LA-Guadalajara-DF-Guatemala City-Antigua-El Salvador

6/23-6/24
Right now we are sitting in the doorway of our hotel watching the city fly by. We arrived in Antigua, Guatemala this morning after a harrowing bus ride from Guatemala City though the hills to Antigua. We walked around the beautiful old city--complete with volcanoes erupting all around, 16th century old churches, (all were destroyed in an earthquake in the mid 1700's--some restored, some not), cobblestone streets and tuk-tuks--a three wheel transport similar to some I've seen in pictures from India. Not much to do in the city but walk around and check stuff out.

Food here is incredibly cheap and we ate like kings and queens at a really good restaurant that evening for heca cheap. We had some rum drinks, including the delicious coco y limonada con rum; made with chunks of frozen coconut, fresh lemonade and a healthy Guatemalan portion of rum. With dinner was some Andean music accompanied by a strange ginga girl of 18 on a violin--it sounded really good though.

With not much else to do in Antigua but climb volcanoes, (which were kinda erupting) we decided to move on to El Salvador. We booked a private tourist bus instead of jumping on a chicken bus to make our boarder crossing easier. This however was foiled when we arrived at the border. With only about 8 people in line we figured this would not take much time at all--and with or Guatemalan driver to help us get though the line it was going to be cake. After about a half an hour in line we noticed that each of these eight people had 20 to 30 passports in their hand. Needless to say it took a while....

6/25
At this moment we are in El Sunzal, El Salvador swinging in hammocks above our semi-rundown $15 a night hotel. We are happy.

Gracias por su tiempo