Were back and with plenty of stories from Guatemala

It was a great trip. In fact the next few articles on the blog will be dedicated to the specifics of the trip but here is the overview of our trip.

We left on Thursday AM and made our way to Guatemala City. From the air as we landed I was struck by two things how sprawling this city of 3 million is and how rugged and hilly the land of the city was. In fact it is pretty amazing through out Guatemala how they maximize there hillsides for living and farming.

We stayed the night in Guatemala City and stayed in Zone 10 (the kinda of rich and safe zone). We found a Sushi bar and had an amazing dinner and then strolled around for a while. The next morning we had some time before our two o'clock transfer to Antigua so we hit a mall and a salon for a hair cut etc. By then 2pm was here and we caught our bus to Antigua. It was a great drive with a quick stop by an organic coffee plantation and roasting facility so we got to check out that process and try and buy some coffee.

The first night in Guatemala we stayed at a little boutique hotel. It was very cute and only $60 a night so we totally enjoyed it. The next day we moved to our timeshare at Villa Antigua. I would not recommend this place. It is a little to club med for our tastes and while it was a time share swap and adequate we spent very little time at the place instead opting for other places to eat and basically just staying out and checking out the town and surrounding area.

Some of our tours included a trip to Lake Atilan, Chichicastenango market, climbed active volcano Pecaya, local fabric and village tour, jade jewelry factory, saw some of the many ruins of churches from the 1500 and 1600's and of course ate out and shopped for local handicrafts which are nearly too numerous and beautiful to mention.

We spent one day and night at a friend of ours daughters mountain hostel called the earth lodge. www.welcometoearthlodge.com . Excellent views and food from this backpacker getaway. We did some hiking and just enjoyed the quiet and while mixing with people from all over the world. Of the 20 hikers and us staying the lodge we got to meet people from Israel, Iceland, Denmark, England, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Columbia and of course the good old USA. Great people most of whom are traveling for the whole summer doing the backpacker thing in Central America.

Finally we had to say goodbye to Antigua and made our way back to Guatemala City for another night and another great Sushi dinner. Then a quick flight the next day to San Salvador and then direct to Roatan.

It was a great trip but were glad to be back home.