Here in Xela there is a Spanish School with a print of my arse on the wall. Sakribal has been really good fun, and I’ve learnt lots of Spanish, if only I could put more of into practice. My teacher for the third and fourth weeks of school was Carolina, she spoke only a few words of English, which meant that the lessons were much harder work for me - exactly what I needed. I bought the most horrible item in Xela as a thank you present, a Hello Kitty lamp/alarm clock combo, she really loved it so that was great. [View Full Entry]

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On Saturday my family, well Patrick and Francisco took me to Alguna Chicabal. About 10 miles from Xela, the lake is in the centre of a dormant volcano, surrounded by lush highland forest. It's also the home of the Quetzal - the national bird. It's very rare. We got up at 5am, Pablo my Guatemalan brother decided not to take us in the pickup truck as promised the previous day so it was another trip on the chicken bus. After leaping off the chicken bus in the middle of nowhere we had a 3hr hike to the summit. We set off, [View Full Entry]

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My second (and now third) week in Xela has been a lot of fun. The friendships I had made in the first week carried on into the second and I now have a new brother, Patrick, from Dallas, Texas. Patrick has been living in Xela for around 6 months volunteering at a local school, teaching English, the first English teacher that they have ever had at the school - and travelling around central America. He's a few years older than me, I guess that makes him my big brother. Having Patrick around has helped with my Spanish as he is "mas [View Full Entry]

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Up in the highlands near the Mexican border is the village of Todos Santos. The village is famous for the traditional dress of the locals, mam - a Mayan language, the use of a 260 day Mayan calandar and the murder of a Japanese tourist in 1998 for taking photographs. So armed with my digital camera I boarded a bus bound for Huehuetenango where I could change bus for Todos Santos. Sharron and Ann from school decided to accompany me... well actually - Sharron had planned the trip and kindly offered to let me accompany them. We left at 7am, stopped [View Full Entry]

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For $125 US a number of Spanish schools in Xela will give you 5 hours of one on one tuition, a home-stay with a Guatemalan family and arranges activities for the afternoon. I booked into Sakribal a Spanish school which I had been recommended by some girls in Mexico city. Returning from Sanajchel on Sunday afternoon I was to meet my new family. For the next 2 weeks maybe one month I would stay with them. At the school I waited to meet one of my new family. Francisco, the father of the family came to meet me on his bicycle. [View Full Entry]

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Two and half hours chicken bus ride from Xela is one of the most beautiful spots in all Guatemala. Lago Atitlan, a huge lake surrounded by three huge volcanoes. Panajachel is small town on the shore of the lake. We arrived mid afternoon found a hotel and went to eat. Since I left England 6 weeks ago I haven't been to a place quite as set up for tourists as this, the town even had a multi-storey hotel. Throw in a large number of travellers, staying in the cheap hotels - as low as £3 per night, and there is a [View Full Entry]

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Quezaltenango, it's a nice city. I spent some time wandering around, visited yet more markets, looked for somewhere to eat. Walking down one rode we spotted Carina, the Dutch anthropologist that we had met pony trekking a few days before. She was with a American Brad and a French Canadian Murialania. Brad was staying at the same hotel as us. Finally I went to a Spanish school and booked my course to start on Monday. Olga the director of Sakribal booked me in, she spoke to us solely in Spanish, but slowly and clearly, using vocabulary that I understood. Where I [View Full Entry]

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A first class bus took us from San Cristobal to the Guatemalan border. No signs in English, Spanish and no indication of what to do. Taking a wild guess Reena and I wandered over to the Mexican migration office. I tried to ask the stern, and blatantly bored official behind the counter what I needed to do. One word was uttered, "passporte". Handed over the passport, lost my tourist card and received another stamp. After this a taxi was needed to get to the Guatemalan border. Walked through a gate, and over to the Guatemalan migration office, the guys in the [View Full Entry]

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We left the beautiful lakeside Panajachel on one of the beaten up chicken buses Guatamalan people have as public transport, over and through the many mountain ranges to Chichicastenengo, a small mountain town (2000 m above sea level) famous for it´s Sunday market. It was Easter Saturday when we arrived and the town was already putting on various colourful religious processions in its narrow streets. Quite a spectacle. Samana Santa was happening everywhere! On our last night in Panajachel, Dean hurt his neck a little while sleeping using the rock-hard pillows at the hotel. On our arrival in [View Full Entry]

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The trip was wonderful mix of volcanoes,jungles, mayan ruins and lakes . I flew into Guatemala city and immediately went to Antigua, a spanish colonial city that is nestled between three spectacular volcanoes. The town has cobblestone streets, bougainvillae trees, terra cotta roofs and old church ruins and made it an ideal spot to start my vacation. Also, a fun place to practice my salsa moves ;-) One day, I went climbing volcan Pacaya with a guide and 10 other tourists. It was a exciting 4 hour hike. The guide wanted to abandon the climb after 1.5 hours due to heavy [View Full Entry]

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