driving to south america

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Three things worth doing in Antigua Guatemala

January 8, 2009 in Guatemala, Top Places to Stay by kels | No comments

After 5 weeks of serious Spanish immersion in Xela, Guatemala we headed south to the colonial city of Antigua. Excited to be on the move again we packed up Marlin, said goodbye to our lovely host family (there were even a few tears) and set out.

Antigua was just what our Spanish laden minds needed. We chose to stay at Posada La Merced, a small hotel owned and operated by Gail, a lovely woman from New Zealand. She gave us a great room and let us use her parking space while she was out of town.

Despite the fact that our Lonely Planet gives Antigua a bit of a ho-hum review we both felt it was definitely worth the visit – it’s not the cheapest place in Guatemala and three to four days is more than enough time to get a feel for the area.

Climb Pacaya
Seriously…you get to see real, hot, flowing lava after a pretty painless hike (around 2 hours up and maybe 1.5 down). This is one of the coolest things to see in Antigua, take the afternoon hike, watch the lava as the sun sets and then see the red hot liquid rock flow down the volcano as you hike down at night. Wear good shoes or risk melting your soles and bring a walking stick, you will want the extra support, or you can rent one on the volcano.


Climbing Pacaya from Kels M on Vimeo.


Walk the City
Well-kept haciendas, immense churches and stunning ruins can all be found in the ancient city of Antigua, a true photographer’s paradise. The city is small enough for a well-organized traveler to see quite a few ruins and museums in one day or, for the more low-key wanderer, take a few days and enjoy the city’s cafés and restaurants in between. Don’t miss Casa Santo Domingo, a luxury hotel created around a former convent, which housed the order of Santo Domingo de Guzmán. The hotel design incorporates the ruins in creative and innovative ways. It costs 40Q to visit the grounds and explore the galleries, both Tom and I were very impressed with the use of raw ruins juxtaposed against modern museum techniques. The sprawling grounds are beautiful and immaculately maintained; we had limonadas in the garden and relaxed in the tranquil setting.

Chilling in Casa Santo Domingo

Chilling in Casa Santo Domingo


Eat at Café Condesa
Best Breakfast Ever.

Best Breakfast Ever.

Yum.

Tint my ride…

December 20, 2008 in Guatemala, Our Car Marlin by tom | 4 comments

Driving in Central America seems to have more to do with adrenaline and divine intervention than it does with other mundanities like being able to see where your going or who’s going to run into you.

If you own a car here tinting your windows is pretty much obligatory—in fact it’s so standard there’s a verb for it polarizar (to polarize). Not wanting to miss out on the fun, under the excuse of making it harder to see our gear and because we’re not allowed to at home, we took the $45 hit and put some shades on Marlin… just to fit in.


Xela’s Superchivos

December 15, 2008 in Guatemala by kels | 6 comments

Xela happens to be home to the craziest soccer fans in all of Guatemala, or so they say. Keen to check out a soccer game in Central America we attended two games in the last few weeks and enjoyed them immensely.

Of course we wore the team colours!

The best part was sitting in the La Curva Diabla (The Devil’s Curve)–where the serious aficionados (fans) reside. A brass band, drums and a sea of red jerseys help support the Xela-Ju Superchivos (Super Rams). Add in a tonne of swear words and offensive (yet really funny) cheers, an element of danger and you find yourself in the midst of football madness. And since sport fans can get out of hand the on-site crowd control in Xela consists of military soldiers and riot police on the field!


Xela-Ju’s Superchivos! from Kels M on Vimeo.

The Couple with “The Plan”

November 22, 2008 in Other Joydrivers by kels | No comments

I have been meaning to post about this for awhile…

When we were in Puerto Escondido I happened to stumble across a blog about another couple driving to South America from the US. Curious to see how they were finding it I decided to send an email and oddly enough it turned out that Chris and Kristin happened to be in Puerto Ecsondido at the same time. We met for drinks and, as they say, the rest is history.

Since then we have met up a few times and are already cooking us some interesting ideas together. I highly recommend checking out their site, The Darien Plan, and their really cool car (at times when Marlin is acting up we both find ourselves admiring “Cabello”). It is full of great info and some really well-edited videos (we are jealous Kristin!)

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