TravelStream™ news feed for member markcaswell on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/markcaswell en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 29 Mar 2005 13:35:49 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/snowdon2005/1112118360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/snowdon2005/1112118360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/snowdon2005/1112118360/tpod.html Tue, 29 Mar 2005 13:35:49 -0500 Hiking up the Llanberis path for Claire's 30th!

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Snowdon, United Kingdom

At some point i'll get round to putting a travelogue in here - for now just enjoy the photos!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/charity_walk_04/1092924000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/charity_walk_04/1092924000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/charity_walk_04/1092924000/tpod.html Sat, 12 Feb 2005 09:11:00 -0500 From Land's End to Arbroath on foot, on behalf of the Alzheimer's Society.

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Arbroath, United Kingdom

If you would like to see local press coverage of this walk, please go to:

www.epsomguardian.co.uk/search/display.var.495861.0.walker_jacks_in_job_for_800mile_charity_trek.php


The final amount raised was around £3500 - thank you to everyone who donated!


Mark
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/charity_walk_04/1089036000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/charity_walk_04/1089036000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/charity_walk_04/1089036000/tpod.html Sat, 12 Feb 2005 09:08:26 -0500 From Land's End to Arbroath on foot, on behalf of the Alzheimer's Society.

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Land's End, United Kingdom

I set off from Land's End on 5th July, and reached Arbroath on Wednesday 18th August, having walked around 750 miles through Cornwall, over Bodmin Moor, through Devon, Somerset and Bath, over The Cotswolds, along The River Severn and The Worcestershire and Staffordshire Canal, through Derbyshire, along parts of The Limestone Way, over the Yorkshire Dales, along the Dales Way, and parts of the Pennine Way, over some of the North Pennines, over Hadrians Wall, through Kielder Forest, over the England/Scotland Border, along The St Cuthbert Way, along The Southern Uplands Way, along The Innocent Railway, through Edinburgh, along The Union Canal, over The Forth Bridge, along The Fife Coastal Path, over The Tay Bridge, through Dundee, past Carnoustie, and along the coast to Arbroath!

The walk took 45 days, and went roughly like this:

Day 1 - Land's End to Penzance
Day 2 - Penzance to Redruth
Day 3 - Redruth to Lanivet
Day 4 - Lanivet to Launceston
Day 5 - Launceston to Okehampton
Day 6 - Okehampton to Morchard Bishop
Day 7 - Morchard Bishop to Tiverton
Day 8 - Rest Day
Day 9 - Tiverton to Durston
Day 10 - Durston to Street
Day 11 - Street to Gurney Slade
Day 12 - Gurney Slade to Bath
Day 13 - Bath to Yate
Day 14 - Yate to Slimbridge
Day 15 - Slimbridge to Gloucester
Day 16 - Gloucester to Tewkesbury
Day 17 - Tewkesbury to Worcester
Day 18 - Worcester to Kidderminster
Day 19 - Kidderminster to Wolverhampton
Day 20 - Rest Day
Day 21 - Wolverhampton to Weeping Cross
Day 22 - Weeping Cross to Denstone
Day 23 - Denstone to Hartington
Day 24 - Hartington to Castleton
Day 25 - Castleton to Stalybridge
Day 26 - Stalybridge to Maninkoles
Day 27 - Maninkoles to Earby
Day 28 - Rest Day
Day 29 - Earby to Malham
Day 30 - Malham to Dentdale
Day 31 - Dentdale to Kirkby Stephen
Day 32 - Kirkby Stephen to Temple Sowerby
Day 33 - Temple Sowerby to Alston
Day 34 - Alston to Once Brewed
Day 35 - Once Brewed to Bellingham
Day 36 - Bellingham to Byrness
Day 37 - Byrness to Jedburgh (Scotland)
Day 38 - Jedburgh to Melrose
Day 39 - Melrose to Fala
Day 40 - Fala to Edinburgh
Day 41 - Rest Day
Day 42 - Edinburgh to Kinghorn
Day 43 - Kinghorn to Cupar
Day 44 - Cupar to Carnoustie
Day 45 - Carnoustie to Arbroath
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1100962800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1100962800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1100962800/tpod.html Sat, 05 Feb 2005 06:10:23 -0500 Central America 2004

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San Cristobal to Taxco, Mexico

Having recovered from the frostbite and head injuries caused by Volcan Tajumulco, it was time to get going again, so i headed West accross the border back into Mexico. Guatemala has been amazing, and like no country i have seen before, but in a way it was a relief to get back onto Mexican soil - travelling is so much easier here - the buses leave on time (more or less!), and you are not expected to be a contortionist just to get on them in the first place!

So much to see, so little time to see it all, so i set myself the task of visiting 8 Mexican cities in 10 days, and it went something like this...

