the place of the quetzals

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Quetza que?? Chicken bus rules man!! You ride cheap, run a lower risk of getting your bus ride hijacked and you get to sit with 2 other big hipped Mayan women on a seat built for 2..if youre lucky you get their kid in your lap, or a chicken...but hey, why sit alone when we can be one big happy international family all together!! Yea so after a liiiindo beautiful scenic trip over and under and around mountains, valleys and volcanoes we finally got to the place. They call it Quetzaltenango or Xela for short..figure that one out..makes getting the right bus a bit tricky.

Theres not much in particular to see in town, you got the colonial church by the big sqare, casa de la cultura and the national museum, aa the museum of Marimba is here too, Guatemalans will proudly enlighten you that the instrument originates from these hills..The climate reminds us about the mountains in La Paz/Katoomba, crisp clear mornings get your feet to freeze in your chinelas. In hope of warming them up a bit we hit the hills and headed for the famous hot springs at Fuentes Georginas..supposedly the nicest natural tubs in the land. Heated by discharge from the volcanic mountainside, they make for a good dip, but hot?!..well, everythings relative I guess. Kinda cool to sit there in a cloud of sulpheric smoke, right there in the side of a mountain that suffered a landslide in 98 that pretty much trashed the whole place! The comforting part, they will assure you, is that the avalanche opened a new crack making the pools even warmer.

What else?..well, theyve got all the "usual" markets and women with big baskets on their heads, kids hanging in a cloth off their backs, and a machete weilding 10 year old by their side. There are also plenty of cobbed corn and nacho venders, pick ups with half a village piled onto the tray, and cheeky little shoeshiners trying to make a quetzal. Tomorrow were off for the Mexican border, so stay tuned for taco updates and sombrero shots!!

With less than a week left of our nice trip we want to encourage all our loved ones to not give in and keep dropping us comments....we apologise for laziness in the pic department..actually travelblog has banned us for some reason..maybe from Mexico?

Besos de Don Vrath y su señora Doña Sara

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Comments

[m-and-g]

Hola, Don Vrath y Señora Doña Sara!
Nice touch ... like it. Have only just noticed the signatures at the bottom of this article. Whenyacumminome?

[Julie]

hello
Hello, I follow your trip from internet. Enjoy your time in South America, it look like, it's very bad weather in Sweden since few weeks...(it's ok in Switzerland). Your experience in the bus remember me the India bus. I receive potatoes on my head from above every 10 minutes... Enjoy! Julie

[Maria and Shirley]

Hello friends
Hello dear friends! We see that you are having a great time! Enjoy the last days! Looking forward to see you when you will come back. Love from Maria and Shirley

[anita]

bichitos perdidos del alma
tja ni det verkar inte gå nöd på er. great att det går så bra idag såg jag att ni skrev om hemresan bra nu berättar jag det för alla jag känner fredag 18:25 AF 1026 arlanda. sorry inte skrivit konferens, dunkande av två snickare ovanför ens kudde, elektriker, barn ingen tid bygger och bygger ich bygger dag och natt bli kanon. kom och se kram la vieja vemos en el aeropuerto