By far the most memorable day trip of this journey has been the hike up Pacaya to see the flowing lava (only somedays is there lava flowing, we got there on a good day). Other than the Lava, what made the trip the most memorable was the preparedness of some of the other travelers. I will refer to them as the President of the Valley Girls of Southern California and the future leader of Blondes of Briton respectively. The first gal was staying at our hostel. I was browsing the net in the lobby when she arrived from the airport. This [View Full Entry]

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Another early day… (5 a.m. to be exact) For some reason our trip to Guatemala was scheduled the day after our arrival to El Salvador. I think Liz likes pretending she’s a drill sergeant. During the course of the first 36 hours of our trip, Jason and I departed Tampa, caught a connecting flight in Atlanta, flew to San Salvador, rode a bus 4 ½ hours to Guatemala City, and rode an additional hour to Antigua; five locations and three countries in a day and a half…not too bad. We boarded a double-decker shuttle bus that put U.S. travel to shame. [View Full Entry]

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My Tia made a special request for more photos. I'm taking advantage of the speedy Internet during the first half of my trip. So Enjoy! Love, Christina P.S. Bella your soup is much better! [View Full Entry]

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Getting up at the ungodly hour of 4am was actually OK. Reason being we had though that the minibus taking us to Tikal was going to get us there in time to climb a temple to watch teh sun rise. Of course no such thing happened - or could have happened - as we found out while watching the sun rise from the minibus seats that the gate of the site didn´t even open till 6am, well after sun rise. So feeling a little disappointed at this, we arrived at the site. Tikal was the thing I was looking forward to [View Full Entry]

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My wife decided to schedule our trip to Guatemala the day after our arrival to El Salvador. Supposedly there was some logical reason for this, but I suspect she’s just trying to torment me. During the course of the first 36 hours of our trip, Christina and I departed Tampa, caught a connecting flight in Atlanta, flew to San Salvador, rode a bus 4 ½ hours to Guatemala City, and then rode an additional hour to Antigua. Five locations and three countries in a day and a half… this may be the ideal time to purchase stock in Pepto-Bismol. We boarded [View Full Entry]

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It was a few hour bus ride from San Salvador to Guata (as the locals call it). Toby had recommended we take one of the express buses, and we went with a company that had departures every hour and a half. He had mentioned that the other buses 'Take forever'. For Toby to take the more expensive option, the cheaper one must be really bad. I had heard that Guata was not he safest city in the region, so I booked us into a more expensive lodging option, $18 for the room @ the Hotel Colonial . It had nice ambiance, [View Full Entry]

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El fin de semana pasado, aprovechando que era la festividad del Maestro, y no se daba clases (...más adelante les cuento como se celebra aqui esta festividad) junto con tres maestros mas , también voluntarios, hicimos una esacapada a las montañas, a un parque nacional llamado Semuc Champey. El recorrido fué en camioneta y en "chicken bus" por carreteras sin asfaltar salpicadas de puequeñas aldeas mayas . Este parque nacional es celebre por sus pozas de aguas cristalinas escalalonadas en las que se puede nadar y que se llenan con el agua fresca del rio Cahabón de color verde turquesa. Imaginad [View Full Entry]

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17.07. - 18.07.2009 Semuc Champey We had breakfast at 7am and then got back onto the bus to drive to Semuc Champey. The ride was only about 2,5 more hours. Approximately 10km before we arrived at the hotel we had to get off the bus and continue in pick-up trucks, because the road was really bad. Katrin and I squeezed on the back seat with two of the others whereas the rest of the group had to stand in the back. Josué distributed the rooms. Katrin and I had to share our bungalow with Frida. She's a 23 year old girl [View Full Entry]

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16.07.2009 Witch Although I have five hours of private lessons every day and I was worried that they'd feel never ending, with my teacher Vivi they don't. We are having so much fun. She teaches me a lot but there is still space for telling funny stories or just acting stupid. Some days ago she announced that she's a witch and if I don't study properly (well, I really don't have time. I don't even have time to keep up with my travel blog) or if I don't pay good attention she'll have to turn me into a "rana". Because I [View Full Entry]

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After a rather uneventful traverse of Guatemala City I found my way to the Interamericana highway and made my way higher and higher into the highland volcano country. The ride was spectacular and punctuated only by a couple stops to warm my hands and snap photos and one stop in a small town where the road had been closed by a indigenous rights demonstration. I pulled to the front of the line of traffic and asked a couple of police officers what was going on. One told me I'd have to wait but just then his partner noticed another motorcycle squeezing [View Full Entry]

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