Sore. Very sore. That´s how Fabi and I woke up today from yesterday´s Pacaya climb. The kind of sore where it hurts to walk up or down stairs. The kind of sore where your body hurts in places you never knew could hurt. Fabi kept saying even her organs hurt. Needless to say, it was a good thing we decided to have today be an off day - a day to just stay home and chill and enjoy family time. And eat. A lot, I may add. Lydia, Max and Ivy hung out with Lydia´s family. My cousins made pepián today, [View Full Entry]

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The official name of the town I live in is Quetzaltenango. The quetzal is the state bird of Guatemala, and tenango simply means, “the place of”. Now, none of the locals call this city, dubbed the place of the Quetzal, Quetzaltenango. No, instead they call it Xela (pronounced Shay-la). Maybe this is because the town is 60% indigenous and Xela is the traditional Mayan name. Or maybe it is simply because Quetzaltenango is just too long of a word to say. Or, my favorite reason, maybe the human population in “the place of the Quetzal” has gotten so large that the [View Full Entry]

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My real reason for rushing back to Guatemala was the start of the Moon course in San Marcos La Laguna. Far more hippy and low-key than San Pedro, the lakeside lanes are home to crystal healers, massage therapists and herbal remedies as well as the locals selling fruit, veg and cake. The village is also home to a meditation and yoga centre called Las Pyramides; here I will make my home for a month and try to get to the bottom of who I really am. This is the objective of the Moon Course; to give you time, space and exercises [View Full Entry]

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BE SURE TO VIEW THE EXTRA 33 PHOTOS ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS TEXT!! ************************************************ We woke up at 4am and by 5am we were headed out the door to pick up Lydia, Max and Ivy, who were just as tired and exhausted as we were. Not a good way to start off such a physically challenging day. We arrived in Antigua at the O.X. offices and climbed into their van and made our way to the Pacaya Volcano, signing waivers of release in case we died or got injured. Nice. The van took us up the volcano up to a [View Full Entry]

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After a short mini bus ride back to Guatemala City, we jumped on to the bus to Flores, armed with jumpers in case it was cold. Unfortunately, jumpers weren´t enough and we found ourselves shivering in our seats and praying that the journey would go quickly. It wasn´t to be, and we arrived virtually sleepless in Flores early the next morning. As soon as we got off the bus, we were surrounded by taxi drivers offering to take us straight to the Tikal ruins. As we wanted to dump our stuff at a hostel and get a couple of hours rest [View Full Entry]

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Today was a long and exhausting day. We all met up at the airport at midnight, sleepy but excited about our trip. I was worried about how Diego would fare on the airplane, but he knocked out before we hit the runway, and he didn´t wake up until we landed. Perfect! We landed in Guatemala City at 6:30am. Lydia, Max and Ivy made their way to Lydia´s cousin´s house and my mom, Fabi, Diego and myself made our way to my aunt´s house to have breakfast. And what a breakfast it was! Chiles rellenos inside pan francés (small little french breads) [View Full Entry]

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Alright guys...sorry...I didn´t have the guts to get up and air guitar. I know...I let you all down and I´m sorry. I won´t miss another opportunity like that...promise! This week here has been great. I made some friends and learned some spanish from a great teacher (you can see their photos at the end). My spanish classes were one on one and I really got a lot out of it. She asked me what I wanted to learn and did the best to teach me it all. I definitely have increase my vocabulary a lot and know how to speak spanish [View Full Entry]

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THE BEGINNING OF ONE TRIP - THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER! [View Full Entry]

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As soon as we stepped off the chicken bus in Antigua, we knew we were going to love this little colonial city. The streets were buzzing with energy, and many of the local women were wondering around in traditional dress which just added even more charm to it. We head through the markets and into the centre to find the Jungle Party hostel, which again we loved instantly. It had a great atmosphere, with people lounging around watching films on the big tv, chill out music on in the backround, and everyone chatting about their trips and getting on really well. [View Full Entry]

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So, as you can probably guess, this bus trip was pretty epic. We decided to get the later bus which meant we had to stay a night in San Salvador, mainly because we really didn´t want to be wondering around the streets of Managua at the wee hours of the morning after meeting 3 different groups of people who had all been held up by guns and machetes there. So we squeezed onto a little colectivo at around 8am from Granada and head off with our fingers crossed that nothing bad would happen. LUCKILY... we managed to get through Managua with [View Full Entry]

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