Our second border crossing, Guatemala, was inevitable. We feared the worst. Behind it laid lush green mountains and jungle, lakes and windy narrow roads between waterfalls and sheer cliff drops.
　
We had bought all the books available on Central American border crossings with a vehicle, we had googled, we had spoken to other people that had done it, but our heart-rate was still racing and beads of sweat kept appearing on Ollie's upper-lip as we inched closer to the border. We had heard all kinds of horror stories about crossing CA borders, different posts you have to check into, getting paper copied and stamped, displaying all the right papers to the right people, not to mention the bribes you have to pay to get it all done and every country adopting a different approach, team this with limited espanol and you have a very daunting experience indeed!

Guatemalan Border Controls
　
One thing we did know was that we were expected to hand in our Mexican Temporary Vehicle Importation sticker when leaving the country. Its only valid for 6 months and if you forget to do it you can get into all kinds of difficulty if you return, including a hefty fine on the credit card imprint we left as collateral. We zoomed past what seemed like a small town with a bus station but luckily Shay spotted a Banco Ejerco, and questioned whether we should stop to double check if we can turn in our vehicle permit there. Ollie had learned early on that the 'wife is always right' and he would regret it if he didn't obey. Proving the theory, it turned out to be the correct place, so relieved we had that sorted out we continued the 4km to the Guatemalan border.
　
When we arrived at the Guatemalan border, we still weren't actually aware that we had passed the Mexican border, there is not any obvious signs to make you realise you are passing it. We weaved through border-town madness and were hustled into line to get our truck fumigated, at the same time we were bombarded with money-changers wanting what was left of our Pesos to change into Guatemalan Quetzals. Feeling very pleased with ourselves that we'd come this far without help or any problems, our faces fell when the immigration lady behind the desk pointed out that we had forgotten to get an exit stamp out of Mexico and had to drive 4km back to the Mexican border to get this completed before we could proceed any further. So we were forced to turn our truck around in the narrow road joining Guatemala with Mexico and dodge parked trucks, coco's vendors and all the other chaos which goes with a border town and head back the way we'd come. A few minutes later, this time with the all important exit stamp, we retraced our steps back to the Guatemalan immigration desk and this time we were successfully stamped through. All that was left was a couple of documents to be filled in and signed for our truck, a fee of about US$5 and we were on our way, in under 1 hour, we wondering where the catch was?!?
　
Are we drove further into Guatemala we became more and more confident that we had made our first border crossing and there was no more checks to endure. We were excited that we had made it without losing to much hair but were also aware that we must have been one of the lucky ones, we were sure that the others couldn't be that easy. We had also noticed a drastic change in the scenery within miles of leaving Mexico, we were now surrounded by mountains covered in dense jungle with steep ravines with breathtaking waterfalls.
　
Catching up time with Travelling Friends
　
Lago de Atitlan, the lake of Atitlan, was our first planned place to explore. Atitlan is Guatemala's biggest inland lake and is 1500 meters above sea level. The lake is surrounded by several villages, a few volcanos and dense mountain jungle. We decided to make our base in Panajechel, which was the biggest tourist village on the lake but it also had a secure campground in which to park our truck and good boat links to the other villages, plus it had a bustling Mayan market and an array of different restaurants and bars to quell all our cravings (Malaysian, Israeli, Italian, Uruguayan).
　
We found the narrow mud road to the campground easily enough but manoeuvring into the place was a bit more difficult, but the friendly old man who owned the joint assured us that bigger RV's had made it in and out again in the past. We had a fleeting thought about the soggy wet terrain but quickly put it out of our heads as we parked up on the flattest part of the lawn. We were set for the next week!

The next few days were spent exploring the other villages on the lake. First we took a boat to San Juan la Laguna, famous for it's weaving, and spent an hour wandering around taking in the Mayan daily routines. We then hailed a tuk tuk to drive us the short distance to San Pedro la Laguna, a bit of a hedonistic place which attracts long-term visitors whose interests include drinking, pot smoking, African drumming, fire twirling, volcano hiking & Spanish learning. Within minutes of arriving in San Pedro we bumped into the Chupacubra crew and Noel who were both staying there. We chewed the fat in the Chupacubra mobile for a few hours and caught up with the latest, Ben and Joe had acquired a few extra's since we had seen them last including their 'tracker,' a Norwegian from Bergen named Bjorn. The only tracking he was doing, as far as we could see, was keeping track of Ben and Joe themselves and reminding them of what they'd done in there drunken hazes; not an easy job by any means!