First stop was a quick revisit to San Cristobal de las Casas, close to the border. I was last there about two months ago, but the climate had changed quite a bit since then, from rainy, hot days and warm evenings, to dry, fresh days, and a whole lot colder nights! It was great to go back through S.C. though, as it had been one of my favourite places in Mexico, but there was only time for one evening, before i jumped on a 13 hour bus ride to Puerto Escondido ('Hidden Port'), for my first glimpse of the Mexican Pacific Coast. The beaches in and around P.Escondido are renowned for being some of the best in the world, and for those of you who have seen 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' (if you haven't you should!), the desterted beach scenes were filmed near here.

But the real reason people come here is for the surf - international competitions are held here every year, as surfers try to tame the huge pipeline waves. It is forbidden to swim on the main Zicatela beach, as the undercurrent is so strong, and there is no way i was going to try surfing for the first time here! Luckily, the bay around the corner is a little less scary, and the perfect place to hire a boogie board for the day, until the sunset turns everything a deep shade of orange. A couple of days trying to top up the tan, and it was time to get yet another overnight bus, back to Mexico City, where i had begun back on 1st September. But there was barely time to do my washing and drop off my rucksack into storage, before i headed North to the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende. San Miguel is a quaint city, full of arty shops, plazas, churches and restaurants. It also has a great botanical gardens, full of different species of cacti, and it struck me that despite the cactus being pretty much the national plant of Mexico, i hadn't really seen that much of it on my travels so far - i guess it must all be in the North Western part of the country...

24 hours later i was pulling into the bus station on the outskirts of Guanajuato. I hadn't even planned to come here originally, but several people had said how great it was, so i thought i had better see what all the fuss was about - and i wasn't disappointed! Guanajuato is an amazing, crazy, cobbled, maze of winding streets, bridges, underground roads, alleyways, footpaths and plazas - it really is an incedible place!! It is also near impossible not to get lost here, but as every alleyway seems to lead to yet another beautiful plaza, it doesn't really matter! The city is home to one of the best universities in Mexico, so it has a real buzz to it, with musicians and artists wandering about on their way to the next gallery or arthouse film. There are also some great museums here, from the house where Diego Rivera was born (i will have to write a whole separate email about Diego and Frida!), a fantastic Don Quixote museum, and an exhibition of Rodin's work. I was a bit confused, as i had thought that most of his sculptures were in Paris, but the guide explained to me that while the sculptures are Rodin originals, they are not the original originals (!) - basically once Rodin had designed the sculptures, he made three or four of each model - the first ones are considered the most important, but even so all the well known sculptures were here, from 'The Thinker' to 'The Kiss', etc.

Talking of the kiss, Guanajuato is home to several famous Mexican legends, one of them surrounding 'La Callejon del Beso', or 'The Kissing Alley'. This tiny little street off one of the main plazas, is so narrow that the balconies on either side nearly touch in the middle. Legend has it that the daughter of a rich aristocrat lived on one side, and fell in love with a local miner. Their romance was unacceptable because of the class differences, so in order to carry on in secret, the miner rented the flat accross the road, so that they could steal kisses accross the balconies!

The city really reminds me of Valparaiso in Chile (without the sea of course!) - beautifully coloured houses piled up on the hillside, the best view of which can be seen from up at 'El Pepila' monument, home to another legend. They say that at the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1810, El Pepila (real name Juan Jose de los Reyes Martinez), strapped a huge concrete slab onto his back, enabling him to walk through the streets avoiding Spanish gunfire. He managed to set fire to the corn-exchange in the city, where the Spanish had set up camp, killing many of them, and thus leading to the first rebel victory in the War of Independance.

In between the sightseeing i managed to fit in 'Diarios de Motocicleta' - a must see film if you are thinking of travelling through South America, and then all too soon it was back on a bus, through Mexico City, on my way to Puebla, about 2 hours East of the capital. Compared to Mexico City, Puebla is practically a village (although it still has over 1 million inhabitants!). It is home to many ceramic and pottery workshops, and also to some regional dishes, such as "mole poblano" (a dark, bitter chocolate sauce, poured over, wait for it, chicken! - this dish can be found all over Mexico, but the version in Puebla is the most famous), and "camotes", fruit flavoured sweet potatoes, made into the shape of a stick of rock - bizarre!

Puebla is pleasant enough, but one night there was sufficient, so then it was on to Cuernavaca, supposedly the weekend retreat for rich Mexico City dwellers. Personally i found it dirty and noisy, with little to keep a traveller interested, apart from the amazing Diego Rivera mural (him again!), the size of an entire corridor, depicting Mexican history, from the time of Cortes and the Spanish Invasion, up to the Zapatista movement. So after lunch and a wander round, i jumped on an extremely packed bus, this time to Taxco - and what a brilliant place it is - thanks Sue for suggesting i come here!

I arrived just after sunset, and was greeted with thousands of lights covering the hillside on which Taxco is built. Unlike most Mexican cities, which were designed on the American grid sytem, making it very easy to find your way around, Taxco is an utterly confusing maze of alleyways, half of them leading nowhere, and the other half covered in market stalls. The cobbled roads are so narrow that there is no space for pavements, let alone for cars to park on the roadsides (i have no idea where they do park, maybe they just drive around in a continous loop!). The host of my hostel was obviously used to foreigners not knowing there way around, as she gave me a card with the directions of the hostel on it - "for when i got lost"!!

