Ola amigos y amigas!

After one day flying back and forth through south and central America (from Quito to Lima, Lima to San Salvador, San Salvador to Ciudad de Guatemala), we finally arrived in Guatemala. Welcomed by a major downpoor, we drove (or better 'float' ) through the streets of Guatemala City to Antigua.

Antigua is definitely not the best place to get a good sample of (Southern) Guatemala, but this doesn't change the fact that it's a beautiful city. Surrounded by perfectly shaped volcanoes looming over the city, the cobblestone streets, the many stylish hotels and restaurants, very friendly and helpful people, the absence of stray dogs, drunks, beggars, etc ...not bad.... and things even got better....

One night we went for dinner in a small restaurant in town. The owner (Jose) transformed from a waiter to a gifted piano- player and singer. Touched by the melancholic sounds of the piano and Jose's voice, we already were having the best night out since the beginning of our trip. Then a lonesome gentleman turned up. Later on that evening he started a conversation with us. It turned out that he was a successful businessman (and hence pretty rich) who, just that day, bought 10% of restaurant. Apparently he liked us because with every glass of whiskey he drank we got another beer 'on him' (and he had quite a good pace of emptying his glass...). Then suddenly he said: ' I have a hotel here in Antigua, and I invite you to come over and stay there for free as long as you want' . According to Armando (yep, that's our hero) it was his way of compensating what had happened to us in Bolivia (remember the robbery?). Being stunned about what happened (and pretty drunk) we went back to our hostel. The next morning we decided to give it a shot and go to the hotel. We had nothing to lose anyway.... And surprise surprise, no problems, a few phonecalls later the room was being prepared and one hour later we were checked in. It was definitely the most exclusive and chique boutique hotel we ever saw. This ' picture- perfect' place was ours and FOR FREE! We stayed 2 nights and enjoyed all the luxury, the swimming pool, the food (Armando even took us for dinner one night at Jose's...), the atmosphere, the bed, everything! Curious? Check out www.casalacapilla.com. The past few days passed as if it was a dream. Did this really happen? Strangely enough we just finished the book we got from Z(justZ, remember him?) called ' The Messenger'. Everything that happens, happens with a purpose. Was it destiny?

Leaving Antigua meant back to the real life of backpacking and leaving the luxury of the past few days behind us. We caught a chicken bus to Panajachel, a town on the banks of Lago de Atitlan. A ride with a chickenbus means: hop on, squeeze in, put your life in the hands of a completely loco busdriver who seems to like to speed up (especially in curves), and surrender to gravity... To get a clue of how that feels: take a ride in the rollercoaster and multiply it by ten... then you're getting close.... After changing buses a few times (5x in about 120 km!) we finally arrived in Panajachel... shaken AND stirred

. In Panajachel we took a watertaxi to the village of San Marcos la Laguna. This village (despite its great name) was definitely the weirdest place we have ever seen... just a few paths in the jungle, only meditation-, yoga- and holistic therapy centres including some pretty weird and screwed- up people, both guests and locals, everyone here seemed to be infected with the ' how-to-act-as-weird-as-possible' - virus ... No, this was not a place for us. Moreover, you couldn't see anything of Lago de Atitlan... So, next day we moved to the other side of the lake to San Pedro la Laguna. This village was a bit bigger, a little less weird, and although the vibe here was not relaxed at all, we had a great time canoeing and swimming in the lake.

We still didn' t know what to think and feel about Guatemala so far, so we gave it a last chance (at least for now; we are planning to come back a few times more later on...) and go to the market town called Chichicastenango (for less tongue- breaking manoeuvers easily nicknamed 'Chichi' ). Chichi lies in the heart of the highlands of Guatemala and has been a trading town for centuries. Especially, its thursday and sunday markets are famous. We went there on a thursday and hence we were able to experience true market- life... It was a fiesta for our senses... bright colours of handwoven textiles and traditional clothes, the smell of incense, flowers, food, people, and the penetrating sounds of screeming vendors (Amigo, pase adelante! Pase! Good price! Let's do 'beeznizz') . Yes, Chichi was good fun and put Guatemala back on the map. It made us hungry for more! Hasta luego Guate!

