Miami... Shore Club - on the way home.....

Ola for the final time from the Americas!! You find me and obviously the travelling Crocs at the Shore Club in Miami (the Crocs overlooking the pool.... in the rain tho, it would appear rainy seasons are following me around this part of the world!!)

Adjusting back to the real world..... well heres how the real world is right now, right infront of me. I'm sitting in the Italian restaurant at the Shore Club overlooking the pool enjoying a wondeful seafood risotto (its certainly been a while since i had one of those.) At the far end of the pool is a bar. At the bar is a large tattooed bodybuilder and his surgically enhanced pornstar looking girlfriend. The reason i mention them (and they are definitely the talking point of lunch, theres quite a crowd sitting near me) is theyre pretty much having sex at the bar.... only in Miami. How strange. I have returned from a place where poverty, struggle and the odd bit of violence is pretty much the norm, to this. I always thought that adjusting might be a bit of a struggle, hard work even, but given all the things i've seen in the last few months, this really does make me wonder what on earth is going on in the world... (i shouldnt complain too much i guess, as the table of guys sitting next to me has pointed out, this is free, normally you have to pay to watch this sort of thing! It is actually relatively amusing.....!) Oh, theyve just stripped off and jumped in the pool... the plot thickens!

The last few days in Belize were relatively uneventful, i chilled by the pool at the Black Orchid Resort, watched all sorts of wierd and wonderful wildlife amble by me (i have to admit i've never really come up close with big iguanas, but about 6 of them lived outside my room and i had to pretty much shoooo them off my balcony every morning.) Also humming birds, i'm assuming i've seen them before, but not in such numbers. The coolest things, but the hardest thing to take pictures of. Most annoying!! I tried a bit of fishing in the Belize River (caught nothing i'm afraid) lazed by the pool, tried to relearn some Spanish (as after a week of not speaking the language i feel i've almost forgotton everything!) and ate some great food. All very different from the life i've been living the last few months. I also had a brief chance to have a think about everything i've seen and done and have concluded it really has been a life altering trip. Not that i know where things go from here.... but i'm pretty sure that i can say i'll certainly be looking at things a little differently.

There are two things that i really have failed to mention that much in the last few blogs. And theyre both on the end of my feet as i type! Yes, the Crocs. Always there, dependable, steadfast, show total commitment under pressure, dont balk at any problem thrown at them. Really quite a shoe. I know most of you view them in a very different light to myself, but if you are looking for one shoe to see you through 5 months of travelling, be it rain or shine, you could choose alot worse than a nice little pair of Crocs! (check out all their pics on facebook!!) I must say they are looking a little different now than they did when i bought them at the beginning of the year.... that said they have many admirers in Central America and i certainly hope to bring them back to this part of the world at some stage in the future!!

So i have 4 hours before my flight back to good old Blighty and i have to say i really am looking forward to seeing all those things that are so familiar. If i've learnt anything the last few months, its that England (or the UK) really is home and i've missed it a great deal. Never again will i complain about the little things that used to annoy me about our great old country. Things that you think are maybe not quite upto stratch, well, theyre a damn site better than they are elsewhere i can tell you. Good old Blighty - may the beers flow freely this time tomorrow (and may i make the train down to the West Country on time Sunday morning...!)

Spain and Ibiza are the next legs of the trip so i'll update you from there......

Hasta Luego.....

B

Goobye Guatemala - reminisces of some amazing times...

Once upon a time there was a chap called Bod, who with a bit of luck due to some kind people at work and lots of encouragement from some close friends decided to take some time out from his normal life and go and see a few bits of the world..... The first few months were a bit like an extended holiday, visiting friends here and there, drinking maybe a little too much and generally making merry. It wasnt until he decided to go to Central America for 2 months that his journey started properly. And what a journey it turned out to be.......

So here i am at the end of my time in Central America. I'm actually writing this from Belize as due to the hectic nature of my last few days in Antigua i really didnt get a chance to finish of my blog from there (Sabine, Sally and Suzanne, thank you keeping me up til 2.30am on my last night drinking red wine and then letting me go home to pack before my 4am taxi, i felt truely shocking getting here i have to say!!).

I leave with very mixed emotions. Much as i crave many things from my old life (family, friends, places i know far too well, certain types of food that just dont exist in this part of the world.... privacy...) i still feel as if i have unfinished business in this part of the world. A friend of mine who spent far longer in Guatemala than i have said that my time here just wont be enough. Its turns out that she was utterly correct (something that i disputed before i went i have to say...) Never have i met so many cool, genuine people who have become good friends so quickly. I really will miss them an awful lot (maybe not all of them but certainly the majority!) and i know that most will be friends for many years to come. The whole travel thing makes you think about things in a very different way than you do normally, friendships are formed quickly often due to the transient nature of it all (in the house i've been living in i think i've had around 15 differnet housemates in 6 weeks....) and i have certainly found myself re-evaluating what i considered to be the norm before i came away. Things you take completely for granted in the "real" world (and i'm not overly sure what the real world is now....) look completely unreal when you spend some time in a poor country, struggling with huge disparities in wealth, massive amounts of corruption and just a little bit of violence thrown in for good measure.... i know that Guatemala isnt alone in having these problems... but its the only country i've seen it in first hand.

There are many things that i havent had the chance to talk about in the blog.

