Wow....what a country. from the highlands with rugged mountains and hills down to the lush tropical jungle (full of mossies), this country is full of contrasts. Anyway, we arrived in Guatemala city after enduring about 28 hrs straight from nz....flying, waiting for flight connections etc. mind you the flight from NZ to LA wasn't so bad after we had upgraded from plebe class to premium economy. what a difference more leg room and champagne makes...ha ha. We were also upgraded from the LA to Guatemala City leg.....so a complete bonus there also. We touched down in GUAT around 4am (a couple of weeks ago now) and immediately the sounds and smells hit you...and also the hawkers trying to get you in their taxis... Our first stop was Antigua, about 45min from GUAT city. We just so happened to get there for the sunrise (completely unplanned) so it was pretty spectacular to see the surrounding volcanoes around this town. Antigua is a great little town full of colonial styled houses, cobblestoned streets and derelict churches. Most of the property facades are restored with constrasting colour schemes.....so that combined with huge volcanoes in the background makes this place pretty appealing. It really is an amazing place that caters for a wide range of people. This is where we did our 4 day Spanish course, which was one on one tuition. I thought my grasp on Spanish wasn't too bad from our South American travel days...but boy was this tricky. It was in a nice surrounding with a central green area with walkways around (most of the buildings all have these central courtyards with gardens for privacy). Julz had a pretty good teacher that was fairly patient with her, but mine had the flu or some terrible spluttering cough, and would roll her eyes at me when my sentences didn't make sense....and say, login login login (couldn't quite say my name properly...). I used to crack up and say something really fast in English back at her to get my own back....ha ha We did some cool stuff in Antigua like mountain biking through the surrounding hillsides. This was a ton of fun and involved biking through different farmers crops, dodging horse dung and the occasional donkey ladened with wood. It started raining during this ride so we pretty much got absolutely soaked. We stopped at this shrine called "San Simon" that some the Guatemalan people come to and offer different coloured candles too. its quite bizare as its not a religious thing but more of a request for anything, but nothing in particular (doesn't make sense, but neither did the shrine). All these different coloured candles represented things like:- 'good health for your kids' - (white candle), 'a pay rise' (purple candle), 'repenting from a sin' (black candle) etc etc etc. The shrine (San Simon) look striking like a old western train coach bandit, because he sits in this chair with what looks like six shooters and a bandanna covering halve his face. Part of the ritual is smoking these huemungus cigarettes that are about twice the size of a normal cigar....so your burning this white candle with your kids and also smoking this massive cigarette in front of them!@#$%^. Anyway, the bike ride back to Antigua was in the dark and pouring rain (the whole ride took 5hrs). It wasn't planned like this but never the less was a huge amount of fun. imagine having no lights on your bike, its raining and dark...and your flying hell for leather down roads full of crazy chicken bus drivers and non warranted cars...good fun. We also climbed up volcano Pacaya, the only active volcano around Antigua. This was an early start (5am) as it was a good 1/2 day hike. We also had security guards as they say people sometimes get robbed, but when your guard is no more than a teenage with a shotgun your confidence wains slightly. The crater itself was hot, with molten lava flowing out of pockets in the crater. It was amazing to be able (and openly encouraged) to get as close to molten lava as possible. This was of course impossible as our rain jackets we were wearing felt as though they were gluing themselves to our bodies. We did managed to get within a meter (for about 2-3 secs) before backing off. Watching flowing lava was quite hypnotic as it moves at such a slow (but dangerous) pace. There were people cooking pies and lotsa marshmallows being literally roasted. The hike down was wet as it started raining at the top, so the bus trip back to Antigua didn't smell to good. We then left Antigua and headed up to a little place called Panajachel, which is on Lake Atilian. This lake is actually a collapsed volcano cone, so its incredible blue waters and very deep. Pana itself is a bit of a throw back to the 70's-80's where lots of "gringos" ended up staying for long stints. The town is pretty haphazard in design with little stands lining both sides of the streets selling everything. As soon as you wander down to the lake front and gaze out at the view you appreciate the attraction this place holds. Surrounding the lake are 3 volcanoes that are pretty impressive to say the least. We hung about in Pana for a few days before heading up to the largest market in Guatemala (which in on a Thursday?) in a place called Chichicastenango (or commonly called chi chi). Why they have incredibly long complicated names for places defies me! Chi chi was a neat little place heaving with locals and tourists alike, with lots of bartering and hard bargaining going on. The markets were a sprawling maze of covered stands and colour. Guatemala itself is a very traditional country with locals going about their business with colorful garb on. The woman especially wear lots of colour and beads (anyway, that was a slight digress). The only thing we bought at the markets was a roll of cellotape (for sticking stuff in our diaries)....and we had to bargain hard to get it! Back in Pana we also went on a whole day cruise around the lake. This was spectacular and we stopped off at a few small villages along the way. This was a good opportunity to see everyday local life, and also to start getting the body tans up.....We then left Pana the next day and headed back to Antigua for another day before embarking on a rather arduous bus trip (11hrs) to a little place called Flores. Flores is a quaint little lake town (down at jungle level) that is a little island attached by bridge to the lake shore. It was quite a nice place with the hostel we stayed in having great food to eat. Flores is really the gateway to Tikal, which was the central city for the Mayan civilization dating from 700BC to 1000 AD (about 2000 yrs). We wandered around Flores for the afternoon, but felt pretty jaded from the long bus trip....and were in bed early to get to Tikal the day after. Tikal......this place is incredible. Huge temples (pyramid shapes) and structures are located in the lush green jungle, and majestically rise above the foliage. The size of the area where the temples are located is massive and you walk for sometimes 20-30mins to get to another temple. The amazing thing about the place is that the jungle is full of wildlife, with birds ( lotsa toucans) monkeys, snakes etc etc all over the place. Just walking between structures and stopping, looking around...you'll be saying "did ya see that, or "hey, look at that". We stayed at Tikal for 2 nights at one of the lodges there and did the sunrise tour on one of the mornings. You get up at 4am and walk to temple IV (4) and climb the temple (about 65m high), and here you sit and watch the sun slowly rise and the mist clear....and the jungle comes to life. At first you wait and hear one bird somewhere, and then a howler monkey might start up with these huge grunting noises that echoes through the jungle....then slowly more noises start up until the jungle and all these different species are awake. It really is something else to witness.... We then spent the day wandering around bathed in glorious sun and taking lottsa photos. We also stayed for the sunset (also on temple IV) which was also very spectacular. We slightly misjudged leaving the temple to walk back to the lodge (a good 40min walk) and ended up in pitch black conditions. Pretty neat really considering we were the only people in the park and looking up and the central structures under moon light was impressive. Anyway the park guards found us and we caught a lift in the back of their 4 wheel drive to the lodge. Now, we are in Belize in a little place called San Ignacio. We left Tikal yesterday (01/11/07) and caught a couple of public buses to the border and crossed into Belize. We are now about to head to Belize city and then up to the Caya Caulker area.......to the Caribbean beach. Check out the photos of Guatemala and until the next installment......caio chicos. Logz & Julz | 