Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Cavern Diving



We thought long and hard about diving in the Cenotes beacuse (1) we are really inexperienced, (2) have never dived in sweet water where the bouyancy can be tough to maintain, (3) Anu's ears which were not doing too well after our last outing, and the general fear of being in caverns where the exit would not be visible as we enter the tunnels. We hadn't really thought about it until one of the dive shops mentioned it, but being inexperienced we could be a danger to the formations in the cavern, and that we definitely did not want to be.

We researched hard, met a bunch of dive shops, and finally decided to do the dive, and do it with Paolo who ran his little dive shop from our hostel. We were a bit worried about the quality of his equipment but felt that it would be far more personal doing the dive with him than with a big shop. It also helped that he was always around the hostel so we could keep going back to him with our questions. He has a nice calm temperament which was key to us. With Paolo, we could go to the Cenotes after all the tours had finished their dives which meant we had the cenote just to ourselves.
Early in the day we checked our equipment. Yannick had a tough time finding gear that fit him but finally we managed. The water is cold so we had to get 2 wet suits each. We drove out to Dos Ojos around 2 pm in the afternoon. The first sight of the cavern is stunning. The cave is like an open mouth. The water is aquamarine and transperant. It is inviting although cold. We jumped in and it took a little while to figure out what weight we needed as we were wearing 2 wet suits each and were in sweet water. Finally we were set to submerge. I was a little worried about Nu's ears so seeing her get comfortable was comforting. Yannick is like a pro. He really is a fish so no worries there.

We began to explore the cave following a line called the barbie line. No idea why, but at one point they have a croc trying to eat a barbie doll strung on the line!

Finding our bouyancy was a bit tricky but once we had worked it out, the diving was easy. The formations were stunning and because the water is so calm and transperant I felt I was kind of hung in space. The tunnels can get dark and even though we were carrying torches it can still be intimidating. Exiting a tunnel, we were suddenly faced with a cavern where the light was bursting through. It was ethereal! The formations were glowing in a blue green hue, and the light played with them creating some amazing effects on the bottom.

The dive was quite long and so we did not have much time for the 2nd dive. It was a short dive where we surfaced in a Bat cave. I'm not a big fan of bats especially when they huddle together like a mass of bodies. They remind of rats, who I don't particularly fancy.

The dives were great! I think all 3 of us prefer reefs over the subterreanean dives but its definitely an experience we'll all cherish.

TULUM


We got into Tulum and went straight to the hostel that friends had recommended. Lobo Inn was really basic, but Tulum is expensive because of the large number of American tourists here, so even though it wasn't the best, we took the room. The room was large but on stilts which means the room is not very stable. Everytime a semi trundles down the highway our room shakes like it is in the midst of an earthquake. Not  a huge shudder but a mild tremor. The first time it happened, I thought we were in the middle of an earthquake ! I guess its a bit like a tree house.  The best part of this hostel is that they give you free bicycles.

We took the bikes and headed to beach straight away. The water looked beautiful, crystal clear, aguamarine, and set against the white sands with coconut palms, it makes a pretty picture. Enroute we saw a dead snake on the road. It has been run over. Huge Iguanas were everywhere along with beautiful blue birds. This stretch looked really inviting and we began to wonder if we should change hostels but then decided against it, as it was super touristy and expensive. Taking these decision and wondering if we made the right choice have been really painful, one of the things I won't miss about traveling, once we get back.

We found some good food in the village and figured that we could base ourselves in Tulum to explore the area instead of moving around with our bags. We ended up staying here for a week.
The ruins in Tulum are small but are located on the beach which is a nice change from the other ruinas. You can see the principle ruin from the beach. Its nice but like I had said earlier we were all ruined out so did not go in to explore.

Around Tulum are hundreds of cenotes. Basically caves with subterreanean water bodies. These caves are filled with beautiful formations of stalactite and stalacmites. Generally there is an opening to the sky and from there the cavern makes its way underground into other interconnecting caverns. The light shining through the cavern openings makes the entire place look ethereal.

We chose to dive in Dos Ojos, the largest of these cenotes.  I'll write about the dive itself later.

Tulum was fun. We met a really fun German foursome and hung out with them for a couple of days. Hanging out meant we went for a free slasa lesson on the beach, drank a lot of beer, ate some great tacos and tortas, and laughed a lot. Joachen, Maria, Peter and Anna were fun. We also met a French mother daughter,  Aurelie and Nykita, who want to move to India, an Argentinian couple trying find a place they want to call home, a panamanian traveller, and many others. Its been relaxed, and fun.

