Hotel Vista Real Guatemala Guatemala City

... played a random film with lots of gun noises, but I think the jet-lag may have aided my rest (along with Mum’s travel pillow and my ipod) for I actually slept rather well!! All the time I was tightly cuddling my hand luggage – which I think was a very good plan since one of the guys we met on the bus says he woke up at one point to see a lady with a flashlight trying to open someone’s bag!!! Anwen is glad Sarah had a nice sleep. She didn’ ...

... are the items but more often then not all the goods are surprisingly similar too. We shopped for an hour before heading to the grocery store to pick up hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken to grill. I bought an onion, tortillas, and cheese as well to make quesadillas too. We also bought a lot of alcohol since at 12am it would be the beginning of Brittany's 21st birthday. The beer in Guatemala is "Gallo" so we bought three cases of that as well as ...

Hey everyone! It's been awhile. Hope you're all doing well. Send me emails, I enjoy the news from home (jdn719@mail.usask.ca). Lots to tell you! I'm going to breeze over most it and hopefully bring you up to speed. Mmm, for the sake of ease, I'll do this in pseudo-bullet point form. Last, last week Lent began (Cuaresma in Spanish) and I spend much of a Sunday afternoon hanging out watching crazy processions, marching bands, guys in Roman-style ...

... by the time I got back to the hostel, Tom was only just stirring. We had booked to climb Volcan Pacay, the only active volcano overlooking Antigua, in the afternoon. It was quite a big group and we were last to be picked up, so we couldnt sit next to each other on the bus on the way there. Tom sat in the front, next to the driver; I sat next to a really annoying man called Franz. He insisted on talking tom me solidly ...

... when, as I got out of the shower, I felt a burning sensation in both of my arms. They were both red and blotchy and itched like herpes. I showed them to Tom, and he knew exactly what they were. Bedbugs. Now I love wildlife, but bedbugs are not Gods finest creation - this could be with me for the rest of the trip. Tom and I werent sat next to each other on the flight because the airline had sqeezed us in to the last two available seats. In my ...

... y nos fuimos a descansar....



Desayunaba mos tranquilamente cuando llegó un don gritando "Antigua a las 10, antigua!!!!!!!" Apuré al güiro echamos las moclas en la buseta y nos juimos a Antigua, al llegar nos abordó un guía de turistas y nos llevó a un hotelillo barato de un italiano, al igual que todos los hotelillos guatemalos el agua caliente dependía de un triste sistema de resistencia eléctrica, nos bañamos en las gélidas ...

... to get someone to volunteer to be bumped. All they offered was a $400 voucher and no one volunteered. We finally pulled away from the gate and were on our way to Guatemala about 45 later than scheduled. I was at the back of the plane so it took forever for me to get off. As usual I picked the wrong line in immigration and had to wait forever. Fortunately I did not have to wait for ...

... do without my weight. Once we cleared the treeline, I could see what were were really in store for, the completely vegetation-less Pacaya rose up above us, making me wish I had paid the boys at the bottom for a hiking stick. At first we walked through soft volcanic sand, followed further up by a steep ascent on sharp, crumbly lava rocks. For every step up you would sink down half a step into the rocks ...

... that the landslide was huge - we discovered later that it had buried several cars and 8 people died - and there was little chance of clearing it, especially as by now it was pitch-black and raining (no lights on these roads!). We knew we couldn´t go on, but by now there were hundreds of cars behind us so we couldn´t go back either. Luckily there was a restaurant by the side of the road near where we were - otherwise the ...

... NGO’s weren’t even around yet, either. Considering that Guatemala had, and still has, the most outstanding hand-woven textiles in the world, that seemed like a good idea. It was. People like me spawned a whole new industry that spread around the world, empowering diverse peoples and tribes before the Internet made everything that came before it obsolete. But that was then. This is now. That whole wave of enterprise has largely come ...