Antigua and Lake Atitlan, Guatemala - 1st to 7th November

Now in Central America, which is a nice change. We met Ben`s parents on Tuesday in Antigua, a beautiful old colonial town near the capital. Lots of fun things to do, including a tour of a coffee plantation where, suprisingly, we learnt all about coffee, but also zip-lined our way down the mountain. Really fun despite the rain. Incredible views and lots of tarzan-like yelps!

Apart from that, we ate lots of delicious food, especially the loaf of banana bread we munched our way through (not quite in one sitting), and fun sight-seeing on a walking tour around the centre.

 

Next we headed to Jaibailito, on the shores of Lake Atitlan. We stayed in a lovely lodge with gorgeous lake views and delicious home cooked dinners. On our first day, we took a boat to a couple of other villages around the lake with Terje the Norwegian hotel owner. At one of them we visited the bizarre statue of a local saint called Maximon, who is dressed in local Guatemalan clothes and moved from house to house each year. Having been led down a rather dodgy-looking back alley we poured some whisky into his mouth after he`d been tenderly tilted backwards and bibbed, and then lit a cigarette for him and placed it between his wooden lips. Very weird.

The following day Julie and Anna went to a big local market which was fantastic and the boys climbed all 3000m of San Pedro volcano - an extreme way to avoid shopping! Whilst they had incredible views from the top, they are now a bit stiff.