Hotel Pan American Guatemala City

Today we spent the day wandering around Antigua (with our tour guide Jon)– a quaint little town west of Guatemala city which is surrounded by three volcanos and is a tourist and student favourite. Sadly the weather is a bit overcast (meaning the tops of the volcanos were shrouded in mist and maybe more importantly that my quest to beat Chris' 1-week Canary Island tan is so far failing miserably!). That said it is comfortably warm and we haven’t had any ...

... get to Antigua from Puerto Quetzal and we went directly to our house in a community about six blocks from downtown Antigua. Our house was in a gated enclosure and when we arrived the two representatives from the rental company were there to greet us. We are staying in an artist's home and the property and house were absolutely gorgeous. There was a tiki hut outside with a hammock and picnic table underneath as well as a heated pool. The house was ...

... city is beautiful cobbled stone streets and old colonial houses. We walked around for the morning and went on a coffe tour in the afternoon, we were the only english speakers so we had our own guide and it was really interesting, coffee is no tea but it will have to do. Actually I had some and even I could taste how much better it is. We made it back in town just in time to see a procession of church type people. The streets were ...

... After the trek Tom decided to go for an hour long massage at the hands of a pretty Guatemalan girl. This was quickly shortened to half an hour when it turned out she wasn't available, and a man was going to do it instead. We decided to book into separate rooms in a much posher hotel tonight. It´s got piping hot showers, a sauna, and terrific views. Tomorrow we head to Quetzeltenango to do some more volcano trekking.

... Manhattan to Newark was at midnight, so that gave us two and half hours in town. It was then that we realised that there was a full blown blizzard on. Now I know that its been snowing in England of late, but a New York blizzard is cold. Fortunately it had stopped snowing by the time we got to Manhattan, so we managed a whistlestop tour of some of the main sites before trying to find a bar. But nowhere would let us in because of what we were ...

Después de un casi interminable camino el shuttle, llegamos a la islita de Flores, Leyva quería chapotear pero había una lluviesita que lo impedía, buscamos un hotelillo económico y fuimos a buscar boletos de agencia para llegar al Tikal... Buscamos en esta mini gringo city sitios para comer y lo más barato siempre incluía el piso lleno de migajas y moscas en todas partes, pero con este presupuesto no podemos quejarnos.



Temprano ...

... counting all the reasons I had to be mad, I finally decided: well, at this point I can either 1. Be stupid and angry or 2. Be stupid and happy! That is to say, what's done is done, but the thing is that you have the control ...

... belt, wallet, fanny pack, laptop, liquids. I was at the gate waiting for the plane before 5 am. A little early, but I'd rather be waiting here than waiting somewhere else and wondering if I would be on time for my plane. It is now 2:48 pm (Guatemalan time) and I am at the Dos Lunas Guesthouse, my favorite place to stay in Guatemala City. It has been a long day and it has several hours ...

... but tried to stay calm - then I realised the Guatemalans were worried too. It was raining, after 5pm and getting dark and with more traffic piling up behind us we couldn't go forward or back. Eventually word came back to us that there had been a landslide ahead and the road was blocked - this happens a lot in the rainy season. A lot of people started walking but a JCB went by and it seemed there was a chance of clearing the ...

... gave me a five-year multiple-entry visa. They didn't think my hair would grow out before five years was up? It did. That was 1977. So enchanted was I with the place that I went back almost every year until about... twelve years ago. I even made a tentative stab at expatriation in 1983 at the ripe old age of twenty-eight, on sabbatical from my under-employed life as a carpenter in Portland, OR, when I had the brilliant idea to import handicrafts ...