

After two weeks of Spanish school I had made friends with quite a few people, and four of us (Laura, Jaime, Jana and myself) decided to head on to the next part of our trip together, so on 1st September we caught a shuttle up to Lage de Atitlan. This beautiful highland lake has formed in a collapsed volcanic crater, and covers about 200sq miles. Like Antigua, it is surrounded by three imposing volcanoes and it is absolutely, staggeringly beautiful. We spend our first night in the main town on the lake, Panajachel, where the majority of tourist traffic arrives and departs. The place is bustling and fun, with some great live music (Daddy, think Paolo Conte but Spanish - equally gravelly and supercool- the singer sipped rum and smoked cigarettes throughout the night!) and beautiful views over the water.


The following day we caught a chicken bus to Chichicastenango, the site of Guatemala's most famous market which offers everything from livestock (hang two cockerels upside down by their legs and sagely nod while you compare their weight) to vegetables to second hand clothes to broken loud speakers and other useless nicknacks to traditional clothing and craft goods.

The whole day is absurdly hectic and fascinating - particularly if you venture away from the tourist oriented stalls into the central food market, where chickens run around piles of gorgeous vegetables, and the air is heavy with the chatter of Mayan dialects and the smoke from endless comedores cooking meat and tortillas. Oh, and the less atmospheric smell of boiling soup with a whole chicken foot sitting perkily in the middle. My favourite! Our journey home was a genuinely 'local' experience. Chicken buses are chaotic at the best of times, but this was so full that we were standing in the central isle clinging on for dear life as the driver hurtled unforgivingly round the hairpin mountain bends and we tried to avoid landing on one of the three or four people squeezed onto each seat on either side of us. Needless to say we all got pretty hysterically giggly, which made it all the more challenging when we tried to capture the moment on camera.


More transportation excitement came on our return to Panajachel and the lancha (little motor boat with cabin) over the lake to San Pedro. The winds tend to pick up mid afternoon and whip the surface of the lake into small but choppy waves and so it was that once again we were hurtling at break neck speed being thrown around all over the place and once more gettling the giggles as we tried to take photos and got sprayed with every crash landing.

San Pedro is a hippy little town on the other side of the lake, heavily populated by bohemian travellers who have settled permanently and (in the case of the older generation) live in little huts amid the maize and banana plants doing ostensibly nothing or (in the case of the younger generation) sit on the pavements all day making jewellery from wood and shells. Despite all this madness, it's a fun little town with some good hostels, some fun bars, more fabulous views and some seriously good food.

Over the water at the even more 'alternative' San Marcos, we spend a great afternoon jumping off cliffs into the lake, swimming, sunbathing and exploring the settlement, much of which has no real roads but just dirt tracks between the maize, bananas and avodado plantations.



permalink written by  Alex Kent on September 1, 2007 from Panajachel, Guatemala
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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Antigua 2

Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala

So, some more observations.

Butterflies ... abundant and incredibly beautiful here. There are some whose lemon yellow wings are so unnaturally vibrant that every time I see one I assume it is a bit of rubbish blowing around. Others are a Bright tangerine Orange, and some are patterned with black stripes against a similarly citrus background. Unfortunately, they seem to be far busier than English butterflies and so far I haven't been able to find one settling long enough to snap a photo. Wretched things.

Election fever ... national general elections are taking place at the beginning of September, and the whole country is awash with political proPaganda. There are 14 different presidential candidates from 14 different parties - imagine the chaos! Endless pick-uptrucks loaded with loud speaker systems and A-boards, and plastered with posters are driving through every town, shouting their message or else just blaring loud music in the hopes that it will win you over! Even in the depths of the countryside, farm houses, trees and even rocks have been painted with slogans and logos and the newspapers are covering it endlessly.

Fountain ... the fountain in the Central Park is famous for its rather naughty statuary (see photo). I asked a couple of people and apparently there is no Pagan symbolism of fertility or anything else so wholesome - it was merely the voyeuristic Spanish conquistadores filling the town with 'their type of art'. Charming.

permalink written by  Alex Kent on August 27, 2007 from Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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El Salvador

El Zonte, El Salvador

On the basis of some excellent advice, a group of us decided to spurn the school-organised trip to Monterrico (a town on the Pacific coast of Guatemala) and head instead to the chilled out surf resort of El Zonte in El Salvador. There, we were assured, it was actually possible to get in the sea and swim (the rip tides in Monterrico make it impossible), the locals were welcoming and unjaded by mass tourism, and the resort, Horizonte, was fabulous.

