The sights of Guatemala

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We spent 7 days in total in Guatemala, and it has been fantastic.

The people are really nice, and will go out of their way to ensure you are having a good time.
The country reminds me of Thailand, with Tuk-Tuks and street stalls everywhere.

After our first few nights in Panajachel, we travelled south-east to Antigua, with a stop at the Chichicastenango market on the way.

The Chichi market is the largest of its type in Central America. Most of the stalls sell hand crafted goods (blankets, scarfs, wood carvings etc), but we stumbled into the food market area, which constisted of fresh meats that were left out in the heat, did not become so fresh, and stunk as you would not believe! We ran out of there as quickly as possible!

Antigua is a beautiful town filled with Spanish Colonial buildings. Here was our base for our Volcano climbing, shopping and tours to a local coffee plantation (Soni was in heaven there!)

After 3 nights in Antigua, we had a grueling 10 hour trip to the island of Flores in the north-east of Guatemala. This place had a pool (where we spent most of our time) and was our base for our morning journey to Tikal.

Anyway, thats enough typing, enjoy the pictures.

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Photos

Chichi Market
Just a small section of the market. Marting, our group leader, advised us that at least one person gets lost here each time a group makes a visit.

Mayan lady selling her wares.
Everything is colourful here!

Antigua.
Antigua is towered over by a giant volcano.

Antigua street
Each building is a different colour.

Sonia's source of life!
A coffee bean fresh out of its fruit.

Drying coffee.
Coffee beans being dried on tiles. Right behind is where they roast the beans, Soni though she was in heaven!

Tikal
One of the pyramids in Tikal.

Star Wars view
George Lucas filmed some of the final scenes from the original Star Wars from this very spot. 2 temples are visable in the background.

Tikal wildlife.
One of the highlights of Tikal was the abundant wildlife. We saw many toucans.

Friendly gecko.
One of the local workers caught this colourful gecko.

Hairy Spider
I really wanted to see one of these. This is a Mexican red-rump tarantula. The girls all ran when one of the guys in our group let it crawl on his arm!