Friday, August 19, 2011

CHI CHI


Chichen Itza is a wonder of the world and so like it or not, since we were this close we had to visit. Friends of ours who had been there a few weeks earlier gave us the best advice we recieved, and that was to get there really early before the tours from Cancun descend. We left Merida on the 6.30 am bus, and go to Chichen around 8.15. We were amongst the first visitors, probably the most important factor in making the experience enjoyable.

The park is very well thought out, from a traveler point of view. They have free baggage storage for our back packs and a bus ticket vendor on site, so we did not need a hostel and could leave for our next destination as soon as we were done visiting the ruins.

The ruins are impressive. The main pyramid, El Castillo,  is first on view. It is huge (25m tall) suberbly restored on two sides while left unrestored on the other two giving us an understanding of what it might have looked like when they found it. A total of 365 steps run up the pyramid, each step for one day in the year. On the solstice, twice a year the sun makes its way up one set of steps. Impressive, given a lot of the ruins are over 2000 years old. The sculptures on the panels are quite beautiful and descriptive. Jaguars, and Eagles with human hearts in their claws, stories of how the beating human heart was removed and then sacrified to Chac Mool etc are etched on these panels. The Mayan relationship with the underworld is fascinating. Everywhere you see images of skulls and skeltons, supposedly the guardians of the underworld. The ball court here is the biggest we've seen, just as everything else is. The Iglesia, and the palace are almost Indian temple in design. The market place, and the the hall of pillars, grupo de mil columnas, that were probably areas where the public got together is impressive. Carving out cylindrical pillars with no machinasation and that too by the 100's is quite amazing. El carasol is the observatory. It has a cylindrical top with windows that are laid out to see particular stars on particular days.

All this would have been more interesting were we allowed to actually interact with some of the ruins like in Palenque. I understand why we are not, but I think this is primarily why I prefer palneque to the rest of the ruins we visited.

The cenote called the Cenote Sacrada is a huge hole in the earth about 25 m across where tons of Mayan artefacts were found including 29 skeletons of children who were sacrificed. It is after this find that they realised that the Mayans did not descriminate between girls and boys when it came to the sacrifices.

Chichen Itza and Palanque show how develped the Mayan civilization was when compared to the Incas, who seemed far less evolved at least architecturally.

The setting is once again a forest and so naturally there is an abundance of wildlife in huge Igaunas who stand around like guards, and a snake that glided past Yannick once again. This is his 3rd snake in close proximity experience ... Yannick thinks the Iguanas believe that their King is buried somewhere here in the ruins which is why they are guarding it against us.

By 11 am the tours descended!! In a few minutes there were a few thousands of loud tourist everwhere we turned. Thankfully we were done and headed out.We took 2nd classe buses to Valladolid and another bus from there to Tulum.

Monday, August 15, 2011

PALENQUE


Palenque is about 2 hours drive from Villahermosa in the Chiapas district. The town itself is not much, basing its existence on its proximity to a beautiful archeologial Mayan site.

We got into Palenque town, picked up ticket for the late night ADO primera classe bus to Merida, left our back packs in storage at an exhorbitant price of some $0.50 per bag per hour which meant we had to shell out some $15 later that night, and headed out to the ruins. A park forest entry of 25 pesos per person and another entry fee of 52 pesos per person for the ruins themselves was unexpectly low for a site of such importance. The best part was that Yannick did not have to pay an entry at all.

Not connected to Palenque in any way but I really like the fact that in Mexico the first class buses charge kids half price. This really makes a diference to families, and because of this you see a lot of families on these buses.

Anyway, back to our main story. The Palenque ruins are set in a beautiful, thick, green jungle. The setting makes the experience the best I have had while visiting ruins. Add to that is the fact that the ruins are actually in pretty good shape, and they allowed us to climb up and even into some of the templos. For me personally, Palenque has been the most impressive ruinas we have visitied so far. Much more impressive than the Mayan ruins in Copan, or Tulum, and as ruins go, far more impresive than Machu Pichu. Having said that, the setting for Machu Pichu is hard to beat, and it is the location that makes Machu Pichu a wonder of the world. I know a bunch of people who would jump at me right now and ask about the spirituality of the place. I admit that too is a huge factor in Machu Pichu.