My new Guatemalan Mum and Dad for instance. Jose and Lucky Morales. You wont meet two kinder, hardworking, forward thinking people anywhere. They open their house to a load of overseas travellers (people studying Spanish or volunteer workers generally) and treat them as their own. Nothing is ever a problem, they laugh and joke all the time, try and make you feel as welcome as they can (some people really struggle being away from home to start with, its ok for an aging sabbatical traveller such as myself, but most people are either straight out of school or straight out of Uni and staying in Guatemala is certainly a wee bit different from doing a bit of inter-railing for the summer....) They organise for a lady to get your laundry, help you speak Spanish at mealtimes (something that i'm hugely grateful for.... my Spanish has improved immensely in the last few weeks, really due to this...) and ultimately make sure youre enjoying yourself with whatever your doing in Antigua. They also have an amazing outlook on life. Many people in Guatemala could do well to take a leaf out of their book, they think the whole macho nature of Latin America is ridiculous - it unfortunately is one of the main reasons that there are such large poor families out here - men dont really believe in birth control and women need to have babies to snare a man... all a bit of a catch 22.... especially as the men here seem to have a few families on the go at one time.... running one family of 10 on virtually no income must be hard, but 2 or 3 families of 10 at the same time.... really... They believe that there should be more done to educate the poor (as i've said before Guatemala has over 50% illiteracy rate) especially where it come to sex education and birth control (i have to point the finger slighty at the Catholic Church at this point aswell.... much as i really dont have any religious views, in this part of the world theyre still a very powerful force which results in people believing what they say unquestioned....another reason for the huge families that people cant afford to keep.... well that and the lack of television in the rural areas!!!) Jose and Lucky both survived the big earthquake here in 1976. 60,000 people were killed (well thats the official estimate, if you talk to the Guatemaltekas they'll tell you its nearer 100,000) when Antigua was flattened. 90% of the buildings were destroyed and more than 75% of the population killed. Hearing Jose talk about it one evening really did make you think about your own mortality. There was only one earthquake in Antigua while i was there (something i obviously havent mentioned to my family as yet but now i'm on my way back i guess its safe to do so!!) and it really wasnt the best 50 seconds of my life! The whole building started to shake, Jose and Lucky legged it into my dooorway (apparently the safest place to stand during an earthquake) and everyone looked just a little bit worried. Thankfully it was only a tremblor and not a terramoto (i'm sure theyre both spealt wrong but ones Spanish for earth tremor and the other earthquake!) I really will miss Jose and Lucky immensely and can only wish them all the best in everything they do.....

Other things.

The violence. Again its all rather obvious when you have a load of tourists with a bit of cash and a very poor population nearby that you'll get a mugging or two. Thankfully for me i havent really had any trouble, being followed home by a couple of cars and being threatened in the toilets of a bar by a bloke so off his face on coke that i'm not sure he knew who he was (he was later seen off by a good Norweigen amiga of mine... Stine you were truely inspired when he tried to big himself up as the biggest drug dealer in Antigua... one of the funniest things i've seen for a long time...) these really dont count. The two ladies i'd met that were mugged at the Cross for instance. One stabbed in the eye, thankfully she didnt lose her sight, but the other dragged down 30 concrete steps resulting in a broken back (she's still in hospital in Antigua now and will be for another few weeks) and for what. $40. I know people say you shouldnt go to certain areas (the Cross being one of them) without Police escorts, but i went up the Cross on my first day with a few friends and didnt have any trouble at all..... some would say i had buen suerte... i'd say that the violence embedded in some societies is really quite mad. In a country presently in uproar due to a video made by a lawyer saying that if you were watching it he'd been assinated by the President... shown the day after he'd been gunned down on the steps of his house because he knew just a little too much about some money laundering.... and you wonder why people here think its ok to use a bit of violence here and there. I had two good friends mugged in the relatively safety of Antigua, both in broad daylight infront of lots of other people. The police really dont help... some of them are more corrupt than the robbers themselves.... that said at least Antigua has the tourist police who really are there to help if you need them..... I have to say i find the whole thing very frustrating, but realise theres bugger all i can actually do about it.

The volunteer workers. Alot of the good friends i've made out here were volunteers. People working in the projects, usually with exceptionally poor children, trying to make a difference in someone else's life. The scale of the poverty i saw really is a little overwhelming. Certainly the project in the Basurero and that in San Matteo, the other rural school i spent some time in (alot of you have said that my hopping pictures are some of the best i've posted from my travels!) are places where poverty is the norm. I take my hat off to all of the volunteers, you are a truely amazing group of people making a huge difference to other peoples lives. I feel that in some ways i should have done more myself to try and help others.... next time defintely....

The parties. Ok, so i've published maybe just a few photos of me, generally with a big old gaggle of girls, having a rather good time in many a bar. I dont think i've actually had any nights in whilst being in Antigua (well ok then, maybe one). Incase you find yourself in Antigua anytime in the near future here's the general rountine... Monday, an odd night as there isnt really any one place to go, i always found the Rainbow Cafe or El Muro good for a quiet ale; Tuesday, an easy one, ladies night at Monoloco, drinks for the ladies are Q3 (thats about 20p in real money) and this is invariably followed by a bit of salsa in Sin Ventura; Wednesday, also easy, Buena Vista night in the Spanish bar infront of Rikis (the name of which i could never remember, it means the Sky or Heaven or something in Spanish), the guy who leads the band is one of the original members of the Buena Vista Social Club and is truely amazing; Thursday, again an easy one, ladies night at La Sala, bit of salsa (i really could never get the hang of it) and free drinks for the ladies (that said they are rather weak Cuba Libras but who cares, theyre free!!); Friday, bit tougher as alot of people go away at the weekend, but El Chaman is always good as long as it isnt raining and they do a wicked pizza!! Saturday, again tough but Rikis or El Chaman (they have a live reggae band on Saturday night) and Sunday, generally go to the kebab shop (amazing) followed by a quick beer in Rileys or Monoloco. So there you go, a quick night guide to Antigua for you!!

