casabantam produktions

Again. It seems like the joke of our trip. We are leaving tomorrow, but there’s a party, or it’s rainning…any excuse is a valid one to postpone the departure, mostly if you are sourrended by beautiful people.  The thing is that after 18 days in Playa, mañana for sure. Always is mañana for sure. This time, the excuse was a reggae festival out at the beach, the whole day, and everything that comes with it. We tried to have our little stand but in exchange they wanted 2500 pesos. They are a bit crazy, although it makes sense. The festival was free, but it’s always the artesans that have to pay for it. Between one thing and the other we got rid of a pair of ear-rings and a brazalet. Oh well, it’s not so bad for the day we had. Between piña coladas, beers, and the coolest chambao ever..well, Javi said it ‘they tell you this is Spain, and you better believe it’. The truth is that it was a lot of fun. One of the best of the trip, right? I think so. Recommended band: Gondwana from Chile. Very good.

Belize? I don’t know what we expected from this place, but it’s like being in a jungglish New Orleans, or something like that. There’s a mix of spanish, english, criol, and a dialeg that they have, that the truth is that we are not understanding anything of what they say. (Just when they talked between them though). It’s only for a couple of days though. Right now, we are in San Ignacio, pretty close to the Guatemalan border, where we are planning on going tomorrow. We jumped the whole coast. That’s ok. There are still plenty of paradisiac places all over, and our goal is to cross to Colombia around mid of august. So, we are a bit on a rush through places, but stopping to say hello. At least.

After a whole day of pure delirium due to my idea of coming down with a fever, we finally arrived to Tikal. Who knows, with all these mosquitos how and what I got. The fact is that we made it. Thanks to Tony that drove all the time, although once in a while when he wouldn’t see the bumps, my head would feel like I had 13 monkeys in my head fighting for 12 chairs, as Gloria Fuertes once said. And of course, thanks to Maria, who was my nurse, changing wet ice cold cloths of my head, and literally dragged me off the bantam into the rain. I can say, that I became myself again. For better or for worse. So today, with a little bit of hangover from these two last days of ayayayay, we made it to Tikal alive and well….actually, the last one, not me. We’ve loved it, of course, but aside from Sayulita and Playa del Carmen, all the other places that we’ve been through in our trip, we haven’t even smelled them. We love all these ruins, but on my side, I think I’m done with them. For now. I like to imagine people moving here and there years and years ago, doing and undoing their things, but honestly, it’s been quite a while that we haven’t done much with the documentary. Not really true. One of the good things about going to these amazing places is that we’ve been taking good shots for the doc. At least, that’s what we’d like to think. Tony is leaving us today for just a couple of days. But on Monday, he’ll be back on the Bantam. In Semuc Champey. I know it sounds like Chinese, but I can assure you it’s a place in Guatemala.

I had a flashback today while I was driving. March 2003. Cádiz. On our way to Caños de meca with Maya, Sara, and Taera. All of a sudden, Sara plays this cd of Mastretta ‘Música para automóvil’, and without even realizing, all four bodies were moving in such a fine rhythm in that little space, that we looked like an orquestra and its ballet perfectly syncronyzed. Mostly Maya. She was moving in such a natural way that it seemed just splendid. And while we danced and laughed, the most vivid memory that I have of that moment is Maya’s voice: ‘but look, Andalucía really is verde que te quiero verde”.

And yes, Guatemala is just like that. Anywhere I look. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many greens in my whole life. I haven’t seen the place yet. People are just amazing here. So beautiful. And the kids…really, I have no words. To me, they are the most amazing beings  on the planet. All of them smile at us no matter where we go. I wanna take them all with us……

Español 

Si si, muy bonito, pero realmente, es otro extra del escenario de esta película que andamos viviendo. Semuch Champey significa ‘donde el río se esconde bajo la piedra’ en Q’eqchi. Esa piedra que alberga las pozas color turquesa y que después del ejercicio que nos pegamos hasta el mirador, la verdad es que el bañito en ellas estuvo de lujo. Como la Bantam no la pudimos llevar hasta allí, nos quedamos a pasar la noche en Lanquín, el último pueblo antes de Semuc, y claro, como no, a la Bantam, después del arrechucho que le dió en Cobán, dijo, hasta aquí he llegado. Así que de nuevo, le dió por no arrancar. Menos mal que el mecánico estaba justo en la puerta de al lado, echando la siesta. Pobret. “El motor de arranque” dice, “que está sucio”. Efectivamente. Un poquito de gasolina, un trapito, y dale, arrancó. Así, vamos dejando heroes por todas partes.... 

