Hotel Premier Huehuetenango

... cantina. It was pretty incredible.
This morning, though a little hungover, we managed to go kayaking on the lake for 2 hours, at the hefty cost of $3. It was gorg and sunny out, and we made it all the way to this little beach across the lake. We had one last lunch with Maria and headed off for an intense day of travel. Unfortch, we decided not to go to Turtle Fest, because Teddy hates baby animals (and it may have been really out of the ...

... it is quite shocking, one shop i saw was a like a garage with a counter in the front, the counter was covered in sticky sweets for sale and the rest of the garage was floor to ceiling with crates of fizzy drinks, and this was the only shop in the village...

i lie.... of course apart from the Fried Chicken stand....

See you soon, im back off to my diabetics heaven,,,,,

shall it be chicken or coke or sweets.... HHHHhhhhhhMMmmmmmmm.......

Adios

We took then a bus from Comitan to Ciudad Cuatemoc (or something like that) and there we went to the Aduana to have our passports stamped. Then we took a taxi to La mesilla (after speaking with a man from Bilbao that had been living with the Zapatistas...to get some ideas for the Vask country, he told them...na ja). After the trip in the "nobody land", we came to La mesilla,. It is amazing how different things can be just in ...

Stopped for one night in the town of Huehuetenango on the way to Todos Santos , unfortunately arriving with pretty wet rucksacks and mostly wet clothes inside after the bags had been uncovered on the roof of the chicken bus & it poured down with rain on the way from Momo. Huehue is not much more than a pleasant transit town , with links to Xela , the Western Highlands villages and the Mexican border. The upside of ...

... Who knows what global warming is capable of). So me and Bert are in this middle sized city choking on the smog but enjoying exploring the chaotic streets. Tomorrow I think Im going to head to a small Mayan town in the mountains (3 hours away Todos Santos). If I like the town I might stay for some Spanish Lessons. Everything is going well for me. The surfboard and my pack have been tied to the roofs of the minivans so it hasnt been a huge problem. Take care, happy valentines day.

... s civil war was signed over 10 years ago, there was a more vigilant approach to security in western Guatemala than in any of the other countries we had visited. For example, there was a strong military/police presence on the streets, no one left their car on the streets at night, and many businesses, including our hotel, kept their front door locked at all times. Because of this, we followed our guide book's advice and opted for the escorted (2 police officers) 20-minute ...

... Plus, he had pulled out a photocopy from a Lonely Planet guidebook and a copy of his passport. Apparently, a Lonely Planet writer had recommended him as a reliable local guide, but the photocopy was so weathered that I just had to take his word for it. After we found a hotel, I ended up hiring Gaspar for a tour to the local waterfalls and the local tombs for the following day.

Gaspar and I set off at 7am for the waterfalls. The destination was a ...

... especially with Welly. It was obvious they have a lot of love to give. The orphanages are a bit different in Guatemala, kids who have parents that aren't able to look after them, because of drugs etc, are put into orphanages too so there's a right mixture. We stayed for a few hours, playing basketball and hanging out, then got the bus home again. Ana left for a holiday to Vegas on the Tuesday ...

... left; I moved on as you do when you travel. A year later, I had just come to work at a mining camp, and one morning I was reading the newspaper. The civil war had just begun in Angola, and there was an article about her town. The army had gone to her village and made everyone march into the river where they all died. And there was no one, no one, I could talk to. No one would have understood me there.¨

Saddest was the look on his face at the end of the story ...

... town I walked through, all the children who saw me kept running away and hiding. They were genuinely afraid of me. Good time to head back.

The hike back was uneventful. All I could think about was taking a shower. But as soon as I got back, a killer migraine struck and reeked havoc in my brains. Guatemala is the wrong place to get a migraine. Too loud and stinky. 6 hours of moaning and barfing and general misery later, I was released.