New friends.... i really cant mention them all here but i have to say that i've realised both the Dutch and the Norweigens definitely are a top group of people indeed. Always up for a laugh, as friendly as hell and generally a little nicer to look at than us English lot (sorry all my English chums from El Mundo and Jake and Louisa...!!) Perhaps the FMG isnt from England after all (and before you all ask, it has been rather quiet on that front whilst i've been away, although i have to say there were one or two who defintely could have been candidates! One especially! Maybe i'll get to see some of them again on home turf... who knows!) Joking aside, i think i'm very lucky to have met such a brilliant group of people whilst i've been ambling around Antigua and i look forward to seeing you all back in Blighty (or on your own home truf) very soon.....

My Spanish teacher Aleida. I cant really finish my blog without mentioning her, it would be like me mentioning my working life and not mentioning Harve. I've spent 4 hours a day, 5 days a week with the lovely Aleida. She speaks very little English and somehow has managed to get me to speak half decent Spanish in just 5 weeks. She certainly deserves some sort of medal for that i have to say!! I'll miss her and her frank talks about life in Guatemala, both good and bad. I just hope that i get to see her again one day and trust all her dreams for her 3 daughters end up coming true.

And thats about your lot. I'm sure theres things i've forgotton but those are things that have sprung to mind whilst tapping away here. As i say i'm now in Belize, in an Eco Resort 20 miles north of Belize City. Its exceptionally hot, 100% humidity and there's sooo many bugs you just wouldnt believe it. Infact there's sooo much wildlife you wouldnt believe it ( i spent today with some huge iguanas, some humming birds, watched howler monkeys swing through the trees whilst trying to placate the pet parrot here who is grumpy as hell!!) but its brilliant. I have my own bog and my room even has AC.... privacy is something that i think i'm enjoying once again, although i find myself missing my old life in Antigua i have to say. I fly to Miami Wednesday, have a night in the Shore Club which will be very deja vue as its the hotel i departed from to make my way to this part of the world. How long ago that now seems. I get back to London on Friday morning and any of you that read this before then, i'll definitely be drinking in Clapham somewhere so please come and join me.

As for what i do after this trip, i'm really not sure. I still have a month to run around. Spain and Ibiza feature heavily (I at last get to play in Ibiza, thank you Spudly!) as does a big wedding in Somerset that i'll be spinning the tunes at. July 1st i'll be back at my desk at MF Global wondering if all this was a dream i'm sure. Quite what life holds after that who knows, but i'm sure as hell going to have a think about it in the meantime. You cant have done and seen the things that i have the last 9 weeks or so and not have a bit of a re-evaluation of your existence.

So i'll love you and leave you. Until next time, which i'm sure will be longer than i think.. take care out there and if you see me Friday, mines a pint of stella!!

Adios

B

Semuc Champey and El Retiro Lodge

Ola again - blog posts coming at you thick and fast - i've realised theres so much to tell you all about that i'd better get on with it!!!

Semuc Champey. When i asked people that had been to this part of the world before what i should try and see whilst i was here, Semuc always seemed to come out at the top of everyones list. Infact most people said that if i was to see only one thing then the pools, river and caves at Semuc Champey should be that one thing (you see one of the Crocs by the way in one of the caves, finding his way around with a candle!!) Forget the lava flows of Pacaya and Lake Atitlan, Semuc was the place to head for (which is a good job as i havent hiked Pacaya, mainly because of broken ribs and all the rain we've been having, nor have i been to Atitlan!) So very hungover on a Saturday morning (it had been Monolocos 10th birthday party the night before, free drinks all night, foolish not to take advantage!) i boarded a packed little minibus to take its 14 passengers to Lanquin (the area where Semuc and El Retiro both are.) I'd been told it would be a long journey, but the 9 hours i spent in that little bus, me being of larger frame and all that, really werent the best hours i've ever spent travelling! Its was hot, i was hungover and after about 5 hours i really did wonder whether all this was going to be worth it. As it turns out it was!

We arrived at Lanquin (the village that El Retiro is in) around 5pm and myself and my trusty housemate Melissa (who i'd managed to persuade to come to Semuc aswell) managed to get a lovely little cabin looking down the hill to the river in El Retiro. El Retiro is an eco lodge thats half an hours drive from the pools and caves at Semuc Champey, it really is amazing. Great big bar, very friendly staff, rope across the river, hammocks, everything that a decent traveller would need for a relaxing weekend break! The first night we made a whole bunch of new friends, drank a load of beer, had an fantastic meal (they have a big buffet style dinner at the lodge and the food is just amazing) and learnt a load of new card games (that were all really based on poker and that i have to say i wasnt very good at.) I turned in relatively early as was properly knackered having spent the best part of 9 hours on a bus... and fell into the deepest sleep i think i've been in for a while.

