Hello all,
Sorry that I've been a bit behind on the blog, but some places we don't have electricity yet alone Internet. Guatemala is hands down the best spoken Spanish that I've heard yet. Ie. I understand about 1 in 10 words.... We spent our first week at a mountainess avocado farm called Earth Lodge. Although we didn't actually have an avocado as they were out of season, the food was amazing and all on a tab system. A bonus when there are no ATM's around. Sarah was in heaven with all of the meals being vegetarian except on special request. The lodge overlooked 3 volcanos (1 active) and had tree top cabins to sleep in. From there we made day trips to Antigua in the back of a ute for the hefty price of 60 quetzals (6 dollars) for both. Antigua is full of old buildings, hand made textiles and pubs. Many t shirts and textiles were purchased. From Antigua (Spanish for ancient), we made the perilous journey to Lake Atitilan which at one stage had a 100m section of road landslide into the valley below. We had to detour through a creek to get around it. How do i put it, Lago Atitilan was not short of hippies. Many had flocked from all ends of the world to wear hemp clothes and walk around, sometimes with purpose.. Again, the Guatemalans made terrific food, most of which came from the hotels garden and there was no shortage of chilli sauce. After doing some cliff jumps at the lake and more textile purchasing we headed up to the even more ancient city of Tikal. The trip took about 14 hours door to door, however, when I saw what was waiting at the hotel door, it was well worth it. It was Aiden, my old friend from uni. Unbelievable! Many hugs and fake marriage ceremonies were held to celebrate. The ruins of Tikal were impressive, especially with a French rapper doing a film shoot on temple 4. Most of the temples were typical Myan style pyramids of about 20 to 60 meters in height. Having said that, the temperature felt like it varied from 20 to 60 also..
Next stop is Belize!
