Hotel El Chaparral Panajachel

... as it looked like the rains were coming. It was a good thing to because the rain started shortly afterwards and continued on into the night. Sadly this was our last night here and we were unable to go check out the circus that was in town with the flying trapeze artists from Mexico because of the rain. I guess that will have to be something we do on our next trip to Guatemala.

... quick lunch to go, so we pulled off the road at the nearest McDonalds. Also closed. But a fast food chicken restaurant saved us, and we carried on. After another hour, we arrived at the ruins just in time!

For it to start pouring down rain.

We did tour the ruins - a very small site whose history we read about late in the van. Apparently, the city allied itself with the Spanish during the conquest and one of the Spanish generals lived ...

... bit. We entered the open air market which smelled of fresh mangos, pineapple, and herbs and spices. Karyma and her mom gave us some mango and pineapple with peppita and lime. It looked like pepper, but it was sour and not spicy. It was yummy! The market was also full of flowers, crazy fruits like lycheen (I´d never seen that before), and batidos (milk and fruit shakes). There was also some really delicious looking ...

... leave with small families already crammed in there. This is when we leaned another golden rule in Guatemala that people will tell you anything as long as they get the cash which to be fair is not much at all they will tell you whatever you want to hear. This is where the Spanish comes in handy as when you talk to the people on the buses and ask them how far it is to the stop that you need they tell you that the bus is not actually going there but with a series of changes then we would be ...

... de comparer les saveurs des produits frais d'ici et de leur version importée... Bonne lecture et bon appétit! Myriam In English now: I have been livig in Antigua for 2 weeks now and unfortunately, my relationship with this city has not really changed ... I must say that I have suffered from a strong sinusite for almost a week and may be quite biased! But do not worry: I just spent my first night and morning, the air is ...

... various locals creating sand paintings. Pablo and I stopped at the local market to grab something to eat before boarding the boat.

The final destination of the boat cruise is a little village San Antonio Palopo. At the boat, I could tell Liz was a little disappointed that we did not explore Santiago, together. I apologized to her for not sharing the guide services of Pablo. As we approached San Antonio, both ...

The group voted to pay a bit extra to take private transport to Antigua, to shave a bit of time off the journey. We had a lunch stop in Guatemala City at a shopping mall before arriving in Antigua in the early afternoon. Antigua is set in the middle of three volcanoes and is a beautiful city. The weather was sunny and warm when we arrived, so I ...

... water falls; was good fun and very relaxing. The lodge is a sprawling area of cabinas and dorms, with a great little bar restaurant that does probably the best buffet i've ever had. Some friends from Antigua came up as well so it was a good laugh. First thing we did was see the BAT CAVES!!!!!! I think the photos will say enough for you to get the picture but i'll explain briefly. To start with ...

... were close to the top of the volcano we could see the lava flowing out from the side of the volcano, it was so amazing and really hot, it felt like our faces were burning,. it was so amazing and we couldn't believe how close you can get to the lava (about 2 feet away). There were people toasting marshmallows and lighting cigarettes. It was then time for us to make our way back down the volcano in the dark, it was pretty tricky but well worth it.

... extended stay and put down some shallow roots. This is my favorite part of ‘traveling,’ really, finding a place I like and hanging there a while, just like I did twenty-five years ago, in that house above the hot springs. The springs are still there, of course, but it’s no longer open to casual visitors.

So I look for old friends, locals I used to do business with. Many of them are still there. Small towns are the same the ...