Guatemala was Beautiful

We've been having such a great time and very little time for blogging. Yikes so much to catch you up on. Guatemala was absolutely beautiful! When we left Belize our first destination in Guatemala was Flores. Flores is actually an island on the northern part of Guatemala. For those who are not sure where Guatemala is...It borders Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. The terrain in Guatemala is mountainous thru out the country and Spanish is the official language. They really don't have much of a "bus" system, we traveled by shuttles; small 15 passenger vans usually and they drive horribly. Mexico taxi drivers have nothing on the Guatemalans. I tried every word I knew in Spanish to get them to slow down; nothing worked. I just said lots of prayers while traveling city to city. Thank God we arrived in one piece at each location. Flores is a small slow paced village built in the middle of Lake Petén Itzá, . There are plenty of restaurants, guesthouses and small hotels on this island and the streets are made of Cobblestone. The lake was crystal clear and plenty of swimmers enjoying the cool water. The red TukTuk is a taxi. Very cute! Town square A view from our hotel balcony. Looking across the lake The little white boat is called a Launcha; their water taxi. The middle of the city are colorful houses This was a beautiful city.

We stayed in Flores and arranged for a shuttle to take us to Tikal Ruins. By shuttle the ride was an hour and we were informed it's best to get to the park early in the morning to see some wild life and it wouldn't be so hot while climbing the ruins. With that being said we were picked up at 5:30 a.m. The ride wasn't too bad. We had a decent driver but I had to sit next to this guy who stunk. Why do "backpackers" stink so much? There's no reason for that funk. The kid must have stayed up late because he felt the need to put his nappy dreads on my shoulder. I kept nudging him but it was a constant battle the whole way up to Tikal. Once we got to Tikal we did our own tour. Bob's foot was still healing from the cut he got in Belize and we didn't want to slow down the groups. We took our time and climb some amazing ruins. We've been to several ruins thru out Mexico and these by far were the best. Bob's not going to let some little cut on the bottom of his foot slow him down. The pathways to the ruins were very cool. We did climb most of these ruins to the top. I thought this was a cool tree. Lots of ruins to explore

Bob had the injury but it was I that slowed us down. I'm terrified of heights.

But I made it! From Flores we did find a bus line that went to Guatemala City. We decide to travel at night and not hassle with another night stay at a hotel so we left at 9:00 p.m. We got to the bus pickup a little early and we were excited about the nice bus waiting for us. We tried to board and they said, "nope not your bus". When will we learn? We've been traveling all thru Mexico by bus and we knew Primera Classe doesn't mean 1st Class as we know it to be in the states. Well same holds true in Guatemala. We needed to ask for the Luxury Class which would have only been a few dollars more per person. UGH! The bus we boarded wasn't the worst we've been on but the seats didn't recline, no light in the bathroom and we made more stops along the way picking up locals. We slept most of the way so it really wasn't a big deal. We arrived in Guatemala City around 6:00 a.m. to catch a shuttle to Antigua. This leg was only an hour long in a full passenger van. Again, we are stuck sitting behind stinky tourist. These guys were young and Americans. One of them kept scratching his head and checking his nails for dirt, bugs, or picking a scab ..Gross! I'm thinking if you would bathe and wash your hair it may not itch. I don't get it.

When we arrived in Antigua around 7:30 a.m. we had no place to go. We went to a coffee house which had WIFI to research hotels, hostels or even renting a house for the week. Our friends were coming later in the day to meet up with us and there's a total of 8 to accommodate. We chatted with a realtor and hoped that he may have something in our budget ($20/day/person). He had one place that would accommodate all of us and remained in our budget. We hit the jackpot! Not only did our $1000/week rental include a room for all of us but it included a cook, maid and gardener. This house was awesome, huge and in the heart of town. The 1st round of guests to arrive was Monica & Luis. The expressions on their face when they walked in was priceless. "this place is ours for the week"? John, Andy, Lena & Diana didn't arrive till 8:00 ish. They too were shocked that we found this place. Beats any hotel or hostel we were thinking of staying at. This place was monstrous. We had plenty of room to spread out and had the dining room/living room to gather around.

Front of the

house

The Veranda

Dining Room

Every morning

the table was

set w/fine china

and a large bowl

of fresh fruits & breads

One of the living

rooms.

Each room had

it's own fireplace

A view of the volcano outside

our gated wall

David, Grandma & Irma ran the place.

And the rest of us. John, Bob, Luis Me, Diana & Monica

We were missing Andy & Lena. They were noon risers so we also caught up with them in the evenings.

El Merced Church

The famous Arch in Antigua

Monica turned 37 while vacationing in Guatemala so how can we not host a party in this fantastic home. John was salivating at the opportunity to fill the dining table with food. So, he and I prepared a birthday party menu. Nothing fancy just a bunch of finger foods and cocktails. With Irma's help we learned to make Papusa's (Guatemalan dish) made of corn tortillas. Irma made the dough for us and we helped hand rolling the dough, filling with chicken, beans & cheese and rolling the dough again to only flatten it out with the mixture inside and frying. Looked like a thick tortilla and all the filling was flatten in the dough. Then we made quesadillas, bite size sandwiches w/nice deli meats (roast beef and porkloin), stuffed jalapenos, 7 layer dip, salsa and roasted bell pepper sauce. We had about 20 guests.

Happy Birthday Monica!

Monica's girlfriends from Guatemala City came in.

As I had mentioned in a previous email, we climbed Pacaya Volcano and came very close to the flow of lava. The hike was about 45 mins and some places were pretty intense. My heart rate shot up; no doubt.

Beautiful views thru out our hike

Look closely. Theres a large group of people walking in the valleys. That's our path to the lava.

Here we go. So close the rubber on the bottom of yours shoes begin to melt.