But first El Salvador, the unknown little brother of the Central American countries. A bad reputation, a tumultuous past (civil war), pretty worrying crime rates (6 million inhabitants and 10 murders on a daily basis...), gang wars

, natural disasters ... all reasons NOT to go, but we decided to give it a shot. And it was one of the best shots in our trip so far! The people of El Salvador definitely make the difference. Almost everyone is extremely friendly. What a contrast with the long greedy faces in Guatemala where your are often treated like a mobile ATM with lots of Quetzales to dispense...

We spent a few days in the village of Juayua, one of the beautiful villages along the Ruta de Las Flores, a mountainous area famous for its wild flowers. We had a couple of great days there, hiking to the lagunas in the highlands, enjoying breathtaking views of the volcanoes all lined in a row, learning about coffee processing (and of course not leaving without a tasting session) at Majada coffee- processing plant, eating amazing coffee steaks and El Salvador's national proudness: 'pupasas' (sort of tacos filled with cheese, pork or beans), relaxing on the plaza and the mirador-like roofterrace of our hostal, drinking too much cheap but excellent Nicaraguan ron (with lots of limes and less coke...) and exchanging travel experiences with some awesome people from New Zealand. Thanks Joe and Emma! We really enjoyed your company! Further along the Ruta de las Flores we stayed in one other authentic village called Apaneca. Although there was nothing else to do then strolling the streets (and spending quality time alone on the toilet because of some horrible lunch), we enjoyed spending our time in this village. A lazy afternoon visit to the village of Conception de Ataco made our experience of village life in the El Salvadorenan highlands complete... these are villages time forgot and hopefully time will not catch up...

From the Ruta de las Flores we moved more east into El Salvador, to Lago Coatepeque, a huge blue craterlake. The goal here was: doing as little as we could... travelling in El Salvador is pretty exhausting due to the overcrowded (chicken) buses, the steamy temperatures (30 degrees or even more) and the little developed ho(s)tel scene (which makes it a great challenge to find a decent and affordable place to sleep every time...). So we needed a short break to recharge our batteries and Lago Coatepeque was a great place for this: drinking beers on the lakeside terrace of our hotel, watching the sun go down and disappear behind the volcanos ...

Our batteries fully recharged we moved back to Santa Ana, the third city of El Salvador and supposedly an old colonial town, although there is really just 3 colonial buildings to find (and we searched pretty well...). Santa Ana has a nice plaza (Parque Libertad), but for the rest it's pretty much a dirty, smelly and terribly hot, say typical Central American city... (including half dead people just laying between the cars and no one seems to bother...). But we needed Santa Ana to make our way to Parque Nacional Los Volcanes, a national park close to Santa Ana. Here we hiked to the crater of Volcan Ilamatepec, a volcano which erupted recently (2005) making victims under the coffee- pickers. The hike was stricty organised: us, 2 other local tourists and .... 2 police officers who hiked all the way with us.... . After a 2 hour hike (better: 'run' ) we arrived at the top, with amazing views of the other volcanoes throughout El Salvador and a flourescent green craterlake hunderds of meters under our feet.... you could not imagine that this colour green really exists beyond the world of Photoshop.... You could hear the water and fumeroles boil... very impressive. After enjoying the reward of hiking to the top, we needed to ' run' back down again to the parking lot to catch the only bus returning to Santa Ana that day....

The last stop in El Salvador was Suchitoto (meaning ' place of the flower bird' in Nahuatl- language). On the way to Suchitoto we had to go cross the capital San Salvador by bus, and this city looked like a shotgun- mad city; dozens of heavily armed police officers standing next to the road, even the road transport of matrasses (yes, these things to lay down on in bed...) was accompanied by security folks with huge shotguns.... mysterious...

But Suchitoto was a more quiet and relaxed little colonial town in contrast to San Salvador and Santa Ana (and it was really colonial....). Except the ' almost-struck-by-lightning-in-an-internetcafe'- experience, Suchitoto was a great place to hang around, inhale the bohemian atmosphere, have a lazy days at banks of Lago de Suchitlan (a huge artificial lake which had a power plant that supplies half a million Salvadorenan families with electricity), eat camarones and pupusas, stroll around the streets, have arguments with the local locos (which is somehow entertaining because they talk Spanish and we English...).Yes, Suchitoto was a good place to end our visit to El Salvador.

El Salvador, you blew us away! (no shotguns needed!)

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