Spent several days in Atitlan, Antigua, and Tikal again. Same trip as last year -almost. We left with a huge feeling of unfinished business last year and really needed to get back. We now feel ready to move on and have some exciting plans for next year including a new country to add to our Central America list as well as a new section of Guatemala. We still love Costa Rica even after 15 years of travel there but I guess our thirst for travel and knowledge just keeps us moving on. I guess we are just a couple of old rolling stones.

Our flight ran a little late arriving but our driver from Turansa was there waiting. The company is reliable for transport but the van that picked us up had no a/c. Would have loved it to block out the pollution and heat until we could get out of Guatemala City. The driver, as last year, did not speak english. Might consider Elizabeth Bell Tours or EnjoyGuatemala next year if we need local transport. There are also some fairly inexpensive shuttles to places like Atitlan and Antiqua running about $20pp. Most of our trip will be further north and down into another country so don't know if we will need them as we are going to try to fly up to Flores on arrival day.

The airport was a total mess because they are re-doing the whole place. We thought it was pretty nice the way it was and although we would prefer not to have to do it we passed the 5 hrs waiting for our flight home last year very comfortably. A different story this year but thankfully our flight from Tikal to Guat was delayed a little.

Road construction! Can't seem to get away from it no matter where we go. Got held up for about 1/2 hr but driver had anticipated much longer so we were happy. They were laying down at least 6 inches of concrete on both sides of the road. I'm no expert but concrete in an earthquake prone area???? Many of the roads in Guatemala are payed for by foreign countries. Most of them are in pretty good shape. Much better than Costa Rica in many areas. Stopped half way for a potty break and my first of many cups of wonderful Guatemalan coffee. Hubby of course had his first of many Gallos (beer) of the trip. Gallo has more flavor than a Bud but for those who know CR it has less flavor than an Imperial.

Atitlan...same beautiful lake and volcanoes. Same fascinating villages with their beautiful weavings. Not to be missed if you go to Guatemala. It kept amazing us that we were in a Caldera Lake. Sunsets were a little disappointing this year. The smoke from the sugar cane burning on the coast was heavier than last year so it blocked a lot of the color. Last year the sky looked like it was on fire over the volcanoes. Didn't do Solola again because of timing but did revisit Santiago for some shopping to buy some things for our new home in Costa Rica. Visited a few villages we hadn't seen before and also bought some small pieces of pottery.

Found a nice little bar called Atlantis in Panajachel to watch the Super Bowl-way to go Colts! Had some pretty good pizza at the bar. The bartender ran down the street after the game to find us a taxi to get back to the hotel. He thought it would be safer to be picked up right at the bar rather than walk down the street ourselves. Not once did we feel threatened in Panajachel but it was nice to know we were being watched out for.

Casa Palopo didn't disappoint again. Same wonderful room, views and service. We ate all of our meals there except for Super Bowl night because it was so good. We ended up with the same room (#3) we had last year and were very comfortable. There is a pool and they now have a house further up the hill. There is also internet access. The room has a mini bar and a nice large patio. New chef but he is very good so we were just as happy. We couldn't get enough of his black bean soup. The bartenders were the same and remembered us from last year...is that really a good thing? Boy do they make some good fresh lime drinks. Check with Carlos if you need some advice on the area. He has come up with some good ideas for us for next time.

The morning of the SB we had the hotel taxi bring us to a Nature Reserve in Panajachel. We stopped at a little tienda on the way to cash some travelers checks. The Turansa driver suggested we not use the banks because of street gangs watching them. Didn't get a feel for any problems in Panajachel but we took their advice. The tourist areas do seem very safe. The Nature Reserve was small by Costa Rica standards but we did get to add a couple of new birds to our life list. Heard a bunch of manakins but never did find them. Saw a couple of spider monkeys but not their natural habitat. They have some hanging bridges and a zip line. There is also a waterfall where we saw one of our new birds.

Panajachel is still rebuilding from Stan but moving along. Bridges were being finished. Our last day in Atitlan we went into town again to make some export connections for some friends of ours. Decided to go for the tuk tuk ride back to the hotel. Even the tuk tuks have their own bridge! One of those would be perfect for my errands here in the country in Ohio. They are so cute. Might have to settle for a SMART car or a Prius -it will be a coin toss for us. Don't know if those three wheelers are road legal here.

