Reggae is dull music, made by dull people for dull people. If you’ve ever wondered why all reggae sounds the same, here’s the answer: because the musicians were high and forgot that they already wrote the song. Just to say that I hate reggae with a passion.
But on 21 September 2018, I loved reggae. Loved it to bits. Continue Reading →
“How did you all of a sudden get so crazy about that silly fluffy bird?” asks Anete as our chicken bus spits us out in front of the Biotopo del Quetzal. It’s seven in the morning, opening time. Continue Reading →
Maya ladies in beautiful garments whisk by with bowls of cornmeal on their head. Firecrackers go off even in the nighttime. The capacity of a chicken bus is a fluid concept. Yes, daily life in Guatemala is rather colourful and many things happen that you wouldn’t expect at home. An anthology.
We bump up and down in the back of a pick-up truck, shuffling and shaking over a road so potholed it would make the cobblestones in Paris-Roubaix look like a newly paved highway. Six travellers from Ecuador hold onto their big boxes of takeaway pizza and their ice coolers. Their stomachs turn as the next rock on the road sends them jumping up as if they are on a bouncy castle. They wonder if the prize at the end of the road will be worth the ordeal, if Semuc Champey will be really as pretty as the guidebooks and the pictures promise. Continue Reading →
Nine people are trapped in a cave. They are hungry, soaking wet, scared and would offer an arm to be able to go to the toilet comfortably.
Sounds familiar?
No, dear reader, I’m not talking about the Thai football team that got stuck in a cave. Instead, this is a summary of our excursion to Actun Tunichil Muknal, or ATM Cave, a descent into the deep innards of a cave which the ancient Maya used for their blood sacrifices.
Are you shivering yet? Continue Reading →
