Hostal Plaza Guatemala City

... Gearing up for tourism with the money that tourism has already brought to this region. They claim no poverty here in Peten because of tourists and I can believe it. Other areas of Guatemala are not so lucky. Guatemala City is purported to be the ugliest city in Central America with the highest crime rate. True. And the drive to the hotel where Jim & Rose will stay ...

Hola Amigos, Me llama Andres. Soy estudiante en escuela español. Soy experto en español. Es muy facil.

aaaaannnnnddd thats about all the spanish I´ve accumulated in my first week. thats not entirely true, but it has been quite the up-hill battle. The most entertaining thing being that after struggling with a phrase in spanish for hours, saying it in English and realizing how simple of ...

... lightening

The colours – all the buildings are painted lovely colours

The time to read novels (I’ve read 12 books so far!)

Things I am looking forward to:

Seeing everyone

Summer fruits (esp rasberries!!! Ooh and nectarines)

New potatoes

Sainsburies Taste the Difference Multiseeded bread

Seeing the Harry Potter Film!

SMALL insects

Being able to leave food in a sealed plastic ...

After 24 hours we finally made it to Guatemala city (!)

Travel time 24 hours

Flights – 2 (12 hours and 2 hours)

Films – 4 (Coraline, Pink panther 2, Wild Child and Confessions of a shopaholic…. Classy)

Airline meals – 3 (Chicken and rice at what feels like 3 am anyone?)

Glasses of wine on the plane – 4 apiece (they were very small, and C******nay…)

Swine Flu Questionnaires + infra-red ...

... niet de enigen waren die dit wel eens wilden zien, er waren veeeeel toeristen. Vandaar waarschijnlijk dat ieder groepje toeristen zijn eigen naam kreeg. Wij werden met 8 anderen de ¨poema´s gedoopt, het deed denken aan schoolreisjes van lang geleden.
Als gids kregen we ¨José Oké¨ mee (we going to climb volcano, ok? Volcano called Pacaya, ok? Vamenos Puma´s, ok? enz, enz). Maar afgezien van zijn irritante stopwoordje was het een ...

... good stuff. So I'm so thankful for your incredible SUPPORT of this project! Can you believe WE'RE LESS THAN $2500 SHORT OF REACHING OUR GOAL on the 2nd school ?!?!?! That's right...tell all your friends who wanted to contribute to this project but were waiting for ...

... called Casa Luna, Sue?). Thankfully Jon likes Antigua. Unfortunately he's seen a flyer for a weekend surf school and is determined to go. Though with any luck, if he has to organise it himself, he wont get round to it before Friday. I will go and see lakes and volcanos and markets.

We took a morning to the city and took a tour of the Congreso. It was pretty awesome. There was a meeting room with a mural that depicted Guatemalan history until the overthrow of Arbenz, when it was painted. It was just really something. We went up to the audience bleachers in the Congress room itself. A congresswoman came over ...

... internally in any real way. And then we went to the mall for lunch. I guess our coordinators figured it'd be easiest to feed everyone in this setting. They were probably right. I had the mythic, the legendary chicken of Pollo Campero. And yes, it's better than KFC, and probably some of the best fried chicken I've ever had. For those who don't know, Pollo Campero is an originally Salvadoran fast food chain that is sort of like KFC. Unlike KFC, Pollo ...

Holidays, of course, are the busiest times to travel, but if you go right through the eye of the storm, i.e. Christmas or New Year's Day, then it's like the sleep of the dead. You can walk through any air terminal and be almost alone. Everybody's already home doing it with family. Sometimes you can even use frequent-flyer miles if they don't black-out the whole season for general principles. I used United, a fly-buddy by-product of all those ...