Guatemala...I love it... De sfeer is hier zo geweldig....mensen zijn vriendelijk, natuur is prachtig en de ruines van Tikal waren erg indrukwekkend!! Na Mexico 3 dagen Guatemala in geweest. Om de ruines van tikal te bekijken. Geweldige steile piramides in de jungle. Wat het nog mooier maakt is dat er apen boven je hoofd rondslingeren en de toekans die af en aan vliegen. Na 3 dagen Guatemala...was ik al verkocht. Via Belize naar de caribian coast van Guate gegaan. Daar heb ik 3 dagen in een jungle lodge gezeten vanwaar ik met medereizigers kanotochten heb gemaakt en een beetje gehiked. Voor [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 am in Montreal, watching the hours pass by before leaving... I have to be at the airport in less than twelve hours.. .Happy Birthday to me! [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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Sean: Words are almost inadequate to describe the feeling yesterday as we finally reached the top of one of the tallest temples in the Mayan Kingdom and glimpsed the view from above the jungle canopy. Staring out over the dense growth we saw two thousand years worth of history in the other temples of Tikal poking through. Along with the cacophony of monkeys and birds hollering back and forth it truly gives the place an ancient feel. We were definitely not in Kansas anymore. We had such an amazing day. We left Flores at the crack of dawn so that we [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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So here we are, finally in Guatemala! In Palenque when we tried to find out how to cross the border, everybody (and I mean everybody) told us it wouldnt be possible without taking a "tour". Even the local tourist info only tried to sell us their own tours. It seemed it easnt possible to just cross the border without seeing magnificent waterfalls or ancient mayan-ruins... But after some research, we found the place where to take a colectivo to Frontera Corozal. We had to get up at 5am and packed our stuff and tried to get out. I litterally mean TRIED [View Full Entry]

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Monday, October 17, 2005 (Antigua, Guatemala) Shannon: Sean and I started our Spanish language classes today and it was…well, we’ll see… The biggest problem is that my teacher doesn’t speak any English - and I don’t speak any Spanish, obviously. You don’t have to look very far to see the problem in this one. It was pretty disappointing, since it appears that the other teachers do speak English and mine is the only one who doesn’t. (When we interviewed with the director of the school we were really clear about my language [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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