Guatemala, Honduras to El Salvador

Monday (18 March), an leisurely start in Panajachel, then a slightly choppy boat ride across lake Atitlan to San Juan La Laguna.

We visited a coffee shop with its own small coffee plantation and roaster. Good coffee!

We then visited the gallery of a local artist, interesting Guatemalan art showing the development of styles.

Next a medicinal garden with a local Maya guide, showing us all the plants and explaining what they are used for. Most we had heard of/use in the UK, but a few didn’t even have English translations for their names.

We then moved on to the local female weaving cooperative, where we had a demonstration and the chance to buy stuff! We resisted…. Lovely though it was.

Tonight our accommodation was a home stay with a local family involved in the weaving cooperative, an interesting experience in a very basic home, outside toilet, cooking over a wood fire. The family spoke little English, and with the family’s first language being Myan, we relied on Spanish and Google translate to chat. Then it was time for an early night. Good job too, as the cockerels, local dogs and Lent fireworks at 5.30am were our wake-up call. After maize tea and local breakfast, eggs, frijoles (beans) and tortillas, hand made by our host’s mum, we headed back to the village church to meet our group. With time for Rog to take a few pictures of the murals on the way.

Tuesday, the weather, and visibility, was a lot better today for our return lake crossing back to Panajachel. We could see all the surrounding volcanos. A 3 hour bus trip back to Antigua, and back to the same hotel, we made a quick stop at a local house, where the 80+ yr old grandma made traditional pottery by hand. She had been making it since before she could remember, and it was amazing to watch her skill and dexterity.

Back in Antigua, we went with fellow travellers to a local wine bar, the more glasses of wine you had the cheaper each glass got! Just the two of us then went for dinner at ‘La Fonda de la Calle Real’ which served traditional Guatemalan dishes, and had a fabulous oxtail stew.

Wednesday, a free day in Antigua, we went for breakfast at Cafe Condesa, a recommended restaurant.

We wandered around the town, visited the local craft markets. In the afternoon we had an interesting chocolate making course at the Choco Museum. We made our own chocolate bars, then had to ask the hotel to store them in the fridge for us so they didn’t immediately melt.

Cocktails with some of our fellow travellers before meeting the rest for our final dinner of this section of the trip, 4 were leaving us, but the other 9 are going on at least until San Jose, Costa Rica.

Our guide had arranged a table at a ‘closed door’ restaurant called ‘Montague’ after Lord Sandwich? Anyway it was really good, especially the prawn and bacon tortillas, but the caramelised onion ice cream for desert was interesting!

Thursday, another free day in Antigua, waiting to meet the 7 new travellers for the next section of the trip to San Jose, Costa Rica is fully booked at 16 of us.

We walked up-to the Hill of the Cross, a viewing point above the town, had lunch and a beer flight on the roof terrace of the Antigua Brewing Company.

Had a welcome meeting, and then dinner with our group and new guide.

Friday, per the itinerary we were supposed to have a 4:30am start, thankfully this was pushed back to 7:30am. We had a long day drive to Copan, Honduras.

The bus driver drove around the town looking for a route to the hotel, he avoided one low archway, but then tried to go under another one, which proved to be also too low, so after some horrible scrapping sounds, he reversed and set off looking for another route, finally flagging down a TukTuk driver, who agreed to lead us to the hotel, however he also missed a turn and had to reverse!! We finally got to the hotel on the top of the hill. Once checked in Rog went on a group walk to the chocolate & tea house, then the fort. Group dinner at Cafe Via Via. Good local selection.

Saturday, we are in Copan mainly for the Maya archeological site, the southern most Maya city. Which also has the most surviving carvings, as it is built from volcanic rock, rather than sandstone used further north.

The site had Scarlet Macaws, the national bird of Honduras, which are just beautiful.

Back in the village after a quick dip in the pool we went out for some lunch. There was an amazing waitress who was able to balance food, or drinks, on her head to navigate the stairs to the area where we were seated.

After a lazy rest of the day, avoiding the heat, Rog went out for drinks and dinner. Nic didn’t feel great so stayed at the hotel.

Sunday, another long day on the bus, we left Honduras, back into Guatemala, then drove straight to El Salvador, in a bus with dodgy air conditioning, so windows open and the guide stopped to buy us all a cold drink!

We arrived in Suchitoto, El Salvador mid afternoon. After a very welcome rest in the air conditioned room, we headed out for a walk in the town. Stopped off to see an Indigo workshop, really interesting to see the process of natural dying. Again managed to resist buying lovely things from the shop. Nic’s tummy was still a bit unsettled, so she bought a fruit smoothie and headed back for some TV, downloaded from good old bbc iPlayer before we left. Rog went out for dinner.