Holiday Inn Guatemala City

... removed the 2nd hour that I had been charged. OK good service!

@0900 I took the shuttle bus to the airport and checked in my luggage directly in front of where I got off the bus - outside the terminal. It seems to be a regular thing that they have these check-in booths outside and slipped the guy 5 $ upon his "I will take of your luggage for you". I just convinced myself that since everybody else was doing it, so could I.

Had plenty ...

... in when it hardened. Some parts looked like waves that had frozen mid crest.

At one point, we climbed to the top of a hill that went down about 200 feet and was covered in about a foot and a half of volcanic sand stuff. Our guide showed us the techniques and we "skied" down the side of the mountain. We basically, hopped down the mountain using the really deep sand to root ourselves. It's hard to explain, but it felt ...

... ness (yes, that is a word!). We arrive, and itīs a hotel set into the hillside of the lake. Itīs ONLY accessible by boat and as you can imagine the view of the lake and volcanos is awesome!

We check in, settle into our rooms and meet higher up the hillside at Ashik-Lynn-Blaire-Stephs rooms. They have a nice patio. Some highlights of that settling:

- we drank most of the 24 beers we bought and carried ...

After reading reports on the U.S. Embassy website concerning travel in Central America, we decided not to drive all the way south to Panama as we had originally hoped. We had a great opportunity to go deep sea fishing in Guatemala, so we kept Guatemala on our itinerary. Since we were unable to find car insurance for Guatemala in a reasonable amount of time, we chose to take a twelve-hour bus ride to Antigua from San ...

Ok its been a while. We tried to leave san pedro but were hasseled by the local taxi guys for taking a private bus a few tense moments and we were on the way. Xela pronounced shala is a working class town that does not feel to touristy. we hooked up with a tour guy to climb santa maria volcano and now I can say volcanos 2 andrew 0. The purpose of the climb was to see into an active volcano but when we reached the top it ...

... could drive off road up this very steep gravel hill. It was in fact quite a treacherous road and I can understand why he needed his time before driving on.. During the decent the light was dimming and he announced that he couldn't see very well as he had not brought his glasses with him, and opened the window as sweat poured down his face. This was the type of honestly that I didn't really need to know as we went faster and ...

... 30 January (the day after I got here), but it still seems to work in the ATMs. Which makes me think Iīll have to be doubly careful to destroy a it when I next throw a card away. The cash points here are all guarded by burly security men, with pump action shotguns. Youīd think that this might be reassuring, but I canīt help thinking that it wouyld be too easy for one of them to watch you take out cash, and then point the gun at you and ask for it.

... cathedral bordering the square before, but the sight was seriously stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time yesterday, so we only had 20-ish minutes to look around (we'll probably return for a tour of the palace, and I'll probably return multiple times by myself or with friends), which is why I didn't take any pictures of the square. Coincidentally, there was a protest against the violence in Gaza (Hamas announced a ceasefire ...

... 8pm. I bought a sandwich for dinner, went back to my room, watched a bit of telly and went to bed, still struggling with a screwed-up body clock!! Saturday 13th - Got up early again....caught a bus to Panajachel (can't spell it, can't say it!!) at 12.30pm, well it was supposed to be 12.30pm, it actually left at around 1.30pm!!! I met Adrian, a nice Aussi fella, on the bus so we went on a hostel hunt together and got a room at the ...