Guatemala

After a night in the Sheraton at Heathrow (fulfilling Loretta´s lofty lifetime ambition!), a very early morning and rearranging our flights with Iberia at the check in desk (the agent had accidentally booked us on a flight that no longer existed) we arrived in Guatemala via Costa Rica.



We had no real plans at this stage except for five nights of good hotels booked in Antigua and Lake Atitlan - after all it is our honeymoon, so a little luxury was very welcome.



Having heard only bad things about Guatemala city we went straight to the gorgeous colonial town of Antigua. After a fairly hectic week we were both exhausted and it was lovely to chill out for a few days (although our chill-out did include a climb up the local live volcano). Continuing the theme we moved on to Lake Atitlan which is probably one of the most stunning places we´ve ever been to (and a contender for one of the new official seven wonders of the world - apparently). San Marcos was a short bus and boat ride away and had been recommended by a friend (thanks Minta) and it didn´t disappoint - massage, yoga, conoeing on the lake, walking to the next village and eating lots of good, healthy food was the perfect start.



Guatemala is beautiful, very laid back and friendly, but surprisingly expensive therefore we commtted to using the local ´Chicken Buses´as often as possible - these were surprisingly good and there wasn´t a chicken in sight.



Guatemala City was our next stop to catch the night bus to the Mayan site of Tikal in the north. ´Él Guate´as the city is affectionately know is pretty hideous. We had a few hours to kill so ventured out to Central Park, amidst the druggies, tramps, defaecating and urinating men we planned the next leg of our trip and decided that the honeymoon was truly over. Heading back through the most dangerous part of town (Zona 1) is depressing, loads of formerly grand Spanish colonial buildings have been left to rot or form the bases of many hideous grey monolithic concrete apartment blocks. The only place to eat was a McDonalds (vile even by home standards) so we decided to while away the remaining three or four hours in the bus station.



Christmas is huge over here and there´s more tatty decorations than in Alnwick, believe it or not. Our favourite (?) so far was the singing christmas tree in the bus station whose monotonous beep belted out a medley mix of Santa Claus is coming to town, jingle bells and we wish you a merry christmas on a permanant loop. It had stiff competition in the volume/annoying stakes from the raucous Guatemalan Semi-pro Cage Fighting event taking place next door and the Guatemalan equivalent of the X Factor belting out from the TV... you´ve gotta love those travelling bus station moments!



We arrived at Tikal the next morning and despite the minging and very expensive accommodation four or five hours in the ruins definitely made the trip worth it. The huge Mayan ruins set in deep tropical forest were spectacular, we braved the rickety wooden steps, climbing nearly 180ft to the top and were rewarded with brilliant views of the forest canopy stretching out as far as the eye can see, which bore a striking resemblance to some scenes from Star Wars (Ed - not sure if any of them were filmed here?)

We decided that rather than retracing our steps back to Guatemala City, to pop into Belize (not on the original plan but an interesting detour - this is what I love about not having anything booked, just wake up one day and change the plans, depending on what we fancy!) for a few days...