So the journey across the border to Guatamala was a lot easier than the one into Mexico! We were in a van with a french couple, a spanish guy and a mad american lady who didn´t take her earplugs out the whole day, even when engaging us in conversation, and then admitted surprise that we were talking in English!! crazy. Anyway, a passport stamp later and by afternoon we were driving through the impressive western highlands of Guatamala. The difference was immediate, it´s more rural here than much of the Mexico we had seen so far, lots of pigs on ropes by the side of the road and ladies all in traditional dress lugging great big bundles of stuff on their backs ( the guys lug them by having a strap across their forehead!!) We arrived in Panajachel, on the banks of Lake Atitlan by teatime and the french couple, Muriel and David, helped us find a very cheap lodging, then we went for tea with them, which was nice. Panajachel is quite touristy, lots and lots of stalls selling souvenirs and we had yet to find the locals part of town.

The next day Muriel and David headed to Chichicastenango for the market and we caught a boat across the lake to San Pedro... of the Madonna song... it´s a scruffy little village I guess but with a great deal of spanish schools for a large number of too cool for school long term backpackers. However saying that there are still more Mayan kids playing with kids than there are hooray henries checking their email! We had a basic room with a great lake view and a hammock and freezing cold shower, I say shower, my mistake I mean drip. But we just wanted to relax for a day or two so it was fine.

Whilst there I had a nice massage, and we bathed in some thermal pools which was fun. Of course we also ate lots of nice food. We copped out and ate at a couple of touristy places, becuase we could not find anywhere else at first, so enjoyed bizarrely nice thai and indonesian food, but also found a lovely place for lunch overlooking the lake where they did amazing taco 3 for Q10 and vegetarian as well! We also enjoyed very cheap market snacks, for Q1.50 which is about 7p we had large crisps with guacamole, beans, egg and veges for breakfast!!

After a relaxing couple of days, we headed back to Panajachel to plan the onward journey and eat nice cheap food at the comedor ( cheap cook shop) at their market. The food I am mostly eating is vege stew which they all have, which is mostly carrot, corn and a kidn of green cactus thing that is quite nice, a bit like marrow I suppose. Evan has been trying the fried chicken, they eat a lot of chicken here. Actually seeing a lot more veges here than in Mexico!

On sunday we went to chichicastenango for market day ( it sounds like a night club singer doessn´t it) famed for the amazing textiles and so on, and for the pickpockets. Luckily all we lost to the urchins was evan´s vietnam hat! doh! We ate some beans and some odd tamales with something we cannot recognise in them... possibly a block of lard? and bought s few little presents. Straight to Antigua from there which is where we are now.

Antigua is beautiful, it´s a world heritage site, nothing is above 1 storey, apart from maybe 2 buildings, everything is painted ochre and yellow and mute blues and the whole town is framed by tree clad volcanoes, one of which is smoking. There are nunneries, and colonial churches and ruins thereof on every corner. My camera is permenantly out and I feel a bit like an american tourist in york or something!! Actually our camera has mostly been away for guatamala so far as we hear stories of tourists who have been set upon for taking photos of kids, the locals get confused and think we want to steal their children. So I have been very low key with the photography, unlike some other tourists around here! I can imagine it gets very wearing as well if you constandly have a camera in your face just becuase you are wearing traditional clothes and carrying a large bundle of tortillas on your back! I´d be charging tourists for the priveledge as well!

So we´ll be off tomorrow no doubt. Enjoy this photo it´s from mexico of ladies making hot cakes, it reminds me of all the girls in Guatamala who make corn tortillas by slapping the paste into rounds, the machine that flattens it for you hasn´t made it from mexico down here yet, so the slapping sound follows us everywhere!