20/2/10 - day 73. got up at 8, had a bacon and egg sarnie then headed up to the bus stop to catch a good old regular chicken bus to panajachel, on the north side of lake atitlan. havent been on a chicken bus in a little while, at least compared to the regularity of their use in previous weeks, but it felt good to be back on one! i didnt realise it til then but i actually missed these pimped out old US school buses. the crampedness, the dirt, the stopping for pa...

19/2/10 - day 72. got up about 9am and had a massive, and i cant emphasise that enough, burrito packed with all kinds a crap for breakfast. this was included in the price of the dorm so naturally i had to make the most of it! went for a walk up to mercado democracia about 10 mins away, which had all the usual market fodder. had a hot chocolate at cafe luna, which apparently is a xela institution at that place, and had a bit more of an amble around the city....

18/2/10 - day 71. up at half 7. got a ticket the night before for a shuttle bus to Quetzaltenango, or "xela" as its called for short. she told me it could come 15 minutes either side of the half 8 departure time, so this being guatemala, i took this to mean 30 minutes either side, though almost certainly after. sure enough, a car pulled up outside the hostel for me at 9am. thought this was a bit odd ans its normally a minibus that takes you. the ol...

14/2/10 - day 70. got up about 9 feeling incredibly hungry for some reason. so i went straight out in search of food. im not exactly proud of what happened next but i dont regret my actions either. i spied a mcdonalds and had a sausage and egg mcmuffin and has brown. and i enjoyed it. went back to the hostel afterwards and went up to the rooftop where they have deckchairs and a little garden, and read for a while. when i went back downstairs a while later i...

16/2/10 - day 69. up at 7, making sure i had time to have breakfast ahead of a beast of an 8 hour bus journey to antigua. the journey was a lengthy one but didnt drag as much as id thought it might. some good scenery along the way, as is often the case in guatemala, other than that it was very uneventful. i have been trying to avoid the shuttle minibuses that they do but this was a good deal. only worked out to be less than 3 bucks than taking chicken buses an...