El viaje

Hugo sent us a MASSIVE list of recommendations. Having done the research Lu and i were set on taking the western road.

Flores was good to us but happy to explore again we left the hotel at 6am.

Our first destination was Crater Azul but either we missed a turn or we didnt want to put on swim wests and press ourselves in a boat. So we took a left turn somewhere and found this spring

After a surprisingly fresh swim we good some bananas and avocados for breakfast and drove on.

Quick ferry break to cross a river.

Sayaxche.

The drive towards the mountains was beautiful

Every now and then there is an unexpected break.

But we had no idea what was ahead. After having turned in San Antonio Las Cuevas ,

The road got bad,

Real bad

At some point we needed around an hour for 10 km. And hopefully checking the mobile phone did not really help

Lu drove the entire mountain pass (or passes) and is now a certified off-road fiend.

She immediately got rewarded by two guys blocking the road. They didnt want a donation, they wanted straight up money, 400 Quetzales, which is a lot of money around here.The problem was that we did not really have a choice since : firstly you cant turn your car and even if you could, you do not want to drive back for 3-4 hours. But both of us unwilling to give these guys our precious cash we pretended not to have more then a 160 and traded in the rest of the „favor“ for a pineapple some cigarettes and a pack of takis.

This left a bit of a bitter aftertaste and we started discussing whether or not it is right for them to rip people off.

The way pines and other mountain vegetation mixes with the tropical plants is simply stunning and in this intensity i have only every seen it in high Chiapas and in Colombia around Medellin.

Then after 40 or so mins another roadblock, this time by a whole delegation of people.

The guy who approached us was super nice though. He also had a good face. He explained us that a donation is welcome but not necessary. He also told us about their struggle with the government, that they have to pay taxes but do not get support etc. Still unwilling to spend our cash but sympathetic to their cause we remember that we had a 100 dollar bill. That is an insane amount here. But these guys were nice and you saw the roads. So a bit of back and forth and we gave it to them. Instant commotion! Handshakes, Government curses, praising to Germany, one guy rushed off to bring us one of those stickers,

photos were being made here and there. And after the final group pics was done,

Susanne, she said was her name, approached Lu and wanted a solo pic with Lu.

We are not sure how much of their story was real what exactly their deal or struggle looks like with the government . But these were good people.

Them feeling good about having gotten some cash and us feeling good about ourselves we instantly got rewarded by these views.

This was all an post operation stress test for Jim, 9 hours on the road and around 4 hours of heavy mountain passes. He is back !

We drove through San Augustin Lanquin because it was quite packed with backpackers. Continued , over even worst roads and found a place called Utopia at the end of the road.

Situated right at the river bank and tucked behind cacao trees it is very nice lodge filled with seekers and dreamers.

We instantly loved the place and after having jumped in the cold jungle river we decided to stay for at least 2 days to explore the jungle.

Lu went back to Kung fu practice and i to my book.

We can already smell the rain coming.

Tomorrow jungle exploration tour!

What a day.