English 

Yes, really beautiful. But, this place is just another extra on the set of this movie we are living. In Q’eqchi, Semuch Champey means ‘where the river hides under the stone’. That stone, has amazing turquoise pools, where swimming is just a luxe, after the hiking to the viewing point. Since we couldn’t take the Bantam to Semuc, we had to stay overnight in Lanquín, the last town before Semuc. Again, we had to look for a mechanic, and fortunately, he was taking a nap right next door. “It’s the start up engine”, he said, “it’s dirty”. With a cloth and a bit of gas, it worked. That’s how we are leaving heroes all around the place….

Español 

Es difícil no hacerle caso a los mapas todo el tiempo y sobre todo creerte todo lo que te dicen los locales. Teniendo en cuenta que ellos están acostumbrados a los caminos más difíciles, y que tal vez nunca han conducido nada como la Bantam, que cada vez que agarra un desnivel todo se mueve a ritmo de twist, bajo su punto de vista, la Bantam es todoterreno. Y si, pobrecita, pero hasta cierto punto. Ibamos Maria y yo camino de Antigua para encontrarnos con Antonio que se había escapado un par de dias, y bueno, casi nos dimos la vuelta al empezar el camino de cabras, pero dijimos, paciencia paciencia. Maldita la hora. El camino ese no se acaba nunca. Fueron como 50 km de 20km/h los momentos de más velocidad. Lo bueno de todo es que nos metimos en la mera tierra, cruzando aldeas de 3 casas y saludando a todo el mundo por el camino. Tuvimos hasta viajeros locales con nosotros por un rato. Lo conseguimos, pero si alguien ve nuestras paciencias por ahí, por favor nos las mandan.

 English 

It’s hard not to pay attention to the maps or believe everything locals tell you. Keeping in mind that they are used to the most difficult kind of roads, and that they might have never driven anything like the Bantam, which everytime you hit a bump, it rocks like it’s dancing twist, they think it’s a four-wheel drive, or something like that. And it is, but just not all the way. There we were, Maria and I, on our way to Antigua to meet up with Tony, who had scape for a couple of days. We thought of turning back and go another way when we hit the dirt road, but we said, patience, patience. It was the neverending road. About 31 miles of 12m/h. The good thing about this is that we went through the heart of guatemala, passing through towns where there were only 3 houses, and being greeted by everybody. We even had some local riders with us for some miles. We made it, but if somebody finds our patiences somewhere, please send them to us.

