Guatemala, Parte Dos

After three weeks, I am about to leave Guatemala. Rather than write a lot I thought I'd let the pictures (and their captions) do the talking.

Xela, where I spent a week taking Spanish classes.

To me Xela is the perfect mix of touristy and genuine: cafes, live music, book stores. Full of young travellers, but also Guatemalan students. The centre really reminds me of Europe.

Beautiful old building in the centre, housing my Spanish school.

My 'host family', actually just other students staying with the same family. It was Jorge's birthday the night I left. I also got a chance to meet my friend Andrea's family who are from Xela, although she now studies in Alberta. They were absolutely amazing.  

Steam baths/sauna outside of town, wonderful!

 Chichicastenango, largest market in Central America (so I am told..)

More of Chichi

Next stop was San Pedro on Lake Atitlan. Amazing where people opt to grow food.

Volcanoes around Lake Atitlan.

 Coffee

Hiking near San Pedro

View during the hike

View of San Pedro from the hostel roof

Antigua. Supposedly the most beautiful city in Guatemala and equally as tourist. Although I'm only here for a day, it's probably my least favourite city so far. Really seems like a place where families come if they only have a week in Guatemala, want to buy souvenirs at exorbitant rates, eat in fine restaurants and maybe even hike a volcano. And it's not even that great to look at!

Okay, maybe it does have a nice feature or two.

 This was two.

Tomorrow morning I leave bright and early for San Salvador, where I'm couch surfing for a few days. I've been told San Salvador is fairly dangerous, so I plan to exercise extreme caution, take taxis when I have my bags and not stay out late without locals. At the same time, I feel like you have to take these things with a grain of salt. Apparently the travel advisory for Guatemala suggests only taking special tourist buses and avoiding local transportation, which is ridiculous and I've never met anyone who's had a problem (minus some surfboards flying off the roof). I'm curious to see if San Salvador is as bad as everyone says (still going to be extra careful, of course). 

I'm excited to begin this final leg of the journey. I've got three weeks to get to Panama City. This means skipping over Honduras and Costa Rica (something had to go), and spending a week in each of El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama. Of course not nearly enough time, I've come to accept that I can't do everything and so I'm going to just enjoy the parts I can do. So here goes!