{"id":421,"date":"2002-06-27T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-06-27T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/2002\/06\/27\/jacquis-diary-guatemala-and-mexico\/"},"modified":"2002-06-27T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2002-06-27T22:00:00","slug":"jacquis-diary-guatemala-and-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/jacquis-diary-guatemala-and-mexico.html","title":{"rendered":"Jacqui&#039;s Diary: Guatemala and Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hola! mis amigos, I have been in San Pedro la Laguna, on the shores of<br \/>\n Lake Atitlan, for the past three weeks, learning more Spanish and living<br \/>\n with a lovely family. It was an insight into the lives of people here<br \/>\n and I was glad to have the time to relax and rest after my long overland<br \/>\n trip. The atmosphere in San Pedro could not have been better. No hassle,<br \/>\n lots of learning, good weather and the lake as a lovely backdrop to everything.<br \/>\n I saw a couple of video movies at Nick&#039;s Place and otherwise lived<br \/>\n a quiet life.<\/p>\n<p>I did get to Chichicastenango last Sunday for the market and that was<br \/>\n a real change of scene. I refrained from buying all that I could see and<br \/>\n just soaked up the ambience. As I will have the chance to re-visit the<br \/>\n market with the next overland group there was no need to rush into anything.<br \/>\n It was also the only rain I saw in three weeks. The benefit of this was<br \/>\n to clear the air of dust so that, for the first time, I could see why<br \/>\n Lake Atitlan is dubbed &#039;the most beautiful lake in the world&#039;.<br \/>\n It is certainly picturesque and well worth the visit. Mexico is next on<br \/>\n my itinerary!<\/p>\n<h4>Greetings from San Crist&#243;bal las Casas!<\/h4>\n<p>I have started my next overland trip and it is as different to the first<br \/>\n as is possible to imagine. I got to Mexico almost three weeks ago from<br \/>\n Antigua, having had my main bag of luggage &#8220;disappear&#8221; from<br \/>\n my hotel. I have almost come to terms with it now but it was hard to accept<br \/>\n that all my camping things, personal items, some new clothes and various<br \/>\n other bits and pieces were no longer mine. The owner did not want to involve<br \/>\n the police so we settled the matter in dollars cash but it doesn&#039;t<br \/>\n really compensate for the loss. I am fine now and have replaced the necessary<br \/>\n and am thankful for having sent so much home in Venezuela. The trip to<br \/>\n Mexico was an overnight bus trip and suddenly I was in Mexico City. It<br \/>\n is pretty high in altitude and very smoggy but it is just a bigger than<br \/>\n average city and I had no trouble there at all. Lots of old and very elegant<br \/>\n buildings in the centre, mariachi bands in Plaza Garibaldi, the Museo<br \/>\n de Anthropologica, parks, palacios, an excellent metro system and a chance<br \/>\n to catch my breath.<\/p>\n<p>From there I went to Guanajuanato, a beautifully preserved colonial town<br \/>\n about 4hrs drive north of Mexico City. Also a university town under a<br \/>\n UN World Heritage site order. I had three days there, and except for the<br \/>\n fact that some insect had me for a midnight feast in my hotel, I loved<br \/>\n the place. Next stop a town 80 kms away called San Miguel de Allende,<br \/>\n and two lovely evenings of music and traditional dances at a local festival.<br \/>\n It was done with their magnificent San Rafael Cathedral for a backdrop<br \/>\n and with lots of goodwill on the parts of both audience and performers.<br \/>\n I then went to Guadalajara, Mexico&#039;s second city. It was surprisingly<br \/>\n beautiful in the centre although I had only one day and could not do justice<br \/>\n to its many advertised attractions. From there I descended further and<br \/>\n had a hot and sticky day in Acapulco. It is as ritzy or as grungy as you<br \/>\n like and was surprisingly attractive in a slightly citified\/beach resort<br \/>\n sort of way. Back into the hills and a night at the town of Taxco to wander<br \/>\n the streets and try not to buy the mountains of silver on offer. It was<br \/>\n full of cobbled streets and silver shops and they were all up hill!<\/p>\n<p>Back to Mexico City and I succumbed to the tummy bug that I picked up<br \/>\n somewhere so I did not get to see the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe<br \/>\n as I had planned, but I did meet my new leader, Wayne (40, mad, English<br \/>\n Exodus driver) and the two (honest!) other fellows on my new &#8220;group&#8221;,<br \/>\n Derry (retired 60+ Australian accountant) and Martin (34, English IT technician).<br \/>\n Evidently the van has to be in Panama for a full group in August so they<br \/>\n have to relocate it and decided to run the trip despite the lack of numbers.<br \/>\n So far it has been great. All of us have travelled extensively and we<br \/>\n never seem at a loss for something to say. And while we do not necessarily<br \/>\n agree about everything we very quickly established that we wanted to have<br \/>\n a good time and were prepared to discuss and find the best option for<br \/>\n all. As you can imagine meal times are a group effort and there is no<br \/>\n hassle when it comes to trying to do any activity as we fit in anywhere.<br \/>\n Should be good &#8211; I&#039;ll keep you posted!<\/p>\n<p>Since leaving Mexico City, we have had two nights in Oaxaco, visited<br \/>\n our first ruins at Monte Alban and Mitla, travelled on to camp in the<br \/>\n Sierra Altavesada at Jiquipilas, and now in San Crist&#243;bal. From here<br \/>\n we head towards the ruins of Palenque and then to Uxmal and Merida, Chichin<br \/>\n Itza and on to the coast. It will evidently be hot and humid from here<br \/>\n on and I will not always have email access so the next group letter will<br \/>\n probably be from Antigua towards the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks Jacqui and keep us posted! If anyone would like to contact Jacqui,<br \/>\n her e-mail is: <a HREF=\"m&#97;&#x69;&#x6c;t&#111;&#58;&#x6a;&#x61;c&#113;&#117;&#x69;&#x74;r&#111;&#x74;&#x74;&#x65;r&#64;&#x79;&#x61;h&#111;&#111;&#x2e;&#x63;o&#109;\">j&#97;&#99;&#x71;&#x75;it&#114;&#111;&#x74;&#x74;er&#64;&#121;&#x61;&#x68;oo&#46;&#x63;&#x6f;&#x6d;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>What have you seen on your travels? Drop a line to the Beetle! <a HREF=\"mailto:Beetle&#064;&#103;&#108;&#111;&#098;&#101;&#116;&#114;&#111;&#116;&#116;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#046;&#099;&#111;&#046;&#117;&#107;\"><i>Beetle&#064;&#103;&#108;&#111;&#098;&#101;&#116;&#114;&#111;&#116;&#116;&#101;&#114;&#115;&#046;&#099;&#111;&#046;&#117;&#107;<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hola! mis amigos, I have been in San Pedro la Laguna, on the shores of Lake Atitlan, for the past three weeks, learning more Spanish and living with a lovely&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-main-article","tag-june-2002"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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