Yesterday afternoon we took a truly luxurious coach to Flores, which took about 4 hours. Luxury by local standards I should say. We could tell immediately that this was first class travel as there was only one person per seat and we had tinted windows and air con. The driver also drove mostly on the right side of the road (being on the right). The driving thing is quite confusing for us, as although they usually drive on the right-hand side, unless there is a blind corner when they tend to drive on the left. Best not to look really. Anyhow we safely arrived in Flores, which is the twin town of Santa Elena, however located on a little island (peten) in the middle of the lake. It seems to have developed into the main tourist ... read more

This morning we were up early to catch the chicken bus to Escuintla, where Dad´s sponsored child, Jorge, lives with his grandmother. Due to some terrible wind storms, there were trees and cables down along the road, so it made for a slowish trip, but still only an hour away. It´s a different world to Antigua, where there is a lot more money, with many tourists and quite a few Americans who live here. Escuintla is described in the guidebook as a ¨hot, shabby commercial centre¨with nothing to recommend it other than for bus connections. That´s a generous description, as frankly I thought it was grim. The wind didn´t really help, and also there was no power anywhere, again as a result of the storm. The town itself is much hotter than Antigua as it is ... read more

Happy New Year! We´ve arrived in the big smoke (well it certainly feels like that after San Marcos), and it is clear that it will be party time here. Jack has discovered the good and bad news that his hotel is hosting a New Year´s Eve party, until 2.00am. Yikes, glad we´re in a nice quite one. I´ve also finally managed to upload some photos, which I´m quite pleased about. However rather belatedly, it has occured to both me and Jack that I could have simply used his camera to upload, rather than fiddle about with this one. Good news for next time though! We took the shuttle bus from San Marcos to Antigua, about a three hour drive. The roads don´t really get any better, but it is nice to finally be here. Antigua is ... read more

After a gruelling morning lying by the pool at the gorgeous Hotel Atitlan, Lucy and I took one of the ¨lanchas¨, a little fibreglass boat, over the lake to San Marcos. The trip over allowed us excellent views of a number of other little villages at the lake edge, all small sleepy villages, some with surprisingly large and lovely houses built into the hillsides. I suspect mostly owned by holidaying Americans. Lucy befriended one such lady on the boat, who told her that on various spots on the lake there are some huge mansions. One of which is apparently owned by the man who owns all the department stores in Guatemala City. He choppers down to the lake, but interestingly is also required to chopper to work in Guat. City, as he has so much money ... read more

We travelled to Panajachel yesterday, this time by tourist shuttle, which was luxurious in comparison to the chicken buses. I was incredibly happy that I wasn´t careening down the perilously steep and narrow road in the chicken bus! It dropped us at the door of our hotel, Hotel Atitlan, which is simply gorgeous. It is supposedly Guatemala´s best, and it really is fabulous. We have hand-carved furniture in our room, local art, wrought iron beds and handcrafted patchwork eiderdowns. We had booked this so long ago as a Christmas treat, but it has been worth it. It is a colonial, rambling building nestled under the mountains and set amongst the most beautiful garden. They charge non-guests to come in and view it even. All rooms are lake facing, although the room Lucy and I are in ... read more