I almost got run over three times in the parking lot but the effort was worth it. I have a pretty cool collection of photos now. I spent a couple hours today meandering around Grand Central Chicken; my given name for the Antigua Guatemala Bus Terminal. The workhorse of Guatemala is the famous "chicken bus"; retired yellow school buses sent down from the U.S. After shuttling American kids back and forth from school for 10 years or about 150,000 miles, they are c...

Paid to Play Episode 19: the one where the author visits an orphanage in Guatemala just before Christmas and donates food and supplies on behalf of Gap Adventures. One morning, I woke to find an e-mail in my in-box that said the company I am working for, Gap Adventures, wants to donate $500 dollars of supplies and gifts to Casa Guatemala, an orphanage a few kilometers away from the small river town of Rio Dulce. I was informed that I was the tour leader that wou...

Finally, after six and half years of traveling, my Mom and Dad decided to come visit me somewhere amazing and see what this nomadic lifestyle is all about. Their arrival to Guatemala was timed perfectly as the hurricane season had just subsided and the weather was about perfect. In addition, Antigua was where they officially celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary. The two week trip took us to the town of Panajachel which sits on the volcano ringed Lake Atitl...

Paid to Play Episode 7: the one about the cool trip down the Rio Dulce river to Livingston and Guatemala's little known Caribbean coast. Guatemala isn't well known for it's Caribbean coast. The city of Livingston is at best a rather lame destination. However, the trip to get there down the Rio Dulce, or sweet river, is one of my favorite day trips in this tour for the scenery and seeing the way the locals live. It's all about the journey, not the destination. An...

PAID TO PLAY EPISOE 5: The one where the author climbs an active volcano for the sole purpose of roasting marshmallows over red hot, molten lava. This is one of the dummer things the Guatemalan government allows tourists to do; climb an active and erupting volcano up to where the lava is pouring out, and then roast marshmallows over the molten red rock as it flows by. Everyone seems to get a kick out of it though and I suppose until someone gets hurt, this will...