Flying on probably the safest day of the year. Hola! At this moment I am in Guatemala. Yes, I can hear you thinking: a new continent every week? Well it sure lookes like it. But probably I will stay for a while in Central America. In the late evening of the 10th of September I left San Fransisco and flew on the 11th of September into Guatemala City….This is the second time I hear you thinking. Flying on 11th of September in the States?? Well probably it is the safest day, because when you are a terrorist you wouldn’t plan an [View Full Entry]

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For 2 nights we stayed with a local Mayan family in the village of San Jorge le Laguna on the shores of Lake Atitlan in western Guatemala. To get there we took several chicken buses and minivans through windy and bumpy roads, including what must be a record - getting 23 people in an 11 seater minivan! Living with family Ajcalon for 2 nights was truly a humbling and inspiring experience. They were welcoming, generous, fun and curious, despite living in dusty conditions with limited heating and occasional cold running water. We had great evenings explaining in a mixture of pigeon [View Full Entry]

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On Sunday, September 13th, we left the little lakeside village of San Marcos and made our way across the lake to San Pedro La Laguna, where we would be spending our week learning Spanish at the school of Casa Rosario. When taking the boat across the lake one more time, we took the advice of Jane, who we met at the Hostel del Lago in San Marcos, which was to never ask the captain of the boat for the cost of the ride. Apparently, everyone ¨knows¨ that it only costs Q10 per person to get from San Marcos to San Pedro. [View Full Entry]

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So everyone told me I had to stay in El Retiro when I got to this area. The hostel is gorgeous! It´s on Rio de Lanquin (river for you non spanish speakers). I´m staying in a ten person hostel...don´t even know who´s in my room because i´ve been keeping busy and staying up late. While eating lunch at the hostel restraunt with the two people that were on my bus here, we decided to go to Grutas de Lanquin. It is a cave with really cool stalactites and stalagmites. Took a bunch of photos of different formations that looked like different [View Full Entry]

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Nach einen kurzen Abstecher in Santiago, ein weiters kleines Dorf am Lago, sind wir nach Xela aufgebrochen. Dort haben wir durch Edgardo, einem Freund den wir hier kennengelernt haben, in einem aufgelassen SOS-Kinderdorf fuer 2 Tage schlafen koennen. Edguardo arbeitet naemlich fuer SOS-Kinderdorf. Es is echt extrem fein das wir einen guatemalteken als Freund hier haben weil der hat die connections. Am Montag ist dann in Xela die Post abgegangen. Am Nachmittag sind wir zur Feria gefahren - so eine Art Jahrmarkt - und am Abend war dann grande fiesta. Zuerst waren wir noch in einem geilen Park [View Full Entry]

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September 17 We crossed the Honduran-Guatemalan border headed for an overnight in Antigua and then on to Quetzeltenango aka Xela to do a three day hike with Quetzeltrekkers (same organization and purpose as in Leon, Nicaragua, fosters and educates street children) among the mountains, volcanoes, and Maya villages. Thanks to some excellent bus driving including one driver flagging down our connecting bus amidst rush hour Guatemala City traffic, and a team of excellent drivers and navigators on the resulting bus to Xela, we just made it for the briefing the night before the hike. This was t [View Full Entry]

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Quetzaltenango is the name of the town on the map, but the locals call it Xela. This is going to be a long one guys...with lots of photos. I´ve been here for a week and I´m just now getting to the blogging. I have done so much this week, so i´ll try to just hit the highlights. I met two awesome girls (Sarah and Rachel) on the chicken bus from San Pedro to Xela. They happened already know some people who were taking spanish classes in town, so it has been really nice to have a big group of people to [View Full Entry]

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San Miguel Allende is a very beautiful town. Almost Moroccan in style with roof gardens and narrow entrances to opening courtyards with cafés, stalls and shops to explore. However before this we need to get there and the road works means diversions through narrow cobbled (more like rocked) streets in small side towns. Then we need to navigate through San Miguel Allende itself. This took only two attempts. The hotel is indeed an old converted monastery and while basic the rooms surround and large courtyard, now festooned with motorcycles. No luxuries like air conditioning or too much hot [View Full Entry]

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“How do I weave the ordinary into a story worth writing about; worth reading?” This was the thought that ran through my head as I rode back on a chicken bus from Las Fuentes Georginas. Fuentes Georginas is a natural hot springs about forty-five minutes outside of Xela. The water is heated by the volcano and a few pools of stone have been constructed around the fountainhead. To get there we need to take a 25 minute chicken bus to the pueblo of Zunil. (For those of you who don’t know, a chicken bus is a decommissioned American school bus. The [View Full Entry]

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We took a shuttle from Antigua to Panajachel, or Pana as it is known, on Thursday afternoon, September 10th. We found a nice hotel room with a shared bath at Mario's Rooms less than a block away from the shuttle station in Pana and settled down for the night there. It had a beautiful courtyard full of plants. The next day, we went to Santiago de Atitlan because most of boats were going there at the dock and we wanted to see other towns around the lake. (Actually, there were 2 docks and the public boats going elsewhere on the lake [View Full Entry]

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