The next morning i realised why the bus the night before had been so crowded - i had arrived in Taxco at the start of the annual arts festival, where musicians and artists from all over Mexico come to perform in the main square. As i write this i have just finished watching a crazy parade through the streets, involving flag bearers, baton twirlers, cheer leaders, people carrying huge rings of fire, dancers, gymnasts, primary school kids carrying tiny kites, scouts, the army (firing confetti from their guns!), and of course the obligatory massive speakers blaring out 80's techno music - brilliant!!

This time of year is also when you can try "salsa de jumiles", a local chicken dish smothered in a red sauce, containing... live beetles found in the hillsides nearby - tasty!! The beetle is considered a delicacy, and they even have a local holiday at the start of November, when everyone takes a picnic up into the hillls, in search of the little things!! I am going to brave the dish tonight, so if you don't hear from me again you know why!

In the midst of all this festival activity, it is easy to forget the reason why Taxco is normally famous - for its hundreds of silver workshops, making and selling all types of jewellery for tourists and locals alike. Unfortunately, due to the national holiday, most of the workshops were closed, so i will have to wait another day for that chain i was after!

And so there you have it - 10 days, 8 cities, about 50 hours on buses, but it was worth it, as i have seen some great places in the last week and a half. Next stop Acapulco for the crazy Quebrada Clavadistas, and to catch up with the even crazier Big Mikey G!!

marky x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1101740400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1101740400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1101740400/tpod.html Sat, 05 Feb 2005 06:09:13 -0500 Central America 2004

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Acapulco and Mexico City, Mexico

After 10 days of city hopping, it was time to head down to the Pacific Coast again, this time to Mexico's most famous holiday resort, Acapulco. As i was going to be meeting up with 'Mike 'I'm a banker' Gregory, we had already booked into a great hotel on 'La Costera' (the main beach strip), which is just as well, as Acapulco really isn't a backpackers place, as most of the coastline is covered in expensive high rise hotels. Infact many travellers miss out Acapulco altogether, in favour of Puerto Escondidio further down the coast. There's definitely not much in the way of sights or culture here, but it is a great place to just relax during the day, and party at night, which is pretty much all we did for a couple of days! We did however take the time to see the famous cliffdivers (clavadistas), from the Quebrada rocks. These people are craaaaaaaaaaazy!!! - first of all they climb up the rocks barefooted, without the help of any ropes, to varying heights of between 30 and 40m (!), then pray to the shrine at the top of the cliff, before diving off into the sea below!!! They have to wait for the waves to be in exactly the right position, or risk hitting the rocks underneath the water - incredible!!!

Slightly less incredible was the night boat trip we took the following evening. We had expected a classy yacht to glide us past the sights of the Acapulco coastline, whilst sipping margharitas and listening to sultry salsa music. What we got, was a ferry, plastic seats, even more plastic cups from which to drink our rum and flat coke, awful music blaring from the loud speakers, lots of elderly people dancing an unsteady salsa, and an extremely camp 'dance spectacular' - oh well!

From Acapulco, it was back to Mexico City for the fifth and final time, with Mike and Rob in tow. We stayed on the Zocalo once again, although this time in the rather more salubrious surroundings of the Holiday Inn, rather than the hostel a few hundred metres away that i had been used to. I certainly got to see another side of Mexico City, as we tried out some of the finest and most famous restaurants and bars in the city, in the posh areas of Polanco and Condensa. During the days we went on 'Marky's Sightseeing Tour', a free service kindly operated by a local traveller, taking in sights from the Palacio de Bellas Artes (yet more Diego Rivera murals), to El Torre Latinoamerica (the highest building in Mexico City, with great views of the sprawling metropolis), a very well stocked and at times pretty disgusting torture museum, and the waterways of Xochimilco. About 20km south of the centre, 180km of canals (originally used by Pre-Hispanic inhabitants to irrigate their fields and gardens) have been restored for tourists and locals. You simply hire a boat and punter, and float down the peaceful canals, while smaller boats carrying food, beer, souvenirs and mariachi bands approach, trying to persuade you to part with a few pesos - a very enjoyable way to spend our last afternoon in Mexico.

And so, with Mike and Rob safely on the plane back to the UK, i had just enough time for a bit more shopping, before it was my turn to head back accross the Atlantic. I left the Zocalo in beautiful sunshine, crowded with tourists, markets stalls, flags, demonstrators, and people going about there everyday lives, pretty much as i had found it three months ago - i won't forget this place in a hurry!

marky x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1100358000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1100358000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1100358000/tpod.html Fri, 04 Feb 2005 14:09:46 -0500 Central America 2004

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Xela, Guatemala

After the equestrian excitement of Todos Santos, we headed to the second largest city in Guatemala, Quetzaltenango, or Xela for short (pronounced 'Shela'). Xela certainly has the coolest climate of anywhere i have been in C.A. so far, particularly in the evenings, when for the first time we were grateful for hot showers and blankets on the beds!

