Antigua, 14 febrero 1990, nighttime. James managed to persuade me to talk some locals into bringing us to a bordello, not that that took much persuation....the promise of a free bottle of Venado did it all. The inside of this bordello is a complete mess with sigarette buts, dirty tissues and used condoms littering the floor. The soles of my shoes stick to the wooden floor so dirty this place is. Some soldier guys sit a table covered with empty El Gallo bottles and a 1 litro botella de Venado - local rum, remember? - small glasses with the amber colored [View Full Entry]

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The last week has been full of so many beautiful and very fun experiences on the "gringo trail" in the indigenous lands of the Maya in San Cristobal, Chiapas (Mexico) to Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala and now ending with Antigua, Guatemala. It was very nice to have already been to these places and therefore know my way around already...easier and less stressful travel! There have been many changes in these towns due to increased amount of tourism...as is to be expected. I spent the week with my friend and new "travel buddy" Andres...it was his first time to this amazing and [View Full Entry]

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Vue de l'exterieur, la maison ou je loge ne paie pas de mine et n'encourage pas a entrer. Pourtant, une fois a l'interieur, la surprise est agreable... La famille loge au rez-de-chaussee, ou se trouve egalement la cuisine, le living et la chambre des 2 jeunes filles mayas qui travaillent dans la maison. Les chambres des etudiants sont a l'etage, viennent ensuite les terrasses. En face de la maison, un chantier de renovation (clin d'oeil aux collegues)... [View Full Entry]

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Antigua est une ville tres touristique... les touristes sont d'ailleurs presque aussi nombreux que les Guatemalteques. Il y a de nombreux restaurants, cafes, magasins, musees, ... et aussi un cafe (le cafe 2000) ou on peut regarder un film sur grand ecran, comme au cinema, gratuitement, ou seulement en prenant un verre... Bref, de nombreuses possibilites pour s'occuper en dehors des cours d'espagnol ou du projet de volontariat. Il est facile de se reperer dans la ville, une fois qu'on a retenu que les rues ("calle") vont de l'Est a l'Ouest, et que les avenues ("avenida") vont du Nord au Sud [View Full Entry]

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Ive spent about 2 weeks travelling with Ray, a guy from New Zealand who is doing a whole year round the world trip. We set of for Antigua using the shuttle bus straight from the hostel. It seems like the way to travel out here rather than the local buses and its pretty expensive compared to what Ive got used to over the last couple of months. Antigua reminds me of Granada, very nice and old colonial buildings. We met a local guy in a bar on the first night there called Jose. He drove us out to Guatemala City later [View Full Entry]

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Southern Guatemala - by George Fresh from Copan Ruinas (see earlier entry - Much More to Maya Liking) we arrived in Antigua, Gringo Capital of Central America. Wow, what a great place. I find it really annoying when I like something that everyone else likes, almost a sense of disappointment at being a sheep. In the case of Antigua I'll make an exception. It's beautiful, has excellent restaurants, lots of markets, good tours to do and if you arrive at the right time, as we did, they know how to throw a Fiesta! We had bands, fireworks, a concert, first class [View Full Entry]

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Only a short entry here, but a nice one. We were given the day off work today as it was celebrating the founding of the city of Antigua, under it's original name of "San Domingo de los Caballeros" by the Spanish a fair few centuries ago (for slightly more detailled info, buy a guide book). To celebrate, the people of Antigua throw out all the stops, with weekend long parties starting at less 2 weeks before the date. On the day itself, a series of processions took place, starting with a number of schools - I think - playing in bands [View Full Entry]

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Well... it is hard to believe that the first week has passed already, and in about 7 hours we are on our way to Honduras. It is just past 9pm, and our shuttle to Copan is picking us up at 03:45. So, it is gonna be a short night. There are few shuttles leaving later than that as most travelers simply make day trips to Copan from Antigua... as this is such a tourist mecca. Oh yeah.. I added some pics to my last post.... so you can jump back and have a peek. It has been a really great visit, [View Full Entry]

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I'm writing this a few days after it's happened but I still think it needs to be brought to attention: Basically this day (I've already forgotten which one, possibly Wed or Thu) was the hardest work that we've ever encountered here. Our task was to dig foundations for a new site, but the ground was almost entirely rock. Add to that a hell of a lot of tree roots, 30 degree heat, coupled with sudden downpours and just a tad of no space to move in, you may have an idea how difficult this really was. The only plus side was [View Full Entry]

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Well..... here we are!!! It has been almost a year since my last blog entry, so I am feeling a little bit rusty. After almost 5 months of anticipation we are finally no longer counting down the days. Seems like it was just yesterday that I was sitting on the phone each and every weekday morning...trying to find out just how far I could take the family with my points. The final result was a journey that will last a couple of weeks longer than we had originally thought... and will cover more territory than we had ever imagined. The journey [View Full Entry]

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