San Andrés Xecul is located a short chicken bus ride from Quetzaltenango (Xela).  It’s snuggled up against the mountains, giving the whole town a steep slope.  They have an indoor market, plenty of dyed threads hung out to dry, and two brightly coloured churches. I believe one of the churches is actually a cenotaph commemorating those who died during the civil war. If you’re in Xela and decide to make &#91read more]

It feels like everyone we’ve met in Mexico & Guatemala has been carrying the same Lonely Planet Central America travel guide that we are.  Maybe the reason we keep meeting these people is because we’re all using the same guide book… and we are all on the Lonely Planet trail.  Anyways, I’ve got a crazy place for you that you won’t find in the book.  And it’s definitely worth a &#91read more]

When Mike and I found out that there was a parade of beauty queens for La Feria Internacional de Independencia in Quetzaltenango (Xela) we knew we had to check it out. This girl had the smile and wave down I was expecting maybe twenty or so beauty queens… I mean, if they have their own parade, there must be a lot of them, right?  Well… So cute… There were actually &#91read more]

I know what you’re thinking, you’re imagining that we got all pissed up in Xela, bought a bunch of cheap drinks, mixed them all together and came up with a bunch of campy names that we just couldn’t wait to tell you all about. Now listen close… for once, your wrong. Or, maybe just mistaken. Contrarily, the drinks I’m about to tell you about contained no alcohol and not a &#91read more]

After more than a week of wet and chilly Xela evenings and a tiring climb up Volcan Santa Maria the day before, we figured it was high time we visit the volcanic hot springs at Fuentes Georginas.  We visited the main office in the city, and arranged a trip out to the hot springs for 115 Q (about $14 CAD) per person.  This included round trip transportation, about 2 1/2 &#91read more]

When we said goodbye to San Pedro to head to Xela (Quetzaltenango) it was to visit the  “Feria Centroamericana de Independencia.” The fair was worth checking out, but as you may know from a previous post, we wish we had known a few things before we left.  So here’s our top 7 tips on attending the Xela fair: 1.  Despite the fact that it’s called the Independence Fair, you don’t &#91read more]

“Dos minutos mas…”, our guide Santi called out. But to me, those two minutes seemed like an eternity.  I couldn’t catch my breath, my heart was threatening to beat right out of my chest, my stomach hurt and I was dizzy and lightheaded.  It took every ounce of strength I had to take another step.  Despite Santi’s prodding, I plopped myself down on a rock and put my head between &#91read more]