Yesterday in Quetzaltenango
A typical day in the life of Nomadic Backpacker - Long Term Traveller - 99 countries 28 years
I wake early. Nothing new here. I boil up some water, add big chunks of ginger and let it simmer.
I call my gf, known on this blog as Miss CDMX and eat avocado and tomato sandwiches.
Donations through Ko-Fi were good in May so I treat myself to a McD's coffee. Always an americano, always black, always with sugar. But half of my daily food allowance thrown to the big corporate guys. Oh well. Once a week is OK!
Days start clear but cloud always bubbles up and thundery showers are always possible from noon onwards.
I hike up to Cerro El Baúl a 200m high hill overlooking the town.
I follow the road. I pass a few walkers and cyclists. I was going at a nice pace, feeling good.
I call my gf, known on this blog as Miss CDMX and eat avocado and tomato sandwiches.
Donations through Ko-Fi were good in May so I treat myself to a McD's coffee. Always an americano, always black, always with sugar. But half of my daily food allowance thrown to the big corporate guys. Oh well. Once a week is OK!
Days start clear but cloud always bubbles up and thundery showers are always possible from noon onwards.
I hike up to Cerro El Baúl a 200m high hill overlooking the town.
I follow the road. I pass a few walkers and cyclists. I was going at a nice pace, feeling good.
A blog post from 2014 stated a restaurant at the top. Today it is abandoned. Everything had been stripped out, just the concrete shell of what used to be.
The viewpoint is good. Xela stretches quite a way.
I sit on the wall and find the Ideal Hotel, Parque Centro América, Iglesia San Nicolas.
The viewpoint is good. Xela stretches quite a way.
I sit on the wall and find the Ideal Hotel, Parque Centro América, Iglesia San Nicolas.
My blog has become everything. I am progressing. People are showing interest. I need to keep the momentum going. I can't blog every day. but am getting there.
Hold peoples interest so that they come and check to see if I have posted anything new.
I walk to think. I make mental notes of new possible stories. I can't always blog about every little thing I see but I try to intersperse backpacking posts with posts about the mindset of a Long Term Traveller.
I carry my cell phone, an ancient Samsung J5 with the sim removed for safety reasons. To lose the phone will force me to upgrade but losing the sim card is a real pain in the butt. 5 apps require pin code verification.
I write in drafts on Gmail. It's the only app I have that's on both this phone and my tablet.
My phone is a journalist's notebook. I write down random sentences and later back at base with WiFi, Gmail will sync them and I put them into some sort of order.
I walk around the hill. Just a few picnic shelters, swings and a concrete slide going 50m down the hill. I watch locals sit on squashed plastic bottles so they can get some speed up. Makeshift fun! I decide against it myself. My back doesn't need any more aggravation.
Hold peoples interest so that they come and check to see if I have posted anything new.
I walk to think. I make mental notes of new possible stories. I can't always blog about every little thing I see but I try to intersperse backpacking posts with posts about the mindset of a Long Term Traveller.
I carry my cell phone, an ancient Samsung J5 with the sim removed for safety reasons. To lose the phone will force me to upgrade but losing the sim card is a real pain in the butt. 5 apps require pin code verification.
I write in drafts on Gmail. It's the only app I have that's on both this phone and my tablet.
My phone is a journalist's notebook. I write down random sentences and later back at base with WiFi, Gmail will sync them and I put them into some sort of order.
I walk around the hill. Just a few picnic shelters, swings and a concrete slide going 50m down the hill. I watch locals sit on squashed plastic bottles so they can get some speed up. Makeshift fun! I decide against it myself. My back doesn't need any more aggravation.
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The cloud gets thicker. I head down the track, a short cut to the road, happy to see 2 armed police on mountain bikes patrolling! 5.5 km up. 3.5km down. A nice short work out.
I get more tuna and spaghetti at the super market. Back home, I cook up a feed.
With hits to my blog progressing well for the day I go to the store and buy 2 Brahva beers. I find a film on NetFlix. Shooter. It's based in Turkey and Syria. At one point I was so engrossed in the film that I might have slept, albeit momentarily and suddenly I was confused. Where the fuck was I? I couldn't for the life of me think of where I was.
