21 Things We Love About Guatemala

01. The entire chicken bus experience.

02. The laundry in Xela where you can get the biggest bag of dirty clothes cleaned for just over £1! And they actually used washing powder!

03. Laguna Lachua - a pot of gold at the end of a bloody long bus journey. 

04. The amazing strength of chicken bus ayudas. There really is no bag they cannot lift!

05. The colourful traditional clothing.

06. Local bars where you can get a litre of beer for less than water.

07. Volcanoes. Everywhere. 

08. You can learn Spanish for less than $100 a week.

09. Swimming in the waters surrounding Flores at dusk.

10. The Deep Blue in San Pedro - fish and chips just like home.

11. The cheapest restaurant in Flores where we had breakfast and dinner for almost 11 days in a row.

12. Casa Seibel - our home away from home. 

13. The lax border into Livingston, where it appears you could just slip into Guatemala forever, and nobody would know you're there!

14. The bakery in Xela - the only place we have found proper bread.

15. Desayuno tipico - we could eat that every day of the week (and often did). 

16. That, despite centuries of victimisation and struggle, that the Maya continue to have such a strong presence and identity throughout the country. 

17. The colourful, peeling walls which provide the perfect backdrop for any photo. 

18. Haircuts for around $1 - trust us, better than anything Andrew got in London. 

19. The feisty troupes of street-dogs. 

21. Cafe No Se in Antigua: Mezcal, live blues and dive-bar chic until the wee hours. 

22. The 13km walk from Lanquin to Semuc Champey through the cloud forest. 


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