The day after we arrived, we had planned to visit a nearby village, where a church had been split in two by a lava flow from one of the many nearby volcanoes, leaving the pulpit on one side of a 10m gap, and the pews intact on the other! Unfortunately that day there was a national blockade of all the major transport junctions, by an organisation called EXPAC. Without going into too much detail, Guatemala suffered a 36yr civil war last century, which only ended in 1996. During the early 1980's, the Guatemalan army brutally tried to quash the indigenous rebel armies, by marching into local villages in the highlands (including Todos Santos), and either massacaring every man, woman and child in sight, or forcing all the men to join the national army, and then fight against their own people. When the civil war ended, the EXPAC's (the people who had been forced to kill their families and friends) were promised compensation by the then corrupt government. However this was illegal according to the 1996 peace treaty, so when the current government came to power, they reneged on this agreement, and as a result, once a month the EXPACs blockade roads, and demand their compensation rights.

So after a day of not doing a lot, there was only one thing for it - to climb to the highest point in Central America of course!...

About 3 hours from Xela, lies the base of Volcan Tujumulco, a dormant Volcano which rises to around 4300m, roughly the same height as the Inka Trail in Peru. I was going to be hiking with a group of 12 travellers and 2 guides, and the night beforehand we met up to divide up the equipment (tents, sleeping bags, food, etc). Then it was early to bed, as the next morning we were up at 4am to catch a pickup and 3 chicken buses to the start of the trail. One of the travellers didn't turn up (we later found out he had set his alarm for 4pm instead of 4am!), but the guides assured us this wouldn't be a problem, as all he was carrying was some extra food that we now wouldn't need. So at about 10am we arrived at the foot of the volcano, and began our ascent...

Climbing at an altitude of more than 3000m is pretty hard work, especially with a tent, warm clothes, and 6 litres of water each on our backs, but there was no hurry, as we were due to reach the campsite at around 5pm, well before sunset. We had been warned that the weather forecast was not great, and after about an hour of amazing views of the other mountains and volcanoes in the area, the clouds rolled in, and we climbed for the rest of the day, with very little visibility, and gradually colder and wetter conditions, due to the drizzle from the low lying clouds. As a result, rest stops were few and far between, to avoid people getting too cold, and we arrived at the campsite about an hour ahead of schedule, at an altitude of about 4100 feet.

By now it was raining pretty hard, so it was a race to get the tents up before everything got soaked. And thats when the guides realised they had made a small error of judgement - the person that had not turned up, had not been carrying extra food, but infact all of the tent pegs, and the fly cover for one of the main tents! Everyone stood there in silence, realising there was no way 14 of us were all going to fit into one 6 man tent, which in any case would have no pegs to hold it down! The guides considered taking us back down, but by now we could hardly see more than 10 feet in front of us, and the rain had made conditions too dangerous to descend.

So it was a case of making the best of the situation - the tent with the fly cover was put up, and tied to nearby trees to hold it down, and then we fashioned a cover for the other tent, out of the guides' inner tent, and some plastic sheets. But the cover wasn't big enough to keep the whole of the second tent dry, so there was only enough space for 3 people to sleep under it without getting wet. This left 11 people, still far too many to fit in the other tent. A group of us went off with one of the guides, to where he had heard there was a small corrugated iron shelter, built in case of emergencies, which this was rapidly becoming - the wind chill reaches well below zero in the evenings at this height, so we had to get everyone inside before nightfall. We found the shelter, which due to neglect only had two sides to it, but after a bit of rearranging we managed to make a shelter big enough for 4 people, with a fire in the middle to keep them warmish.

And so then then there were 7, and we didn't have much choice but to squeeze into the 6 man tent, along with all the provisions and equipment - cosy! By the time we had had dinner (it took about an hour to boil a saucepan of water, due to lack of oxygen at this altitude), everyone was knackered, and knowing that we would have to get up again at 4am, we decided to try to get to sleep early. There was however, still time for me to cut my head open on a branch that was sticking out in the darkness - no lasting damage though, apart from the dent to my pride, caused by the stupid looking bandage i had to wrap around my head!

After a clautrophobic, uncomfortable and pretty sleepless night, we woke up in the darkness, to find it was still raining, and was just as cloudy as the night before. But there was no way we were going to turn around now, as we were just 2km from the top. Leaving the tents and bags behind, we set off up the steepest part of the volcano towards the summit, in order to get there before sunrise. Even without our rucksacks the climb was pretty hard - the rain had made the rocks very slippery, and it was hard to see where we were going due to the fog, so it was a case of following close behind the guides, or risk being lost in the darkness.