Next morning after a slighty disturbed sleep (i was woken in the middle of the night with Melissa trying to do battle with a frog in the bathroom.... i mean really, he was actually helping us out by eating all the mossies..!!) and slap up breccie of crepes stuffed with fresh fruit and granola (just the best and just what you need when youre off for a big activity day) 20 intrepid explorers climbed into the back of some open top jeeps for our ride to Semuc. You really are right in the jungle in this part of the world, every now and then there might might be a coffee plantation or more bizarrely a cardamon field (Guatemala exports lots of cardamon pods apparently, you learn something new everyday on your travels it has to be said!!) but mostly its all very wild. Our guide, Elvis (the second Elvis i've met on my travels!!) was a spritely little bloke, which given the things we were going to be doing turned out to be quite handy. After half an hour of bouncing along in the back of our trucks (the roads in this part of the world really arent the best) we arrived at a huge river at the base of Semuc Champey. The first thing was to check our back backs into the little cabin there and then take part in the first activity of the day - swing out across the river and jump in. Not hard i hear you cry - i mean we've all done that in the past, maybe not for a while, but all good fun, bit like being 10 all over again. The only problem was the swing was actually quite high and if you mistimed your jump there were some pretty ugly looking rocks nearby. Who cares - off we went! The first couple of guys (i think and Aussie and a South African) that leapt from the swing did actaully do ok, one came a bit of a cropper but not too badly, so when it was my turn to go i was pretty revved up and raring! Only somehow i really didnt quite time my jump that well and ended up plunging the 10 feet into the river side first. It bloody hurt, completely knocked the wind out of me and unfortunately am now nursing a couple of what i think are cracked ribs!! Bugger!! Not what you need when you have a whole day infront of you, clambering, climbing and swimming through and over a load of stuff!! No problem though, my ribs werent that bad at the time, so after everyone had jumped we headed off for the caves......

Now caves.... a place full of bats, water and big rocks. I've never fully understood pot holing and after 3 hours underground i think i understand it even less....The caves at Semuc are relatively famous (well at least they are in this part of the world.) Theyre also very beautiful once you get over the whole being underground thing. Infact a few months ago some American cavers (is that the right word?) came here to try and find the source of the caves. After 2 and a half days underground (yes 2 and a half days.....!) and having travelled around 20 kilometers they gave up. Best option.... the outside world is much better than the world Gollum lives in in the Hobbit i can tell you......!

As we clambered into the entrance Elvis started handing out candles - they were to be our source of light as we ventured through our underground world and i have to admit not for the first time on my travels i thought "Bod, what the hell are you doing...??" You have to wade for the first 50m or so into the caves and thankfully the running repairs on the crocs held up pretty well (you'll be glad to hear that theyre now back to full strength after some super glue and a bit of quick drying silicon.... you'd never know they'd been in the wars at all....!) All ok - until we came to the first big pool. That you had to swim across... with a candle. Now i can swim ok, but in crocs trying to hold a candle in the air... it could definitely be a new Olympic sport i reckon!! Eventually you end up putting the candle in your mouth as its much easier that way and it means you dont lose your light source, i mean a few singed hairs are better than being stuck completely in the dark... it all was actually very good fun! From there we had to climb some rope ladders (not easy), swim through some even bigger pools (more singed hair) and then climb through some very narrow spaces (very hard, even for the new slim down Bod it was pretty tight) to get to a huge pool with a big jump off a rock cliff.... not my cup of tea at all. Thankfully as i'd taken my camera in its dive casing and was therefore able to take loads of pics in our wet underground world, i nominated myself as head photographer so didnt take the 7m plunge myself (what a poof!! , but i have to say i wasnt alone... less than half of the group fancied leaping into the dark....!) Having spent around half an hour there we then had to make our way back through the labyrinth of the caves back out into fresh air. This seemed to take alot less time than it had on the way in... but i guess we were all a little desparate to get out and by that stage alot more adept at swimming with candles in out mouths!!

Fresh air.... its something i've never really thought about before but after 3 hours stumbling around underground it was amazing!

Next stop was the cabin again top pick up some tubes and drift down the river for an hour or so. Bliss, well blissish as the tubes werent that big and i really had to wedge myself into mine to stop myself falling out (thankfully for you all there arent any pictures of me wedgeed in a tube, i guess i did look rather comical though...). This resulted in my poor backside taking a knock or two as we went through the rapids, but it was more than worth it. Watching the world drift by as you float down the river was really rather pleasant. Lots of banter, lots of "oh my god, cant believe we survived the caves...", lots of comparing cuts and scratches we all seemed to have as a result of banging against the rocks.... really rather nice. The only bad thing about this part of the day was drifting under the big bridge that we'd been told we had to jump off (well you had the option of jumping off) It was bloody huge... around 40ft and the river as it went under it was relatively narrow and rather fast flowing.....mmmmmm... more, do i really want to do this.

We hopped out of our tubes - walked the 20 minutes back up the hill picked up all our stuff and walked to the bridge. From up here it looked even bigger, the river even smaller and more fast flowing than it had seemed from the tubes. Nevertheless Elvis climbed up top and performed one of the best swan dives i've ever seen. No turning back now Mr Griffiths (especially as they'd been rather alot of banter on the walk to the bridge and i'd bigged myself up maybe a little too much for my upcoming jump) I wasnt the first go i have to say. But after rather alot of "go on then..." i climbed over the metal barrier and stood above the river. God i was sh*tting myself (excuse the French), i'm not sure i've actually ever been that scared in my life (even the Great Brawl of Cirencester 1991 wasnt this bad.... mind you i was rather drunk then and completely sober now) There was nothing else to do but step forward and drop.... and drop.... and drop and then hit the water and disappear under. And then hit the bottom, which was largely sand so it wasnt that bad.... The euphoria i felt when i surfaced, well i really cant describe it. I know they say adrenaline is an amazing thing..... i can tell you it really is. I swam to the shore, clambered up the rocks and sat down laughing my head off and shaking like a leaf. It was great!!