More Hippies, Astral Travelling and Interplanetary Movements
　
The next day we took a boat to San Marcos la Laguna. Rumoured to have a special kind of spiritual energy, it attracts hippies with a purpose and is a great place to practise meditation and all sorts of other holistic practises. As we wandered around the narrow paths, through banana, coffee and avocado trees we came across dozens of places offering courses, some we'd never even heard of before....To name a few: Astral Travelling, Metaphysics, Emotional Freedom Techniques, Osho Meditation, and even learning how to wake up without coffee!
　
Talking of hippies, we had definitely been surrounded by them the last month of our journey and Panajechel was no different. We were soon to find out that Michael, the old man that owned the campground we were staying in was one of the original Flower children of the 60's. He had been living in Laguna Beach, California (an important hippie location of the 60's), in a hippie collective community. He later became one of three executives for a big company before he was squeezed out so he took the money he was paid and headed south to Guatemala where he bought a chunk of land and eventually turned it into a campground. The place today is a bit run down, screaming for a bit of maintenance and TLC, but Michael admitted that he no longer had the energy to keep it running and is considering moving on.
　
We also found out early on that the old man was a talker; once he got going you could just not get away. His favourite subject was about what exciting times we are now in, how the future is so positive yet also so very dark... and with the planetary alignments and 2012 Mayan prophesies coming into effect, it'll be interesting to see what happens next? During the time at Panajechel, Shay had developed a nasty cold and got cornered by him on the way to the bathroom. Michael asked her how she was getting on and if she was 'working with her themes.' Huh?? Shay looked at him with a blank face; Shay has never been one who can tolerate hairy fairy hippy bulls*** for long so she was quick to make her excuses and leave Ollie to discuss interplanetary movements and themes with Michael.
　
In our final few days in Panajechel it had been raining hard, pretty much non-stop, making already soggy terrain even more wet and muddy. We were worried that we would rip up the old man's lawn when we tried to get our truck out, turns out that was the least of our worries.
　
Stuck in the Mud
　
Michael had assured us that it was no worry if we skid a bit on the lawn, he loves gardening, and he'll have it fixed up in no time. I'm sure he wasn't quite expecting the pickle we ended up getting ourselves into and half his lawn dug up as to get rocks under the tyres to give us some traction. The two ton camper instantly dug itself deeper and deeper into the mud. We tried to use the jack to lift the truck out of the muddy holes but only succeeded in wrecking our tailgate, which we later had to get angle-grindered to get it open again. Michael suggested that we may have to wait till the dry season to get the truck out. This statement was enough to spur Shay into action, come what may we were getting out of there, the thought of Michaels stories for another few months was enough to worry anyone. Ollie was swearing and mumbling to himself about 'mud-terrain tyres' as he tried to dig the truck out with our faulty US$5 Walmart shovel. Thankfully, after a few hours, numerous rocks stuffed under the wheels, and Ollie's expert driving techniques learnt in Norway to get vehicles out of snow-holes, we had enough momentum to spin up and finish off the old man's poor lawn once and for all; we were out. Yahoooo!
　
Back on the road again, we decided to take the longer, yet more scenic route to the little city of Antigua. We climbed up and up a steep windy mountain pass and were rewarded with the magnificent view of Lago de Atitlan and the volcano's surrounding it. Antigua is only a few hours away from Panajechel and still relatively high in the mountains. During the journey, Shay was starting to struggle with the side-effects of the malaria tablets we are taking, queasy guts, fever, dizzy spells on top of the cold she had in Atitlan, by the time we rolled into Antigua it was just a matter of finding the first hotel with adequate secure parking for the truck so Shay could get horizontal. The first hotel ended up being slightly out of our price range but it was worth it this one time in an emergency, Ollie was overjoyed at seeing cable TV again (he's fast becoming addicted to it!), plus wireless internet in the room made it easy for us to update this blog and financial matters which we were running behind on.
　
The next day was a better day for Shay, fever had gone and there were only remnants of the queasy gut left so we hit the streets to explore Antigua in express. Antigua is a picturesque colonial town, not too dissimilar to San Cristobal de las Casa's in Mexico. The streets are cobblestones, the architecture is 15 century Spanish and the façades are coloured in bold hues. It is a postcard perfect city with abundant photo opportunities. There is also a large Mayan community here with a lot of artisan markets packed with brightly coloured carvings and textiles. Antigua is somewhat of a Spanish school Mecca and had probably the highest concentration of tourists we have seen since starting our journey. It doesn't seem like the swine flu rumours have affected business too much here.

Glowing Lava and Melted Shoe Soles
　
We had heard about the Volcan Pacaya from other travellers along the way and had decided to trek up it. With Shay's illness we were beginning to lose hope that she could make it up but after a quick recovery we decided to give it a go, after all its not everyday you get to climb a still active volcano! We booked with an Antiguan tourist office the day before and they picked us up at 6am the next day at our hotel. We were surprised how popular the walk was, our bus was full and we caught up with numerous other packed buses along the way. After pretty much having Mexico to ourselves, it was strange being back amongst lots of tourists.
　
When we finally arrived we were bombarded with kids trying to sell you sticks (which were apparently necessary for the walk), marshmallow's ('for BBQ on da laba' as one small boy pointed out... also necessary!) and taxis (otherwise known as horses). We got assigned a guide then started our accent up the mountain. The first half of the trek was through trees on a dirt path, boys on horses followed closely watching us for signs of fatigue so they could dangle a horse under our nose. As we neared the volcano the terrain changed drastically. We were now scrambling into old lava flows from 2 to 10 years ago; it looked like a stage set from the movie 'Planet of the Apes'. The rocks were sharp and very unstable, sliding and crumbling under foot as we starting making our way up, this wasn't helped by the fact that there was tons of people trying to get both up and down the narrow path, there was plenty of people with bleeding knees and elbows, cut after standing on a loose lava rock and taking a tumble.
　
As we got closer to the glowing red lava, the temperature was getting turned up significantly. The rocks we were walking on became hotter and hotter, even starting to melt the soles of our shoes. Once we were within a few metres of the lava we were able to start toasting our marshmallows on the heat radiating out of the rock. After a few minutes of eating sticky marshmallows and regaining our composure it was time to start worrying about how the hell you are going to get down the mountain! We were a little disappointed that we couldn't climb to the top of the volcano, and peer down into the steaming crater, but after struggling with the unsteady climb to half-way and experiencing the intense heat we could see that it would be impossible to go any further than what we did.

After 10 days, our time in Guatemala was coming to an end (again 3 days more than planned). Of course, there was so much more stuff that we wanted to do and would of loved to have another month to do it in but we were aware of that clock ticking and we're already starting to panic that we are running out of time to get to Panama, sell our truck and make that plane out of LAX to Samoa in September. Heading to the El Salvadoran border, we are once again hit with the dread of what lays before us. We've heard that this border control can be one of the most thorough and time wasting experiences; we were dreading it!