The online space of Caroline Bach
During one of our days in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chema’s friend came from the nearby city Tuxtla Guiterrez to pick us up for a daytrip to the Sumidero Canyon, it was a beautiful canyon surrounded by lush vegetation and small waterfalls, and the company was stellar. Many many laughs followed by very very very good sushi back in San Cristobal de las Casas. Lovely day!
San Cristobal was a big contrast to Palenque – it was filled with a mix of hippies selling handmade jewellery and ladies in traditional clothing selling blankets and other treasures, it had a wide choice of restaurants with really nice food to very affordable prices, and one could feel a strong influence of – or at least affection for – the Zapatista movement. Just there, right beneath the surface, empowering women cooperatives, supporting indigenous rights, a strong sense of community and red stars all over the place.
We made our way south from Palenque to San Cristobal de las Casas, and met Javier on the bus, a chilean filmmaker that I had gotten to know on the bus+boat from Guatemala a couple of days earlier. Javi took us to the place he usually visits when staying in San Cristobal – El Paliacate – a “cultural space” where travellers, artists and socially active (or just politically upset) individuals gather for music, exhibitions and talks. El Paliacate refers to the handkerchief that the Zapatistas use to cover their faces. You have to watch the beautiful video in the end of this post – it’s made by Javier!
San Cris was much colder than anywhere else I had been in Central America. And rainy. To the point that Chema and I bought new (matching) shoes – oldschool mexican PANAM sneakers! (haha) We spent quite some time walking around the lovely town – and we hung out a lot at El Paliacate where Javi introduced us to the owner and where the vibe was perfect for hanging out after a long day of walking. Once, after spending the evening in a Lebanese restaurant, making our way back home, we stepped into a fantastic live Latin Jazz Fusion concert at a bar named Cocoliche. After wine, guacamole and very good music by IntermitenteJovel, we went back to Paliacate again and stayed put with Javier, the owner and another friend after all the people had left after a concert. The guys decided to start playing on the instruments the band had left behind while Javi and I had a long talk. Random and lovely, there was even a jaw harp! (No, I didn’t really know that name – I just googled “mouth instrument” and google completeted my search with “boing” haha!)
On our last night before leaving San Cristobal de las Casas, I went out for a walk on my own, and met the two 11 year olds Danilo and Daniel with their younger brothers Alexander and Alfredo – they wanted to play and pose in front of my camera, I’ll show you those videos at some other point. :)
On our last day, before leaving for our flight to Mexico City, we went to the café/restaurant/gathering place TierrAdentro – run by Zapatista supporters and offering really good Mexican mole and locally grown coffee.
Sangre, Sudor y Polvora, by Conga Films
The language is Tzotzil, as spoken by the indigenous people in Chiapas.
Wonder what happened to the Mayans that built those amazing pyramids that I showed you in the posts before? Here you have them.
I might as well get all of these photos out here while I’m at it. Here’s the second part of our stay in the Mexican town Palenque – the pyramids and the surrounding park. A beautiful place.
An eight hour bus and boatride after leaving Flores in Guatemala, I found myself on the Mexican side of the river – and made my way to Palenque where I met up with my friend Chema. The first thing we did in Palenque was going to the waterfalls called Agua Azul – and I want to dedicate an entire blogpost just to that, because of how beautiful it was. And because I have a video – I was so happy in the water!
After a 30 minute walk in the dark early morning, with the humid air smelling of jungle and mystery – we climbed Tikal’s temple number four, to await the rising sun in silence and watch the mist slowly lifting and revealing the rest of Tikal’s grandeur. It was magical.
Guatemala winning again? Definitely. I like temples, but tend to find them boring as they get flooded with “please don’t sit here” signs and tourists in orange caps. In Tikal, there were tourists, but not too many, and the dense vegetation always allowed for a moment of solitude and experiencing the pyramids and temples as if there was nobody else there – or actually, as if it was still the time of the Mayans and everybody were just still asleep. I went with George, and we spent hours just sitting on different pyramids and exploring by ourselves. “George, you need to climb this one, I feel so small up here – it’s amazing!” We sat watching the tourists come and go again, looked at the amazing stone buildings, and spoke about essentials.
Tikal was an amazing place. Without any doubt topping my list of places worth visiting, much of it thanks to that jungle around the temples, but mostly thanks to the fact that it felt so real.
Just got my passport back from Stockholm – I spoke to a staff member from the agency issuing Indian visas and he agreed to bring our passports personally instead of sending them via mail. It was all very urgent due to a huge mistake made by the Swedish Embassy in Mexico that delayed the delivery of my new passport for weeks. (Ridiculous story by the way.)
So he said he was driving to Malmö anyway on Friday and could bring them – so we wouldn’t have to wait and worry for the mail to be delayed or something and could already book our flights yesterday!
I get genuinely happy when people do these little things for other people without any personal gain. That’s first class service and people skills – I know where I’m sending loads of good karma. Thank you, Joakim!
We’re leaving sooner than soon despite me looking like an alien on that blue visa picture. *aliensounds*
And I just answered my “What now?” question. :)
“You know what I’m afraid of?”
“What..”
“I can’t bring an iron, right? So my clothes will all be rumpled..”
Taking my mother to India, preparation stage.
People don’t have to ask me twice about which my favourite country was in Central America, Guatemala wins hands down.
Antigua was a place filled with tradition, fragrances, tastes and impressions, and I was happy to be able to walk around by night without fearing assault and without being called a princess. Even the most traditional ladies were open for a chat that didn’t feel like I was buying something – valuable talks about life and their convictions. I was in Antigua only for two days and spent most of my time with two new friends who I met on the road – George who I met already on the bus from Nicaragua, and Stephanie who we met on the shuttle between Guatemala City and Antigua. Both lovely people.
Hover the photos for more info. I’m sorry for shortening the stories like this, I will share some highlights separately on a different occasion – right now there’s just too much.
A quick run through my old passport that has been joining me since I started travelling five years ago. I had to renew it as I only had two pages left for stamps and will be travelling soon again. Receiving the new, empty, modern passport felt like starting from scratch, like rebooting the system. What’s next? What now? Was that it? I don’t know.
After speaking to friends who’s biggest obstacle to travelling is the whole process of standing in line for, applying for, paying for, waiting for and hoping for a visa, I have become increasingly thankful for my EU passport that opens doors of trust in most places. Truth is, I’ve only had to apply for visa through an embassy for three of the 38 countries I visited since this passport was printed. Thank you, Sweden.
August 1st, 5am. Managua bus station.