As daylight began to light up the stark landscape of the volcano, we finally made it to the summit - we were now standing on the highest point in Central America, although for all we knew we could have been on the moon - the beautiful views of the sunrise we had been promised were hidden by the clouds and driving rain! The best way i can describe the scene at the top, was like the films of people at the base camp of Everest - horizontal winds blowing accross the top of the mountain, with climbers shouting at the top of their voices just to be heard. We were warned not to stand too close to the edge of the volcano, in case we were blown over into the crater - despite gloves, hats, fleeces and raincoats, i have never been so cold in my life, and after about ten minutes at the top, where we kind-of-sort-of saw the sunrise (ie: one miunte it was dark, and the next it was less dark!), the guides decided it was time to descend, lest anyone got hypothermia!

Over breakfast back at the base camp, the guides told us it had been the worst weather they had ever seen on the volcano, but all we really cared about was getting down to an altitude where it was warmer and drier. Practically tearing down the tents, and running down the mountain, we made it back down to the bottom in under 2 hours, flagged down a chicken bus, and headed back to Xela. It wasn't until we were in the warmth of the hostel, that it struck us - despite rain, cloud, freezing temperatures, a few injuries, and some missing tent pegs, we had made it to the summit of Central America. And our reward? - an afternoon in the nearby natural hot springs of 'Aguas Amargas', heated, you guessed it, by the very volcano we had just conquered!

marky x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1099494000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1099494000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1099494000/tpod.html Fri, 04 Feb 2005 13:58:48 -0500 Central America 2004

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Todos Santos, Guatemala

So, after a whole day's travel, we had made it to Todos Santos Cuchumatan. The festival here has become so famous in the last couple of years that there was a double page spread in The Independent about it a couple of weeks ago - pretty much every traveller we had met in Guatemala was making their way through the mountains in one way or another, to see what all the fuss was about...

The locals have obviously caught on to this fact, as curiously accomodation and food prices were suddenly two or three times what was quoted in the guide books - we ended up in a dark, damp basement room, with no windows, and only two beds between the three of us, and were still paying far more than we had done elsewhere in Guatemala. But we were the lucky ones - those arriving the day after us, were greeted with the prospect of paying around Q100 each (which would normally get you a weeks accomodation here), or trying to find a local who might donate their lounge floor for a bit less.

Although the main day of the festival is 1st November, the fun gets under way a couple of days beforehand, with a funfair and extremely dodgy looking big wheel in the main square of the village. Saturday was also market day, so the village was buzzing with locals going about their daily business, amidst the anticipation of the horse race to come. Todos Santos is one of the few places were the men as well as the women still wear traditional clothing - red and white pin striped trousers, brightly coloured shirts with huge collars, and straw hats trimmed in red and blue, with silver buttons in the gaps. I'm not sure this fashion will ever reach English shores, but it certainly makes for interesting viewing!

That evening, a party was being held in the village hall, to crown what i guess you would call "Little Miss Todos Santos 2004" - about 20 girls between the ages of 15 and 25, in traditional dress, dancing down the aisle to the sound of a marimba band, before taking the mike to explain why they should win. We watched for a bit, but it was taking so long for each contestant to have their turn, that we decided to go and eat, and come back for the finale - sure enough, four hours later the girls were still parading through the now slightly more drunken crowd!!

The next morning (the day before the race), we headed back to one of the traveller's cafes, only to find out they had doubled the already doubled prices overnight! The town was now swarming with tourists, many of them wandering about aimlessly, with cries of "A room, a room, my kingdom for a room!" ringing through the hills. We decided to get away from it all for a bit, and headed off on a hike up the mountainside, for a view of Todos Santos and the surrounding villages - unfortunately, the 'far-sighted' council have decided that the best place to put the village's dump, is on the side of the mountain as you leave the village, leaving a delightful river of rubbish flowing down into the valley below.

I think it's about time i explained what on earth this horse race i have been ranting on about, is actually in aid of! Basically, legend has it that when the Spanish conquered Guatemala, a drunken local saw fit to jump on one of the Spaniards horses, and ride it around town in an act of defiance, until he was caught hours later. As a result, every year on 1st November, about 20 or so locals are chosen to get drunk, jump on a horse, and ride it up and down a hill, until they fall off. Being chosen to ride is a great honour, and some locals will spend a fortune buying a horse and training themselves up, in the hope of being one of the lucky riders. There is no actual winner or loser, noone is trying to go faster than the next rider, there is no prize for the last person to fall off or give up - they just drink themselves silly, get on a horse, and ride it - most bizarre!

It has been suggested that the reason the race is so successful, is because the town is in fact full of alcoholics, and unfortunately there would seem to be some truth in this. I have never seen so many paraletic people in one place - it is like a freshers ball and New Year rolled into one. In all seriousness though, it is actually really sad to watch - people comatosed in gutters, staggering about the streets, urinating in the open, and they even have a local jail (for jail, read concrete shack, with iron roof, no furniture, and gates open to public view) for those locals who become too rowdy. Whether the race has led to a culture of drinking or vice versa, i am not sure, but how on earth anyone gets any work done in this village i have no idea.

