When Steve and I decided to spend this year in Guatemala, we were pretty sure we'd have some adventurous friends and family come to visit us. However, I wasn't holding any high hopes of my parents coming to visit since a) they don't like hot places and b) Central America has never been high on their travel wish list. However, due to the pursuasive effect of of having their grandchildren here (plus the fact that Antigua is not hot!), we had them fairly convinced of taking a trip down to visit. I was really excited for them to visit, and we [View Full Entry]

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My younger brother Eric came to visit us in early February, and had been reading his Lonely Planet guidebook for suggestions of places to visit (as well as, I should certainly hope, my List of Top Places to Visit ) He was pretty interested in making a visit to Tikal, and as we chatted about arranging the details, I decided that I would like to tag along to provide some company. I wanted the chance to visit the area again, this time (based on Steve and his mom's trip) adding in a [View Full Entry]

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With our guests Grammy, Brett, Christy and baby Charlotte, we decided to take a road trip out to Lake Atitlán, but included, for the first time, a side trip to Chichicastenango since we had never been there ourselves. (Our strategy for hosting guests usually includes taking them someplace that we ourselves have never been, to increase our opportunities to see more of the country!) Chichicastenango, or Chi-Chi for short, is a highland town about an hour's drive from the highway exit leading to Sololá on the way to Lake Atitlán, or about 3½ hours from Antigua. It is most known for [View Full Entry]

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Quickly following Mary's trail, Steve's sister Christy, her husband Brett, and their darling baby Charlotte came to visit us for a short but full week. Seeing the baby, our niece and cousin, for the first time was a really big deal for us. We had left Seattle for Antigua just a couple of weeks prior to her birth, and that was especially hard on Steve, who loves his sister mightily and had wanted to be there for the big day. (Of course we ALL love her big, but you know what I mean.) But at the time we purchased our plane [View Full Entry]

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Since my mom was coming a few days ahead of my sister and her family, we decided to head up to Petén together. It was the first time that we've ever traveled just the two of us and I think it was awesome. I had just been to Tikal a few weeks earlier with my family and our visiting friends so I thought that I was mostly going to show my mom around. Well it turned out to be a very different trip and we had a great time. For starters, I know my mom is game for anything so [View Full Entry]

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I've discovered that I love road signs! Some of you may already have seen my all-time favorite road sign of steaming hot turkey in Monterrico. These are some shots I took as we drove in towards the temples of Tikal National Park. [View Full Entry]

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This is my next and final item on my list of "Top Things to Do in Guatemala if You're Visiting for a Short Time." (See Dec 24 entry for my list). Tikal is a national park and an ancient Mayan city with temples dating to 900 BC. That's BEFORE Christ. We're talking OLD. We had eagerly waited for the Gellerts and Carlos to visit so that we, too, could visit Tikal, as this is one of the more special yet somewhat less accessible trips from Antigua. (That is, you have to fly). Tikal is an hour's flight up north (to Guatemala's [View Full Entry]

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This is my next entry on my list of "Top Things to Do in Guatemala if You're Visiting for a Short Time." (See Dec 24 entry for my list). We had already visited Pacaya once before, during the rainy season (see my Sept. 1 entry "Feels just like I"m walking on broken glass") and the really amazing thing about this place is how it changes so much! I mean, it's as if molten lava would actually alter the landscape...hey wait... We wanted to take the Gellerts and Carlos to see Pacaya because it's such a great day trip from Antigua. Our [View Full Entry]

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This is my next item on my list of "Top Things to Do in Guatemala if You're Visiting for a Short Time." (See Dec 24 entry for my list). I have already posted an entry on Lake Atitlan last October, (see "Zipping Along over the Jungle" on October 14), of our time at Hotel Atitlan. This time we decided to stay at a different place than Hotel Atitlan, a tiny village inn located "across and to the right" of the lake and is not accessible from our "usual" town of Panajachel. We took a little launch (a boat hilariosly named Titanic) [View Full Entry]

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I've already mentioned in the blog just prior that our friends and neighbors the Gellerts, plus Steve's godson Carlos, came to visit. I'm going to outline our time together with them, and form a sort of "Top Things to Do in Guatemala if You're Visiting for a Short Time" list for people considering a trip down here. Because of the number of pictures I’m including, I’m going to break down each item on the list into a separate blog entry. Here is the list, to be detailed in my next few entries: • Antigua • Lake Atitlan • Pacaya Volcano • [View Full Entry]

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