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Showing 26-49 of 49 results
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Guatemala & ‘chicken bus’ delight/fright
Blog: Boodle's Adventure - around the world in 365 days - 29 June 2010
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A Little Learning…Authenticity and a Town I Just Shouldn’t Like
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 23 May 2010
I have a secret confession to make right now. I really like Antigua, Guatemala. And I feel like I shouldn’t because the town seems so tourist-purposed and overrun by westerners; Antigua is such a marked contrast to the “dangerous” and grittier reality in nearby Guatemala City. When I mention to other travelers I spent a month total (split across three visits) in Antigua I often get those judgmentally inquisitive lifts eyebrow of an eyebrow. Antigua’s cobblestone, almost idyllically pretty streets are clean. The low-slung buildings are a rainbow of neatly painted ...
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A Little Food…Macadamia Nuts and a Slice of the Expat Lifestyle
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 17 May 2010
The chicken bus bumped to a stop in front of the Valhalla Macadamia Nut Farm and I got my first glimpse of the expat lifestyle for Emily and Lorenzo, an expat couple that have created an entire non-profit movement in the region toward sustainable farming. The farm is about 15 minutes outside Antigua and fully trades the jostling elbowing on Antigua’s brightly colored streets for a vast expanse of trees lining the curved drive that leads into the nut farm. Walking down the dusty dirt path we dodge the low ...
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A Little Climb…Red Hot Lava and an Active Volcano
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 7 May 2010
Mini pandemonium broke out as six of us teetered on a jaggedly tiny ledge of dried volcanic lava – although the top surface of the lava was hard and quite solid under our feet, the heat radiating from every single crevice of the charred gray rock had me feeling like a pot roast in a slow cooker. Standing nearby was our guide – and though he had just ungracefully deposited six of us here, perching on a lookout spot that you pretty much need help to jump onto, he was ...
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A Little Climb…Red Hot Lava and an Active Volcano
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 7 May 2010
Mini pandemonium broke out as six of us teetered on a jaggedly tiny ledge of dried volcanic lava – although the top surface of the lava was hard and quite solid under our feet, the heat radiating from every single crevice of the charred gray rock had me feeling like a pot roast in a slow cooker. Standing nearby was our guide – and though he had just ungracefully deposited six of us here, perching on a lookout spot that you pretty much need help to jump onto, he was ...
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Antigua and Panajachel Plus More Misadventures of Luis :)
Blog: Lost World Expedition - 1 May 2010
Well, ladies and gentlemen Luis has done it again! Following the misadventures of this space case zen master is hilarious and sad. Some of you may remember some of the prior “incidents” he brought to this adventure of ours e.g.: The fuel tank full of gasoline in our diesel burning vehicle (Link), the near expedition [...]
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A Little Peep…The Faces of Antigua’s Easter
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 27 April 2010
Semana Santa is certainly a week for the religious, but it’s also a week where the Antiguan community comes together and all of the residents are on the same team. The same goal. There is a single minded purpose to many of the activities and a devotion within the community that makes this week unlike anything I’ve ever previously experienced – it’s one of the richest holiday experiences I have had abroad. Let’s take just one last look at the people and highlights from Semana Santa in ...
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A Little Tour…Coffee’s Amazingness Knows No Bounds
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 19 April 2010
A fantasy series that I once read revolved around the premise that “all knowledge is worth having” (among many other premises). I’ve always loved that quote because it echoes my own sentiments to very closely. I love to learn. And I love to tell other people about the cool little fact’s that I’ve learned – that being one of the key characteristics that you either love or hate about me. So as I was attempting to drown out the annoyingly load music at my hostel in Antigua, Guatemala I somehow managed ...
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A Little Kindness…Guatemalan Easter Warmth
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 11 April 2010
Deep into night on the Wednesday before Easter a few new friends and I were wandering the streets at the late hour of two o’clock in the morning in a search for water (you can’t drink tap water in Guatemala). Let’s not get into precisely why we were searching for water at that hour, but suffice to say that we were. Except that all of the tiendas (shops) were closed and the locals still wandering only gave vague directions to a 24-hour tienda that just never seemed to materialize. Just as we ...
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A Little Life & Death…The Carpets of Semana Santa (Holy Week)
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 7 April 2010
Construction on a Semana Santa carpet, or alfombra, starts in the wee hours of the morning when the cool Antigua air is still chilly on the skin and spotlights light up portions of the street where the alfombras will lie for mere minutes sometimes before the parades slowly shuffle along the cobbled streets, destroying the more than 12 hours worth of careful work and construction. This video takes a look at the full life cycle of a Semana Santa carpet – from life until sad death: Conception of a Semana Santa Carpet ...
