Well if I left the lake to escape the rain I'd come to the wrong place, being in the mountains Xe'la (or Quetzaltenango to give it its proper name) gets its fair share and my first impressions were not great. Xe'la struck me as quite a grey, uninspiring city. And having recently come from Antigua with its gorgeous colonial architecture Xe'la didn't really deliver on this front either. However I had heard that it was exactly this, that was its charm- it offered a ...

I clearly needed some encouragement to tear myself away from Antigua. So when Anna said she was going to Lake Atitlán for the weekend I decided to pack up my trick bag and join her or I may never have left. Lake Atitlán is not a huge lake (area of 130 km2) but it is beautiful; flanked by 3 volcanoes and cute little villages all with their own unique character along its shores. We headed to the village of San Pedro which is usually the party place. I think it...

Antigua has its fair share of bars and late night venues catering for all different tastes. There are for example, your typical backpacker (or language student) hang outs, including the bar attached to hostel La Terraca; with a great view from the terrace & good happy hour drinks. Or the famous Mono Loco, where on ladies night, ladies drink free until 11pm and then pay Q4 (less than 40p) for any mixed drink, so the place resembles a frat party at 2am regardle...

I decided to go the whole hog during my studies and stay with a local host family. I really wanted to attempt to use my Spanish and learn more about the culture and there really is no better way. Many people are afraid that it can be a little awkward and conversations strained, especially if your Spanish is quite basic. Obviously the higher your level of Spanish the more you can engage in real conversation with the family. However families are adept at conversing...

Guatemala produces some of the best coffee in the world, in fact it's #2 after Columbia in the high grade coffee market. In 2012/13 Guatemala produced 3.72 million 60kg bags of green coffee. Most of this is exported however, more & more very nice coffee shops popping up in Antigua serving some of the good stuff to cater for the growing tourist market. Over half the coffee produced is exported to the US, representing 1/8 of the country's GNP and generating...