Blogs from Capital Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 5

After a day of fun in Mexico City, I was very ready to explore a new country and to sample the culture of a new people. I didn't realise how ready Guatemala was for me either! I had a stroke of luck in the airport, as there was a complication with my flight. In the confusion of fixing it, I was accidentally upgraded to business class for free. I saw the change on my ticket, but the staff were busy, so I decided not to bother them with this information. I had a few complimentary beers, a few little bowls of nuts, and a decent brunch onboard the plane. This was a good omen, because my first day in Guatemala has been very relaxed. I hit a Dunkin' donuts for WiFi, and then found out that ... read more

Differences in neighborhoods and mindsets This blog isn't really about my trek back to Guatemala with more stuff but about one of the teachers I work with at UPAVIM who came to visit me. About a year and a half ago, I bought a house and posted pictures of it online. As things go on Facebook, Dina saw the post and messaged me say how happy she was for me that I bought a home. I told her she was welcome to visit, but I doubted that would ever come to pass. When I arrived in Guatemala last summer some of the volunteers told me that for the previous six months Dina had been excitedly telling everyone that she was going to my house in the USA. We joked about how she would get there because ... read more

HE SAID... After a very long-haul flight from Hobart via Sydney and Dallas, we finally landed in Guatemala City at 7:30pm. The flight was basic to say the least, but it was comfortable. Our progression through customs was seamless, although we did get a scare when my pack was one of the last to appear on the baggage carousel. We made our way out of the airport, jumped into a transfer van and started out on the final leg of our outbound journey – a one hour drive to Antigua. After about 45 minutes we started our descent into the valley surrounding Antigua (dominated by three volcanoes – two dormant and one active), and within no time at all we were bumping along the cobbled streets of Antigua itself. We arrived at our hotel at 9pm, ... read more

With only 4 weeks left it is starting to feel like our trip is coming to an end, which is strange, as a 4-week holiday is quite a long holiday (especially for our non-European friends), but if you're on a 6-month trip, 4 weeks is hardly anything. This basically means that we've started thinking and talking about 'real life' again, but not too much and we really want to enjoy every last minute of this great experience. We still have some great places to visit in Guatemala and Belize, before we fly back home. Via Miami, where we'll spend the weekend with some of our Dutch/American friends, which makes our departure a bit less sad... We've both been looking forward to visiting Guatemala. Not quite sure why exactly - perhaps because we thought it wouldn't be ... read more

Why are the buses in Guatemala called Chicken Buses? The Guatemalan buses, also known as Chicken Buses, are a bit interesting. Therefore I have dedicated to dedicate an entire blog entry to them. As a bonus they are also very photogenic so the pictures which accompany the text are pretty good. Making it possible to upload photos and make them available to our friends and relatives was the main purpose when we started this blog in 2006. So in line with our original plan with the blog we now post 26 pictures of Guatemalan buses. In the USA they have buses dedicated solely for transporting school children. They are yellow and they have the words "School Bus" written on them. The regulations for the school buses requires the authorities to replace the school buses after either ... read more