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A Little Celebration…Antigua Preps for Easter Madness
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 6 April 2010
The buzz throughout the city of Antigua is infectious on the Wednesday before Easter; although the Semana Santa celebrations (Holy Week) don’t “officially” kick off until the morning of Holy Thursday, the colorfully picturesque town of Antigua, Guatemala has been milking this holiday for the past two weeks with early processions and mini-carpets of offerings. And though the Antiguans start the celebrations early, Wednesday is when actual true madness starts to descend once the tourists flood into Antigua. Antigua is like a city taken right out of Disney world – all ...
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A Little Photo…Semana Santa Celebrations in Antigua
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 2 April 2010
Happy Semana Santa and Easter weekend! It’s absolute craziness here in Antigua, Guatemala. The Semana Santa celebrations are fully underway as the city reenacts the last days of Christ. These carpets, or alfombras, decorate all the streets of the city and take a dozen hours to make – the people make them as an offering…they are destroyed as the religious parades walk through the streets. Expect more Semana Santa stories and photos next week! Have a wonderful holiday :-) Tweet This! Stumble upon something good?
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Day 21: Having a laugh with the locals in Antigua
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 15 March 2010
Got up for an early walk today and stumbled upon a bunch of old locals just killing time in the main square of Antigua. Every morning they would gather in the same spot just to chat and shoot the breeze, and this morning they welcomed us to join them! We took pictures and had such a good laugh together – one had the hots for KF (jokingly of course) and kept flirting with her, hinting that he
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Day 22: Stumbling into disappointment
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 15 March 2010
Here we are at Lago Atitlan, a lake surrounded by looming volcanos. Whilst the view is surely impressive, the villages that accessorize the lakeside are hugely disappointing. Far from the charms of Antigua, Panajachel is so infested by tourists it is almost disgusting. Thanks to retiring gringo's, the unattractive main street is loaded with travel agencies selling packaged tours around the lake.
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Antigua
Blog: The Road Chose Me - 50,000kms of ebb and flow - 9 February 2010
We’re up early and get set for another big day of driving. Our opposing maps combined with the general lack of quality road signs means the 400 km to Antigua might take 10 hours – we really have no idea. Gas here costs about 28 Quetzales per gallon or around $3.50 USD / gallon. It’s [...]
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Antigua
Blog: The Road Chose Me - 50,000kms of ebb and flow - 9 February 2010
We’re up early and get set for another big day of driving. Our opposing maps combined with the general lack of quality road signs means the 400 km to Antigua might take 10 hours – we really have no idea. Gas here costs about 28 Quetzales per gallon or around $3.50 USD / gallon. It’s [...]
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Food in Guatemala
Blog: Away We Go! - 11 January 2010
Overall, we're fans of Guatemalan food. Our meals have been simple but tasty. Breakfast isn't usually included with our rooms, so we wander in the morning to find a small cafe.
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Antigua, Guatemala
Blog: Away We Go! - 2 January 2010
After an early wakeup in Mississauga and a mad dash through the Miami airport to make our tight connection, we arrived in Guatemala City early afternoon on New Year’s Eve! Unfortunately, our bags did not (even 30 hours later, as I type this post), but we’re taking it in stride since we figure we’re likely to be tested far more than this over the next 4 months.
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Volcan Pacaya - 23000 years and still erupting
Blog: A Travel Diary from Mexico, Central and South America - 13 November 2009
Ever climbed a volcano that's still erupting? Well if you fancy it then come to Guatemala, they let you do anything dangerous here. We're in Antigua, which is a beautiful city in the central highlands of Guatemala and one of the things that makes it so beautiful is because its surrounded by volcanos - a pretty magical sight when you look out of the window in the morning!
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Antigua – Impressions
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 12 November 2009
Antigua – the old capital city of Guatemala, rather than the Caribbean island – is so beautiful that it lures you in and says, “Hey. You’ve been travelling for a while. You must be tired. How about you stay here for a bit? A week? Two? Oh, why not a couple of months. Why not [...]
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Impressions of Guatemala
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 27 June 2009
My first trip to Guatemala in 2007 was extremely brief – I spent just two days there on a brief visit from Mexico to see the Mayan city of Tikal – but it remains probably my best travelling memory. Tikal is the most amazing place I’ve visited, and viewing the sun rise over the jungle [...]
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Getting close to the lava
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 25 June 2009
If there was an active volcano in the UK, you wouldn’t be allowed within a mile of it, let alone be able to climb it So when I found out that Antigua had one on its doorstep, that you could not only climb but also get really close to the lava, I didn’t have to think [...]
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Charming Antigua
Blog: velvet escape's blog - 20 June 2009
La Antigua, or just Antigua, is a resplendent city in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site and often touted as the most beautiful city in the Maya region, Antigua is home to a stunning array of Spanish (colonial) baroque architecture, colourful churches, bustling markets, cobble-stoned streets and charming squares. The [...]
