Blogs from Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 9

And know all you lovely readers know how to say EARTHQUAKE! in Spanish :) You are welcome. (For those a bit unobservant, it's terremoto, the title of this wonderful blog post). Yes that's right folks, today Roger and I experienced our first noticeable earthquake! I say noticeable, because right after it happened I facebooked our neighbor Dan, asked if it was, indeed, an earthquake that just rattled our apartment and he informed us that really tiny earthquakes happen every day, we're just not noticing them! He said this one today was a little bigger than "teeny tiny," which are the words I used to describe it. We weren't actually sure if it was an earthquake or just like, crazy super strong wind blowing at first. Our mirror hanging on the wall almost fell off and our ... read more

Yesterday Roger and I decided to try and walk to the base of the volcano, Santa Maria. According to google maps, it would be about a 10k walk there (obviously 10k back too) and all together probably take 4 and a half hours. Since we like sleeping in, we got a late start and decided to just walk as far as we wanted to on the same route. We were gone total for 2 hours and 18 minutes so we assume we went about half way. I'm putting up pictures from the walk there. It was so nice being out of the city for a little bit. We were surrounded by corn farms and mud! There were lots of animals too, like cows, chickens/roosters, a goat thing (we were too far away to tell if it ... read more

Yesterday, despite both of us battling some type of head cold, we ventured out to a different market. It's the biggest one around, and there are a TON of stuff. It's seriously blocks and blocks of vendors selling clothes, make ups, soaps, shoes, underwear, everything material. Then, inside, it's a congested maze of fruits, veggies, meats, rices, grains, all types of food items. We bought some basics and then also went a little crazy and bought fresh shrimp. The plan is to try and make ceviche tomorrow. Obviously pictures will go up if it's successful :) The only other time I've had ceviche is in Costa Rica, so to me it's very much a Central America thing. Roger says his mom makes a really good one, so when we get back, I'll have to ask her ... read more

We've been slowly trying to get the lay of the land, so we ventured out to the market today. First we had to take money out of an ATM... that took forever. Turns out, we don't know how to ask where an ATM is, and even if we did manage to ask someone correctly, we can't understand the directions we gave them. I think it was the 5th or 6th bank guard we asked before we finally each understood each other enough to get Rog and I to the nearest working ATM. *Sidenote: all banks around here have armed guards standing outside, and inside the doors. One bank, we had to go through a metal detector as well.* We each took out 1,000 Quetzales, which sounds like a lot, but really is only about $130. And ... read more

I got up early to try breakfast at one of the restaurants in Panajachel. I had the most delicious pancakes with some fruit. Panajachel has lots of nice eating places, bars and street food. It’s definitely a good place to stay if you want to see Lake Atitlan. After breakfast, the whole group got together and we went on this speed boat and crossed Lake Atitlan to visit a small popular village called San Juan, this was a great experience when travelling over the lake, as you get to see the volcano/mountain scenery and local people collecting pond weed from their boats. Once we got to the other side of the lake, we were greeted by a local tour guide who showed us around San Juan. We first visited an art shop where they had loads ... read more