As we entered the complex , we were suddenly faced by a huge complex of temples. The temple of insciptions, the huge palacio and the temple where the red queen was found or the Tumba de la roja reina. We could actually enter the tomb, which is nice, because its only then that you get a real feel of the compplexity of the pyramid. This particular pyramid is in pristine condition and therefore more impressive than the ones where you need your imagination to really understand the structure. Being built with no machanisation of any sort or even the wheel is impressive. Walking around the Palacio where King Pakal and his ancestors lived is quite an experience. Interesting stucco tells you stories and so imagining the Mayan royalty stay here is easy.

We climbed the tall structures and even though the pyramids and temples in Tulum are much larger, these were more interesting for me. Some of the temples we really wanted to visit were shut to visitors but even then, walking around the jungle that was still overgrown and experiecning the ruins within these jungles was quite exhilarating. The setting and the light tickling through the huge Cieba trees was magical, and felt right out of a fantasy film. Tulum is where Luke skywalker opens the Star Wars and Palenque is where you'd expect stange medievial creatures to emerge from the forest.

Waking around the park we encountered the small but beautiful waterfall that continues to become the Bano de la Reina, or the bath of the queen. This is a set of small crystal clear pools created as the water flows down from the waterfall. The pools are a miniature version of Semuc Champey in Guatemala. The water fall isself is beautiful as the rocks behind the water form a wonderful picture with caves and little pillars cut into the rock face.

Three and half hours later, we were done with the ruins and headed back to palenque town in a collectivo. We hung around, ate tacos, I drank some beers, we hung out at a local music session at the main square and passed the next 6 hours until it was time for our bus to Merida. While we waited, I ate the best Torta of my trip so far. A torta is a mexican sandwich, made with a hard crusted bread with the insides dug out and filled with an assortment of meat, chopped onions, tomatoes, a local cheese, and chillis. I chose the Longinizas and it was a good choice.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Villahermosa, Tobasco


We got to Villahermosa in Tobasco state the next morning. (No, Tobasco doesn't come from here). Tobasco has more water than land and so they often pay the price with huge floods devastating the state every now and then. Hurricanes too make a habit of visiting these parts quite often. Apparently the hurricane season is end Aug to Nov.

Villahermosa was on our map primarily because we were meeting and staying with a couch surfing couple Daniel and Lorena. Villahermosa is a large, very wealthy town with beautiful parks and lagunas, huge shopping malls and everything from Burger King to Dairy queen to walmart. Would not have been the most interesting town to visit, but we were not counting  in the Daniel y Lorena factor! They made our stay here outstanding.They made a huge effort to introduce us to their friends, show us around (drive us around town after a full hard work day), took us to the beach, and just sat around chatting sharing stories. Lorena is vivacious and full of energy while Daniel's calming presence and information on everything Mexican perfectly compliment each other. Nu cooked an indian dinner for them and their friends and the next day Sandra, another friend of theirs, invited us to the beach. It was a fantastic day on the beach Even though the beach was no carribean beach, the company more than made up for it.

La Venta, the national parque in the middle of Villahermosa, is a beautiful setting for the Olmec archilogical findings including the huge Olmec heads. The huge Cieba trees contiue to stoke your imagination. An interestingly laid out zoo makes the park even more interesting. A huge aviary means you get to interact with Toucans, macaws,and other beautiful birds.

The food, and in Tobasco, where it is 40C during the afternoon, the refershing local drinks were fatastic. Orchata, a rice and cinnamon mixed in with water or milk was my favourite refresher. Jamaica, made from a dried flower imported from Africa, and Posol, a cocao and maize drink was fantastic. The Panuchas and Sabutes were forms of Taco that was spendid. the Sabute taco is like a puri, deep fried and fantastic.

Sunday was time to go to Palanque. Daniel and Lorena were awesome and decided to drive us out there. Daniel had a new camera and wanted to shoot pictures but unfortunately Lorena fell ill with a bad stomach. Even though we offered to take a bus, Daniel refused, and drove us 2 hours to Palenque. I hope they come to India so we can try and return the favour at least some what.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Gastronomica Mexico



From San Christobal we got to Oaxaha (ohaka) after a rather comfortable 12 hour overnight bus journey. The Oaxaca bus terminal is swank, much like an airport. We took a taxi into the city centre and started our search for a hostel. For low season, every hostel seemed surprisingly full and bloody expensive. After our longest search up until now, we finally found Dona Mario.

