Hotel Tapachula

... the football game (soccer for you yanks!), ducked into their version of a 7-11 to see if they had any “exotic” soda for Michael, and continued on.

Then we turned a corner and “jackpot”! A street market was awaiting our discovery, and it seemed to go on and on. I tried to keep track of Michael, but he would disappear into shops exploring this trinket and that item. He found a puzzle of the Mexican states, and we ...

... Tiger from very old buzzing speakers at ear splitting volume. At least the migarine meant I really didn't care if we flipped down the side of a mountain.

At one point the pain was so bad tears began to roll down my face at every bounce of the now very crowded bus. A small boy in front kept smiling at me and when he saw my tears tried to make me laugh by pulling funny faces, which was really quite sweet.

We arrived back in Xela ...

... passaporte foi emitido nos Estados Unidos e que nao havia valor para eles. Nessa hora percebi que nao havia jeito: tinha que molhar a mao do chefe. A facada foi de 60.00 dolares. Tudo bem peguei o meu visto e me dirigi para a alfandega para inspecao do meu carro. Vem uma mulherzinha de menos de 1,50m de altuta (nao estou ofendendo as mulheres baixas nao) e comecou a dizer o que eu tinha dentro do carro teria de pagar imposto.
El Talismán, Chiapas, Mexico dbrandolizi

... the same San Marcos that I was at by Lago Atitlán, this is yet another San Marcos.) We at a big breakfast at a comedor where we had to switch buses; scrambled eggs, rice and beans, and fresh-squeezed OJ. YUM!

The second chicken bus dropped us off at the trailhead for Tajumulco, and we began our journey up, up, up the sleeping volcano.

Now, for feeling guilty about being late, for having so much stress when I awoke earlier that morning, and probably for ...

... which he was very grateful for. We booked our shuttle the next day to Rio Dulce, leaving a 9am and arriving there later in the evening with a few stops in between. We grabbed lunch at some Guatemalan sports bar and had a really good meal - fried chicken and chips for Leigh and some meat collection for me, and beer.

We will probably catch up with you in Rio Dulce as we try to plan where we stay and what we are gonna do there.

Buenas Noches,
Marlon

... stayed the same.
So like usual we got a taxi to take us to hotel that we had found in the every useful footprint guide and we headed off into the soaking city. Taxi drivers are the best, no matter where you go there are always two types, grumpy *******s or talkaholics where nothing is taboo and their opinion is what counts, period. So when the taxi driver of our cab who looked like a mexican version of revon from Phoenix nights asked where we were from ...

... Lichtung und schafften es sogar, innerhalb von zwei Stunden mit vereinten Kraeften eine Paeckchensuppe ueberm Feuer zu kochen. Ein Traum! Vor der Kaelte schuetzte uns leider ausser eng zusammenkuscheln wenig und als wir uns am naechsten Morgen zum Sonnenaufgang aus den Schlafsaecken quaelten, waren wir von einer Eisschicht ringsum umgeben. Die guten 4000 Meter ...

... I sat with our backpacks reading a Newsweek. Our one big splurge each week has been buying magazine covers with our president-elect's picture on them. Seeing that I could speak English (at least read it) a young backpacking couple in the adjoining waiting room seats started talking with me. She was Swiss who met her husband in Toronto at an engineering college. They had lived in Dubuque, Iowa for a couple years and are now living 45 minutes south ...

... on Lake Atitlan, a town which has become a hippy hangout for whities who apparently came to Guatemala as vacationers but ended up running out of money and thus decided to stay for good. It was a very pretty town with banana, coffee and avocado fields surrounding the small dirt paths which weaved through the jungle pueblo. The following day we headed across the lake to the larger town of San Pedro, which is the drug ...

The second day of our journey was far more comfortable than the first as we had two seats each. In the morning we travelled out of El Salvador and into Guatemala where we stopped for some lunch, before heading onwards to Mexico in the afternoon. After some checks at Mexican customs we were in Mexico and heading to Tapachula, just across the border. When we got to Tapachula we booked into the ...