Guatemala

Guatemala 

December 27th - Jan 1st 

Our Mad Dash through Guatemala
Well because we spent a little more time in Nicaragua and El Salvador than we thought we would, we had less than a week to see all that Guatemala has to offer. It truly was a mad dash but I'm glad we did it that way. We were able to see a lot before Matt left on New Years day.

December 27th: Bus from El Salvador to Guatemala City... then taxi to Antigua, booked our tours for the next couple of days and enjoyed the city.

28th: Lake Atitlan, day tour...visited 3 of the major cities: Santiago Atitlan, San Pedro and San Marcus got back around 6:30. Shuttle to Guatemala city, then we took the all night bus to Flores.

29th: Got to Flores then taxi'd to Tikal around 6:30 in the morning. Spent about 7 hours at the national park looking at all the Mayan Ruins. Then, spent the evening in Flores, then once again we took an all night bus, on which we did not sleep either time :)

30th: Arrived in Guatemala City again at 6:30am and then back to Antigua. We couldn't check in to our hostel til about noon so we booked a tour to Pacaya. After we took a Little Nap, we were off to Pacaya Volcano.

31st: Relaxing day, finally got to sleep in then spent the day enjoying the city. We went to the New Year's Party til about 2am then Matt left about 2 hours later!

January 1st: Matt left at 4:am!!! Sad day!

I told you it was a MAD DASH!!! Whew!

Antigua is the most popular colonial town in all of Central America. We were lucky enough to spend a bit of time there. It is a gorgeous town with tons of culture all around. We enjoyed just being in "parque central" and watching the people and buying little things from the families. We also enjoyed buying all sorts of authentic items in the markets!






First trip out of Antigua: Panajachel and Lake Atitlan. Lake Atitlan is just as beautiful as everyone says it is! We hired a private boat and were taken to 3 of the villages. We went to Santiago Atitlan, San Pedro and San Marcos. We loved it! We got to see a lot of really cool sights and did a little shopping as well.
Tikal is the ancient Mayan Ruins national park. We hired a tour guide and he took us around the whole park and told us a ton of really interesting history about the Mayan's and the structures there! It was amazing. I've never seen anything like it!


Temple V was really crazy. It had a the biggest ladder that I've ever seen that you have to climb to get to the top. It was so steep and a bit scary! It was no problem going up but then I sat at the top for a while and saw a couple people almost fall so the going down part was a lot more intense for me! But I'm safe! :) Matt wanted to stay at the bottom and take pictures.


Flores was a beautiful little island. It was perfect for a nice relaxing evening in the middle of our mad dash. We had some Italian cuisine and watched the sunset!


Pacaya Volcano
We had heard about this volcano with tons of lava, but you can never really get the feel of what it will be like until you're there! That lava was amazing...so I got a little picture happy! I loved it! Our group roasted marshmallows over the lava. Yummy!

Matt had to leave on New Year's Day because he was flying standby home and he had to be back to work by the 4th. It was hard being apart but I was glad that I could go to a Spanish school and live with a Guatemalan family. Breanna came out and stayed with me almost the whole time and Jess came out for a little while to experience Guatemala with us. We were able to go to Semuc Champey, and Bre and I went to Belize for a week before coming home! What an adventure! What wonderful memories!!!