The trip to El Salvador required us to spend yet another night in Antigua. This brings the total to 9 nights for anyone counting, which is by far the longest we've been anywhere aside from the lovely days of El Nido, Philippines. We woke up early on the morning of our departure and attempted to get a bit of exercise. We went for an easy 25 minute run, which is when we caught a glimpse of the impending doom. On the way home after stopping for a couple cups of cof...

Yeah, it took longer then we thought to get out of Antigua...rain had roads closed to our next stop: Lago Atitlan, the famous highlands lake nearby considered by many to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. (we'll be the judges of that!) We made our way to the lakeside town via a packed shuttle through the mountain landscape of the Guatemalan western highlands to the Atitlan main town hub, Panajachel. We were hoping for a smooth transition from shu...

It was roughly a 4 hour bus ride that put us into the thick of it, downtown Guatemala City. We weren't especially interested in spending a great deal of time here, and fortunately for us we didn't have to. We were dropped off at an unassuming bus station and were promptly whisked into a nearby taxi to bring us to the bus station servicing the route from G.C to Antigua. As we arrived we were hurried out of the car and onto the departing bus. Trying to keep a clo...

It's a long haul to Antigua from Flores, so we made the decision to break it up and so we stopped in the small, central Guatemalan town of Cobán. There isn't too much going on there, although it is a nice enough little town. The main reason people come through, however, is it's proximity to Semuc Champey, which is an amazing National Park hidden deep in the Guatemalan Highlands. We had all intention of going out there for a day trip, but when the time came we b...

I hate border crossings (in general, but particularly) in Latin America. For starters, there never seems to be clear information before hand on how much money (or which currency) you need- and, there are rarely ATMs present if you do come up short. Secondly, Border Officials tend to be sleazy, and from time to time new 'fees' are created...i.e. shakedown money. Thirdly, aside from the Border Officials, border towns are swarming with unsavory types all trying to g...