After everyone had taken the plunge (and pretty much everyone did) we then had to hike up to the pools further upstream to see Semuc Champey proper. The pools here have been carved out of the limestone over tens of thousands of years and many people say its the eight wonder of the living world. It really is pretty impressive. You hike through the jungle (again!) and suddenly come across a huge waterfall above which are the pools. Its stunning i have to say and Elvis said its even better from the Mirador (basically a huge viewing gallery) up above in the jungle canopy. About a 20 minute stroll. Yeah.... like really..... climbing Everest would have been easier than this 20 minutre stroll. After 30 minutes i was about two thirds of the way up, sweating profusing, cursing and not for the first time that day wondering if this was really worth it. But once again i wasnt disappointed. The views from the top were amazing (i'm not sure that if i'd been told it was a 2km hike climbing around 300m vertical metres i'd have been so enthusiatic to get up there.) Lots of oohhhs and ahhhhs, sitting down, sharing a tale or two and taking pics (these you really should check out on facebook - theyre awesome.) The hike down again was alot quicker than the hike up and we spent the next couple of hours wallowing in the pools. Bliss. There was another late afternoon jump if you fancied it (by this stage not everyone did) and after the brave and foolhardy had completed that we headed back to the jeeps for the ride home.
There was more fun and japes on the drive back as we gave a big group of Mayan children a lift, and as luck would have it they had a cooler full of beer. And i had Q100 bizarrely enough for 10 beers (and there were 10 of us..... what a coincidence!!) Much merryment, singing, waving at random workers in the fields. What an amazing day out. We got back to the lodge and once again the travelling gods had smiled upon yours truely.... it was a Sunday and the staff of the lodge (who were prdominately English and Irish) had decided to prepare a roast chicken buffet. A roast on a Sunday in the middle of nowhere with plentiful beer, poker and giant Jenga. How could a trip end in a better way.

I probably shouldnt mention the skinny dipping incident with 10 of my new chums after a skinfull of Palestine Libras (lethal) due to a giant Jenga forfeit... but running starkers into the river in a thunderstorm had to be the highlight of the Sunday evening. I dont think i've laughed so much (well not since i'd jumped off the bridge anyway!) for a while. Another blissful nights sleep and then another long bus ride back to Antigua. What a weekend.

I'd better sign off as this really is a rather long blog and i need to preapre to leave this great country for my trip to Belize and back home.... so until the next installment.

Adios Amigos

B

The people and children of the Basurero in Guatemala City

Ola mis amigos. Once again i've left far too long in between blogs.... i really dont know where the time goes i have to say.

So, i feel its very important for me to tell you all about the Basurero (or Rubbish Dump to you and me), its people, children and associated charity in Guatemala City. As you can see, although i wore the Crocs they really were so far from my thoughts that they really didnt get a look in, so first blog post without a Croc picture... instead one of the amazing children i met whilst at the school run by Camino Seguro (or "Safe Passage"). The Basurero is one on the largest in Central America and although i have to say that my knowledge of rubbish dumps is relatively limited, it certainly looked pretty big to me.

I ended up on the tour there after Rachel (one of my lovely housemates, who also runs the office of Camino Seguro here in Antigua) asked me what i was doing one Thursday morning, did i fancy seeing the dump and the project that she works for (and as it turns out most of the girls i know here work for aswell) So off i set on the bus to Guatemala City really not knowing what to expect at all. Our guide was the hugely charismatic Fredy, a chap who really has had sooooo much happen to him in his 40 odd years here that its hard to know where to begin. He's worked with the children of the dump and Camino Seguro for over 15 years, along with trying to reform drug gangs (and almost getting assinated in the process), spending some time as a professional footballer, travelling extensively throughout the world (i dont know that many people that have the ex president Bush's wife amoung their list of friends but Fredy is one of them), pretty much everything. He did warn us that we might be pretty shocked at what we were going to see at the dump, but his warning really didnt prepare me, or the other guests for what we'd be confronted with.

You arrive on the cliff overlooking the dump (its a little too dangerous to actually go amoungst the rubbish yourself) and are immediately struck by three things. Firstly the smell. It was truely hideous, but then i guess this was to be expected, i mean it is a rubbish dump after all. Secondly the vultures (theyre know here as Sapolotes) - there were thousands and thousands of them. Everywhere. Great big black vultures that really looked pretty shabby.... not a great welcoming committee i have to say. Lastly the heat. Now i know its always a little cooler in Antigua, the main reason being that we're halfway up the mountains and therefore eveything is a little more chilly, so you always expect it to be warmer when you venture elsewhere. But this heat was stifling and wasnt actually anything to do with altitude or the sun, but hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish decomposing. On a cool day they reckon the temperatures in the dump itself are around 35-40' which must be properly hellish. Especially if you work there, amoungst the rubbish.

Fredy led us to the edge of the cliff which overlooks an enormous ravine that the dump is situated in. In the time we were there (a little over a hour or so) i'd say around 30-40 lorries came to dump there rotting cargo. And mobbing the lorries as they tip their rubbish onto the floor are the Guajeros. These are the people that make their living by sifting through the rubbish, trying to find anything of use (carboard, plastic bottles, bricks etc etc) it would appear that recycling hasnt really found its way to this part of the world and that the Guajeros do the job for everyone in Guatemala City and the surrounding regions. There are meant to be around 2500-3000 registered workers in the Basurero and no children are meant to work there. This being Central America, both those rules get broken, overlooked, whatever. But normally there are at least 5000 people working in the dump, alot of them below the age of 10. Their whole life is governed by the stuff that people throw away and unfortunately that means food aswell.....To see these people battling with vultures in searing temperatures with the smell of decay everywhere is something i will definitely never forget. To make matters worse this is the beginning of the rainy season and when it rains here it really rains. This obviously turns the dump into some huge decaying swamp and its not uncommon for the Guajeros to drown in the rubbish. The main reason for this is that there are actually two rivers that flow through/underneath the dump and when theres too much water it has been known for the whole thing to collapse and landslide down the ravine. Infact last year around 50 of the workers were swept away as part of the dump collapsed, some of the bodies being found as far as 20 miles away in the rivers. Not good.

