8 CONTENIDO 02
EDITORIAL
A PERFECT DAY IN HOLBOX ISLAND
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LAS COLORADAS
路 Writers Alex in Wanderland Sergio Camalich Morales
GOING SLOW
THE BEST BAR IN CENTRA AMERICA?
TRAVEL DIARY
Thanks to: Marsela, Paulina, Rodrigo, Marcel and Arturo for helping me out a lot at the beginning of this project.
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COLLABORATORS
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LAS COLORADAS
路
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Editorial Design Casandra Baltazar
The Arcae Project
EDITORIAL
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rcae:
What am I doing right now?
(lat., noun) Ark, Something Right now, I’m working hard to save money, affording protection; safety, buying equipment and planning the first leg shelter, refuge. of this project’s trip, from Mexico to Argentina, where I’ll be gathering experience on how to make videos, take lots of pictures and run a blog while traveling. The Arcae Project started as a crazy idea to The plan is to quit my job (hi, boss!) in july and travel the world while capturing the essence of start traveling by early august for at least a year, humanity for future generations. but since I’m a Web Designer, I’ll be freelancing For this to happen, I am searching for all on the road too, so I might last longer than that those objects, stories and valuable things that and even go to more countries after Argentina. represent us as human beings, making a portrait Why this trip? of human kind in this brief moment of history, Since I started traveling in 2011, I promised time and space. myself that I’d make a “big trip” at least once a As the project evolved, I decided to also share year and so far I’ve kept my promise. But now I my own experience as I travel around Mexico want to make a REALLY big trip starting from my and Latin America, the first leg of my journey, own beautiful country, Mexico. showing that traveling is not a crazy impossible Also, I’m a bit tired of this 9 to 5 life and don’t dream and maybe inspire people to make want to be an employee anymore so I decided to awesome travels of their own. make a big change in my life. Sergio Camalich Morales
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THE BEST BAR IN CENTRAL AMERICA? BY: Alex in Wanderland
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hat, you’re sick of hearing about a trip that happened a year ago? Fine. One more Honduras post and its back to our regularly scheduled programming. Okay, so maybe I haven’t been to EVERY bar in Central America. Or even every country. But I have been to three (countries, that is) and I think I can safely say this bar has got to be pretty far up the list of amazing Central American drinking establishments.
Treetanic bar is fashioned after a shipwreck that’s been sunk in a patch of mango trees, and then covered, every square inch of coverable surface, in mixed media mosaic. The bar, opened in 1998 has been decorated continuously by owners Neil and Julia. The objects you see making up the mosaics covering every possible surface are from the owner’s trips through Guatemala an Honduras and from flea markets in LA. . It is without question, a work of art. It’s also a damn good time.
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his bar has got to be pretty far up the list of amazing Central American drinking establishments”.
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Travel Diary #08 BY: Sergio Camalich Morales These are taken from January 20 through 30.
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.-Chicken soup for the messed up bodies! .-4 chicken buses, 1 mini bus and 10 hours later, we are finally at El Salvador the 4th country of this trip! .-Easy day, today. Just laying on the beach, sunbathing, swimming, reading and eating. Life’s horrible. .-First day completely dedicated to surf. 1 session at sunrise and another one at sunset. I can definitely love this routine.
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.- Today, we all got up still a little jumpy from yesterday, but we managed to control this by having a couple of early beers. Yay for alcohol! .- I still can’t believe how pretentious can “hippies” be. “Oh, yes. I don’t need anything in life, but I still pay for a $20 dorm, a $15 organic salad and a $10 yoga class”. PFFF! .- Waking up for sunrise always calms up my nerves. And the pictures are always amazing! .-“Don’t act mexican on me, dude!”. One of the most eye-opening things someone has ever told me. .-Today has been the biggest example of generosity and kindness I’ve seen in a long time, and despite being away from my family, I felt like home. .-Today is the only time I’ve been scared on this trip. After an awesome night out, we almost got attacked with a big knife by a robber.
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.-The sunrise and sunsets seen from the ocean are incredible. I still have a problem deciding whether to keep on surfing or just stare into the horizon.
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Walking from Xela to Lake Atitlan BY: Sergio Camalich Morales
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uetzaltenango also known as Xela is the second biggest city in Guatemala and it is mostly known because of its beauty and its nearness to several volcanos, incluiding Tajumulco the highest peak in Central America.
But for everyone who’s really interested in experiencing beautifully demanding hikes and also has the time for it, Xela offers this alternative trek: The 3-day trek from Xela to San Pedro La Laguna, in Lake Atitlan. This day was a lot, mostly because most of the path was flat after a certain distance but also because we got a good amount of rest stops on the several town we came across.
Day 1 – Reaching the river We started trek around 6am in Xela, where they took us to the starting point of our trek, outside one of the many towns around the city. As soon as we started to walk, we realised how hard it was going to be this trek. deduce we were pretty much dead.