We bid a sad farewell to the beautiful sights of Atitlan but we will be back someday, there are still a few secrets we left behind for another time.

On to Antiqua.....

I have brought my first report up to the top in case anyone wants to fill in any holes in my new one. I refer frequently to my first report.

Thanks for sharing - will be hitting some of the same places for a few days this summer before I bury myself in the Ixil triangle for a few weeks. Can't wait!

Can't wait for your trip report! I was just doing some reading about that area, sounds very interesting.

Hubby is excited to do more birding so we are heading to the Rio Dulce area and then down into Honduras next trip.

Hope you didn't get that awful weather. I heard from my sister in law in Ashland that she had 8" of snow! Almost unheard of for her.

Beautiful sunny and in the 50's today here - sweet. If you're seriously interested in birding in Honduras consider Jorge Barraza. His business is called Xukpi Tours, I think. He has an excellent reputation and lived up to it when we went out with him summer before last. He's a wonderful person with an interesting personal history. Happy trails!

Thanks for the tip! Looking forward to going there. I think the dam broke last year when we finally went someplace other than CR. Now I want to see it all.

Oh - spoke too soon on the weather! Now it's snowing enormous flakes and looking like January again.

Sounding good! I already have your first report printed off and in my Guatemala file!

Looking forward to the rest of the story. Pictures too??

Turansa right on time for transfer which took a little over 2 hrs. Driver, again, does not speak english. Ran into some road construction but didn't get held up for too long. It actually worked out perfectly for my husband who wanted to stop in that area anyway to collect samples and take pictures for the geology class he is taking. The depth of the ash layer in that area is more than I can imagine coming from a volcano. Pretty scary when you think about how big the explosion would have been.

The rest seems to jump around a bit without my notes so I apologize. They are here buried under stuff for a weekend getaway for our anniversary next month that I am trying to get planned.

Antigua, no surprises in our hotel. We had stayed there last year. Hotel Panza Verde was everthing we remembered. We ended up staying in the owners apartment because everything else was taken 3 months ago in early Nov when I made the reservation. There are only 12 rooms. $200 a night includes tax and tip plus breakfast. Compared to some places in CR it was a heck of a deal. The room has a dining room, large living room with a wood burning fireplace, a bedroom with 2 single beds and the master bedroom with two queen sized beds. Unfortunately, for those men who are taller than 6ft it might be uncomfortable for you. The nooks for the beds are flush with walls on three sides. We actually used both beds because I don't like to be closed in and neither did my husband. One large bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and a huge turret overhead. Downside....no shower just a fairly short hose hooked up to the faucet so you had to sit to shower. Very uncomfortable. There is a bathroom downstairs across from the lap pool where you can go down to shower but we didn't bother.

Just outside the door to the apartment there is a door to a tower and circular stairs going up to the roof where there are plants, sitting areas, and, on occasion, cocktail receptions. Beautiful views of Acatenango, Fuego (live volcano) and Agua volcanos. Unfortunately, there was such a reception one night and we couldn't enjoy the view until later in the evening. Bands 3 nights out of the 4 we were there. Fortunately, they quit playing around 10pm so we didn't loose sleep. 1 night was usual dining music. 2nd 2 nights they had a band from Cuba and we really enjoyed that. Particularly when they played some Buena Vista Social Club stuff. We watched for an hour and then went up to our room where we could hear them just as well. Downside to Panza Verde is the dining room noise that filters into the rooms. Having the music helped mask it. We found room six to be quieter last year. There is a small fridge and a coffee pot in this room. Room 6 where we stayed last year has a coffee pot but no fridge. A little quieter room as well.

Breakfast buffet pretty unimaginative. Dinner, which they are famous for, a little over the top for us. I ordered shrimp and got prawns. I love shrimp, I love lobster, I don't love prawns. I managed to choke a couple down.

First Day: Antigua is so full of little nooks, crannies, and hidden gardens. One of the reasons we went back was to see more of them. You just never know where you will run into a beautiful little courtyard or a huge garden. There is a little row of shops right across from the green in the center of the city. DH can't resist a book shop so we headed in and immediately saw a door in the back. We wandered over and found a whole different world. There was a great little cafe where I had delicious potato and leek soup and we both had some wonderful coffee. Cafe Condessa is definitely going on our list of places to return to if only for a cup of coffee. There were little shops, a fountain and lovely plants growing everywhere as well. If we hadn't walked into that bookstore we never would have known it was there.