If things could get any worse, and here they often can, the main Cemetary for Guatemala City overlooks the dump aswell (it was across the other side of the ravine from us) I'm guessing the upkeep of graves here isnt quite what it is back in Blighty, the main problem being that if youre buried you have to pay around Q200 (£20) rent a year for your burial plot. In this part of the world thats an enormous sum of money and if you dont pay, well lets just say we saw alot of coffins lining the hills. If you dont keep up with your rent they chuck you and your coffin into the dump aswell.... nice. Good to see that theres so much respect for people even after theyve died here. Fredy also said that grave robbing was a real problem as often people are buried with jewellery, perhaps a belt or a ring or a necklace and people will break into your grave to see if theres anything they can steal. The whole thing is shocking (if you havent seen the pics on facebook and i know that alot of you have, then please take a look), this really isnt one of Bods big exaggerations i'm afraid. Standing there watching the whole thing unfold below me was all rather surreal i have to say. The average Guajero will earn around Q50 ($6) a week, generally by recycling plastic bottles and other odds and sods they find. The shanty towns that surround the dump house somewhere in the region of 50,000 people (estimates say it may be double this number) and the average family size here is at least 15-20. $6 a week to feed 20 people, i mean i know the food at MF Global isnt great and that budgets are tight.... but thats just ridiculous. We stumbled back to the bus, everyone in some sort of state of shock at what theyd seen.....

We then headed to the good bit of the tour. Camino Seguro. The school (or now schools) set up by Hanley Denning around 10 years ago. She was an American tourist who came to the dump by accident one afternoon, saw what was going on and decided in that instant that she was going to make a difference. She quit her job, sold all of her belongings and started to set up a school for the children of the dump. They call her the Angel of the dump, and it really is heartbreaking when youre told she was killed in a car crash in Guatemala City 2 years ago. Terrible. However everything she worked so hard for carries on.

The school started off in an old church right on the edge of the dump with the sole purpose of trying to help/protect some of the children there from the horrific day to day existence of living amoungst the rubbish. Its now two schools, one for the youngsters, one for older children that on an average day has around 300-400 pupils (i think it actually may be many more than that) We turned up at the junior school in the middle of play and bath time and it really is very hard not to be moved to tears almost immediately. Here are some of the poorest kids your ever likely to find anywhere on the planet, running around, happy as pie, basically just being kids. Amazing. The school provides them with 3 meals a day (normally rice and beans which they love) an education, clothes, a wash, clean teeth, everything that you and i would take for granted without even thinking about it. The place was a proper inspiration to anyone who thinks that its impossible to make a difference in this world. Camino Seguro has its first teenager going to University this year, one of the very first pupils that came to the school when Hanley set it up. Amazing.

As i know alot of the volunteers here (the lovely Georgie my ex-housemate, Stine from Norway, Suzanne from Holland) i sat down with the children for half an hour or so for a bit of playtime. It would appear that all Guatemalan children are fascinated by cameras and as i generally have mine with me whilst travelling i thought i'd let them have a play. It was hilarious, they all snapped pictures of just about everything, the floor, their friends, an arm, a leg, whatever and were amazed to see pictures of themselves!! It really was so brilliant. I think i must have eneded up with around 600 pictures or so, most of which i just had to delete (i mean theres only so many pictures of the floor someone can have!) To see these children happy and smiling amid what must be extremely harsh living conditions (domestic violence and much more unpleasant things are rife in this part of the world) really was fantastic. I dont know where the time went, but in what seemed like an instant we were leaving to go to the big school and see the other projects. I was extremely sad to go.

The other building helps the older children with further education. It has a library, a music room, all the calssrooms have computers, pretty high-tech. This building also houses the new projects for the parents of the children. Illiteracy rates in Guatemala are around 50-60%. Here amoung the people that work in the Basurero its nearer 80%, so the school tries to help the adults aswell. Theres actually a group of mums who have set up their own jewellery making workshop and because of this some ladies now earn enough so as not to have to got the dump everyday. Really rather impressive. Theres also a huge canteen so that the students can get decent food aswell (decent food is something that is a very scare commodity in and around the shanties here.) We spent around half an hour here in the big school before having to head back to Antigua and i think everyone was properly stunned by what they seen. I know i was.

Its very rare for me to be moved to tears by things i see, but the half day i spent around the Basurero and in the schools of Camino Seguro really was one of the most emotional half days i've spent in my life. Please check out the website http://www.safepassge.org/. I know its very difficult to single out any one thing in the world that is a cause worth giving to, but i really think that this one has made a huge difference to the children of the dump in Guatemala City and if you are thinking of donating money to any sort of charity then this one really is worthwhile.

B

Sailfish Bay Lodge - Iztapa, Pacific Coast, Guatemala

Ola my blogger friends. I'm sorry i've been neglecting you for sooooooo long but life has been rather hectic (as per usual) and i now have a moment to tap away......

So - me and the Crocs decided to take a bit of time out from the hectic life in Antigua for a bit of R+R on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. (you see the Crocs on the back of a Big Game boat in the piccie btw...) I mean there's only so much Spanish that my old and befuddled brain can take in in such a short space of time (although you'll be overjoyed to hear that the Spanish is coming on reasonably well..... i may even be upto the sort of Spanish spoken by a 5 year old before i leave...!!)

