Nov 13, 2008 - The First Couple Days

After sitting on the tarmac in Miami for two hours, I finally took off for Guatemala City, Guatemala. I arrived about 10:30pm, went to get my backpack from the baggage claim, and immediately figured out I had forgotten the email printout in my car...ya know, the one that tells you exactly where to go and what to do in order to eventually get you to San Pedro La Laguna. No big deal, I thought, I defintely remembered my Frommer's Guatemala, so I busted it out, found a hotel and jumped in a taxi. The hotel was a cool little place and owned by...

Nov 10, 2008 - Guatemala

We crossed the boarder today. Our original plan was to go via the Routa de Flores....but when our guide and another local balked at the idea and said,"oooh,be very careful, watch yourselves",...we had a change of plans. As we crossed the boarder, we got out to change money with a guy holding a wad of cash. (El Salvadore uses US currency). Needless to say it was not a very good rate. We are kind of sorry we did not get to spend more time in El Salvador. Aside from the capital, it is very welcoming. No one really hassels you, they actually...

Nov 9, 2008 - Chichi market and Chicken bus to Guatemala City

November 9, 2008 SUNDAY...Market Day. Off we went to hit the stalls. My goal was to find a scarf. I wasn't traveling with one and would like one. The evenings are cool and it is the raining season. I also decided that I need to find something small that reminds me of Guatemala. I found a scraf that would go with everything in my limited wardrobe and I settled for a pair of silver earings with a jade stone in the shape of a Quatzal bird. The money here is quatzals, so it makes sense. The earings that I really wanted, where super cool and out...

Oct 6, 2008 - Guatemala City to Antigua

I landed in Guatemala City shortly after 9PM, but by the time I got through customs/immigration and grabbed my gigantic, over packed bag...it was after 10PM. Luckily, I had a driver from the Spanish School pick me up, so I didn´t have to worry about a taxi or bus or anything. The drive to Antigua zoomed by. It was 45 min of darkness. Herberto, the driver, was nice. He understood my Spanglish/Portugues so communicating was fine. Once we arrived at my homestay, no one answered the door. After awhile a little old lady named Araminta opened the...

Jul 13, 2008 - Guatemala City

Hi! I know I haven´t written in here in awhile but not all that much new has happened. I just wanted to write about what happened today on the way to Guatemala City. My host Mom and her best friend, along with their families, invited me to go to Guatemala City for the day to go shopping and to eat and to just hang out so I decided to go. We took a chicken bus there which is about 45 minutes away from the city and I know I have written about how its dangerous to ride these buses, but I never knew exactly how dangerous until this morning. As...

Jun 24, 2008 - Guatemala City ~ Guatemala

An uneventful 4 hour bus journey took us across the Guatemalan border (a road bridge over a river) and into the capital Guatemala City. The city, which is home to c 4 Million people, is sprawling and choked with traffic. The more affluent areas are situated on the outskirts whilst towards the centre the people appeared much less well off. Arrived at the bus station, as usual crowded and chaotic, situated in Zona 1 the original centre. Decided to stay in Zona 10, a more civilised area with large international hotels, good restaurants and...

Jun 7, 2008 - Guatemala City for the Week-end

Hey, everybody, we are in Guatemala City for the week-end. We needed a break from our homestay environment and since GC, or sometimes called just the city or the capital, is only about 45 minutes away we thought we would come here and stay over Saturday night. Our homestay is nice, but there is no common area other than the dining table, we are pretty much confined to our bedrooms which are not that comfortable for hours on end. We had a lot of that with the rain this past week so we need to get out. The big talk at the table this morning...

Mar 25, 2008 - Antigua Guatemala

Tilbage i Antigua tog Martin med at par af de andre fra gruppen paa Vulkan hike. 6 timer efterkom han tilbage med sko hvis saaler praktisk talt var braendt vaek. Taet paa Antigua ligger vulkanen Pagaya, som I sikkert har regnet ud, er aktiv. Lavaen flyder til stadighed ned at siderne og "stoerknet" lava udgoer hele den ene halvside. Dette lava er dog af en saadan temperatur, at skosaaler, bukseben (hvad end der nu roerte ved det) blev "braendt" vaek efter max 10 seks konstant kontakt paa samme sted. Hyggeligt... Ellers ikke saa meget at...

Jan 22, 2008 - Bienvenidos a Guatemala de Marney

Pues pasamos un buen dia viajando aqui. Todo el mundo menos yo tenia frio, para mi estaba medio fresquito como El Yunque. Nos encontramos en el hotel una mujer que no ayudo con el viaje. Su nombre es Ethel. Ella nos enseno un juego de vasos. Quizas te ensenamos cuando regresamos. Todos sabemos que Guatemala es diferente pero no como esto. Aqui puedes negociar para que te ofrecen cosas en precios bajos. Los collares se hacen con JADE PURA y solamente cuestan como once dolares!!!!!!!!!! Vimos un xilofono de madera que se llama la marimba y lo...

Dec 16, 2007 - Guatemala City, not really

OK so I brought Amy to one of the great Mayan sites in the world which I had already seen called Tikal. I absolutely love this place and still do. We took a 330am bus to the park that is an hour away from flores so that we could watch the sun rise over the jungle. It was pretty cool listening to the jungle come alive while the sun rose around 530 am. We saw a lot of birds but we didnt say any monkeys or kutamandi though, which bummed me out, but amy didnt seem to mind. Note, absolutely the best way to visit tikal is to make a reservation at...

Jun 17, 2007 - Guatemala

I arrive on Thursday to guatemala city and check into a hotel close by. Not much in guatemala city and no one knows anything. ask the officials at the airport where the atm is or where to change money dont know. Ask the hotel where to eat, dont know and I walking around find so many places to eat, atms, money exchange. It is a very relaxed place though, I really enjoyed the one day I stayed there. The streets were really clean and they had polica standing all over with double barrel shot guns and 3/4 shot guns. OK- maybe that is why there...

May 13, 2007 - antigua guatemala

well I arrived in antigua... I sorted out my school on the thursday and had my first lesson on friday... well I have been studying spanish for two weeks and there are people out there who think I should be writing this in spanish... well I probably could but it would take me four hours and be partially wrong... and well... not many other people would understand it anyway.. anyway I spent the first two weeks in a studnet house... met some really cool people who are all studying... have been getting involved in the activities at the school...