Todo es mas bueno!

[fivemack]

I am in Guatemala, on the shores of Lago de Atitlán: dawn broke about an hour ago. Peace is disrupted only by the shrill whistles of the grackles, the clacking of amorous(?) coots, and the occasional motorboat-taxi across the lake. To the left Mount Atitlán is poking out behind Mount Tolimán; to the right, San Pedro.

Comments

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Atilan is really lovely, hope you get to Santiago across the lake to see the locals worshipping Maximon. Worth going into the little house to see them getting the statue to smoke.

And climbing Pacaya from Antigua to poke sticks in the oozing lava is so much fun.

Guatamala was my favourite of all the Central American countries

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Oh, did you brave the Chicken bus to get there?

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I'm on an organised trip doing the Ruta Maya, rather quickly to get the whole circuit from Antigua to the Atlantic Coast and back done in a fortnight: fourteen of us (including both my parents) in a reasonably air-conditioned minibus. Today we're wiggling around the lake and I think Maximo. is on the schedule. I can see myself coming back here: I imagine it takes a long time for 'oh look, Fuego is erupting again' to get old. Might need to be a bit fitter than I am now to be confident that climbing Agua is practical.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Fake traveller! What you are missing is

"We set off with only small backs on a triple chicken bus ride through the mountains to Chichicastenango, seated 6 abreast (middle 2 with half a buttock on the seat). The conductor climbed up the back of the moving bus to deposit a bag, and rather than fight through the bus as a moving block puzzle game, must have run along the roof, as he swung into the front door Indiana Jones style a few minutes later. Our driver spurned a delay because of roadworks in favour of a dirt track winding through the hills, and our faithful ex-ex-school bus, doubly loaded, roared round hairpin bends and 1 in 8 hills that I'd only have down with a 4WD. Urgle!!"

So we upgraded

"Many of you post about upgrades on flights costing hundreds of pounds or thousands of air miles. Well we were offered us the deal of the century, 4 more chicken buses back to Antigua, or our personal minibus for 3 Q extra (the princely sum of 20p)"

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Sigh. That looks absolutely wonderful!