Guatemala

Guatemala, what can I say about Guatemala. First of all it is amazingly beautiful. I met up with my brother in EL Remate, Guatemala and we took the 6 am bus up to Tikal where we spent the morning hiking up the ruins which were amazing! It is such a lush, green Country. And the people are so welcoming... We headed to Flores from Tikal which is a little Island next to Santa Elena where we spent the evening in a funky hostel that we loved. We roamed the Island looking for an ATM since Monday, Sept 15th was Independence Day in Central America so all banks were closed and it was a witch hunt to find an ATM machine on Tuesday that still had money in it... But we managed to do so and booked our bus out of Flores headed for Antigua, Guatemala at 9 pm on Tuesday the 16th. We spent the day resting and shopping and jumped on our 11 hour bus that dropped us off in Antigua on Wednesday Sept 17th. Antigua is a darling little cobblestone village with plenty of stores, restaurants and Spanish schools. We were staying in a hostel ran by a woman named Irma who acted like a grandmother, which was a good thing making sure she kept Ryan in line and got him up on time for the buses. She actually only had to hurry him along once. We took a bus to one of the active volcanoes called Volcan Pacaya near Antigua and we were able to hike up to the lava and get so close your shoes began to melt. It was pretty impressive. Unlike anything I have ever seen. It was about a 6 hour trip so when we were coming back down the mountain it was getting dark and looking back up you just saw this bright yellowish red stream coming down the side. It was really impressive. We jumped out of bed the next morning to catch a 7 am bus headed for Chichicastenago which is a small village about 3 hours away that is known for its markets on Sundays and Thursdays. We hit it just right and were able to spend about 4 hours there on Thursday. It was amazing! The colors and crafts were so beautiful. There were all kinds of traditional masks both Mayan and also masks used for carnival, there were rugs, blankets and tablecloths made with the most radiant colors ever, and plenty of beaded and coral jewelry. It was the most amazing market i have ever been to.

From Chichi we headed South to Lago Atitlan which is a huge lake surrounded by 3 volcanoes and we spent the night in a small village on the water called San Marcos which was beautiful. We ate an amazing $2 meal at a local little restaurant where we got attacked by cats and then headed to bed in our little hippie hostel which was amazing. The next morning we feasted on fresh fruit, granola, homemade yogurt, oatmeal, bananas, and raisins. It was incredible. We then headed to another little village, bigger than San Marcos called San Pedro where we rented kayaks for a couple of hours. It was again breathtaking! From there we headed back to Antigua slept at Irma's place one more night before getting on a 4 am bus to Copan, Honduras which is where we are now. WE just visited the ruins and I am about to go take a nap. It was been an awesome week away and Guatemala has been amazing. The people have been lovely, the sights breathtaking, the food delicious... I have absolutely no complaints! I have missed the kids and I cannot wait for Ryan to meet them tomorrow so he can put some faces to names. Also, I did take tons of pictures and I will put them up a bit later when I am on a cheaper, faster computer.