I shook my head, closed my eyes. On opening them I surveyed my room. Hmm OK. Quetzaltenango, universally referred to by its Mayan name of Xela, pronounced SHELLA. Guatemala. Country 99.
I let the film run.
The rain didn't materialise. I had 90 minutes until it would be dark. This is my mo. I don't have any business to be walking unknown streets at night alone. Day time Xela seems safe. I don't need to find out the hard way that at night it's not.
I sit in the Parque Centro América. I like it there. I people watch. Locals do the same. Zona 1 in Xela is very quiet despite it being the 2nd biggest city in Guatemala.
Time is running. I am here in Xela 2 weeks already. I have just 90 days in Guatemala and to squander another week here would be fool hardy. I want to go to San Pedro La Laguna. Explore there a bit. Bash out some posts. Then go to Antigua, Guatemala City. Yes backpackers mostly avoid the capital. It's said to be as sketchy as fuck. At night time it undoubtedly will be, especially for a nervous/paranoid gringo. Day time, I'll just stick to busy areas and get the low down of where not to go.
Then I want to go to Rio Dulce and Livingston. And then head north to see the ruins at Tikal rise out of the jungle.
If Belize opens its land borders, I'll head east. If not, west back into Mexico.
This is my life these days. I am a traveller. I am in no hurry.
Other days in Xela might have been spent walking to the Minerva market, popping into the Iglesia San Nicolas on the way. I am not a religious sort of guy. But if I get the chance to go into a church and just sit and be thankful I will.
Or are spent in the Parque. Just being. Enjoying a Danes de Fresa from Café Xelapan.
I get more tuna and spaghetti at the super market. Back home, I cook up a feed.
With hits to my blog progressing well for the day I go to the store and buy 2 Brahva beers. I find a film on NetFlix. Shooter. It's based in Turkey and Syria. At one point I was so engrossed in the film that I might have slept, albeit momentarily and suddenly I was confused. Where the fuck was I? I couldn't for the life of me think of where I was.
I shook my head, closed my eyes. On opening them I surveyed my room. Hmm OK. Quetzaltenango, universally referred to by its Mayan name of Xela, pronounced SHELLA. Guatemala. Country 99.
I let the film run.
The rain didn't materialise. I had 90 minutes until it would be dark. This is my mo. I don't have any business to be walking unknown streets at night alone. Day time Xela seems safe. I don't need to find out the hard way that at night it's not.
I sit in the Parque Centro América. I like it there. I people watch. Locals do the same. Zona 1 in Xela is very quiet despite it being the 2nd biggest city in Guatemala.
Time is running. I am here in Xela 2 weeks already. I have just 90 days in Guatemala and to squander another week here would be fool hardy. I want to go to San Pedro La Laguna. Explore there a bit. Bash out some posts. Then go to Antigua, Guatemala City. Yes backpackers mostly avoid the capital. It's said to be as sketchy as fuck. At night time it undoubtedly will be, especially for a nervous/paranoid gringo. Day time, I'll just stick to busy areas and get the low down of where not to go.
Then I want to go to Rio Dulce and Livingston. And then head north to see the ruins at Tikal rise out of the jungle.
If Belize opens its land borders, I'll head east. If not, west back into Mexico.
This is my life these days. I am a traveller. I am in no hurry.
Other days in Xela might have been spent walking to the Minerva market, popping into the Iglesia San Nicolas on the way. I am not a religious sort of guy. But if I get the chance to go into a church and just sit and be thankful I will.
Or are spent in the Parque. Just being. Enjoying a Danes de Fresa from Café Xelapan.
Cerro el Baúl from the roof top of the Ideal Hotel:
I call Miss CDMX. We chat again. We always have loads to discuss. By 10.30 I'm out of it.
That was yesterday. Today is another day. Mooching around feeling reflective. Life is good.
That was yesterday. Today is another day. Mooching around feeling reflective. Life is good.
Tagged under: Guatemala
