RIO DULCE

Rio Dulce is a river in Guatemala and has become a popular cruising sailboat destination. It starts where is flows out of the lake Izabal. The river is spanned by one of the biggest bridges in Central America. There is a little village right next to the bridge with local vegetable markets on both sides of the street. Huge trucks, buses, tuctucs and motor bikes cause a big traffic jam every time because the street is so small. By the time the trucks go down the bridge towards the village the use the engine brake and that is a horrible noise, it sound like a plane crash! (unfortunately the hostel is next to the bridge but it is funny) The traffic rules are simple here: Toot and go! ;-) Everyone is running around no one cares about anything and you need to be careful not to get run over by a truck or a tuctuc. Tuctucs, the littel taxis are very common here:-) look at these pictures... awesome, isn't it?

NERIAS PLACE IN UAXACTÚN

Neria is a Guatemalan Woman from Uaxactún. She spent her whole life there. She has got a little accomodation, very simple but lovely and again awesome local food. The place is called Campamento El Chiclero. Thank you very much Neria! I would like to go back another time with more Spanish;-)
I never heard about Ramón before. It is a nut and they make really good cake out of it or mix is up with coffee, it is very tasty. I already bought the flour of Ramón on the market to make my own dessert! They also make natural chewing gum. It is an old Maya tradition. It simply tastes like tree:-)
Here are some impressions of a wunderful time in Uaxactún:

Nerias Place

Neria and I

Grandma making corn tortillas

her family 

on the left: chewing gum (no bread), in the back: Ramón the nut and

on the right: Pepper fresh from the garden

MAYA HISTORY

In the meantime I have been to Tikal in Guatemala where you can explain all about the Maya history. It was very interesting and I have seen a lot of temples, ruins and tourists;-) I don't like too many tourists so I went further into the jungle to find the real exiting stuff! Again I went on a local adventure bus to Uaxactún, a jungle town with more exiting ruins and history but no tourists at all! I met some wunderful local people and spent my time at Nerias place. With Antonio I got a really good introduction and a tour around the area to see all the ruins and temples. They still dig out Maya temples there and they are still looking for the whole secret of the Mayas in the jungle. I think I got a rough idea now and I can read some of their signs, have a look here;-) 

INTRODUCTION

Hey, here we go! J This is going to be my official travel blog about a lot of experiences and impressions I will get on my trip across Central America. I try to give you an idea of travelling around, meet local people, work and live together with them to learn about different cultures. I would like to invite you to follow me and share great impressions and I am happy about questions, answers or comments. 

I started last Sunday and I already feel like I am here for ages because I have already seen a lot of places. I needed a couple of days to get used to the heat and I was really confused to begin with: I crossed three countries, Mexico, Belize and Guatemala and I had to handle five different currencies, Euros, US Dollars, Pesos, Belize Dollars and Quetzales in two days. Now I am in Guatemala and I also need to improve Spanish, because no one here speaks English! But I am getting there soonJ The most exciting thing: I am really tall here!!! (1,63m) Haha, people here are so tiny! J