True, true and true.

The four hour drive was a great chance to take a look at the gorgeous rural scenery of both countries - ranging from forested mountains to dusty little shanty villages, and verdant lowland cattle pastures which almost look like home, until you realise that the trees scattered around the field aren´t oaks but palms. Very strange.

The border crossing was great - my first experience of a non-airport arrival, and what a good one! Hoards and hoards of market stalls selling seriously dodgy looking fruit, clothes, water, shoes, evrything under the sun, including the last comida tipica before you leave Guatemala. Blokes with huge stacks of grubby dollars in hand try and get you to change your last Quetzales and everything is chaotic and loud and dusty. Fabulous! Unfortunately the Guatemalan entry stamp allows access to El Salvador as well and depite our best efforts to charm him, the official wouldnt indulge our request for an extra stamp to add to our passports! Suspicions were aroused when the search of our van revealed a stockpile of dog food in the back (I´m still not entirely sure what it was doing there, I think the drivers brother has a pet shop or something - as dodgy as it sounds it genuinely was completely innocent!) but it seems that as soon as you explain you are a tourist group they are totally disinterested - apparently only locals are capable of smuggling drugs!

As we approached the coast and saw the beginnings of the pounding surf which make the coastline around La Liberdad increasingly popular, we got a real sense of summer holiday excitement - I think there was even some singing in the bus!

On arriving we weren´t dissapointed. The "resort" is a little collection of residential properties, beach shack hotels and sea front bars but the charm is all in the ruggedness. As seems to be the case everywhere in Central America, everything is dusty. The roofs are either corrugated tin or palm fronds and most of the public `buildings´ are open-sided and sand-floored. I finally felt like my trip was beginning.

We spent a blissful weekend swimming, surfing (I´ve got the injuries to prove it!), dancing, drinking, eating, sunbathing and generally rueing the fact that we had to return to the city and our classes on Monday. On Saturday afternoon we visited Las Olas (the waves) - a hotel down the coast which has a sea water pool where you can stand on the edge and let the full force of the wavres break against you and send you flying backwards into the water. Endless entertainment! Pupuserías - thick hand made tortillas stuffed with queso (cheese), carne ("meat"!) and frijoles (beans) - from a street side stall are a revelation, although the Salvadoran method of opening them up to fill them with salsa inevitably results in burnt fingers. But wow, how delicious. I´m giving myself hunger pangs just thinking about them.

permalink written by  Alex Kent on August 24, 2007 from El Zonte, El Salvador
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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Leg 1

London, United Kingdom

After two rather stressful days of packing and preparing, during which Dave was an absolute hero, providing constant advice and emotional support, I said my tearful goodbyes to home and the boy himself and headed down to Heathrow on 15th with Ma and Pa, where we met Gertie at the hotel. I will readily admit to feeling pretty daunted and upset by the whole situation, but a Bloody Mary and a couple of glasses of red calmed my nerves somewhat. And having seen the menu, which charged £17 for a portion of shepherd´s pie, I was encouraged that leaving the country might have its benefits! Plus, the few days of English sunshine had once more resorted to torrential rain, so my imminent departure was looking up.

The following morning seemed to fly by, and all too soon I was shedding yet more tears outside departures. The delights of British Airways ensured that I had a good few hours extra to pull myself together though, and four hours late I was finally in the air on the way to Miami. In between snatched minutes of sleep, and a great viewing of Blades of Glory, I got chatting to Simon, the greatest air steward ever, who had studied Spanish in Antigua about 20 years ago and enthused about it so much I couldn´t help but get quite excited. He also introduced me to another girl on the plain who was returning to Guatemala City (her home town) after a year studying in Madrid, so she and I had a good chat and agreed that after our late departure, making the connection in Miami was going to be a challenge.....

permalink written by  Alex Kent on August 16, 2007 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature
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