Anyway, at 7.30am the next morning, we headed down to the start line with the rest of the village to see the start of the 'race'. All the contestants were dressed in beautifully coloured clothes, complete with feathered hats. Obviously already worse for wear, they climbed on to their steeds, and at the sound of a whistle, they canter up a 400m hill to the end of the course. After a minute or so respite, and in some cases a top up of beer or similar, they turn around, and canter back down again - and this goes on for around four hours in the morning, and another four hours in the afternoon. Every now and then a rider will fall off, and you can only pray that the other riders are sobre enough to avoid them. According to the article in the Independent, two riders were killed last year, but the locals believe this to be a good thing, as the body is then carried through local fields, which will then produce a bumper harvest the next year. It has to rate as the most bizarre festival i have ever heard of, let alone seen, and by lunchtime we had had enough - apparently in the afternoon the riders hold live chickens above their heads, and strangle them as they cross the finish line, but we didn't hang around for that spectacle!

As we hitchhicked back down the mountainside on the back of a pickup (there was no way were going through THAT chicken bus experience again!), it was difficult to say whether the whole experience was enjoyable, but it was certainly interesting, and i doubt i will ever see anything quite like it again!

marky x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1095948000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1095948000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1095948000/tpod.html Wed, 02 Feb 2005 11:26:07 -0500 Central America 2004

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Oaxaca to Cancun, Mexico

Hi Everyone - hope you are all well!

So the last time i left you i was in Oaxaca - well since then i have travelled up the Yucatan Peninsula as far as Cancun, and the story goes like this:

From Oaxaca we went on a couple of day trips, first of all to Monte Alban, a set of ruins set up on the top of a hill, which kind of felt a bit like being at Machu Pichu, without the four days hike! We also went to see the largest living biomass in the world, which is a 2000 year old tree in a place called El Tule - it measures a whopping 50 metres around the base, and weighs in at around 650 tons, so it is no bonsai!

After a few days watching the world go by in the central square, it was onto San Cristobal de las Casas, a really beautiful town in the East of Mexico. When i arrived, preparations for Independance Day were in full swing, with lots of stalls, stages, and for some reason, dozens of table-football tables out on the square - and all this two days before Independance Day itself!

I went on a tour to the local Chiapas Indian villages, on the outskirts of San Cristobal, and while it does at times feel a bit intrusive, our guide spoke the local languages (many of the Chiaps people do not speak Spanish), so he was able to talk freely with the locals, and they seemed happy for us to be there (i'm sure that a cut of our tour fee may well have had something to do with that!) The most interesting, albeit gruesome part of the day, was the visit to the local church - as soon as you enter, the first thing that strikes you is the number of candles that have been lit on the floors - literally thousands of them, as offerings to the gods, models of whom line the walls of the church. It is then that you realise that candles are not the only offerings - everywhere you look, chickens are being pulled from bags, strangled, and then wafted over the candles, before being stroked over the heads of people with illnesses, as they believe this will cure their diseases...

On a slightly less chicken-strangling note, they also quite bizarrely offer bottles of Coca Cola and Fanta to the gods - the reason for this, is that they believe that burping expels evil spirits from the body, and what better way to enduce a good belch than a carbonated sugar drink!!

Outside the church, i was sitiing down waiting for the tour bus to arrive, when a young indian kid came up to me trying to sell bracelets and necklaces - when i declined, he simply turned round, bent over, and unleashed evil spirits of a slightly different nature in my direction - i didnt know whether to laugh or shout at him!

Independance Eve (15th September) was a crazy night - hundreds of people on the streets, dancing and waving flags - our hostel had organised a party for us, so while we learnt how to dance the local way, we tried a drink called "posh" (a local indigenous liqueur), and something called "tiburon", a kind of coconut flavoured drink, which i believe in spanish means "shark"?! A few hours later, and we were dancing to the sounds of a mexican reggae band in a tiny club in town - well you have to get into the swing of things!

The next morning i headed through the Independance Day crowds to the bus station, to catch a bus to Palenque, a set of ruins in the middle of the Mexican jungle - they were probably the most impressive so far, but the humidity and number of mozzies kind of took something away from the experience! In the afternoon we were all taken to a river called Agua Azul (it means blue water, although it was more of a brown colour when we were there!) to float away the afternoon with the locals.

From Palenque we (i am currently travelling with a couple of Australians that i met in Mexico City) took an overnight bus to Merida, a pretty uninspiring city in the north of the Yucatan, and from there we headed another set of ruins, called Chichen Itza. By now we were all getting a bit "ruin restless", so the next stop was Cancun, where i am writing this email from.

From all that i had heard about Cancun, i expected it to be full of McDonalds, Burger Kings and sombrero-wearing Americans.... and it pretty much was! However, when you get to the beach, you realise why the place exsists at all - the sand is like powder, the water is warm and blue, and beach goes on for aout 20km! Most people who come here stay in one of the all inclusive hotel resorts, unlike us in our 100 peso hostal room, but hey, you can still use the beaches (even if you do have to walk through a hotel lobby to get to it!) We also visited Isla Mujeres today, an island about twenty minutes from the mainland - more great beaches, and no McDonalds!!