Day 3 Final Destination The third day, although the shortest day of the trek, it was still incredible. Thankfully, this one was a pretty easy walk down the mountain and through several corn fields, until we got to town.
Day 2 Camping on top of the Mayan Face. After a big breakfast, we resumed our hike climbing our way out of the river bed, sweaty because of the humidity and still sore from the day before.
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A perfect day in
Holbox Island T
his perfect day in Holbox Island started out as any perfect day should start: With a massive breakfast and tons of laughs.
As soon as we saw the sun shining bright in the sky, we decided to go on and adventure Hiking in the water If you follow the Holbox’s shore to the west, you’ll reach the spot where the flamingoes It was also the first time that Zoe, Alex, Kim, feed, but first you have to cross a river that is Vincent and I traveled together as a group and supposed to have crocodiles or take a long hike we couldn’t have chosen a better spot to go to through the shallow waters near the beach. than Holbo, a paradisiac island just a couple of After we finally reached the flamingoes, we hours north of Cancun. obviously chased them, then swam around for We had been there for a couple of days already, a while before heading back to the main area but the constant rains didn’t let us do much, so of Holbox of course, yelling every time we as soon as we saw the sun shining bright in the discovered a ray or a horseshoe crab swimming sky, we decided to go on and adventure. around us.
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s we saw the sun shining bright in the sky, we decided to go on and adventure
Drinking beer, talking nonsense, laughing every 5 seconds and waiting for the sunset, until we had to run because the mosquitos were becoming unbearable. An awesome ending Back in the super chilled Ida y Vuelta hostel, I started cooking chiles rellenos for everyone(even though I didn’t even know the recipe), while Vincent and some of the other guys at the hostel played music and sang. It was a true mexican party! A couple of hours passed by without us even noticing because of all the singing and dancing around. Tired, we crashed the hammocks for a while, the music still going in the background, where we talked and laugh a little bit more. It was the end of a perfect day in Holbox Island! BY: Sergio Camalich Morales
An even better afternoon Walking around town, we bought some beers and hit our favorite stall in Holbox, just in front of the wooden pier, where we ended up sitting after stuffing our faces with empanadas. We rested by the pier’s edge,
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Going slow at Caye Caulker
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BY: Sergio Camalich Morales
rom the moment I arrived at Caye Caulker, I felt the change of speed in my body. I still don’t know if it’s the sandy streets or the calm pace of everyone in Caye Caulker, that attracts thousands of backpackers every year, specially during the high season. I know I had the paralysing need of taking out my shirt and shoes, sit on a lazy bench and stare into the distance. And that’s exactly what I did every single day on the island. The Split The Split is a man-made channel that divides Caye Caulker in two. The northern part almost completely undeveloped, while the southern part is where most of the locals and tourists are found. This channel is the most popular part of the island, with a wooden duck where people gather for a good time and a cold beer at the bar next to the shore, while looking at the beautiful scenery. Life on the island After staying for a couple of nights at a party hostel and deciding that is was not for me, I moved next door to Bella’s Backpackers where I met a lot of awesome people, including the first Mexican traveler I’d met outside of Mexico. Like in Holbox, everyone moves around Caye Caulker’s streets by walking, biking or driving cute little golf carts. The goal of this is to maintain clean the beautiful sandy beaches and it adds to the relaxed vibe of the island. Walking around Caye Caulker, you’ll quickly find cool bars and lots of friendly locals to talk to. The odds are you’ll end up partying with most of them, later that same day.
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The pink waters of Las Coloradas When I first heard of Las Coloradas and later saw the pictures on the internet, I was a little bit skeptical of its veracity, but my curiosity was strong enough that it forced my pal Vincent and I to leave the lovely city of Valladolid for a quick day trip to the northern part of the mexican state of Yucatán.
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as Coloradas is a small town located near Rio Lagartos and it is known for its man-made pools, used for extracting salt from sea water. The salinity levels in these pools are so high, that the water turns into a pink liquid, dense enough to make you float without problem(though you shouldn’t touch the water). Getting there To get there, we had to take a second-class bus from Valladolid to Tiziman and then a second one from Tiziman to Las Coloradas. We were dropped off at the other end of the town, so we had to walk back the whole way to the pools under the midday sun, so we ended up buying a couple of beers, of course. The Pools I was actually pretty surprised by the intensity of the color and the sky was working in our favor with an incredible display of clouds reflecting in the water and giving a truly out-of-this-world look to the area. We walked around the perimeter, still not able to believe our eyes and trying to take pictures that properly captured what we were seeing. To be honest, there’s not much else to do here if you’re not traveling with an agency or with a private car. If you are, though, you’ll also be able to visit the mangroves and the flamingoes nests that lay further down south.
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