Backpackers?
11/05/06
As many of you might have already understood, we both are extremely provident guys: infact, before leaving Italy, even if we didn’t take into account how much we would need a plug adaptor, we managed to gather the details of many people who were spread out in Central America. Amongst them, there were our friend Arnaldo’s parents, who have moved to Guatemala City in the past February.
We tried to call them while still in El Salvador, but we sadly found out that Arnaldo had given us only his parent’s fax number. Francesco, who is by now very fond of CVs and endorsement letters, insisted to send them a fax but Joska, more wisely, thought that maybe they didn’t even know we existed and, googling around, we traced Arnaldo’s father office numbers.
To be honest, we thought that we would have had only the opportunity to meet them for a cup of tea and a chat, but we happily ended up being almost adopted by an extremely charming, interesting and lovely couple.
After having spent two months on dusty roads and dirty beds, our hosts’ hospitality and kindness definitely made us feel at home; moreover, they gave us enough energy to face the remaining part of the trip and allowed our schizophrenic personalities to vent: in fact a life style almost forgotten was unveiled to us and we were very surprised of still being able to use a spoon and to wear a proper pair of shoes and not our flip flops!
World Wide Web’s Grand Tour
14/05/2006
There’s a website which claims to link a broad group of like-minded people on the globe in a sort of virtual VIP room and that apparently gives to these people a huge amount of opportunities.
It happens that both of us have been members of this poshy club for quite a long time (and we are still wondering why, since we are not VIP at all!) but we had never taken advantage of this “huge amount of opportunities” until one of us thought that it was time to verify the famous “six degrees of separation theory” and began to surf this website looking for “like-minded” friends located in the countries that we were about to visit.
Finally, we met Lina, a beautiful Colombian girl who now lives in Guatemala and who was so nice to invite us to join her and her group of friends for a crazy Central American night. What astonished us the most, apart from how kind and friendly all of these guys were with us, was to verify how simply and quickly we were able to create an intimate athmosphere with people that after all we did not know.
Is this the new way of travelling after the 19th century’s Grands Tours? And, above all, why the hell aren’t there any other members of this site to go out with in the next destinations of our trip?
Sayaxché, Olé!
18/05/2006
In Lenquín – Semuc Champey we were supposed to enjoy the chilly weather and the famous lagoons, but finally we ended up fantasizing about two gorgeous Afghan-Pakistani twin sisters who live in London. Eventually, after a lot of day-dreaming, we were somewhat disappointed to find out that they were looking only for two good Muslims to marry and that they weren’t interested at all in two average catholics.
We no longer needed to stay there and thus reached Sayaxché, a couple of houses that are set aside a river which is the only way to reach some remote Mayan ruins.
We quite easily met a local fisherman and agreed on leaving the day after at 8o’clock a.m.: in our minds, a pleasant boat-trip through the Guatemalan jungle was waiting for us. Notwithstanding, dreams and reality hardly ever match and our “pleasant boat-trip” took place on a stinky creek which was something in between the sewers of Calcutta and Dante’s Stige. In addition to that, our Caronte wisely forgot to tell us that we would face a freezing cold climate and that maybe our shorts and T-shirts weren’t the most appropriate of clothing.
Anyhow, after having had the time to grow two ice stalactites from our noses, we eventually made it to the ruins. The reward for experiencing hypothermia for 2 hours was a wonderful stroll through a bunch of dramatic pyramids with the only company of a group of howling monkeys. In despite of their name, these poor animals failed to compare with the loudness of the American tourist we were to meet in Tikal a few days later!
Always follow other travelers’ advice
19/05/2006
Ever since we entered Guatemala, many backpackers had been telling us that Flores is a place that one definitely cannot skip. We had been told of an enchanted colonial town which is settled on a tiny island in the middle of a lovely lake. Above all, everybody was sure that two Italian guys would have adored the picturesque red roofs of its houses.
We are still wondering if in Guatemala we met the craziest travellers in the world or if simply we don’t understand when people are being ironic, but the fact of the matter is that Flores was not what we expected. During the day it gets so hot and damp that stepping out of the hostel is simply impossible; the lake stinks just as if someone forgot to flush the chain and, above all, the “picturesque red roofs” are somehow not romantic: iron sheets covered with rust!
The three days we had planned to spend in Flores suddenly became one afternoon since we immediately fled to Tikal. Every guy who has been to a Mayan site will tell you that the coolest thing to do is to climb on a pyramid, especially in a place like Tikal, since it seems to be one of the most important of them. Therefore, when we were facing a 52 meters tall giant we didn’t hesitate and rushed to the top of it.
Nevertheless, the weird thing is how people tend to forget to tell you that pyramids are so steep that, once up there, the height will scare you to death. To make things easier, Joska is afraid of heights: it took him so long to come down that Francesco was seriously thinking of leaving him there!
