We headed off from Antigua early in the morning to make our way to Lake Atitlan on what we thought would be an hour long bus journey (it's so close on the map!). It turned out to be 4 hours of windy, bumpy roads but wow was the effort worth it! What greeted us was a stunning 130km² lake in the Guatemalan highlands that is ringed by mountains, volcanoes and villages that creep up from the lakeside into the hills. I won't even try and describe it any further as it won't do it justice and a picture is worth a thousand words.

We were staying in San Pedro La Laguna a cobbled, tuktuk filled village snuggled between the lake and Volcán San Pedro. We spent that day exploring. There were lots of tourists, restaurants and bars but what hit us were how many locals clad in indigenous outfits there were also so it didn't lose it's authenticity.

The following morning we were up early to head to another village at the polar opposite end of the lake, Panajachel or as the locals call it Pana. We headed out on a tiny speedboat which took about an hour going via 5 other villages and saw tourists and locals jump off and on. It was a great way to see the lake. We were heading to Pana to paraglide and hoped that when we arrived the wind would be our friend and going in the right direction so we could fly. We were in luck! Just time for a quick spot of lunch and a coffee before we headed up. We had heard about this local institution for coffee so went straight there, but the electricity was down on the entire lake so unfortunately a lot of businesses including this one was shut. Mike the owner however had popped in so we got chatting to him and he kindly showed us around the place including the hidden storage area which was behind book shelves in the cafe (just had to push!)! He was such a lovely guy who was born in New York then moved to San Fran where he had a coffee place. He then packed it all in and moved to Guatemala with his family 15 years ago. We found out his wife was from South Africa originally and so when he knew Keith was from Cape Town coupled with us not being able to try his coffee he insisted we came to his house (he had a generator so we'd be able to have coffee there). He knew Christian who we were paragliding with so wrote him a note telling him to stop by with us. Unfortunately when we met with Christian he was running really tight on time so we couldn't which was such a shame but we emailed Mike and said it's a great excuse to return! Anyway back to the paragliding! We had 2 lovely guys to jump with, Christian whose business it was flew with Keith and I flew with Petar who was there for a couple of weeks in between the crazy stuff he does for red bull as one of their highly talented athletes. We were seriously lucky to have two such great pilots. The weather on the face of it looked far from ideal as it had turned quite cloudy and cold (was really happy I'd listened to Keith saying to wear shorts! Brrrrrr!). Actually it turned out to be ideal as the thermals were so strong so we flew for ages and went crazily high. Also bizarrely I found the clouds to be more amazing than when I've paraglided in blue skys. Really very magical. The guys did loads of tricks with us such as corkscrews and loop the loops so a lot of fun was had! Keith's go pro caught some of the action.

After all that hard work it was time to return to San Pedro to have beers in the sun, dinner and then bed!

We woke the following day to the most perfect weather (which double luck would have it would have meant we wouldn't have been able to paraglide). First stop for the day was the local bakery cafe that had come highly recommended, and we were far from disappointed. The bread and croissants were delicious, and we seriously had the most amazing bacon we've ever eaten (huge coming from obsessive bacon lover and critique Keith, and then me who could take it or leave it). It was over breakfast we heard Fi had smashed her essay for her masters and Dad's move into his new house in Henley had gone well. This was then followed by amazing coffee at a local coffee shop so was the best brekkie ever! We then headed to the dock to jump on a boat over to another village, San Marcos. It was smaller than San Pedro, incredibly pretty and had the most stunning positioning on the Lake. We walked along the pebble path sandwiched between the lake and the nature reserve. It was stunning. We were just gutted we didn't know to bring our swimming stuff as there were jumping platforms into gorgeous sheltered areas of the lake. A great day was followed by a great meal at a local restaurant that does Fish Fridays. They were rushed off their feet so service was slow but that was fine for us as we sank some lovely Chilean Sauv Blanc whilst we waited, and man was the wait worth it! I had the most incredible seared sesame crusted tuna sashimi (and all for the grand old price of £6!). It was then an early night for us as we had to be up at 0330 for our mega long journey to El Salvador (4 buses, 3 changes and 11 hours).

So that's the last you'll hear from us on Guatemala....well until you see me and then I know I'll be going on about this country for hours as it has stolen a huge part of our hearts. It's our favourite country so far on this trip and in fact one of my favourite countries ever. We can't wait to return one day.

Mucho amor
SM