impacked

My husband woke up yesterday with a brillant idea.....for Valentines Day we're going to Guatemala and can not be more pleased.

2 very different questions:
The first is who and where and what?

I was given some llama yarn from a friend who has 2. She thought I could knit a shawl.
But, I don't have the talent. Can I find someone while travelling who can do this for me?

We plan to stay 8 days and will fly into Guatemala City and want to rent a car. I have not read any postings as to whether or not this is a good idea.

Thanks for any suggestions!

fuzzylogic

hello - love the idea of talking the llama wool with you. But it's weaving that certain areas of Gua are famous for, not knitting.

No idea about renting a car. Have only travelled there on public transport. But for sure there will be Avis and Hertz, etc. etc. at the airport so you just have to decide where to go.

If you are interested in textiles then the area around Lago de Atitlán would be good - it is also supremely beautiful with huge romantic potential!!

Happy travels.

Suzie2

Most postings I read warn you away from renting a car. They also say you are an easy target in a tourist van. We opted for the tourist van to/from Antigua and Atitlan and a rental car in Tikal last year and are doing the same this year. There are inexpensive shuttles if you can time things right. They do take longer. One thing you could do is to private van it to Antiqua for $35 and then take the cheaper shuttles to Atitlan or shuttle back to the international airport and fly up to Tikal. All three places are wonderful. We loved them so much last year that we are going back tomorrow for about 2 weeks to the same places. We wanted to see more of them so that we can move on and visit other places next time. It is a beautiful country and you will be happy to know that the weavings are already done . We will probably just use the boats to travel around the lake again so we won't need a car except to get to and from the dock. We did the market last year and bought up half the country so we will skip that this time.

If you are interested in the shuttles a couple of names are Elizabeth Bell and Turansa. Both are tour companies and list transfer prices on their web sites.

Have fun!

yestravel

We like renting cars on most trips, but I agree that renting a car in Guat is not a good idea. Roads are really poorly marked and I think it would be very difficult to navigate from village to village. We've always done a combination of private vans or shuttles when visiting Guatamela. There are lots of companies in all the town/villages. Also agree that Lake Atitlan, Antigua and Tikal are all fabulous places to visits. I'd skip Guat City. Have a wonderful trip--Guatamela is a great country.

impacked

Sorry, I see that I have 2 postings....I could not find the first one so I repeated it.

But, thanks for your suggestions.

How about paying someone to weave me a shawl with my llama wool?

8 days are all we've got and was able to get a 4 hour direct flight from LAX. So, for now we'll scope it out for our next longer trip.

My husband is pretty experienced about driving in rugged terrain but perhaps we really won't have enough time, as you suggested to really get out there. So, we'll probably take your advice & use shuttles.

Thanks so much!

Suzie2

The terrain is really not the issue. I actually found the roads better than Costa Rica. It is more a safety thing. Our government still considers Guatemala a safety risk because of robberies and worse. They even recommend that you don't go hiking alone. We didn't get any feeling of danger when we were there but we were very cautious and asked locally about safety. More often than not we were told not to hike the volcanos alone. They have tourist police in some areas.

We had a wonderful time and are looking forward to going back tomorrow.

As far as your yarn goes. The weavings represent the different mayan villages. They all have their own colors and patterns.