Antigua Guatemala

Every day we have encounters and experiences that make us smile, confuse us or enlighten us and we say, ‘That would make a great blog’. But maybe we don’t have time or maybe we don’t have an internet connection or maybe we don’t have the motivation at the end of the day. The next day there are new encounters and experiences. Eventually these encounters and experiences sum up to form an overall impression of a place.



Guatemala is a beautiful country with many nice people. Though we know there are crime problems we have not been bothered in anyway. The local people are dismayed by the crime and, of course, don’t want that to be our impression of their country.


Here is a (very) brief overview of our time in Guatemala so far:


We crossed the border with no issues on December 28, 2009 at La Mesilla. We stayed one night on a private farm in the western highlands and then headed to Antigua to meet my brother and his family.

John, Patty, Mike, Miguel and Trish

Patty's Grandmother, Patty, John, Patty's Brother Eswardo and his wife

Trish, Miguel and John

We spent nearly a week in Antigua with my brother and his family. Seeing them and having a personal tour guide was a great change of pace from our previous travel schedule. Camping opportunities in and around Antigua are not great and we eventually checked into their hotel. We actually missed our van, which has become our home.

One of our goals for this trip is to improve our Spanish skills and we intended to study at one of the many schools in Antigua. Patty, my sister-in-law tried to no avail to help us find adequate housing for the week we’d be in school. Feeling the school thing in Antigua was not meant to be we headed north toward Coban with the intention of studying there.

Again our plan was thwarted when the schools here did not meet our criteria. We spent several days in what is known as Alto Verapez with the highlight being a trip to Samuc Champey.

Trish at Pedro's Farm

Samuc Champey is a place that is difficult to describe and though I had read about it in several guide books I could not begin to imagine the uniqueness of the place. Here the raging Rio Cahoban plunges underground and is covered by a 300 meter natural limestone ‘bridge’ on top of which lots of pools form that are great for swimming. Downstream the river reemerges with all its fury and continues on its journey.

Pool at Samuc Champey

Rio Cahobon before it heads underground

Still determined to set up Spanish language lessons we made a plan to return to Antigua and to stay at Earth Lodge, a hostel in a spectacular setting. We had stayed there one night before meeting my brother and really liked the vibe. It is a 40-acre working avocado farm with several small A-frame cabins and a couple of dorms. This is a place swarming with young, international travelers that make you wonder why you haven’t traveled more. There is a Spanish teacher who comes to the lodge to work one-on-one with guests. It is also a place that works well for Chettie. There are a couple of other dogs, plenty of people around for her to interact with and she can hang out while we take our classes.

So back to Antigua we came. We checked into Earth Lodge on Sunday and have stayed in a cabin for the week. Clearly, we are the oldest people here—perhaps the oldest people ever to stay here---but we’ve loved interacting with the other guests who are from Holland, England, Canada, Isreal, Switzeralnd and New Zealand.

Evening View of Volcan Pacaya from Earth Lodge

View of Volcan Pacaya from Earth Lodge

Luis, our teacher, suits our style perfectly with a combination of casual conversation and structured grammar lessons. Yesterday we spent the afternoon with him in Antigua as part tour guide and part Spanish teacher.

Mike and Luis Studying Spanish

We have our final lesson this morning and this afternoon I am hiking the Volcano Pacaya. It is an active volcano that is visible from the lodge. Hiking it is one of the popular activities when visiting Antigua.


From here we will start making our way toward El Salvador. We have not nailed our route yet but have done a fair amount of research into places we want to visit while there.