Guatemala
We had a very rocky start to Guatemala... We started our trip from Caye Caulker Belize in a boat, very hung over, then a 5 hour bus to Flores in the north of Guatemala. I was sleeping on the bus... Was woken suddenly to be told that we needed to change buses "Now now! Vamos, rapido!" Which means let's go, quickly. Dazed and confused I quickly got up and left my golden passport lying on the seat... Argh! I didn't realize this until later that night. So as you can imagine I was a little stressed, not to mention that there is no aussie consulate in Guatemala! Anyhow, we had booked a day tour to Tikal the next day which left at 4.30am. Tikal is one of the larger Mayan ruins that spans out across a wide area amongst a jungle like area. We had a great day, saw a tarantula and many howler monkeys, however my passport was on my mind and I couldn't do anything about it until I returned to the hostel. Fortunately, we arrived back at the hostel, Los Amigos, and our fabulous hostel host Mafer called a few people and managed to locate my passport... Heart attack over!... And yes... Lesson learned!

Went for a run the next morning around the little town we were staying in which is surrounded by a lake, and chad added in some push ups, sit ups and skipping which wore us both out for our boot camp session.

Another early morning and we were off to lanquin in the south of Guatemala. The trip was a beautiful ride, through mountains and small little villages that still wear traditional dress and have no electricity, however the roads were horrendous. The journey included switching from a mini van to transfer into a small fishing boat to cross a flooded river for about 20 mins, then get into another mini van in a flooded town nearby. This is because about 2-3 weeks before there had been very bad flooding all around Guatemala so there had been land slides and the roads had been washed away... We had beautiful weather but felt the affects of the aftermath! We arrived in Lanquin quite late. Our room was a little tree house, set right on a river in the mountains. We awoke to cows mooing and roosters crowing. That day we headed out to semuc champey, which is a natural reserve with lots of natural pools, caves and hikes. We jumped on the back of truck and the 11km journey took about an hour - very hilly and bumpy dirt roads! We had such an awesome day in semuc champey. We went caving with candles, jumped off 10m bridges and went to the limestone pools semuc champey is famous for. A big day of adventure!

Next stop... Antigua. Supposed to take us 6 hours to get there but took us about 9 hours... Due to the roads and the silly bus drivers we had!
Antigua is a beautiful old colonial town not far from Guatemala city, but much safer than Guatemala city. We stayed at the yellow house and our first night we shared a room with 2 Swiss girls we had met in Antigua and semuc champay. The room was roughly $8 per night, and included a 3 course breakfast! Stayed a few days in Antigua to relax but also did a couple of day trips from there. We did a volcano climb at the volcano pacaya. Our group of 15 people was a bit of dud, and no one was talking to each other or making friends. there was child in our group about 9 hrs old and everyone was walking very slowly... As you can imagine that may annoy some people, But it annoyed Chad in particular. We couldn't just walk up it ourselves because it is know to be dangerous for robberies if you are not in a group. Plus we were unable to climb to the top because volcano was omitting toxic gases. However, it did make it all worth it when we got to the upper rim and the sun was setting.. Bits of steam coming from the earth, it was quite amazing, got some great shots. We then had the treacherous walk down in the dark, lucky we brought a flash light.

Also did a day trip to nearby Lago (lake) Atitlan. Quite a funny trip this was... Again we had treacherous roads due to mud slides etc.. A whole road had been wiped out and what was left was a make shift road on the side going through a creek. A big heavy truck had got stuck.. So everyone was out helping to put it out. I love how when there is a problem everyone wants to know what's going on and everyone wants help. No problemo! Don't expect to be on time for anything in guatemala. As soon as we arrived at panjachel at Lago Atitlan we hoped out and were mobbed but the usual scammers that want to sell you this that and another. Basically the lake is surrounded by a couple of volcanoes and little communities and it is very large so you take small little boats, Lanchas, across to the little communities. Luckily someone had informed us that the boats should only cost us $3 each... Meanwhile someone was trying to sell us tickets for $30. Crazy! The lake is about 2 metros higher than it usually is and it was sad to see some of the little houses right on the water were completely covered to the roof. I don't think they have house insurance! We found a great little local taco place in a little town called San pedro on the lake. 8 tacos, and 2 liters of beer for $5 total. We walked around the villages and saw the locals at work... Selling all sorts of things, live chickens, meat unrefrigerated, drying corn in the streets, home made Coconut and banana bread which we did give in and buy! Had to catch the launcha back to the main town Panychel to catch our bus back to Antigua. Our little boat took it's time getting back because he wanted to pick up as much business as possible and stop and say hello for a little bit to his girlfriend... We almost missed our bus back to Antigua. No schedules in Guatemala! That's part and parcel travelling in central America, you have to love the adventure. After all of our adventure in Guatemala we are now headed to El Salvador to relax on the beaches.. Well I am, Chad will be surfing.

Adios Edwina