Hotel Real Santander Panajachel

... to sell a few woven goods for their food expenses but it bothers me that I cannot give money to all of them. At least what I do is visit and communicate with the women of the AUDA cooperatives to see how we can increase their product sales, and in turn, generate profit which will support their children's school expenses or toward a home construction project, etc. Thus, I want to stick to the idea that we are assisting the women to empower themselves ...

... of tuk-tuks and motorcycles on gravelly dirt
>crinkled Tortrix and Choco Rico galletas wrappers rolling down the street
>loud squawks of birds

>rainbows of fruits and licuados under umbrellas
>sirens from car alarms roughly one every ten minutes

>sizzling papas fritas in dark, re-used oil
>smacking handful of elote ...

... 3700m d altitude). La ville est remplie de cafe et de boutiques touristiques, c est tres joli. Nous avons fait l ascension du volcan Pacaya (sommet 2552m, nous avons monte jusqu a 2400m), un volcan encore actif ou on peut voir une coulee de lave. La randonnee se faisait en 5h environ et nous avions une vue sur 2 autres volcan et sur Guatemala city. Nous nous sommes rendus jusqu a la coulee de lave. Nous avions un guide et tout s est bien ...

... friend, Sylvia, met me at the airport yesterday (which was kind of her...she was already in the city.) We were whisked away in a private shuttle, which Sara's brother drove. I thought it was humorous that the first place we stopped was PriceSmart (like Costco or Sam's Club) to buy some items. Then, lunch, and then back in the car. I think I slept 4 of the 4.5 hours it took to get to Panajachel, but I needed the sleep! I awoke from the bumpy ...

... 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 ...

... Il se compose de puree de pommes de terre avec des morceaux de patates par-ci par-là, d'un piment vert et, caché bien au fond, d'un morceau de viande : poulet dans mon premier tamal et porc dans le deuxieme. Epicé, mais sans exagération. Juste comme il faut. Ce fut un véritable assaut des sens : il faut d'abord défaire la paquet, ouvrir les feuilles de bananier et soudain, le tamal fume tellement il est chaud et diffuse ...

I enjoyed the chance to sleep-in and got up around 10am to have a free breakfast. I didn't do a lot else other than visit the café Y tu pina on the corner next to our hostal to get sandwiches for the volcano climb. We left Antigua around 2pm and were detoured because of some big religious procession. At the Pacaya volcano visitors centre we were offered walking sticks (yes, actually sticks) by tens of kids. The climb ...

We has some discussion this morning while we were waiting a Mexican half hour for breakfast concerning wether we should attempt the road to Lake Atalan. There have been several hold ups along this stretch in daylight over the past months. No one was killed but guns were held to heads and the travelers lost everything. I was pretty stern that I wanted to see the worlds prettiest lake. I have hiked in grizzly country so risk is ...

... changes reasonably quickly and where you were standing 5 minutes earlier can have changed to lava ozzing up through the surface. About 2 metres was about as close as I could get to the river and even that was for a few seconds as the heat was too intense to bear. After a quick break and some roasted marshmallows we descended back down to base by torchlight. Sunday, I had an early start on a bus to Lago De Atitlan, approximately 3 hours drive ...