One of the benefits of travel is that one gets the opportunity to ponder life’s big questions. Sometimes you are reminded of them in the oddest places. I wondered whether there might be a wall map inside this travel agency with an “X” on our location that said “Why are you here?”
Continue reading →I have pretty much recovered from our outing to the water park. It took a couple of days. Maybe I’m not getting in shape quite as fast as I thought. The streets of Xela have their ups and downs, and it seems like I spend quite a bit of time every day walking from one place to another, or sometimes just back and forth to the same places. Several of those places are cafes, so perhaps the effects of the exercise are diminished. One of my favorite cafes just recently reopened after taking a break following the holidays. The menu … Continue reading →
The water park, about an hour and a half down through the mountains towards the Pacific coast west of Xela, was great fun. With lush tropical landscaping and lots of good water slides, it very well done (a descriptor that is seldom applicable to things here). In fact, it was as good as any water park I’ve been to in the U.S., and maybe even more fun since safety seemed to be less of a concern. This is Guatemala, after all. It ended up being an outing for quite a few of us–my godchildren and their parents, and a couple … Continue reading →
Where tourism is the life blood of Panajachel, in Quetzaltenango foreign visitors are largely ignored. That is not to say that foreigners, whether upscale tourists or budget travelers, can’t find places to stay and eat and plenty to do. It is just that Qutezaltenango is a city with other things to focus on. Away from certain cafes, the cheap hostels which cater to budget travelers, and the language schools where travelers learn survival Spanish, it is not difficult to find yourself just about the only foreigner in sight. That is something you could never say in Pana. Quetzaltenango, usually called … Continue reading →
New Year’s Day Well, I guess it is safe to say, New Year’s Eve was a blast. My ears are still ringing. Mike’s extravaganza went off well before midnight, so I was back at my little hotel, up on the rooftop patio when all hell broke loose in town. I was in bed by ten past midnight, and fell asleep to the sounds of fireworks, and someone throwing up in the communal bathroom downstairs. Mike’s coffee shop was closed, but I stopped by in the afternoon to check out the pile of pyrotechnics he had assembled for last night’s show. … Continue reading →