Waking up early, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes while shovelling in your breakfast, flying out of the house just a couple of minutes before eight to sit half a day behind a desk repeating sentences in Spanish. True, these are not the first things that come to mind when we think about travelling. In Guatemala, however, that is the way. On the second day in this wonderfully diverse country, a boat tour seller called Mario tucked a little yellow card in my hand- a flyer for a Spanish school in Xela. I wouldn’t have ever thought that one day I would enter the very same school asking for information. But life and travel is fun in this way that you never know what will happen next. Continue Reading →
Author: Anete Kruusmägi
Laguna Lachua, Guatemala: paradise on earth or unpleasantly smelly water?
Two pots of water are reaching boiling temperature in a dim hut. Five pairs of eyes are fixated on the pots, waiting hungrily for the first bubbles to emerge. There’s us and there is a Guatemalan family, smiling shyly. The Guatemalan mother opens a spaghetti package, throws its content in the water after which the package flies into the fire. Tom’s eyes grow big as plates: “No, don’t throw the plastic into the fire.” Two Guatemalan women look at him, then at each other. The father speaks some English and explains them in Spanish what Tom has just said. They all laugh. Continue Reading →
El Remate: the best sunset in Guatemala
The best things in life are for free and often I don’t take time to appreciate them. I have gotten accidental glimpses of the most amazing sunsets riding home on a city bus. Why didn’t I jump out of that bus, lay down a blanket and have a picnic while watching the sunset? Because I had no time. It’s a bit different when I travel. In El Remate, the sunset became an event to look forward to. I made sure that my watch was accurate, bought a cheap beer and walked to the end of a pier to check it out. Sitting and talking on a little wooden bench with Tom, all of a sudden we fell quiet, realising that we didn’t need words, didn’t need movies, TV or any entertainment. Continue Reading →
Surprise on top of Volcano San Pedro
The road down to Lake Atitlán didn’t leave anyone indifferent. Dark blue volcanoes surrounded the bright blue lake- it really felt like reaching another planet. Sleepy tourists grabbed for their cameras to take a picture and another one and one more. Even the most seasoned travellers rubbed their eyes to make sure they were not dreaming. Continue Reading →
What the fall?! Here are the 8 most beautiful waterfalls in Belize and Guatemala
During the four months of our trip, I have seen more waterfalls than in my whole life. All of a sudden waterfalls were everywhere. They were in national parks and in cloud forests. Some were separate destinations, others we encountered on the way to somewhere else. They came in all sizes and forms, from small falls to powerful cataracts, from ice cold mountain showers to hot cascades. Continue Reading →