Today was an early start to catch the bus to Rio Dulce. It was another beautiful drive through the mountains but it was on what was essentially a dirt track, in what was a glorified pick up truck for 5 hours! (we thought the guy was joking when the truck pulled up and he motioned for us to get in it!). Ian sat in the back with Nate and Kelsey, on a seat that was tied on with string! I however made a bee line for the front seat that was attached and a seat belt......

Today we used as a chill out day (well...almost). After breakfast we took a walk into town but it didn´t turn out to be very successful or nice. There is no ATM in Lanquin so we headed to the bank to see if we could take out money over the counter with our passports and cards...no luck there, which meant we couldn´t stay as long as we had hoped as we needed to get somewhere to get some cash. Also, as we were walking around we got the distinct impression that w...

Today we took a beautiful car journey from Coban to Lanquin through the mountains and after the cool climate of the highlands it is quite strange to be back in hot and humid weather...we can definitely put away the thermals for a while! When we arrived in Lanquin we decided to head straight up to Semuc Champey as the bus was going there anyway and the thought of swimming in some nice cool pools was very appealing after a hot bus journey. Semuc Champey, as you ca...

Coban really isn't the most interesting of towns, it doesn't have anything special to recommend itself but it does have a few interesting things around it. So we decided not to bother exploring the town and headed straight for the coffee finca to see where coffee is grown, picked and prepared. It is quite a small one (3 acres) but was really interesting. We also met up with 3 lovely people from the hostel who came on the tour with us (Nancy, Mathew and Jeremy), w...

Yesterday we took a chance and actually rode on a chicken bus for the 1st time. It was not an ideal choice, and certainly not our 1st, but to get from San Pedro La Laguna to Quetzaltenango (Xela) was going to be really expensive. All I have to say is that those drivers are clinically insane! We speeded up the hairpin bends...well as fast as a battered old bus can go! And although Ian said we really weren't at all close to the edge, it seemed that every time I lo...