Bob put his walking stick in the lava and the stick catches fire immediately

I needed my own private guide since I only had sandals on. He helped me along

the way

I should say HELD me up most of the way. The ash we were walking on was loose and sharp. There were several people who fell and had some nice cuts as they were leaving the volcano. But our group was tough. Bob & I were the only ones who fell but only on the path down the volcano. Only our pride hurt...well, not mine. I'm accustomed to falling.

The heat was intense But pretty spectacular

I have to say I'm glad we did the tour on the day we went because the day after our tour; Guatemala experienced an earthquake. (6.2 on the scale). I would have hated to have been on the volcano during that time. It was bad enough when we felt the tremors at the house. Bob & I were sitting on the veranda playing BackGammon while the others were showering or sleeping. I can tell you those that were sleeping were rudely awaken and we saw them downstairs within minutes. David was laughing at us as he saw the shock in our eyes and thinking what the hell was that?

Did I tell you that the house had spirits? O'yes. My first night I sensed it. Then they were playing games with me. I had closed the shutter in the bedroom and went to the bathroom and heard the creaking of the shutter. I walked back into the bedroom and saw the shutter was open again. Not just slightly open but open all the way. At first I just thought it had popped open...no problem. I closed again tightly and waited. I went back to the bathroom and whaLa...the shutter opened. I could feel the presence of someone. It was weird but I wasn't scared. This happened the 2nd night I was there with a different shutter. I didn't say anything to anyone. For all I know it's just a faulty shutter although we had no problems with it the rest of the time. Then, one of Monica's friends had spent the night. You should have seen the terror in her eyes the next morning. Someone had shaken her bed and woke her up by stroking her cheek. Luis who was also in the room heard the bed shaking but thought Mitzi was dreaming didn't think anything about it. In the morning, Mitzi was wide awake and ready to go downstairs. She told us what had happened. I told her I knew we had a ghost / spirits whatever you want to call it. Luis said he had felt something too a few nights before. Nobody said anything to anyone and Thank God, Monica said had she known she would have had to find another place to stay. We talked Irma and asked if she's ever experienced anything before but she had not. Although there was a family who booked the house for a week and left after one night saying they felt the ghosts.

We had lots of fun eating, drinking, dancing, playing pool, and playing poker. So far we have found Texas Hold'em in every country we've traveled. Bob has been a big winner in the last 3 places he's played. Glad he's covering my losses.

Luis & I at Red's

Lena the Pool Shark

Monica, Diana & Luis

From Antigua we took a shuttle to Panajachel which is one of the villages on Lake Atitlan. Again we are traveling thru mountains and down widing roads. The fumes from the van more than anything was making me queasy. No A/C on the shuttle van so we had the windows open and I was sitting near the back of the van. John was in the very back didn't feel so well also. But we managed without getting sick on the 2 1/2 hour ride.

We didn't stay long in Panajachel once we got off the shuttle. We had a fantastic lunch there and a few explored briefly thru the village. But our ultimate destination was San Pedro La Laguna which we took a water taxi to get there.

Lake Atitlan is breathtaking and one of the deepest lakes in the world. The lake came about by a huge volcanic eruption dating 85,000 years ago. It's a fresh water lake with no river outlets and is surrounded by 3 volcanos. The lake is surrounded by Mayan Villages and most have their own languages. We've found the Mayan people are very friendly and always smiling.

San Pedro La Laguna is one of the village on the lake with a population around 13,000. Very laid back community. When we arrived, the hotel we had booked a reservation for was just up the hill from the water taxi. It wasn't a bad hotel but it was at the busiest intersection in town. So, Bob & Monica went around to a few other hotels to see what was available. They found one just up the road, cheaper, newer and had a wonderful balcony. We moved. The hotel we stayed at was called Casa Lola and was costing us $15.00 a night. Gotta like that. The town is small so where ever we stayed we were in walking distance of restaurants, pubs and the lake. We had some of the best food in this town and so cheap. We went to a restaurant called Dinoz where they offered a fantastic menu and a movie at 8:30. We found poker being played at Budha's. Bob cleaned everyone out and we had the best food Asian food. The 3 nights we spent in this town was cool and very relaxing.

Some Mayan girls walking their pig thru the village

Fantastic storms over the lake

Individuals lined the streets selling their produce, fruit and yes, live chickens

Downtown area

Bob pondering what real estate costs here.

Water taxis

Unfortunately our stay in San Pedro had to come to an end. We all boarded our shuttle back to Antigua. We decided to take the shuttle leaving San Pedro vs taking a water taxi back to Panajachel which lengthen our trip to 3 hours but we had a much nicer shuttle. The only thing is that while heading back we had so much weight on the shuttle that we couldn't make it up one of the hills. Half the passengers had to get out while the rest of us rode the up the hill. Luis & Monica were the only ones out of our group that walked.

Watching them as we enjoyed our ride up the hill.

Monica & Luis we'll wait for you up top. We made it safely to Antigua where we spent one night there before making our way to Honduras. This time we were splurging. We could have gone the cheap route and took a shuttle to the border (5 hours) before boarding Hedman Atlas bus. No, we've had enough of the shuttle scene. We all decided to take the shuttle back to Guatemala City (45 min ride) and then board a nice big bus for the journey ahead. Bob and I even forked out more money to ride Luxury style. Hedman Atlas bus lines....they have the 1st 10 seats reserved for "luxury" seating. Meaning we only had 3 seats going across vs. 4 making our seats much larger. Plus we got a few more snacks than the guys behind us. Our journey to Honduras is 15 hours and we wanted more leg room to recline and sleep. Our ride was very comfortable all the way thru.

That's Guatemala in a nutshell. A beautiful country.

More to come...stay tuned.

Much love from Bonnie & Bob