I'd heard from various fishing folk that the fishing on the Pacific Coast of most Central American countries was meant to be pretty good, especially when it comes to big billfish (marlin and sailfish for those who arent sure what billfish are...) This is all due to a) there being a huge drop off from the land mass of Central America into the Pacific which results in relatively cold water (a must for most big predatory fish) and b) exceptionally strong oceanic currents that run up the West coast of South America and hit the landmass of Mexico forming an enormous oceanic eddie....a bit like a gigantic whirlpool. As all this water sloshes around, lots of little fish are attracted by all the plankton and goodies that get stuck in this aquarian washing machine and wherever you find lots of little fish, you can bet your bottom dollar they'll be big fish trying to eat them!!

Whilst i was in Belize some of the my fisher chums there had said i must try and get to Sailfish Bay Lodge as it was meant to be one of the most awesome fishing Lodges in the world. And they werent wrong. When i logged onto the website and it said that has been in the "50 things any man must do before he dies" list for the last decade, i thought i'd better give it a go! A very happy chap drove from the lodge to Antigua to pick me up (its about an hours drive) and i found myself being whisked down from the highlands to the coast, from the big highway (well big by Guatemalan standards) to little coastal roads and eventually down a dirt track to a small jetty where i had to board my launch to take me to the lodge itself. The lodge is actually situated on a giant black sand beach, the sand being black due to all the volcanic rock and i have to say that it was amazing. Huge rooms, a enormously well stocked bar, fresh fish and prawns cooked infront of you on the grill, just a really amazing place. Oh and AC - theres a huge temperature difference between Antigua and most places as Antigua is 1600m up in the hills. It was absolutely baking hot down here and really very humid aswell. Also the staff just couldnt do enough for you. My first night there (i arrived around 8pm having come straight from school.... which was a bit bizarre!) i met the only other occupants, 3 Americans who had been fishing all week. They'd had mixed luck and said that although the fishing was good, it hadnt been great. Its actually due to the changing of the seasons here at the moment, we're going into the rainy season and when it rains here it really properly rains (as i found out walking home from the pub last Friday, arriving back at mi casa looking like a drowned rat, and a very badly drowned rat at that!!) They did say though that the first big marlin of the season had been seen, but that none had been caught yet and that if i was lucky maybe i'd see one..... little did they know what would happen the following day.....

So after jumping out of bed at 5.30, scoffing an amazing breccie of banana pancakes and then getting back on the launch for my journey to my big game boat for the day (the aptly named Gypsy) i found myself heading out to sea at around 7.30 in the morning, sun shining, sea relatively calm just wondering quite what lurked out in these oceanic depths. The first thing that struck me was how many turtles there were. We had to head a long way out (around 40miles). This was due to there being a huge amount of what they call "green" water out at sea. When fresh water mixes with seawater it literally turns green (quite why i dont know, i'm sure some chemistry boffins will be able to tell you) - as we're at the beginning of the rainy season and had had quite a bit of rain the last week or so, most of the seawater close in was pretty green. The big predatory fish cant really hunt in this water as they cant see through it particularly well, they use their eyesight to spot their prey (check out how big a tuna's eye is relative to its size, theyre pretty big) so you have to find the edge of this water where it goes from being green to that dark blue you see on David Attenbourough documentaries about the deep! The flipside to all this (and i know i'm rambling) is that trutles love freshwater (yep, we're back to those turtles) so hundreds and hundreds of them come to the green water to bask, frolic, eat i presume, whatever great big turtles do out at sea. There really were thousands of the blighters, which actually slowed down our progress out to sea as the captain didnt want to hit any of them, so we had to weave our way around them.

After what seemed like an age (about an hour and a half) we were out in the big blue, the crew dropped the lures out the back and we started trolling the lures with the hope of finding some big fish. It was all a little bizarre as almost immediately we had two sailfish come and strike the teasers (great plastic things they drag behind the boat that look like big squid and have rattles in them that billfish find irresistable!) After lots of shouting and casting of livebait these two fish decided that plastic wasnt really what they were after for breccie and so they vanished as only big fish can and the waiting game started again. But not for long.

Now i know very little Spanish, as i'm sure youre all aware, but when the Captain of the boat who was on the bridge above me starts screaming "Marlino, Marlino" at the top of his voice and waving his arms about, shouting orders at the two deck hands, i kinda knew what fish he was talking about. A huge 300lb Blue Marlin had just surged at the back of the boat from nowhere turned, whacked one of our deadbaits with its huge bill and then decided it was time for breccie. I've read "The Old Man and the Sea" obviously, but nothing had prepared me for what a hook up with a big blue marlin was all about. Marlin, the king of gamefish some say, are exceptionally strong and as soon as theyre hooked jump twice to try and shake the hook. Once they realise this isnt going to happen they head off at break neck speed, usually diving as deep as they can in the process. To say it "kicked off" would be a huge understaement. The deck hands thrust the rod into my hands and pushed me back into the fighting chair whilst the Captain slammed the boat into reverse to try and keep up with the fish (most big game reels have around 2000m of nylon line on them, this fish had striped off half of that in around 5 seconds and the Captain was going to have to try and keep up with the fish or else we'd literally be striped bare) It really was all hands to the deck. The next thing was to splash water on the reel to stop the nylon heating up too much and then melting which would also result in it snapping (this is the first time i've ever seen the old phrase "water on the reel" in action) What followed was about 10 minutes of utter pandemonium. The fish decided to run, initailly taking us about 5 miles from where we hooked it. It then dove to the depths, stuck out its huge fins and decided thats where it would stay....i really was just along for the ride as at this stage could do very little to budge it at all. When i asked the deck hands in my Spanglish if this was normal, "si, si" came the answer.... "Cuantas horas?" i ventured (how many hours?) - "normalmente, dos, tres con marlino..." mmmmm.... not overly sure i'd signed up for a huge battle with a goliath from the deep for that length of time.... but thats what happened.... a three hour battle in the baking sun with the most majestic fish i've ever hooked. I hauled away with the rod and line (it didnt help the marlin had hit one of our dorado baits so the tackle was fairly light, the last thing i needed) and after about an hour my right hand was covered in blisters, my left arm felt like it would come off, sweat constantly dripped into my eyes and i could feel myself getting burnt by the sun. Not an overly enjoyable experience. Bit by bit i managed to get some line back from the fish, but every time i got to the marker on the line (a small piece of string is tied onto the line to tell the crew when they have 200m to go before the fish reaches the surface) the fish decided to run again. I got to that bloody marker about 12-15 times and each time the fish would run off again. "Muy fuerte" (very strong) the deck hand would say.... no sh*t Sherlock, youre not the one trying to drag this thing to the top. The most demoralising part of the whole battle was after about 2 hours when i managed to get the fish to the surface, it lept, (you must look at the pics on facebook if you havent already) and disappeared off into the depths once again.... for another hour! That final hour really did exhaust me.