The city is a beautiful colonial city but unfortunately we've done too many now to be over excitied by it. We walked around for a few hours but the heat and midday son was really getting to us. Nu is on antibiotics and a decongesant tablet, both of whihc were making her really sleepy and tired. The long bus ride didn't help either. We got street tortilos for lunch that were decent but not exceptional.
We had heard so much about Oaxacan cuisine that we were definitely going to try some of it. One of their specialities is grass hopper or Chapulinas, sometimes fried to crisp with chillis on top, sometimes steamed, and apparently sometimes even live. The fried ones seemed ok except for the smell of dried fish. I thought about it long and hard before deciding not to try it.

Mole is another Oaxacan speciality. It is a paste made of chocolate, chillies and other spices which is then used in curries or as a marinade. It comes in a few forms Mole Negro, Mole colarado etc. We tried the mole negro and it was definitely interesting, like nothing I have tasted before. The chocolate was strong and chilli added a slight zing. I think they could use some more chilli to balance the chocolate but then who am I to play with tradition. The sauce is thick and a dark black. It reminded me of chywanprash if you know what that is. Definitely a new taste for us. We also tried a refresco made of rice powder and milk or water, spiced with cinnamon, called horchata, again interesting. It did seem like it could ferment into alcohol, a little like the first tapped toddy.

Today we continued our gastronomical journey at the Mercado 20 Novembre. It is an interesting market, with vendors selling you everything from fried grasshopper, to clothes, to fresh meat and fruit. We had the tortilla con chorizo, and consalchicha oaxaquena, very nice and then we had the Tlayudas con asiento, a taco based sandwhich filled with all sorts of vegetable, oaxaca queso or cheese, and meat...fantastic!!Some churros, and a street side pastery and our 3 course lunch was a hit.

Zocalo, the central plaza in Oaxaca is lively. A live orchestra plays on the band stand in the evening and it is a good orchestra. Streets are filled with ballon sellers, and comedians doing their act, and vendors with all kinds of fruit , potato chips, and other foods. It is very touristic but not in a bad way.

It was a beautiful sight to watch the older generation (60 to 80) dance their woes away to the live orchestra. Touching, when you notice the effort they have made to dress up to enjoy their evening. The highlight for me was the look on the face, and the brightening of the eyes of a septugenerian when his daughter arrived late, but just in time, to partner her father for his first dance.

Spice at last


After the debacle at the border, we arrived in the beautiful quaint town of San christobal de la casas. The plaza is the centre of the town like all Spanish colonial towns. We did not have a hostel booked so we walked down what looked like a main street. It was an  'only pedestrian' street and very pretty. We found a decent really cheap hostel and took it.

I've mentioned before that I was disappointed with the food on this trip. Not always but more often than not the general staples have been quite uninspiring. That was all about to change... We happened upon a Taqueria called Cochinita Pibil, which means it is actually from the Yucatan and not from the Chiapas where we were. We ended up eating tacos con chorizo, tostadas, like small fried tacos with flling- cheese and some sort of cream, tortillas, and few other forms of bread or tacos with different filling. The longinizas, a flavoured sausage tasted amazing, as did all the chilli sauces. They were spicy but not out of bounds as the Mexicans would like us to believe. Even Yannick has been dousing his food with the sauce much to the entertainment of the other customers.

The next morning we walked around the city, saw the beautiful cathedral and ate a lot. This time we went to a really local although now famous cerveceria or beer bar. This place had a great deal, 2 beers and a snack for some $4. The snack I had was Camarones del diablo, spicy and crunchy. The table also got a small portable barbecue with small peices of pork in a tomato and chilli sauce, to be eaten with tacos. You can add fresh raw diced onions, capsicum and a mild salsa to spice it up. I have been in Heaven the last 2 days! The bread we picked up for breakfast was great too. I wonder why the other countries around Mexico wouldn't just incorporate this cuisine into their own!

Next lunch was at a local joint owned and run by three generations of a family. The soup was a winner, and then the albondigas con arroz (rice with meat balls) divine! I'm staying !!!

Its been raining heavily and so the next 2 days got washed out but we managed to get to the Dulce Mercado or market of sweet, which looked like an indian halwai market, with milk sweets (pedas), baked sweets, and a variety of gaudy colored local sweets. We tried out a strange desert. It was sweet, hot syrupy liquid in a glass filled with fruits. Interesting but not to my liking.

On the perifery of this market are local restaurants and taqueria. Today, I tried the huacheria con longinizas (might have got the name a little wrong). It is diced laoginiza with chopped chillis, some diced tomatoes, some kind of cream cheese, and grated cheese sprinkled on top, all layed out on a soft tortilla. Don't think they needed the grated cheese but otherwise, one more reason to love mexico!

