Guateeeeeee

Guatemala had always a special meaning for me because of my two friends Guido and Jorge :) Unfortunately I broke one of the biggest travelers' rule; never read the safety advice of the Foreign Affairs Department as it is similar to the side effect brochure of a strong medicine: quite bit of exaggeration. So scared of Guatemala's safety situation I was not really sure if we should go and I drove poor Adam mad about it. In the end, we went and it was one of the best things we could have done during our travels..besides of the endless hours in these minibuses ((although the distances are tiny you spend hours and hours for transport))....we absolutely loved Guatemala.....
Our first stop was the beautiful colonial town La Antigua. Antigua is a place where you could spend months without getting bored. The tiny streets and the many colonial buildings, churches and monasteries are abs. beautiful and if that was not enough you can expect various food "orgasms" in several places in town...talking about food we have to mention here Latin-america's best beer: La Cerveza Gallo. Thanks to this magic beverage we had some lovely and happy hours with our Chapin friends!!!! PROST
From Antigua we got a private shuttle (organised by Escalante Tours) to Guatemala's Capital: Guatemala City. After seeing the Palace and the City Center, where we also met Guatamala City.s Mayor, we were quite impressed by two huge shopping centers which were more modern and more comfortable than any other shopping center we had seen on our travels so far.... We also enjoyed there nice food, of course some nice Gallo beer and great company....
Antigua's famous volcano Pacaya was next on our programm. Although we didnt see the promised lava rivers, it was still very nice on top of one of the 36!!!! volcanoes in Guatemala, we even got surprised by some Marshmallows up there.
Later on we continued our travels heading to the east side of the country. We got to a small town named Coban. We liked it much less than Antigua but we didnt have another choice than to stay there in order to get to the magical place Semuc Champey. What sounds like champagne is in real life a natural wonder consisting of many small ponds and pools. The colour of these pools is between blue, turquoise and green, that means it is awesome to look at them and even better to swim in them. We had some kind of crazy guide (he said he was 18, but looked like 9) who jumped, climbed, slided and walked us from one pool to the other....believe me we had a great day there....
We saved the best till last in Guate...Tikal. Not only is it an ancient wonder of the world but it is also a tropical jungle teaming with life surrounding it.
We found howler monkeys, spider monkeys, crocodiles, foxes and even tarantulas as we passed from one ancient ruin to the other. It was amazing considering that jungle was completely cleared during the Mayan reign, but now the jungle has reclaimed the land within a relatively short time span. This means that only a very small minority of the 5000 buildings in the Tikal complex have been cleared and restored. There is still a lot to discover and a lot of money to spend,,,,,
Summing up: Guatemala is def. a place to visit !!!