So thats about all for now - tomorrow we are catching a flight to Havana, Cuba - it is only one hour from here to Cuba, so it seemed silly not to!

Take care everyone,

Marky x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1099407600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1099407600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1099407600/tpod.html Tue, 25 Jan 2005 14:32:01 -0500 Central America 2004

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Todos Santos, Guatemala

For all those who complain about transport in London!...

At around 7.30am on 29th October, i took a boat ride from San Marcos on Lago Atitlan, to Panajachel, on the first leg of my journey to a village called Todos Santos Cuchumatan, in the Western highlands of Guatemala. After an hour or so of debating whether to take a $40 tourist bus to Todos, we opted for chicken buses that would in total cost around $4, and headed to the nearest bus stop. We soon realised that Guatemalan chicken buses simply dont go the sort of distances we were trying to travel, and that we would have to change a few times on the way...

The first bus was simple enough - a half hour ride to Solola, but what we hadnt prepared for was arriving in the village on market day - a chaotic mess of people, market stalls, trucks and buses, none of which seemed to be going in the direction we needed. Eventually we discovered that we would have to change again in Los Encuentros, and were directed to a crowd of people awaiting the next bus. When it arrived, it was every man, woman and child for themselves - people were literally clambering over the bus (and us!) to get in anyway they could, and by the time we had managed to get our rucksacks up on the roof, there was little room to breath inside, let alone sit down. Imagine the busiest station on the Northern Line, at peak rush hour, then add baskets of live chickens, sacks of corn and boxes of bananas, and you have the scene. In some cases there were 5 people crammed into seats made for two, and dozens in the aisle, but somehow the conductor was still able to clamber his way down the bus to collect our 3Q (about 20p) - this whilst the contortionists amongst us tried to wriggle into comfortable positions.

An hour or so later we had arrived in Los Encuentros, and changed onto another bus towards Cuatros Caminos - from there it was onto Huehuetenango (via a couple of police patrols, and a fruit quarantine control post), by which time it was about 3.30pm. We were considering spending the night there to break up the journey, when we heard there was a bus going directly on to to Todos Santos, which would arrive at about 7pm, so on we got...

Two hours later we were still sat in the middle of Huehuetenango, having travelled about 200m, in a traffic jam that had apparently been caused by a national bike ride earlier that day. By this point some people had had enough, and were ordering beers through the bus windows, from one of the many street sellers. Eventually we made it out of town, and as the sun set in the distance, we climbed slowly into the mountainside along a dirt track, towards our final destination.

I think it was about 7.30pm when we heard a loud clunk from the engine of the bus, and we ground to a halt at the side of the road. It was now pitch black, and we were all asked to get off the bus while they looked into the problem. Thinking that bus had met its maker and was going no further, we tried to hail down a passing pickup to hitch the rest of the way there, but to no avail. Thankfully the driver of the bus seemed to know the problem, and pulling out a machete from under his seat, he set to work ripping apart up a huge tyre inner tube - a bit of tinkering under the bonnet with his homemade band-aid, and we were on our way again, albeit even slower than before. At this point the Britsh amongst us decided it was time to break into song, with renditions of 'Always look on the Bright Side of Life', and 'Oh You'll never go to Heaven... On a Chicken Bus', much to the bemusement of the locals.

Somewhere between the breakdown and Todos Santos, the seat i had miraculously acquired , suddenly came away from its hinges, and subsequently collapsed from underneath me, half crushing a small Guatemalan girl in the seat behind. I spent the rest of the journey clinging onto the luggage rack above my head, to avoid impaling myself on one of the poles now sticking up from the bus floor.

And then, at about 9.30pm, and with one very sharp turn around the mountain, we had arrived in Todos Santos. One boat, five chicken buses, and 14 hours later, and we were ready to join the hundreds of locals and tourists at the infamous 1st November horse race, but i think i will save that story for tomorrow!

marky x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1098972000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1098972000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/markcaswell/mexico_2004/1098972000/tpod.html Tue, 25 Jan 2005 14:30:40 -0500 Central America 2004

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Guatemala, Guatemala

Hello everyone - dont start reading this one unless you have a bit of spare time!!

So i left you last in Antigua - we were made so welcome by our host Sandra - great local food, lots of Spanish practice, the odd salsa lesson, thats its not hard to see why people have stayed with her for up to 12 weeks while taking courses in Antigua! The climate in Antigua is perfect - hot sunny days, but because of the altitude (about 1500m above sea level) there is very little humidity, and hardly a mosquito in sight, which was a welcome relief after nearly two months of sweating and being bitten (thank god for anti malarial tablets!).

