guatemala

again a spanish speaking country!!

welcome to guatemala!!

 the first destination in guatemala was el remate. i went there with amy, from england, and there we met sean, also from england. since then we are travelling together.

we stayed in el remate, close to the ruins of tikal

a kitchen in the street

sunset

the ruins of tikal

one of the most impressive sights...

..and one of the most expensive (20 USD)

me, and temple V!!

some are massive temples in tikal

the SEVEN TEMPLES!!! (hoffe euch gehts gut amigos!)

you can see some of the biggest ruins in the rain forrest

sean and amy!

sorry, something went wrong!

a nice animal

stone mask

fruit sellers

 from tikal we went down to the south, via coban to lanquin!

amy and sean again

 where we wanted to go was this place, called semuc champey. its really beautiful!!

some pools

in the middle of the rainforrest

the 3 of us

down...

...in the pools

with really amazing colours!

local women

there are many hills

 and in june the raining season started. that means its a bit colder now...i am really happy, after such a long time without rain...and with such high temperatures...!

tuk tuk...like in asia!!!

the old church in lanquin

flower

 from lanquin we went with many different busses first to guatemala city, and then to antigua (antigua guatemala). it used to be the capital, but was in the 18th century destroyed by a huge earth quake...and so they built guatemala city as a new capital. guatemala city is quite a dangerous place, so most people stay in the more layed back town of antigua - and so did we!

market on the way to guatemala city

 joel, kennst du diesen affen?!

many old US busses live here "a second life"!

in the streets of antigua - with vulcano!

the city is a bit like san cristobal in mexico

me...antigua ...vulcano

ruins of the earth quake are like museums now

its a beautiful place

with loads of churches...and tuk tuks!

look at the women!

many strange fruits and vegetables in the markets

like red bananas!

 we made a tour to a vulcano...

different vulcano...on the way up to "our" one

working on the vulcano

 there are some people on the vulcano with horses, and they want to be a "taxi" for tourists (not like the horse on the pic, but without wood!). we had one american girl in our group, she was (surprise!) a bit fat. the boys with the horses kept riding behind her, offering her the taxi. "do you want the horse?" "No"  "but its a good horse...it is very strong!!" quite mean...but she refused and walked up herself!

last may there was an eruption. therefore its not really green up there

first vulcano in my life!

up there is the crater...but our tour would have ended here

 so i told our guide (we booked a shuttle there, and then we also had a guide...which we did not want) that i want to walk up there...more people wanted to do it. she was not really happy about it...and said we would miss the shuttle...and she has the responsibility..and so on. in the end we went up..it was quite steep, quite hot...but a lot of fun and really beautiful!

our path

many colourfull stones

up at the crater..its not clouds, but smoke..or what ever it is! it smells strong

our gruop (who went up)

 then more people came up...they told us they payed 250 quetzales (like 25 euro) extra to get up there...and said soemthing that we probably have to pay a fine when we arrive down...so we rushed down to catch our group before they arrived at the entry!

it was quite steep

..and quite fast!

 but it was a lot of fun. and we got away without being fined!!

in antigua again

in the market

 after the vulcano we saw many people with soccer jerseys..and found out that it was the last match in the guatemalan league...the final game, in neutral antigua. so we went to watch it!!!

with our new friends!

vulcano in the rear

can you see the "no guns allowed" sign??

 another funny thing about this stadium was that they dont have toilets. i needed to go for a piss...they said there was no toilet and sothey opened the door of teh stadium so i could piss from outside the stadion on the wall...at home the police would fine me for that, here they force me to do so!!

fortunately we were in the "good" sector, "we" won the championsship!!!

"we are the champions"

ok...they are!

next day (yesterday) we left in one of these buses to san pedro

in the first bus

a local in san pedro

how good it fits!!

tomorrow we are going to climb this vulcano

i am taking spanish classes here, and will stay a few days. so now you are up to date again with my life...and as always i am happy alo to hear what you are all up to!!

all the best to all of you...saludos sevi