Theres a bit of a rule in game fishing that the person that is handed the rod has to bring the fish up without any help. So going to the bog or just taking a rest is out of the question. The deck hands even set about catching some dorado that they were going to cook for lunch at one stage which was kind of odd. Theres me battling away with a huge marlin while they reeled in dorado for us to feast on. Eventually however i did get somewhere and about 2 hour and 50 minutes after hook up we got the marlin to the back of the boat. Guatemalans have huge respect for big fish (they are their livelihood after all, its much better to get people to come and catch big game fish time and time again, rather than bash them on the head and eat them) and hence they use what are called j or circular hooks, so that if the line slacks is very easy for the fish to shake free.....Once the fish was at the back of the boat, the head deckhand grabbed the leader, slackened the line and the next thing i know the big marlin was leaping behind the boat on his (or her!) way back to the deep. To be honest it looked as fresh as when we'd hooked it. Bizarre. Muy fuerte indeed. I then collapsed in a huge heap, sank a can of cerveza in about a second and wondered if my left arm would ever be the same again (i have to say its been sore for a week.) Much back slapping and congrats were in order (its a big deal even out here catching a marlin) and thankfully i didnt have to do anything for a bit whilst the boys preapred an amazing lunch of fried doarado and salad.......My oh my..... i really am going to remember that fish forever.

After lunch i said to the Captain that i needed to take a fish or two home (i'd promised everyone in the house i'd cook fresh fish on the Monday night..... bit of a gamble as it wasnt guaranteed i'd catch anything, but thankfully it paid off) Sure... how many.... i only thought that i'd catch a couple of dorado for the pot, but when the Captain said did i need 20 or 30 i obviously thought he was joking. He wasnt. We caught 38 in the next two hours which was a bout as much fun as i'd had reeling lots of fish in ever. When we'd caught enough to fill the icebox the Captain said enough was enough and we headed back to shore. The deckhands then filleted the catch on the way back so that i could freeze the lot back at the lodge to take back to Antigua. I have to say there was sooooo much fish that there was no way i could take the lot. 20 would do me fine i explained (and we still have fish in the freezer now, about a week and a half later!!) Cruising back the boys then got a little flag with a blue marlin on it and hoisted it up one of the lines so it fluttered above the boat, just so everyone would know what we'd caught! As we docked most of the other Captains walked upto the boat (we were the last back, i'm sure our Captain had done that deliberately!) and again another round of backslapping and handshaking ensued. Really quite an experience.

On returning to the lodge i have to admit i was totally exhausted and as i was pretty much the only person there i devoured an amazing meal of grilled fish, prawns and vegetables and collapsed into my lovely air conditioned room and passed out. In the morning i could barely lift my left arm and the thought of another day battling marlin filled me with absolute dread. It was therefore rather worrying that on the second morning out (we didnt have to travel as far this time as the green water seemed to have disappeared somewhat) after about 10 minutes of trolling the baits another huge blue marlin surged the teasers and turned on the baits. Thankfully, and i know you should never wish bad luck upon yourself especially when fishing, we didnt hook this marlin and to be honest if we had i know theres no way i'd have been able to reel it in. I think the fishing Gods had smiled on me enough for one weekend. The morning was actually a bit of a washout as that was the only fish we saw but in the afternoon we hooked a 100lb sailfish that i then had to do battle with. Sailfish are not built in the same way as marlin, they just dont have the same sort of body mass as theyre built for speed (they stun their prey by charging them at about 70mph, whacking them with their big sharp bill and then swing round and swallow them whole) - it didnt make it any easier to reel in though. Another half hour battle and i thought my left arm would literally fall off!! Another release of another majestic fish. Thankfully we'd just about run out of time so we limped back into port (one of the engines broke on the way back!!) I bid my amazing crew farewell and once again headed back to the lodge for a night of food, beer and Guatemalan brandy (lots of it as i thought it might soothe my aches and pains..... it sort of helped!!)

The next morning after a swim in the pool and a stroll along the beach it was time to head home, icebox full of fish and with a head full of marlin memories......Sailfish Bay Lodge really is the most amazing fishing experience i've had and if you get the chance (those of you that like to battle with our fishy friends) then you must go.... it really is one of the 50 places every fisherman should visit before you pop off to meet your maker.....

I'm now back in Antigua having just got back from another weekend at the beach. I do have many more tales to tell..... the children of the famous Basurero (rubbish dump) of Guatemala City being the main one. If i get a chance i will tell you all about that tomorrow as it was probably one of the most moving and amazing days i've spent on my travels. But i guess i'll leave you to digest my fishy stories first.....

So Hasta Manana as they say here..... catch you all tomorrow (you must excuse the pun!!)

B