Casa Carmel Guatemala City

... steep climb of lava rocks upon lava rocks that shifted as you stepped on them. Thus is was very slippery and falling was easy and painful as the rocks were sharp. Our guide was stupendous and held Rachel&#8217;s hand all the way up helping her get to the top as Steve used a climbing stick to help keep him stabilized. It was nonetheless an amazing climb. Every once in a while, as you will see in the pictures, a set of clouds would come up the volcano and sweep right through us.<br ...

... is usually the busiest, widest street in the city but on Sundays they block it off for people to walk, bike and rollerblade around. I had yet to see anyone jogging since I had been here (I thought because of the smog from the buses which could interfere with the heavy breathing associated with jogging) but it seemed everyone was out doing it today. Tomorrow I am off to Managua, Nicaragua via El Salvador (not Honduras as I had planned for obvious reasons).<br>

... free breakfast - something you dont get with the less expensive options. There is lots of great artwork, statues and paraphernalia all around and we have an awesome view of one of the volcano - not the one that is fuming but one of them.<br><br>We dropped off our stuff off an headed into town. Antigua is a pretty colonial town with lots of art-deco, pastel colored buildings. There are many churches around and we are trying to go to mass today if we have ...

... and some hats. We wandered around town trying to find the hat shop we had passed on our way in but apparently we have a terrible sense of direction. The shop was in the other town. Duh. But we did eventually find a hat store and Ashik bought a sweet MJ style hat. It makes his MJ moves more authentic.<br><br>We also found a really neat church.<br><br>Beer Count: 7 (Monte Carlo, Cabro)<br><br>On the walk back, I got my ...

... was traveling with us (I'm not sure I've yet to thank Les and Judy sufficiently yet.... it was a very nice gift they gave to us). We went to Antigua (by bus) right away. We stayed at Pasado Lazos Fuertes which was a hotel that also functioned as a non-profit, doing work for at-risk youth in Guate. It was a nice little Pasado... We checked in, went to lunch (AMAZING quesadillas and other delectables) and then met up with a couple of guys that I'd ...

... totally irrational, inexplicable fear: every single day the newspapers tell of the three or four murders of the past day. She happens to read one of the more sensational ones that features graphic photos on the front page. Annnnyways, Marta's a great woman. Certainly an interesting guy, Julio is Marta's third husband (err, if they're married, which I think they are). From what I gather, he's a painter and teaches art classes in a school ...

I managed to negotiate myself a good price for a taxi to take me to Antigua, though my bartering skills are no longer as good as they were 10 years ago in Malaysia. Taxis should cost between US$20-30 depending on how proficient you are at negotiating, I got them to US$25 and felt that I hadn't done badly for someone who had been awake since 5 that morning and not slept for 18hours. I was escorted to meet Ivan who was to drive ...

... dramatic. But frankly, I´ve seen more dramatic eruptions from a tomato ketchup bottle. The photo of the eruption looks good, but I´ve got a minute long video of it that only a chartered accountant could possibly find exciting. By the time we got down the mountain we were ready for a soothing dip in the hot springs. Unfortunately, when the bus arrived to pick us up, it was full of Americans. The only good thing about having to listen ...

... higher up intellectual authors who authored the strategy of extermination. Anyways, some members of the team there have received threats on their lives, which raises another facet of the violence of the 80s: it still haunts Guatemala. Death threats against those seeking justice and reparation are common, and those who have not been brought to justice (99.9% of perpetrators) may still fear the truth comng to light. This could lead to another note, to the reasons exhumations and the like ...

... outer areas of the city to the center and jumped off at the central market.  After hanging out at the Plaza Mayor we headed off to find food and stumbled across our first Internet cafe.  The plan is now to head down to Antigua for a couple days before hitting the Lake District.  We'll update more extensively later..we just wanted to let everyone know that we've arrived safely and are enjoying ourselves so far.  The next step is to find food and a bathroom. ~Travis