Hotel Palacio Chico 1754 Antigua Guatemala

... City. Like most travelers I just avoid Guatemala City and headed right on over here for the peace, quiet and safer streets. Since Antigua totally sucks off the tourism tit, it has been restored to its colonial splendor and lacks all of the cheap signs, massive bundles of electrical wires, grime, and decay of most Central American cities. The place dates back to the 1500s when it was at one time the capital but a major 1773 earthquake largely destroyed it ...

... as our home-stay meal times & Spanish classes are at set times and dictate most of our weekday time. Walking between our Spanish school (COINED) and our home-stay is a somewhat tiring 20 minute endeavor with uneven sidewalks and cobblestone streets, although it never seems that long as there is so much distracting activity. The school and family couldn't be more accommodating and I'm really enjoying the energy ...

... at all. Antigua is clean, neat and full of tourist operations. Its also very Americanised with a Burger King, MacDonalds, Bed Bath and Beyond and even a Victoria's Secret! Lynda and I did some souvenir shopping whilst the boys went to the internet, we couldnt resist the woven fabrics that Guatemala is known for and bought ourselves little money purses, magnets and Lynda got herself a wooden carving shaped as an owl. That evening we met up with a girl that we had ...

... spilling out onto the streets.<br><br>I&#8217;m staying in a lovely hostel, but unfortunately I&#8217;m surrounded by couples!! What&#8217;s that all about? So I&#8217;m gonna try to scab over into the big gringo hostel, try to make me some buddies! Also trying out some Spanish lessons, as the most I can manage right now is &#8220;¿donde está la biblioteca?&#8221; well, I&#8217;m a bit better than that, but not much&#8230;<br><br>

... break which turned out to be 8 hour long days which was "demasiado". Way too much. Monday was rough...my brain was hurting quite a bit after an 8 hour immersion day, but it was worth it. Now that the week is over I feel much more comfortable with my mad Spanish skills, wooooo hoooo! The only set-back was my two days stuck in the hotel room with a fever and a cold. Imagine wearing long-johns and a thermal hiking shirt in over 30 degree ...

... from becoming building adonises it's been pretty non stop here. Picking up from last time, I actually climbed the volcano Pacaya, which happened to be on orange alert due to the lava activity, and it.was.awesome! It was a one hr climb to the 2500m summit and well worth it. Came abt 2m from a fresh lava stream rolling down the side which was pretty amazing and leg-hair-singing-hot. Also the lava rocks and low visibilty from ...

Holey Moley what traffic....thats what happens when you decide to shoot people right before our arrival. It forces our cab driver to drive down wrong way streets to get us to Antigua. A normal 45 minute ride was turned into a 3 hour ride. He assured us this wasnt normal. Leaving the airport with an Israeli backpacker who was silent most of the trip, about halfway there, the taxi driver tried to fleece us out of some more money than we had aggreed upon for the ride to ANtigua. I flew ...

... andrehen will. So sind wir also, umringt von Pferden und Kindern mit Stoecken, den Pacaya raufgekraxelt. Zwischenzeitliche Staus auf der Strecke sind ganz normal, wenn hunderte von Leuten gleichzeitig auf einen der aktivsten Vulkane Guatemalas wollen. So skeptisch wir waren, die Tour hat sich auf jeden Fall gelohnt. Das was wir dort oben zu sehen bekamen, war einfach gigantisch. Je hoeher wir kamen, desto heisser wurde es. Und auf einmal tauchte ein riesiger Lavastrom neben uns auf ...

... efter en papkasse til post forsendelse. !! Det var åbenbart ligeså tåbeligt et spørgsmål, som da jeg for nogen tid siden søgte efter et regnslag. Underligt at det, i et land hvor det regner næsten hver dag det halve af året, nærmest er umuligt at købe.Nå, endelig fik jeg tiltusket mig en papkasse i et passende format i et supermarked. Ekspedienten skulle lige sende et spørgende blik hen til den bevæbnede vagt, for at se om det nu var i orden at han skilte sig af ...