HONDURAS

¡Hola!

Diving, party, diving aaaand party - Utila

After a 30 minutes boat ride, a 8 hours bus ride and another 45 minutes boat ride we finally arrived in Utila. An island famous for diving and parties. We were very excited and didn't really know what to expect.

Arriving at the pier we started our search for a good dive center/hostel. Since we met a nice guy from Parrots, which is locally owed, we decided to stay there. The rooms are free if you dive and 5$ if not. So it was not a bad deal, although the rooms and bathroom were very very basic and incredible hot!!!

However, we ended up staying there for 2.5 weeks while Philippe was doing his dive Advanced and the Rescue diver. One step behind the dive Master, which he will complete in another dive center somewhere in South America. Unfortunately, Nadia couldn't dive since she had a barotrauma. Not the best timing to have it, staying on an island where everybody is diving.

Anyway, we enjoyed the company of many nice travellers and we all had an amazing time together!! :-) Beside of that the island has not a lot to offer. It's very small, dirty, streets with way too much traffic, the water is dirty, diving is not spectacular, the food is s**t and a lot of local people are unfriendly. For us not a place to recommend. If you go try Roatan instead, we heard it should be better!

Once Philippe finished his courses we were happy to leave for Puerto Rico. And it seems like Honduras doesn't really want tourists, since we had to pay an incredibly high airport fee of 50$ each, while the price for locals is 2$.

¡Adios Honduras! ¡No vamos a volver!

Neptun beach a short boad ride from Utila

Neptun beach

Neptun beach

¡¡Carneval!!

¡¡Carneval!!

Fresh water cave adventure!

Mr. Rescue Diver :-)

Let's go green! - Semuc Champey, Lanquin

Our ride from San Pedro to Lanquin started at 4.30am and ended at 7.30pm, a 15 hour trip with two shuttle buses and a quite adventures car ride, standing on the back of the car, on a dirt road. Totally tired we joined the family dinner in our hostel Utopia and went to bed directly afterwards. The hostel was very nice and totally abandonned in the jungle. Luckily, we were able to sleep in our hammocks for two nights there.

Actually, Semuc Champey is a national park with natural pools, a cave and a beautiful river. Unfortunately, the pools were closed due to the fact that the goverment want to steal the land from the local people. Assholes!! So they situated a lot of police officers to guard the entrance. What a shame! However, we were able to see two last pools close to the waterfalls on a viewpoint, could still visit the cave and float on the river in tubes, which was the best part. After the two night we moved to the hotel Las Marias where we could sleep directly at the river with our hammocks, what a view! The nature is so beautiful and it was so peaceful, without any other tourists, just us and the river. A wonderful time to remember!

After that we decided that it's time to move on to Honduras. The next day after another 6 hour bus ride to Rio Dulce and a 1 hour boat ride we arrived in Livingston. A town on the Rio Dulce river and the Pacific Caribbean coast. But don't get too excited it's not as nice as it sounds. For us the place we like the least in Guatemala. And because it's the only way to get to Honduras, these suckers charge maybe triple the price for transportation and it's in general more expensive. It looks like more violant too, because just today a man got killed by another guy in the morning. On a main road, by a strike to the head, with a machete! Sad stuff.

Anyway, after two nights we started our trip to Honduras.

So we said goodbye to Guatemala, a beautiful country with lovely peoole, delicious food and stunning nature.

¡Adios amigos!

Welcome to my happy place! - Lago Atitlan

Through Petra we got in contact with José, a very lovely guy, from Guatemala city. Finally, after Monterrico we were able to meet him in Antigua. We had a fun night with him and his friend Joseph. Early in the morning we started our ride to the lake Atitlan. One of the most beautiful places in Guatemala. Like José says: "welcome to my happy place!" Luckily, we could stay with them in a beautiful house directly at the lake. The only way to get there was by taxi boat. What a paradise! The view was just incredible! And that's not all, beside of the beautiful house they have a Temazcal sauna next to the lake. Exactly what we love and definitively miss since we are travelling! So at night we enjoyed the hot sauna and a cold bath in the lake after, like at home.

The next day we went to San Marcos. A cute little hippie village with some hotels, cute restaurants and and a nice place to jump into the lake from about 6 meters. If you wanna go green, that's the place to go for.

Unfortunately, we only had the weekend together, so we already had to say goodbye to our new friends José and Joseph, who had to go back to Guate city. Thank you again guys for the lovely weekend we had a lot of fun!!

Since we all felt in love with this place we decided to go to San Pedro, another village at the lake, for two more days. San Pedro was definitively the right decision such a cute village with nice cafes, delicious restaurants, great street food, lovely people and some nice parties. Finally some electronic music again. :-) Exactly what we were looking for. As always the time with our friend Petra passed by too fast and she already had to go back to Switzerland. Good bye chica and thanks for visiting us, we enjoyed the time with you. 

We on the other hand couldn't say goodbye to San Pedro yet, so we are still here enjoying the lake, learning Spanish, reading and having fun... 

Finally, after two weeks in San Pedro we moved forward to Semuc Champey in Lanquin. As many people told us this must be the most beautiful place in Guatemala. So let's check it out!

View from the house!

San Marcos

San Pedro

San Pedro

San Pedro

Best hot chocolate ever in a cafe in San Pedro!

Our favorit café aka coffee producer.

Caution hot! - Monterrico

After our two days hike we definitively deserved some relaxing days at the beach. The beaches in Guatemala are all black, because of the volcanoes. Which was very special and very hot!! No way to get some sun on the sand or even walk in, it's just too caliente! Also the ocean was very rough with huge waves, that we couldn't swim. Not to bad for us since we had a nice pool to swim and relax in.

So we spent three days relaxing, reading, playing games and enjoying some ceviche at the beach.