Rotub* 

Guatemala City

I arrived in Guatemala almost 30 hours after departing from Australia. My travel route was Sydney > Los Angeles > Dallas > Guatemala City. That was a lot of flying and what felt like even more sitting around airports. I was sooo ready to finally start the trip! Shortly after landing, I had joined Bec in our choice of accommodation, Guatefriends. Guatefriends is a homestay run by a small family. The price is rather expensive compared to other places we stayed in other cities but it seemed ideal, having arrived late at night and based on the reputation of Guatemala City.

The city itself gets a pretty bad wrap, for things to see/do, in tour guides and online reviews. The culture was noticeably different to that of Australia and despite the lack of tourist attractions, I really enjoyed wondering around the streets and Sunday markets. Shoe-shine boys roamed the crowds looking for a pair of business shoes to polish. They can expertly shine shoes without even looking but they had trouble identifying the fact that my shoes are not the kind that can be polished and wouldn't leave me alone.

It was so good to be back in a foreign country again.

Antigua

Antigua was a lot smaller than I imagined. It is just a few hours bus ride from the capital and is one of the most popular destinations in Guatemala. The cobble stone streets set a nice scene (not to mention the large volcano watching over it). Antigua is flat and small in size, making it a relaxing and enjoyable town to explore by foot.

One afternoon we wanted to hire some bicycles but a down pour of rain saw to those plans being cancelled. We were traveling in the "rainy season" which meant it would be sunny all day and then rain in the afternoons. We didn't let our ruined plans ruin our trip though. As the rain poured down, we sat and watched local women wash a mountain of clothes in public stone basins. One woman had her youngest child strapped to her back as she worked. We stayed for a couple of hours. They didn't seem to mind us watching. In fact they gave us a few smiles and a friendly wave goodbye as we eventually left.

While we spent a lot of time walking around town visiting ruins, churches, markets and talking/eating in cafes... climbing a volcano was the highest item on the list of things to do. The walk up Pacaya Volcano was surprisingly easy. The most exciting part was reaching the top where the dirt, green grass, and trees stopped. There was nothing but black volcanic rock under our feet. The view of neighbouring volcanoes and surrounding clouds was awesome. Getting as close to the crator without getting into too much trouble and without killing ourselves was all very exciting. It was so cool. I have stood on an active volcano! Tick.

Panajachel

This is a very small town on a huge lake. Our choice of accomodation was my tent which I had brought all the way over with me from Australia. We set up camp on the lake with an amazing view of a volcano looking at us from across the water. We camped there for 3 nights.

San Marcos

When we asked for directions from Panajachel to San Marcos, locals told us not to go there. They said we would have more fun in the party town located next to it, San Pedro. We ignored their advice as we were not looking to party. As it turned out, San Marcos is one of my favourite places in Guatemala. The water was clean, streets were small and quiet, locals were friendly and the food was the best we'd had so far! However having said this, the first few hours in San Marcos were quite the opposite.

We had caught a boat across the lake to reach San Marcos. As our boat pulled in, there was a pack of kids waiting for us and started pointing at our bags and making a lot of fuss. I thought they were about to grab the bags and run like hell but they just wanted to show us around. Long story short, they followed us to our hostel and then asked us for money for their troubles in showing us there. We didn't need or use their help so we declined. I said bye and went to shut the door only to realise that one of the kids had placed his foot in the way to stop the door from closing - '...give us money...'

I told the kid to move his foot or I would definitely not give him any money. He refused to move and after a 5-10 minute standoff, we left to have some dinner. Of course, the kids followed. They followed us all the way to our table, still asking for money. They were getting on our nerves a bit and eventually we realised we didn't have any money to give them anyway. Bec handed them some coins and they were furious '....what is this, this is nothing, we need money....', they got more fired up and eventually they stormed off. One of the kids yelled "F^&K YOU, S#!T!" from outside. I was convinced they were going to be waiting for us in the dark when we left later on but we never saw them again. Not the best introduction to San Marcos.

In the morning though, everything looked completely different. In the daylight we were able to see the cobble stone pathway we had been walking on that snakes through the whole town. And best of all, kids were at school. Yoga, kayaking, ledge-jumping and massages were among the things we did during our time there. The whole town felt like a retreat. It was so relaxing and all things good.

We made some friends at yoga one morning and decided to organise for a relaxing sauna with them that night. The sauna looked like an oversized woodfire pizza oven. I actually second guessed if I was really looking at a sauna. I was surprised to find people sitting inside it alive. We stayed in there for a few hours talking, slowly dying and eventually cooled off as we walked home in the rain.