A few months removed since returning from my trip from Peru to Michigan overland, I realized that I had a gap in the photos from my time there: Huaraz. Although it was a stunningly beautiful part of Peru (about 9 hours by bus north of Lima) set in the Cordillera Blanca, one of the highest parts of the Andes, my enjoyment there was limited by a fairly severe bowel assault by bacteria. I was staying in a comfortable guesthouse owned by the aunt of a young guy who I met on the bus to Huaraz, and he finagled a private room at a rock bottom price of about 3 dollars a night, so I was in no hurry to leave. However, only a day and half into being there the intestinal hoopla began.

I was only able to explore some ruins from the Huari culture called Wilcahuaín a bit north of the city, take a hike to some hot springs, and venture up to a lagoon in the mountains. I don’t recall the name of the lagoon since that was when the fever and chills began and my concerns drifted.

From the Do Lecture website on this legendary travel author promoting independent travel: "His zeitgeist defining book is not just how to travel the world on a shoestring, but, more importantly, the mindset you need to take with you. It is now in its 10th reprint." If you need some travel inspiration, take a peek at the video. His points are applicable to not just travel, but also life: Time = Wealth, Be Where You Are, Slow Down, Keep It Simple, Don't Set Limits. As far as his travel resume: Rolf Potts has reported from more than fifty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, the New York Times Magazine, Slate.com, Conde Nast Traveler, Outside, The Believer, The Guardian (U.K.), National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel. A veteran travel columnist for the likes of Salon.com and World Hum, his adventures have taken him across six continents, and include piloting a fishing boat 900 miles down the Laotian Mekong, hitchhiking across Eastern Europe, traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma, and driving a Land Rover from Sunnyvale, California to Ushuaia, Argentina.

 

 

Fire juggler in San Pedro de la Laguna (Lago Atitlán) from Tyler Cole on Vimeo.

 

After the natural wonder of Semuc Champey, I made my way to the man-made wonder of Tikal in northern Guatemala, one of (if not) the most impressive and largest Mayan ruins uncovered to date. It was popular to go early in the morning, but I wasn´t in the mood to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. Besdies, I was working out a strategy to get in for free or cheap to Tikal after talking with some Norwegians who managed to get somone´s ticket and use it to get in for half-price. The tickets worked out to about 21 USD (not including transport there), so I was eager to find some way to dodge the price. I would have gladly paid if I was more financially endowed, but when I´m trying to keep my budget around 15 dollars a day this sort of thing is quite a burden. I was not without moral qualums, and I roundabout justified it by telling myself they wouldn´t have made it so easy to sneak in if they weren´t actually winking figuratively at the poor, saavy traveler while trying to extract as much money as possible from the suitcase travelers (there was no student price since those a frequently abused, just a Guatemalan citizen price that was about 3 dollars). After taking a look at a few people´s tickets who

After leaving from Lago Atitlán I made my way to the obligatory Guatemalan tourist destination of Semuc Champey (the other being Tikal, some impressive Mayan ruins), a set of limestone waterfalls that split from and are elevated above the river that feeds it. Half the ride there was kept busy by a clearly and admittedly post traumatic stress disorder-suffering American vet of Iraq/Afghanistan who had a strong scent of rum on his breath at 9am in the morning. He had no reservations about getting teary-eyed while recounting stories during the war and how he was injured and sent home to pass time on the streets of Boston before getting himself together. Although, not all of his stories were war-related, the one coming to mind about his brief romance with the Nicaraguan finance minister´s daughter (the image of him brashly holding up his hand in an okay sign while half-yelling, "Mmmm, tight as a whistle!" with a bus full of Nicaraguans staring at the scene will remain comically stuck in my head). Needless to say it was an intense bus ride, and he definitely left an impression on

 

As happens often when traveling, I met a few people in the hostel and the bus towards Lago Atitlán from Antigua and we formed a ragtag ad hoc travel clique consisting of Alen the Slovenian/Aussie, Jean Cristophe (aka Volkan) the Frenchman, Sally/Steve/Laura the Britons, and Florian the German. We all ended up staying in the same place and kayaking the next day (we bargained hard and got the kayaks for two dollars for half the day) to a nearby town on the lake where there was a nice view and a 12 meter cliff to jump off. At night there was quite the impressive fire throwing show at one of the local tourist bars. Pictures below.

My first stop in Guatemala, I was pleasantly surprised by the cool weather in Antigua. It had all the trappings of a really nice colonial city (plazas, nice catherdrals, colorful buildings), with the added twist of collapsed cathedrals from natural distasters in the past. Yet still it wasn´t quite enough to keep me there for more than a night before going to San Pedro de la Laguna on Lago Atitlán with a few people I met in the hostel.

As I was slowly coming to find out, tourists are quite scarce in El Salvador and my visit to Lago de Coatepeque was no exception (I was the only one at the guest house I camped at there, and I saw no one else in San Diego and one other tourist in San Salvador). I ended up putting my tent at the end of the guesthouse's dock since camping was half the price of the dorm room, keeping it secure on the legs of a table and chair and yanking a few pads from the couch in the guest house's TV room to sleep on in the tent. Swimming the the perfectly clear water of the lake

 

I made my way to the coast in El Salvador after spending a chill day and a half in the capital, San Salvador. The capital seemed nice and I was suprised by its modernity, but hearing stories from a taxi driver about the gang violence from Mara Salvatrucha and MS-18 (when they robbed him, they even took his shoes) I was not planning to linger around. It was also off-putting when, accidentially knocking on the wrong door while looking for the hostel in the captial, I was greeted as door opened with a revolver and a "What do you want?". Oh right, and while riding the bus I could see from above that about half of the car drivers had a pistol of some sort on their laps. It seemed like a tormented city. In any case, the beach town I stayed at in the department of La Libertad