Monday, August 8, 2011

I HATE BORDER CROSSINGS


Luckily this is the last one for us. At least the last one where we need to convince officials that the Indian passport is for real, and then need to explain to them the treaties that have been signed between our two countries etc etc. Sometimes coercion works, sometimes 'No intiendo espaniol' and sometime just plain waiting looking pissed off but with a smile. Tough one the last. Honestly, we haven't had too many problems crossing borders but it does take a while longer than the American and European passport holder. Well, I don't blame them because most terrestrial border migration officers have not seen Indians before. Guatemala was about a bribe but Mexico was the worst! I've jumped the story so let me backtrack a bit.

Early morning we were at the jetty waiting for our launch at 5.45 am. the sun rises quite early so it was light by then. The ride, cutting through lago Atitlan was beautiful. The rays of the sun streaming through the mist created a beautiful image. The volcano and the cloud of condensation above it was stunning.

The 45 min boat ride, and the next 4 hour ride in the minivan was super comfortable. We were only 3 of us in a van meant for 14, which meant we slept through the drive, not even stopping for a meal. The Gautemalan exit stamp was no problem even though I had been warned that an exit fee, nee a bribe might be asked of us. A bus picked us up from the Gautemalan border and drove us some 15 mins to the Mexico immigration.

Here our passports were taken, our US visas checked, and then we were asked to wait a little. Half an hour later, I tried to find out what was going on, and I was told it would take a few minutes more as they were waiting for an email form Mexico city confirming something. I must clarify that the offiers were polite and at no point in time did I feel they were gunning for a bribe.

We were hungry and the only food we could find was ice cream. It had been an hour an a half since we got here and our driver was getting anxious. Luckily for us, we were the only ones on the bus so no one else suffered while we waited. 2 hours into the ordeal, we finally met someone who spoke a little English. She explained that they had recieved a warning about travellers from our country about 3 weeks ago, and therfore had to get a confirmation that our US Visas were real. I explained that we had been in and out of the US on the same visa thrice in the last few months, but that did not help. They had to email their regional HQ, who would then email Mexico city, who would then somehow confirm that the visa wasn't a fake, mail these guys back, and then we would be on our way. Only problem was that there internet only worked intermittently, and of course it wasn't working all afternoon! I was livid because it seemed like a deadend and I couldn't help in any way.

Luckily, the boss of the office, headed out to the regional hq and just as the Bus driver was ready to leave us to our fate in a border town with no hotel, food or taxis, he came back with the news that our visas were indeed authentic!

4 hours later we were on our way to San Christobal de la casas.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Lago Atitlan


Lago Atitlan is a huge lake surrounded by 2 volcanoes and a bunch of hills. Being the rainy season, the hills are covered in green. With clouds well below the top of the mountains, the scene makes a pretty picture but we had been to Titicaca before and that is a dampner where Atitlan is concerned. Titicaca from the Bolivian side is not only spectacular, it has a sense of spirituality that Atitlan doesn't. Maybe it's because of the villages around the lago. San Pedro de la laguna, the village we picked to stay at was a mix of untidy ramshackle structures. The Lago itself is too dirty to be inviting to swim in and someone we met also told us the water was cold. Indian ness abounds. In that I mean places called Shati Shanti, Yoga and finding yourself courses, medition and the rest of the pop culture with no depth to it. Someone we met told me that there were people here who he had met 8 years ago when he last came, and they were still on the same trip that they had started 8 years ago. Lots of drugs and alcohol mar any charm it could have.

Clearly, it wasn't my favourite spot. We were lucky to have a day with sunshine so the lake with the mountains as a back drop did look awesome, but it wasn't enough.

The next day Nu and I decided to take the trip to the thursday market at Chichicastenengo. Yannick and the Catalans (not sure I can call them that because they are actually from the Basque country but what the hell, it sounds good and I don't know Spanish politics enough to worry about it) decided to stay back and hang out. This is a huge  'Mayan' market that takes place twice a week. I wasn't expecting much as the term Mayan and folkloric are abused in plenty in these parts.

The drive was 2 hours long and when we got there it was like we had expected, a big indegenous market primed at tourists. Luckily a few block into the market we got a glimpse of the real market. The market where the locals shopped. This was far more interesting. Some of the weaving work was splendid, the little worry dolls that yo uput under your pillow when you go to sleep so that they takes your worries away, the ethnic musical instruments, and the raw cuts of meat hanging around made it quite a market. On the steps of the cathedral was a flower market, artisans had made some interesting bead work quetzals, and the masks were fantastic but too heavy for us. Most importantly, the churros were decent. We ended up picking a few bargains and then stepped into a restaurant for a beer and lunch.

