We have done a lot and gone very far in the last 10 days. After completing my diving certification, Chad’s sister, Michelle flew down from Seattle to join us in our travels for one week. We spend a couple more days on Caye Caulker, Belize with Michelle after which we set out towards Guatemala. It was also very nice to have our friends Rune and Maren along for the drive from Belize to Tikal. Rune and Maren are a very nice couple from Norway who were in Ana’s diving certification class. Having gone through the experience of learning to dive together brought us fairly close and we found that we enjoy each other’s company.

After Caye Caulker, the five of us, drove to San Ignasio, a small town in Belize, near the border with Guatemala. The town was very cute. Situated in the mountains there are many outdoors type activities to do here such as hiking, biking, swimming, canopy rides and sliding down waterfalls. Unfortunately, we didn’t partake in any of these activities because for the first time on our trip we had to keep a schedule and be in Antigua by July 3rd. So, on the morning of July 2nd, we crossed the border in Guatemala. The crossing went smoothly and we were on our way after obtaining our visas and permit for Mango. We drove straight to the archaeological zone, Tikal and managed to visit the site the same day. Tikal is quite impressive with very large structures many of which you can climb. Tikal is situated in the jungle and if you look you can see and hear many creatures all around. We saw spiders, large catepillars, many types of birds and monkeys. We have great pictures which we will post on our Photo page soon. From Tikal we drove south about an hour to the island town of Flores on Lake Petén Itzá. Flores is a pretty little town that is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. We had a late diner at a small restaurant during which time the power cut out so we ended up having a very nice candle light diner.

The next morning, we set out towards Antigua, an estimated 10 hour drive that took us 13 hours.  The drive was beautiful through the jungle and into the mountains.  Along the way we sat in some traffic due to a truck rolling off the side of the mountain.  Not a fatal accident but pretty bad.  We drove up some good roads but pretty steep, so poor Mango stalled 3 times. But after a short brake to cool off, she started up again and on we went. The first two times we stalled, Guatemala police officers stopped to help. The first time they helped push Mango a little bit further off the road in the pouring rain. The second time they just hung out with us to provide security. They were all very nice. We finally arrive in Antigua and meet Chad’s friend Paul and his friend Karla with whom we will stay for a couple days in a very nice resort/timeshare.

Paul is in the Peace Corps and we spent the next couple days relaxing with Paul, Karla and other Peace Corp volunteers.  We went to a 4th of July party thrown for the Peace Corps volunteers which was excellent fun with drinks and food.  Michelle unfortunately had to leave us on Sunday, we miss her already.  On Monday, yesterday, we went on a tour to Volcan Pacaya which was active and we could climb to within 6 feet of red hot flowing magma.  It was an amazing experience.  On our way up to the volcano, we got stuck in traffic again due to a bus, large passenger bus, having gone off the side of the road.  The bus was stopped by trees about 100 meters down the cliff/mountain.  Fortunately it looked like many people were okay, but there were at least 5 ambulances and also police on site for those injured.  This is the second off-the-road type accident we have seen in the 4 days we have been in Guatemala.   Now we are getting some work done on the car since the roads in Guatemala are a bit scary, and hopefully on Wednesday we can set off to visit Paul at his volunteer site in the town/village of Tejutla.

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