Ik ben inmiddels goed en wel aangekomen! De vlucht naar ging prima. We (Rob, Yolanda, Merlijn en ik) waren rond 5.15 uur op Schiphol, waar mij nog een leuke verrassing wachtte, aangezien Suzanne (Tenkink) daar ook was. In Miami ging alles verbzingwekkend snel: veel sneller dan in Londen dus nog 3 uur wachten... Eerst maar even gaan vragen hoe ik aan een boarding kaart kon komen. Gelukkig maar, want blijkbaar was het toch vreemd dat ik die nog niet had. Maar alles werd geregeld (en op tijd want het vliegtuig bleek overboekt). Met een klein uur vertraging in Guatemala aangekomen, waar [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday Ryan and I arrived in Antigua, Jord headed east to Belize to sit on the beach. I updated my blog yesterday about the jungle trip, but the webserver had problems publishing it so hence its not there until now (hopefully). This computer has problems with the USB so I can´t get any more photos up of Antigua or the jungle trip, but as soon as I can I´ll let everyone know. We left Flores at 10:30 Sunday night, which was rough because it was only hours after getting back from the jungle. I threw all my muddy gear in the [View Full Entry]

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Buenos Tardes! Well I just got back from climbing Pacaya, an active volcano about 1 and half hours or so out of Antigua. It was quite the journey! It took about two hours to get up, and all though that does´t seem like a long time, when you are climbing straight up it's quite the workout. It was especially hard hiking it in my jean skirt! I took all my dirty laundry to the laundromat yesterday and forgot to take my jeans out of the bag so I could wear them today. It was something like 7 km up or may [View Full Entry]

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All Saints Day and an incredible hangover after last night´s Halloween celebration...We thought it might be a great idea to go to Santiago and see the festival of All Saints Day. Two chickenbus rides later we found ourselves in the middle of a celebration on a graveyard. Us lutherans are used to that graveyards are quiet and dark and a little sad places, so boy were we surprised to different relationship the guatemalans have with their ancestors! A guatemalan man we met, told us that the indigenous population communicate with their ancestors through flying bright coloured kites on All Saint [View Full Entry]

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I didn't think that Halloween was celebrated in Guatemala, I thought it was really just a North American thing and was actually a little sad that I would be missing it, but I was quite wrong... There were quite a few kids running about last night all dressed up in their costumes, but instead of going around collecting candy in their bags, they go around collecting quetzales (currency here) and chant something along the lines of we want money. (My spanish sucks, so I don't know exactly what they were saying, but I think it is something along that line). Anyways, [View Full Entry]

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Last saturday, after a good breakfast by the lake in Flores wondering where to head next, the owner of our hostel came with this great offer to us: he could arrange transport to the airport in Flores, flight to Guatemala City and transport from Guatemala City to Antigua for only 40US$!! After asking around a little and finding out that this wasn´t anything strange as it´s lowseason and hurricane-season and everything, we decided to take the offer. Of course the plane was a small 14 passenger local plane but the local assured us it was "segurísimo"! And so it was! Only [View Full Entry]

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Hola! So here it goes... I arrived in Guatemala City late Thursday evening and stepped outside the airport to tons of people yelling names of others they were to pick up or meet. I was quite overwhelmed, but managed to make my way over to the taxi's and went straight to the guesthouse that I wanted to stay in that night. Normally everyone says that you should get right out of Guat City once you arrive because it is unsafe, but if you arrive at night you are never to take a bus in the dark because of highway robberies that [View Full Entry]

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October 10, 2005 (Seattle-Tacoma International Airport): Shannon here. Sean and I leave for Guatemala tonight on a red-eye flight to Houston, then on to Guatemala City. We’re sitting in the airport at Sea-Tac as I write. I can’t say that I really feel all that nervous; perhaps maybe a little anxious about finding a place to sleep once we reach Guatemala City. For those that are not aware, Hurricane Stan caused some pretty severe landslides in Guatemala - in one case burying an entire village. Sean and I aren’t really sure what impact that will have on the places we in [View Full Entry]

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Well I have arrived in Guatemala. I arrived in Guatemala city yesterday around noon, I caught the first shuttle bus I saw at the airport and headed directly to Antigua. I love Antigua...it's a small town about 30000 people but with lots of cool sites. It's full of old Spanish colonial ruins. Churches that date back 500 years ago in ruins. Some still intact but a lot of them have been destroyed by the constant bombardment of earthquakes the area has had over the last 300 years. The town is situated in a valley surrounded by huge volcanoes, that makes for [View Full Entry]

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I have had a request to inform all of you of Marks most recent update. A few days ago he emailed me that life is incredible there. i did not get a ton of details but this is what he told me... he sleeps on the deck with some of his new friends at night because it is way too hot in the bunks. i guess it storms every night too but they just stay up there. he likes the boat and the crew a lot. he also said, "every view is beautiful, the diving and free-diving is awesome. i got [View Full Entry]

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