Villa Santa Catarina Panajachel

... way of having a good time.

For the most part the rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We both decided that upon reaching Antigua again that we would call it an early night. Tomorrow we have to catch a shuttle that will take us to the Guatemala City bus station at 4:30 AM to catch the bus to Rio Dulce, where the heat and the jungle will finally be upon us.

... to each other like there was no delicate political situation going on, and they did not even look at our passports, merely accepting the piece of paper we returned to them saying that two tourists and a guide were intending to leave Honduras today. Awesome!

After that, very little went right. But since nothing went seriously wrong, we really can't complain. First, Selvin drove for a few hours while Amanda and I slept, read, and chatted ...

... the afternoon hanging out here. a little girl tried to sell me a quilt and then proceeded to call me names when i said no. sorry, gonna keep this short. the letter a is broken and it keeps messing up my writing. i´m still alive, though!

... set it for the first time is something else. As we drew near to the border after being dropped off by the cab we got from Tapa Chula, we were clocked straight away by a couple of dodgy looking characters who came down and insisted that we pay them for a stamp out in our passports as they were officials… riiiiiiiight. They were soon fobbed off but going over the bridge and then realising that we did need to go back across to get a stamp was well confusing as all the time there are ...

... beau et très interessant site (en anglais1) d'un photographe antigüeño, Rudi Giron: http://antiguadailyphoto.com. Il vous suffit de taper le nom du plat ou de l'aliment dans le champ Search et hop ! Ca, c'était pour les plats cuisinés. Que dire des fruits et legumes d'ici : 3 types de mangues toutes succulentes, les bananes roses (qu'on trouve à Xela, mais pas à Antigua, snif), les bananes normales (comme à la maison, mais ...

... folks process coffee, which next to tourism is the chief means of income for the locals.

Now that the winds have picked up, the ride to Santiago was quite choppy and we were getting a lot of spray as the boat bounced through the waves. At this point most people decided to spend the trip sheltered in the boat's passenger cabin. I and few other hardy souls still chose to ride topside. I struck a conversation ...

We stopped at a viewing point on the way back to Antigua with stunning views back over Lake Atitlan. In Antigua we checked back into our earlier hostal and I relaxed in the courtyard again until we went for salsa lessons at 5pm. The salsa lesson was great, a few of us staying with it for 1.5 hours of lessons. Afterwards we went out for our final group dinner of the tour, because ...

... busy town of Panjeachal. After a great meal at the Circus we climbed out of the lake valley and onto the shoulders of the volcanoes that seem to surround the lake. We made it to Antigua before dark and I walked around the town square and the cathedral. Lots of foreigners here learning Spanish. A lovely city with great food and the need to be explored for at least a week. We plan on a noon departure to give us some time to sightsee.

... enough. On Monday evening I felt quite tired from the weekends activities and the "early" starts for spanish school. I decided to push on for Honduras after my last lesson on Tuesday morning. There was a guy from Hull, Olly, staying in my hostel who is on the last 3 weeks of a year long trip. His itinerary is identical to mine over the next 17 days or so, so I will catch up with him in Copan, Honduras and travel with him until San Jose, Costa Rica.

... other than the human ones in passing. The turn-off down to the lake is shortly after, and from there the air warms up until we reach the ideal mile-high level at the lake itself. Welcome to Guatemala, land of eternal springtime.

Panajachel itself hasn’t changed much in the last twelve years. It did most of its changing in the same time period before that point. Hamburgers aren’t the big deal anymore; pasta is, perhaps reflecting a ...