Español 

Descansito antes de agarrar el volante de nuevo. Tony viendo uno de los partidos del mundial (nos quiere enganchar, pero no hay manera), Maria terminando de comer, y yo dándole a las teclas. Hemos estado 3 dias en Antigua, la cuál nos parece, para variar, preciosa. Nos recuerda muchísimo a San Cristóbal de las Casas en México. Ningún edificio alto, todas las casas de colores, la gente muy sonriente, como siempre. Dicen que puede ser un lugar peligroso por estar tan cerca de la ciudad de Guatemala, pero desde luego, está muy lejos de dar esa sensación, al contrario, parece un lugar tranquilo y bien relajado. Nosotros nos sentimos así, y así nos movemos. El primer dia aquí nos lo pasamos buscando un mecánico, porque para variar a la Bantam ahora le dió por quejarse de la dirección. ¿Cuándo se va a acabar esto? Nos preguntamos nosotros. En fin, al final, después de mucha vuelta, nos encontramos a uno que parece ser nos hizo un medio apaño. Hasta que no agarremos la carretera de nuevo no lo sabremos. Eso, en el próximo capítulo. El segundo nos lo pasamos de turisteo total. Ooooh, uuuuh, aaah, que bonito, que bueno, que rico, no queremos comprar gracias. El tercero y último, nos dió por hacernos los guays y nos levantamos a las 3:30 am para irnos al volcán Pacaya. Casi dos horas de viaje. Nos llevaron claro. Todavía de noche, nos enfilamos hacia el cráter, cargando cámara, trípode, y alguna cosa más. Unos minutos después de empezar a subir y subir y subir, Tony y el guía fueron los encargados de cargar con casi todo, porque Maria y yo casi nos ahogamos por el camino. No es para reirse. A partir de mañana, ejercicio todos los dias. En serio. Llevo 10 dias sin probar un cigarro, por algo se empieza, ¿no? Llegamos arriba justo con el amanecer, la pena es que estaba nublado y estaba lleno de pingüinos. Mentira, pero hacía un frio, que de veras los pingüinos hubiesen estado más que felices. Tony y el guía subieron hasta el cráter. Legalmente, no está permitido, y la verdad, a nosotras no nos gusta sufrir, bastante ya, el que nos estuviesemos congelando. Los chichos bajaron corriendo a la que el volcán empezó a hacer ruidos extraños. Al final, nos acabamos metiendo dónde estaba la lava seca, nuevecita de hacía un mes, y dónde todaví había algún que otro riachuelo rojísimo y en pleno movimiento. Casi nos asamos. No había termino medio, pero que rico se estaba en la estufa natural. Sólo ver la lava deslizándose valió la pena. Lo mejor de todo es que a la hora de irnos, era cuando llegaban todos los turistas y cuando ya no te podías meter dónde la lava. Tuvimos suerte.Por cierto, seguro que habéis visto ‘El Señor de los Anillos’ o ‘Las Crónicas de Narnia’. Así era el paisaje por dónde nos moviamos. En serio. Nada recomendado ‘The Black Cat’. Nos tenemos que duchar de vez en cuando. Cuando preguntamos en este sitio de mochileros y con ‘buena onda’ si nos alquilaban la ducha, el tipo nos responde: ‘¿para qué?’. En este lugar ni el que atendía era local.Recomendado, Rte./Hostal ‘La Berenjena’. ¡Vivan estos chicos que nos prestaron la ducha!  

English 

A little break before driving again. Tony is watching one of the games of the World Cup (he’s trying to getting us hooked to soccer, but there’s no way). Maria is finishing eating, and here I am typing, again.We’ve been 3 days in Antigua, which we think is just amazingly beautiful. Again. It reminds us to San Cristóbal de las Casas in México. No tall buildings, all the houses are painted in different colors, everybody smiles, as always. They say it could be a dangerous place because it’s so close to Guatemala City. Our feeling here, it’s far from that. On the contrary, we feel this place as being very relaxed and quiet. That’s how we feel, and that’s how we move around. Our first day here, we spent it looking for a mechanic. Of course. Now it’s the aligment of the wheels, or who knows what. When is this gonna end? We ask ourselves. We don’t know. For now, we just have to wait to get on the road to see if the problem is fixed or not. But that will be for next chapter.

Our second day, was very turistic like. Ooooh, uuuuh, aaah, how nice, how beautiful, how good, we don’t want to buy anything thank you.

The third and last day, we thought we were so cool we had to get up at 3:30am to go to the volcano Pacaya, so we could hit sunrise. Almost 2 hours driving, although this time, we were taken there. Still pitch dark, we started the hiking, carrying camera, tripod, and other stuff. A few minutes after we started the hike, Tony and the guide were the ones carrying everything, because Maria and I were about to die. Really, it’s not a joke. After tomorrow, there’s gonna be some exercise happening. At least, I haven’t tried a cigarette for 10 days. It’s a starting point. When we reached the top (not the crater though), right after sunrise, it was all foggy, and there were lots of pinguins. Ok, I’m lying, but it was sooo cold that pinguins would have been very happy there. Tony and the guide when up to the crater, which is totally ilegal, cause it can go off at any time, it actually did a month ago. And when these guys were up there, they had to come down running cause they heard some strange noises. We ended up going down to where the lava was, which wasn’t allowed either, but hey, at 7am there was nobody there to stop us from that, and it was way too cold to stay up in the hill looking at that oven down there. So we almost fried, but it felt so good. And just seeing the lava moving was worth it. The best of all was that by the time we left, all the tourist were going up. So we were all the time alone, with nobody to tell us what to do and what not to do, and of course, after it cleared up, we got really nice shots. This place remind us to ‘Lord of the Rings’, or ‘Narnia’. Really

By the way, if you ever go to Antigua, do not go to ‘The Black Cat’. It’s supposed to be a cool place for backpackers and all that, but when we went to ask them to rent us a shower (we lack of that in the Bantam), the guys asked us: ‘why?’ Not even him was a local.