In the end, It turned out to be an interesting day.

Back In San Pedro we reunited with Yannick and the gang. It was our last night together. Next morning we were headed to Mexico and they were headed to Antigua and then onto Nicaragua. We, especially Yannick, was going to miss them a lot, but the last 2 weeks had been fantastic!
We searched for a bar that supposedly had a salsa night only to find out it there wasn't one. A good asian dinner, a couple of beers, lots of laughter, and we were ready to call it a night. We did have a 5.30 start the next morning.

Antigua, Gautemala


Antigua is a small little colonial town about half an hours drive from Guatemala city. The drive from Coban took us about 6 hours and we got a glimpse of the capital city enroute. It wasn't a pretty sight. Full of favelas and very impoverished, it has a very uncomfortable vibe, at least the parts we drove through. We did see some impressive business building but that only made the whole city feel worse.

Anyway, we expected Antigua to be a big city and so we were very surprised when we got there. we had planned on climbing the active volcano Pacaya and toasting marshmelows in the lava, but the rain killed the plan. We were also told that at this point in time there was no real lava, only hot ash.

We spent two days in Antigua, but the rain played spoil sport for most of the time. We did drink the best beer I've had on this trip so far, Gallo black draft. Amazing given that the bottled version isn't half as good. Lexi who is actually a friend of a friend of ours Lisa, drove into Antigua for a nice local dinner. the food was nice but not outstanding.

The next morning we headed out to Lago Atitlan, the deepest lake in the world, set at about 1600m. Antigua was fun but mainly because we we still travelling with the Catalan gang, Susana, Amiai, and Ion.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Laguna Lechua


After the unbelievable scenic beauty and adventure of Semuc champey and the grutas we were ready for our next leg. Susana and Ion had heard of a lagoon called laguna Lechua a few hours away from Coban, that was supposed to be completely off the beaten track and beautiful. The fact that very few tourists went here was too aluuring for us to let go. None of us, and not too many locals knew how we could get there even though it is a designated national park and in some guide books. We knew we had to get to Chisec or Coban, leave our big back packs there and head on with day packs because of a  trek involved in getting to the lake.

We took a local bus to Coban. There we located a hostel and convinced them to keep our back packs in storage for 2 days. It took us a few hours to find the hostel, then find a super market to get stock for 2 days since the refugio we were planning to stay at had on food etc. This meant we fianlly got into a collecctivo only by around 2pm. The next 2 hours were the worst. It was hot as hell, and there were 21 people in a van meant for 12 to 14. At some point Nu asked the driver to open his window and he casually puts on the A/C. The sadistic bastard!!

We finally reached Laguna Lechua. The route as it has been throughout Gautemala was beautiful. The national park was not what I had expected. The forest guard at the entrance took his job extremely seriously and we were told what we could and could not do. After that, we were asked to be careful and quiet as we walked throgh the park to the refugio as there were poisonous snakes around, and it was important we don't disturb them!! We were also told not to swim too deep into the lake as we could then look like food to the crocs that lived in the water. Exhilarating stuff!

The 4.5 kms trek through the forest was nice but unfortunately we did not find any snakes to disturb nor were we quiet enough to spot any Jaguars. The refugio is basic but nice except for our hatred of organic loos. The kitchen has a wood fired stove but was otherwise well stocked with utensils. In any case we weren't planning on gourmet meals.

The laguna was stunning! The water crystal clear with a lot of fish. We never did get to see the crocs but Amiai saw a nutria ( otter like mammal) and we saw a couple of large rodent like animals on our trek back. Tarantulas abound, and apparently so do scorpions. We saw a few tarantula without realising they what they were until the very end, and other large spiders but no scorpions.

We spent a beautiful morning, just the 6 of us, diving in, and swimming about in the water. A bunch of locals came in around lunch. They were noisy and the kids were making a ruckus and that spoit the peace of the place. They had been at the lake the week before and saw a croc sunning itself on the very rocks that we were hanging around. Nice not to have known before we got in, I guess.

All in all, a real fun time except for the organic loos that I've had enough of. 2 nights was the right time to spend here and so we headed back to Coban in a chicken bus. we knew there was nothing much to do in Coban but a night without insects and a real loo was inviting enough.