(Day 832 on the road)And so my time in Guatemala was coming to an end. From the great market in Chichicastenango (see last entry), Tino and I embarked on our last few days in the country, the natural wonders of Semuc Champey near Lanquin. One American guy I talked to a few weeks ago had called Semuc Champey the most beautiful thing in the world. As anticipated, my resulting high expectations could only be disappointed. While the blue, terraced pools were certainly beautiful and special indeed, they are most certainly not the most beautiful thing in the world. As always, I found myself comparing this attraction to other I have seen, and instantly Huang Long National Park in Sichuan, China came to mind. Huang Long has a very similar look, but it is decidedly more beautiful. ... read more

(Day 820 on the road)Ask any traveller about their favourite spots in Guatemala, and chances are high that Antigua and Lake Atitlan will come up very high if not first (together with Tikal). And they are right. The charming, colonial city of Antigua and the dramatic, volcanic Lake Atitlan are certainly the two most beautiful spots we have seen in Central America so far over the past two months. Plus their location in the Highlands offered a welcome relief from the scorching heat of the rest of Guatemala (even too much at times, as we were often freezing at night, despite sleeping with three blankets). From Guatemala City ("Guate"), Antigua is easily reached in an hour on a local chicken bus, but the city couldn't be more different from the busy capital. With its narrow cobbled ... read more

(Day 806 on the road) I am really crossing some borders at the moment. The first time I was in Guatemala two weeks ago, I was in the country for a mere three days to check out Tikal before heading to url=http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Belize/Belize-Barrier-Reef/Caye-Caulker/blog-503626.htmlBelize.After returning from Belize, I was in Guatemala for just a tat longer this time, five days that is, before crossing the border to neighbouring Honduras (where I will stay only two days as well). The reason for all this border crossing is that Central America is really quite small, about the size of France actually. This makes it often impractical to focus on one country and then the next, so frequent border crossings are often needed in order to see all ... read more

(Day 799 on the road)Our last few days in Belize were also our most adventurous in certain ways. Whilst up to now we had travelled mostly on the beaten path with fairly good infrastructure, we left all this behind as we headed first inland and then south, away from the touristy island of Caye Caulker. Bus services were thinning out fast, and soon we found ourselves hitch hiking to get anywhere. Over time, I have become a big fan of hitching, not only because it is typically a lot faster (and cheaper) than those ominous chicken buses that are used for public transport in many countries, but because I tend to meet a lot of interesting characters this way. Or, failing to do the latter, hitching more often than not certainly makes for great memories - ... read more

(Day 790 on the road)Guatemala has recently been rated the worst democracy in Central America. Well done! Considering how stiff the competition here is and that other countries are doing their best to snatch the title, this is quite an achievement. To take this trophy home in this part of the world, you really have to excel in various categories: Biased elections, restricted personal and political rights, a weak separation between the three powers of the state, a state-influenced media, a couple of human rights abuses here and there, and generally a weak governance favouring corruption. After having been ripped off for the fare to Flores by the bus driver at the border in La Tecnica, we soon got our first taste of government corruption right at the immigration office in Bethel, when the friendly officer ... read more