Having trouble writing a post about leaving Guatemala and entering Honduras so I thought I’d put it all into bullet form

Played trivia three times in Xela.

First two times won a massage because I knew the bonus question but never got to use the massages. Last time we came in strong second for actually winning but the topic that evening was Guatemala history and it was also the only time Guatemaltecos came to trivia….clearly a fix!

Wanted to hike to Laguna Chicobal

Holiest place in the Mayan world, believed to be the center of the world.
Inside the crater of a dormant volcano (yes…..another volcano)
Lake is considered holy because clouds seem to float into the crater, bounce off the lake and …

Recently we paid for and took a hike up the Volcan Santa Maria with Hike & Help here in Xela, Guatemala. A non profit that supports libraries on local communities, we chose to go with them because their guides are actual Guatemaltecos rather than gringos.   I have recently begun to dislike the concept of gringo ¨vacationing¨ in a place and in the process taking jobs away from locals.  This particular hike took place at night, during the full moon, and so it was a special occasion for all of us.
This was about the point where my good feelings toward our guides ended.  While I don´t think groups need to be hand held, there are a few points that I …

You may have noticed some changes to the site over the last week.  Consider it ishouldlogoff 2.0.  We updated most of the information pages and added several new pages:

an itinerary page with an updated schedule of our around the world trip and map of places we’ve been
a FAQ’s page about us and our trip (feel free to ask more)
a Tips page about traveling, cyber safety on the road and travel health tips we´ve picked up along the way
a $$$ page about our travel budget, the financial tools we use, and anything else related to finances

We finished up spanish school in Xela so we are headed to Honduras this weekend. Nothing like a few days at the beach learning to …

Because we haven’t had enough of lava and volcanoes we signed ourselves up for a full moon hike of Santa Maria, an active volcano just outside of Xela. Although it last erupted in 1922, the best part about hiking Santa Maria is being able to look down on the ever erupting Santiaguito, a vent off of the main volcano. Full moon + hiking up a volcano + potential to look down on a volcanic eruption? Clearly we had to sign up.
Fortunately our school scheduled a hike for Saturday morning up (The Molar) La Muela, a mountain formed from Santa Maria’s 1902 eruption. Overlooking Xela, La Muela was a good warm up for the overnight full moon set …