But of course, we found THE place, where they were totally cool, and didn’t even charge us for the shower. ‘La Berenjena’. Right on guys!

Español

¿Alguien ha visto tantos colores juntos en su vida? ¿Habíamos mencionado ya lo increible y fabuloso que nos parece este pais? No deja de sorprendernos. No importa dónde vayamos o con quién hablemos, siempre acabamos con la boca abierta de admiración y agradecimiento. Chichicastengango, o Chichi, comunmente conocido por aquí, es un pueblito bastante pequeño con no mucho que hacer, excepto por el famoso mercado el jueves y el domingo. Nosotros, siguiendo un poco lo aconsejado, llegamos el sábado por la noche después de un camino con lluvias bastante fuertes, gracias a las cuales, nos dimos cuenta que la Bantam tenía goteras.......aaaaaaaaaaaaggggh. Esto no se acaba. El domingo, por suerte, despertamos con un sol de esos que lo seca todo en 2 minutos, y como caravana de gitanos que somos, nos montamos el tendedero en un plis plas, colchón, sábanas, calcetines, etc., vamos, un poquito de todo. Por supuesto, lo primero que hicimos fue taparle todos los agujeros habidos y por haber en la Bantam, o por lo menos, eso creemos. Así que una vez listos, o como diría Manuel, tontos, pero preparados, nos cargamos con las cámaras a capturar un poco de la esencia de este lugar. Creo que hicimos un buen trabajo...menos mal que cámara y Maria son un solo ente...Lo malo es que entre una cosa y otra nos perdimos las medio cofradías medio ritos Mayas que se hacen en la iglesia del pueblo. El mercado parecía un hormiguero, con gente llena de colores por todas partes, niños intentando vendernos las muñequitas que representan a las señoras cargadas de todo en la cabeza y de niños a la espalda. Estas, intentando vendernos todo tipo de trapo, colcha, blusa, cinta para el pelo, manta, bolsa para la cámara, lo que fuese, pero algo. Y a cambio, nos daban su bendición. Nosotros lo queríamos todo. Obvio. Es difícil resistirse a tanta belleza, y a tanta gente persiguiéndonos por medio mercado. Al final sólo fueron, un par de muñequitas para nuestros zapatistas y una tela multicolor, que Tony dice que un dia de estos de lluvia, nos comamos un algo y nos pongamos a mirar la tela, a ver lo que pasa.............. 

English

Has there anybody seen so many colors together? Have we ever said how incredible and fabulous this country is? It doesn’t stop surprising us. It doesn’t matter where we go or who we talk to, we always end up with our mouths wide open because of admiration and gratefulness. Chichimaltenango, or Chichi, commonly known around here, is a pretty small town, with not so much to do, but with a very famous market, on Sundays and Thursdays. Today is Sunday. We followed the advises of some people saying it was better to come here on Saturdays so we could enjoy the whole day of market. By the way, on the way here, it was rainning cats and dogs, and we realized we had a lik on the roof…..aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggh! This is a neverending story. Luckyly enough, today we woke up with a beautiful sun. One of those that dries everything up in a matter of minutes. And like good gypsies we hang up everything outside the Bantam until it dried up. First thing we did today was filling up (all) the holes with silicone. So, once we were ready, we took all the cameras, and went to capture the essense of this place. I think we did a good job….we are lucky that Maria and the camera are just one. The bad thing today is that between the holes and the drying up, we missed one of the most typical things of Sunday mass, which is a rite they do half Catholic half Mayan.

The market was like an ant hill, with lots of people everywhere, wearing very colorful clothes, kids trying to sell us some dolls that represent women carrying big bags on their heads, full of who knows what, and babies on their backs. Women just like the dolls, trying to sell us any sort of clothing, bedding, bluses, blankets, bags for the camera, anything, whatever. In exchange, they would give us their blessing. We wanted all. No doubt. It’s hard to say no to so much beauty. And to all those people following us all over the place. At the end it was just a couple of dolls for the zapatistas, and a very colorful miniblanket, which Tony says that in one of these rainny days, we should eat ‘something’ and look at the fabric, and see what happens…..