Dinner at Casa Lili's the first night. Owners wife a hoot. Food okay, not something I would go out of my way for but certainly edible and not far from the hotel. They had a "cuban" singer there that sang more Eagles music than cuban. Still, he was easy to listen to.

On our first day as we wandered around we decided to hire a taxi to check out a coffee plantation called AzoteA we had passed in Jocotenango just outside of Antigua. We are so glad we did. We ran into a lovely english couple who invited us to join them and their guide who was great. Our first of many times bumping into them. The tour with him and the one the coffee Finca gave was very well done. As luck would have it a friend of the guides is a well respected bird guide who was also there with a group for the coffee tour. He introduced us and of course we ended up taking a birding tour a couple of days later at a huge private coffee finca about an hour outside of Antigua. He was very nice and actually works with the Guatemalan government on security issues for tourists because he travels all over the country.

When we arrived we had no plan other than to possibly take the Elizabeth Bell walking tour of Antigua $20pp. We did do that on our second day. It was okay. We pretty much got herded to about 4 places and that was it. I am just not a tour person. The jade factory part was interesting.

Decided to head to El Sereno for dinner after relaxing on the rooftop for a little while at the hotel one night. On the way we had to cross the main green. As it turns out, every two years they have a cultural festival and this was opening night. There were school bands decked out in beautiful uniforms marching all around the green. We watched for awhile (and of course took a million pics) then headed over to El Sereno a couple of blocks away. They have a beautiful terrace that overlooks the city where we had eaten last year so we headed right up. So beautiful. Dinner last year was wonderful but a bit of a disappointment this year. One of the waiters gave us a tour after dinner and showed us the "cave". Oh my. Wish we had known. It is a man made cave in the restaurant with at least a hundred candles burning and only one table for two and a private waiter .....next time. We headed back to the green area where we could still hear the bands. We stopped again to watch for a minute and then they started having beautiful fireworks that went on for a long time. Timing really is everything. The bands were playing and the fireworks going..what fun.

On the way back to the center of town after walking with EB we passed an Argentine restaurant. Just a double door and a bar from what we could see. Not much to really draw us in. Hubby had lived in Argentina for awhile as a kid so he wanted to take a closer look. Yikes! Yet another wonderful surprise hidden behind walls. The place was huge with wooden arbors dripping with vines, fountains and some of the best food we had had. They brought out a platter of different cuts of steaks that they served for us to look at. We chose the puyosa (sp?). It was wonderful. They have a beautiful salad bar but we decided not to chance it and ordered french fries instead, delicious. We went back for a second meal a couple of days later while waiting for our ride to the airport to go to Tikal. As luck would have it, they are a family owned chain from Argentina and they have two restaurants in Costa Rica! One in Escazu and one in Santa Ana. Called something like Nifu Nifa. Hard to believe but the meat is all imported from the States???

While coming back from the coffee tour the first day we asked our taxi driver if he had any other ideas that we could do and he came up with a great one. The next day he arrived after breakfast and we headed over to Pacaya volcano. An extremely live volcano with lava flowing down the sides. I used the long steep trail as an excuse to ride a horse up. I really just wanted to get on a horse so whatever it takes ;-). Rivers of freshly cooled lava flows once we break through the forest and get out into the open, crazy people up on the rim of the crater stepping over hot lava to get to it. One puff of the gases in there could have killed them! Hubby is really going to get an A in geology now! We brought back hunks of lava with sparkeling metals and took pictures of the frosting looking hardened lava. So glad we had done this but my knee is still hurting from the steep hike back down. No horses this way. Really glad we had done this in spite of the guide books warnings of robbers and rapists. Felt perfectly safe the whole time.

Late lunch early dinner at Frida's after Pacaya. We had been here last year but didn't eat. They serve really good mexican food not to mention kick butt margueritas. After reading and learning more about Frida last year I mentioned to my husband that I would like to go back. This was in Nov when we were making our plans. Now, as I said, timing is everything. My husband is totally clueless like a lot of men when it comes to trying to buy me gifts for the holidays. Then...silly me I saw a book on Frida Kahlo at the book store when we were shopping for Christmas and stopped to take a peek. I must have been blinded by the overhead lights because I didn't see the lightbulb go off in his head to stop the idea in its infancy. Well...guess what I got for Christmas!!!!! Yep, not one but 2 Frida Kahlo books. A Frida movie staring Salma Hayek. A sticky notepad with a picture of Frida if you can believe that, and....last but certainly not least a Frida doll!!!!!! I now practically have a shrine to Frida in my computer room. Lesson learned. Eyes straight ahead when shopping unless it is something you really really want.

