Guatemala

At the last momento, we decided to go to Guatemala. It was not in our original plan but we met so many travellers that loved it so we decided to go check it out.

We spent just a week there so I guess we just did a highlights trip and it was busy!! The landscapes of Guatemala are so beautiful, so many sharp mountains and lakes and the whole country is so green and undeveloped - although apparently this is rapidly changing. We started off with 2 nights in Flores - an island in the middle of a massive lake. From here we took a tour to Tikal - the most famous Mayan ruins set in the jungle. From there we decided to go to Semuc Champey which is in all the guidebooks as the most beautiful place in Guatemala but it is VERY remote - it took us the whole day to get there and the roads where horrendous. Greg was hoping to catch the second tri-nations game but that was definitely not going to happen - this place was so remote they didnt even have electricity let alone a TV. But it did not disappoint I have put some photos up because I can't explain how beautiful it was. We spent the days there hiking, swimming in whirlpools, tubing down the river and rock climbing down waterfalls on a tiny piece of rope - well scary!

After a few days we carried on to Antigua which is a cobbled street town set at the base of 3 volcanos - 2 active. We hiked to the top of one of the active volcanos. It was quite a hike - once you hit the old lava it gets quite difficult to climb. Anyway when we reached the top we got to toast some marshmallows in the lava which was pretty surreal.

That pretty much sums up our whirlwind trip of Guatemala I would have liked to have had more time to see other parts but for now we are on the Caribbean coast again in the Bay Islands of Honduras.