But after a relatively lazy week it was time to start travelling again, and that we certainly did! Firstly it was off to Guatemala City (or Guat as the locals seem to call it), for a night of salsa in Zona Viva. Then the next morning it was time to catch our very first 'chicken bus' - brightly painted old american school buses that are the mode of transport for the average Guatemalan. We picked ours up from the chaos of a local market in the city centre, and were soon crammed three to a seat, as we wound our way through the mountains towards 'Chichicastenango', or Chichi for short.

Every Sunday Chichi comes alive with one of the most famous markets in Central America, so we arrived on Saturday afternoon, to get a headstart on the bus loads of tourists that descend on the town by Sunday lunchtime. Sellers arrive from all over the country to set up stalls, and then camp out in the main square in preparation for the next morning. We wee lucky enough to arrive on the night of a local fiesta, and were greeted by fireworks filling the air (some of which would have failed all safety standards back home - at times they seemed to be firing them directly into the crowds!) The next morning we headed down to the market at about 7.30am, to start bargaining with the hundreds of market sellers crammed into the main square and surrounding streets. The stalls sell everything from tablecloths, to huipiles (the embroidered shirts worn by the local women), to religious masks, to jewellery, to hand made bags and straw hats. The markets sellers are all in their local clothes, and fight for your attention as you pass by their stalls - half the fun is in the bargaining, as you expect to pay around 1/3 of their original asking price, although they will always tell you that their stall offers the 'mejor precio'!

Aswell as the market stalls, there is an area where the locals sit down to eat in between sales - row upon row of benches where they sit down to tortillas and frijoles, or somewhat more bizarrely for Central America, Kelloggs cornflakes and milk...

By lunchtime we were exhausted, our bags full of bargains, our cameras full of pictures, and our heads full of the incredible sights and sounds of Chichi market - an experience not to be missed!

So a short bus ride later, and we arrived in Panajachel, a small village on the edge of Lago Atitlan. We had heard that the lake was meant to be pretty awe-inspiring, and we weren't disappointed. It was formed when a volcano collapsed thousands of years ago, leaving a lake in a 15km wide crater, 1500m above sea level, surrounded by three huge volcanoes! At sunset the view accross the lake as the sun disappears behind the volcanoes, is just amazing! Pana itself is a bit of a drab place though, so the next morning we took a 'lancha' (small ferry) accross the lake to a place called Santiago de Atitlan. The main reason for visiting Santiago, is to see 'Maximon'. At this point i should probably tell you what/who is Maximon, although as no-one seems to be entirely sure of all the facts, it might be easier said than done:

Basically Maximon (also known as San Simon) is worshipped as a god of sorts throughout the Mayan world. Exactly what religion he belongs to no-one seems to be sure, but they certainly rever him, and go to him for advice, to pray, etc. His physical form takes the shape of a mannequin model, which is dressed according to local tradition - in Santiago this consisted of brightly coloured clothes, and about a dozen ties around his neck - apparently in another nearby village they have dressed him as a Michael Jackson lookalike, complete with white gloves, dark glasses and hat!! He also almost always has a huge cigar in his mouth, and a bottle of rum at his feet - lucky guy! Of course, Maximon being unable to actually drink or smoke himself, he requires a 'helper', basically a bloke who is chosen to smoke and drink on Maximon's behalf - no wonder there is an A.A. clinic in almost every village in Guatemala! Anyway, as i said, locals go to Maximon for advice, and in return for monetary or liquid offerings, they can light different coloured candles, representing different thoughts or occasions (eg: red for good luck, black to wish someone harm, etc.) During Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week), Maximon is paraded through the streets, accompanied by a huge fiesta, and, er, one would assume lots more rum and cigars!

In the case of Santiago, one household is chosen to house Maximon for an entire year, so when we arrived, it was just a case of asking 'Donde esta Maximon?', and for a few quetzales we were taken by a couple of local kids, through the winding streets of the village, to the 'man' himself - it is a very strange experience, walking into a locals home, to be greeted by an obviously drunk 'helper', and Maximon in the centre of the room, surrounded by flowers, candles, and offerings of rum, with 10Q stuffed between his ties, and a half smoked cigar between his lips!!

After a day in Santiago, it was back down to the dock to catch another ferry to San Pedro (by the way, the front cover of Footprint Central America 2004 shows the view from the dock at Santiago - pretty impressive!). San Pedro is certainly the most touristy of the villages around the lake (there are 12 in total, each named after on e of the 12 apostles) - western food, movies in the cafes every evening, internet cafes everywhere, but it remains a very relaxing place with amazing views - for $2 we got a room with private bathroom and a balcony overlooking the lake - bargain! You can hire kayaks from San Pedro, so the next morning we headed out accross the lake towards a little beach, trying our best to avoid the oncoming ferries!

And so here i am now, ready for a bite to eat, and then off for tonights apparent full moon party - apparently there is also an eclipse of the moon in half an hour, so i'd better get going! The last week has been packed, but its not over yet, as we head off to San Marcos tomorrow, and then into the highlands for their annual celebrations at the end of October - should be interesting!!

Take care and speak soon,

Marky x
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