Next stop Tikal.......

Tikal, the pictures tell it all. An amazing place that I could go back to over and over again. I could just spend the day sitting on a blanket looking around. We have seen almost 200 types of birds there with many being life ones for our list. The highlight was the Ornate hawk eagle last year.

Do bring plenty of water. There are a couple of small stands that sell water, beer, munchies but they are pretty far apart and close around 1:30-2pm. There are larger places to buy food, drinks, hats, souvenirs etc near the entrance. If you can do it try to get there for the sunrise. It was cloudy the morning we woke up in the park at the Tikal Inn so we didn't bother. That was last year. This year we did make it up Temple 4 for the sunset. The parrots fly all around the monkeys swing from tree to tree just before the sun goes down. A beautiful sight.

Places stayed-La Lancha, Villa Maya, Tikal Inn, a little place in El Remate right in the center of town, and a tiny place in Flores. Villa Maya was actually our favorite place even though the rooms are a little sterile. No coffee pot but there is a small fridge. It is on a huge piece of property with its own lagoon, deer enclosure, birds, crocs, a very nice nature trail. The restaurant is nice, food decent. There are two pools and a hot tub.

Trying pictures for the first time. Hope it works! Thanks for the help.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...AcuHDJk3atWLjA

Excuse the pics being out of order. Still learning how to use shutterfly. Finally figured out how to put them in order but too late for this bunch.

These are great Suzie, thanks for sharing. We gotta get to Guatemala. . .

Hi Glover,
Wish I had a lot of bird pictures for you but did get some this year that I am going to post seperately. We didn't bring a good camera last year because we, like a lot of other people, were nervous about having expensive equipment with us. We treated ourselves to a new Nikon Digiscope this year but didn't have time to practice before going. Unfortunately, the birds wouldn't sit still long enough for us to get a lot of pics but we did get a couple. We now have a new appreciation for how quickly the bird guides find the birds in those spotting scopes.

We have almost 200 species on our list for the Tikal area alone in just two trips. It truly is an amazing place.

Yes, nice pics Susie.

Am I correct on assuming from your posts that you would you feel comfortable bringing a DSLR w/ you on your next trip? I'd like to bring mine w/ me. It's not overly expensive (and will be insured), and I'll probably only bring two lenses...and keep it all in my sling pack / man purse worn at my side / in front of me. Just wondering what your feelings are on this.

Thanks!

ARGHHHH!!!! Yet another to see/to do.. to move up from the middle of the pack to the top of the list before I am too old! Great pics. And a wonderful detailed report. Toni

airwayvz,
We had a little over $3000 worth of equipment with camera, scope, and binocs. The camera is a Nikon point and shoot Cool Pix but is around 9 pixels. Not as much as some people had but enough to hurt if anything had happened to it. There were times when we just carried the little camera without the scope. No need for a tripod in Antigua.

There are beautiful pictures to be had and again, we never really felt threatened. I wandered around Tikal by myself after most of the tourists had gone. It is so peaceful. If you get there early it is so loud from the parrots and monkeys that it is almost deafening at times. I loved it.

Our friends had an SLR with lenses last year. They didn't always carry the extra lenses. We also have an SLR with some good sized lenses but are trying to lighten the load a little because of all the in country flights we take in Costa Rica. If we ever figure out how to use this new scope/camera set up we hope to take some great pictures.

parrmt,
Oh my yes. As much as we love going to CR there is a whole wonderful world beyond that is just waiting for all of us-not to mention all the beautiful things right here in the states. We are trying to find a balance of stateside travel and foreign. My sister finally made it to all 50 states. I am at around 30. I hope to get back up into Canada to see more of that as well.

"...Antigua is so full of little nooks, crannies, and hidden gardens..."

So true - I was constantly lured by a nook - is that a garden around that corner I wondered - a courtyard.

Enjoying your report and your photos - thanks.