ANTIGUA (25 June)
we arrived in antigua saturday morning. we spent much of the afternoon watching it rain--nearly 8 hours in total. this nixed our planned hike up an active volcano, but we certainly visited many more eateries than we would have otherwise. it also allowed us to hike up to the cross overlooking the city in between rain showers, so we still got a nice view. the large yellow arch was literally right outside the door of where we stayed for the night. pretty nice. we left early sunday morning to get back to guatemala city for the league final soccer game. which was outstanding.
LAKE ATITLAN (27 June)
we arrived in panahachel (on lake atitlan) sunday evening after a 3.5hour bus ride from the city following the soccer game. monday we walked around pana (as all the cool travelers call it), as well as took boat to san pedro on the other side of the lake. this is where the most of the pictures in this section are from. let me just say that xylophone bands are awesome.
TIKAL (28 June)
setting your alarm at 4:15am on a tuesday morning can be brutal. but it was well worth it to catch our plane up to the north of the country where some of the most famous mayan ruins are located. one note--it is hot here. unbelievably hot. how is it that we travelled north and found ourselves in 20 degree warmer air with close to 100% humidity? it made for a tough workout with a 25 lb. pack on my back we stayed in the island town of flores (about an hour south of tikal by bus). i'll tell you this much--guatemalans love taking pictures with gringos. i've only got a couple pictures, but the number rolls of film they were going through at the same time was astounding. we were famous.
RIO DULCE (29 June)
we met some of the coolest people in rio dulce at hotel backpackers. cool enough to prompt us to stay there instead of finding a place on our own. we ended up traveling with them on to livingston and hanging out the next several days there. rio dulce is both the name of the town and the river the town is located on. just a very relaxing place in general. luke and i swam off the docks at the hotel around dusk wednesday night--brilliant stuff after a day of sweating.
LIVINGSTON (30 June - 02 July)
we arrived to livingston by boat (the only way to get there from rio dulce) early thursday afternoon and liked it enough that we stayed till saturday afternoon. easily the most fun we had on the trip. we danced in clubs, swam in the caribbean (much less refreshing than you might imagine--the water was warmer than any shower i took the entire time i was in guat), swam in waterfalls (siete altares--much more refreshing), and layed around in hammocks on the second floor porch of our hotel. we met so many other travellers as well as local folk. the big group of girls in several pictures are all psychology students from guatemala city who were on vacation. we hung out with them on and off for most of our stay in livingston.
PASTORES (03 July)
we went back to antigua on sunday for the sole purpose of taking a quick five minute bus ride from there to pastores where our goal was to buy boots. and buy boots we did. that's really the only thing they sell in pastores, so we were in good hands. the cool thing was that whoever you were buying the boots from was the person who'd personally made the boots. pretty cool deal. of course, the fact that they cost about US$30 doesn't hurt either.
