Thurs 5th Mar
Left the lovely town of Antigua and headed off on a 2hr shuttle to Chichicastenango markets. Lots of narrow streets, filled with market stalls selling tourist bags, textiles, masks, purses etc etc, plus local things like houseware, fruit, veg etc etc.
Spent 4 hours wandering up and down all the alleyways, getting pushed and shoved around as the little local women went about their buying and selling, with everything in colourful knapsack-type bags over their backs.
Then caught another shuttle bus down to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan at 2, arriving at 3:30. Got on the little local boat and headed across the lake to San Marcos for our final 4 nights of this trip !
Staying in a beautiful hotel, grounds filled with tropical plants and flowers, and the buildings built into the hillside, so our room as part of the cliff rock sticking out of the walls !
Went straight out to meet our Aussie friends from the volcano trek who are also here for 2 nights. Few beers over sunset, nice dinner, and a good welcome to Lake Atitlan.

Fri 6th Mar
After a lovely breakfast at the hotel, caught a little shuttle boat over to San Pedro, and then another to Santiago. A more local town with a Friday market on, so wandered around that, saw a few churches, a school, haggled for a brightly coloured Guatemalan scarf, and caught boat back to San Pedro at 2. Lovely relaxing lunch looking out over the lake and the "Indians nose" hill opposite. San Pedro seems quite a nice chilled out backpacker place, but apparently is the party town of the lake, so I bet it really picks up at night. Whereas San Marcos where we are staying is much more hippy like - which we did read in advance, but more so than we expected !
Headed back to San Marco at 5 but the wind had really picked up and it was a super bumpy, slow/fast/slow trip back as the captain tried to navigate the massive waves. All the locals looked scared and quickly put life jackets on - never a reassuring sign ! But did make it back, and sat with a beer watching the sun set over the volcanos opposite.

Sat 7th Mar
Another sickly night for Brandon, poor thing, who was up and down all night to the bathroom. I'd shared some of his dinner last night but was fine, so not too sure what did it, but meant neither of us got any sleep.
Left him to rest for the day while I headed out to get cash, do laundry, book a volcanic geology sunrise tour up the Indian Nose hill for Monday morning, and a shuttle back to Guatemala City for later that day. We had planned to do the San Pedro volcano climb, but all the recent reviews on Trip Advisor warn against it as tourists are held up by bandits with machetes and guns, so feel its not worth the risk for a good view of the lake !
Brandon was still weak and tired when I got back, so then headed off to the Nature Reserve to sunbath and swim. Bizarre feeling to be sunbathing with a beautiful blue sky, swimming in a volcanic lake in Guatemala, knowing we'll be back in the UK on Wed, freezing and all crazy with the coronavirus kicking off. Very tempting to just stay here !
Nice relaxing lunch of healthy smoothie, followed by a mango icecream, enjoying the scenery and relaxed vibe of this little chilled out hippy town. Sat on a wooden jetty with a beer watching the sun set over the lake and volcanos - pretty amazing place.

Sun 8th Mar
Brandon was feeling better today so headed back to the Nature reserve together, admired the view from the mirador over the whole lake and 3 volcanos, and sunbathed and swam until mid-afternoon.
Final beer sitting on the jetty, trying to absorb the warmth and holiday feeling before we head back on our long journey home tomorrow.

Mon 9th
Up at 4am, picked up by Matt from Geo Travel Guatemala who's from the UK, studied Geology at Bristol Uni and is now a resident out here doing tours and geology lessons to bring it all to life.
Hiked up the Indians Nose hill to reach it just before dawn, and watched an amazing view unfold of the lake and 8 volcanos in a row !
All the other groups left as soon as the sun came up, and Matt then gave us a brilliant lesson on the whole history of geology, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanos, how this massive caldera formed etc.
Back to hotel at 9:30 for quick breakfast, pack, checked out.
Got tuk tuk at 1:30 to another town to meet the shuttle on to Antigua. Had a quick 45mins there so ran off to Taco Bell for our final dinner ! Then another shuttle on to Guatemala city, arriving at 8pm.
Chose a hotel right next to the airport ready for our flight out tomorrow to Bogota, then on to London after that.
Cant believe how quickly the 5 weeks have gone, but thinking back to how much we have done, the beginning places already feel like years ago.

Summary of Guatemala:
Guatemala has surprised us with how much we have enjoyed it and how friendly, smiley and helpful everyone is. We have found we've got by better with our little Spanish here as more people speak English and it almost seems more on the backpacker trail.
Tikal was stunning and we really enjoyed the little island of Flores. Semuc Champey was just the most stunning natural wonder we've ever seen. Antigua has been our favourite city with the beautiful brightly coloured colonial buildings and volcano backdrop. Climbing Acatenango&Fuego was hard but amazing to see the lava eruptions. And finally the chilled out beauty of Lake Atitlan, with all the small towns, and great views.
I feel we have done all the main places in Guatemala and not sure what we would do if we had more time, so feel the 2 weeks was about right.

Summary of trip:
21 days in Colombia, 15 days Guatemala, 38 days in total including travel days.
8 flights, numerous shuttle buses, public buses, boats, tuk tuks etc.
Our favourite city was Antigua, but favourite overall place was probably Salento and could happily spend more time there exploring the beautiful area.
It seems a shame to be heading home when so many others are heading north into Belize, or across to Honduras to continue their travels while there are here. Lots of people have raved about Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and even going to Ecuador and to the Galapagos.
But it will be nice to head home for a short time to see friends & family, remind ourselves how much we hate the UK winter, and see how ridiculous its become with the coronavirus panic and supermarkets running out of supplies. Then very quickly we can look forward to part two of heading to the Philippines for more sun and sea on the 22nd March !