Guatemala

We can't stay still for longer than 6 weeks! Learn where we've been and where we're going. 

Ela and I survived 15 days without the boys! This is our story about those 15 days, a bus adventure and a little excitement along the way.

Tag and I drove almost 900 miles in five countries to get to Costa Rica. We had a blast. Here's our story.

Meet my friend Lea, a fellow traveler, teacher, singer and songwriter.

In this post we detail how we landed our house sitting gig and tell you how you can too.

From brownie mix to your favorite movie, read how Guatemala enforces copyright laws. 

The week before we left Guatemala I was on a trail run with a friend. I was expecting an uneventful but good workout. I got a lot more than that...

Looming over Lake Atitlan are 3 volcanoes. They are beautiful and dominating. Now that our time in Guatemala is coming to an end, we felt the urgency to hike one of them, San Pedro. San Pedro is the shortest of the three volcanoes around the lake. It stands at 3,020 meters (about 9,900 feet) above sea level and is the most climbed.

Have you ever received care from a hospital in a third world country? Unfortunately my Mom can now say she has, but the quality of the care was fantastic.

We took a visit to Maximon, the womanizing, drinking, smoking Saint of Guatemala.

This is another installment of our popular "Mayan Ingenuity" Series.

Each week I'm amazed by what I see just walking around town in Panajachel. Here are two funny, interesting and unique things we've seen recently.

Ever wonder what it costs to live abroad? I breakdown the recurring costs for our family of four while living in Panajachel, Guatemala.

Last week was Environmental Week (think Earth Day for a whole week) at the kid's school. Each grade in the school had multiple field trips and assorted activities to learn more about the environment and how to protect it. Tag's class visited our town's Bomberos (aka Fire Fighters). This was not a field trip I was going to miss. And in true Guatemalan style, this is one field trip where the US cannot compete. 

Tag ran his first 5K with Ken (it was awesome) and the next day Ken ran a Half Marathon winning 2nd in his age group.

Our Mayan neighbor showed us how a real birthday party is done. 130+ people showed up for a 6 year old's birthday.

Semana Santa (Holy Week), is more or less considered Spring Break since all of the schools in the country are closed for the week. Find out how Panajachel celebrates.

Yes, this is a post about those scruffy, scratchy, exfoliating things people use in their showers or sinks. Ever wonder where they come from? Ever tried to eat one?

Monterrico, Guatemala is a popular beach town for locals and egg-laying sea turtles. There are at least two Tortugarios (turtle hatcheries), that are working to preserve and grow the population of sea turtles in the local waters. We had an amazing experience here.

A simple but well engineered stove is transforming lives (and even helping with the environment) for famlies in Guatemala.

Perched on the side of the Zunil Volcano, around 8,000 feet, are the most incredible hot springs we've ever seen. They are the Las Fuentes Georginas springs. Here's the scoop on this amazing place.

We visited the ancient Mayan ruins of Utatlán.

Chichi's claim to fame is it's twice weekly market. It is the biggest market in the country. Every Thursday and Sunday the town's plaza is filled with make shift tables, shelves and stands selling countless homemade, homegrown and recycled items. The plaza is no where near big enough to contain it.

By popular demand we've created another installment of "Mayan Ingenuity". This time we focused on "Hacks for the House".

It took us two tries but we found the natural hot springs in Santa Catarina Palopó in Lake Atitlan! We had heard about the hot springs from several friends that have lived around the lake for years. The first time we went looking for them we had no luck but this time we found them.

After a recent visit from family members it dawned on us that some items we buy at grocery stores in Guatemala either look a little different or are stored differently here. To demonstrate this, here's a look at a few things from our pantry.

In Guatemala, when you don't have electricity, you probably don't have water. We didn't for 9 hours.

Orgullo Chapin, also known as Guatemalan Pride Day, is one of the many traditions celebrated the at LIFE School. Everyone in the school dresses in traditional traje, or typical Guatemalan dress. It was also right before Valentine's day this year.

Stolen DVD's and reckless driving resulted in a riot in Panajachel. The outcry from the citizen's and the response from the police were very interesting.

If you want a phone in Guatemala, you have a few options. The first and least desirable long term is to "Rent a phone". We run through the options in this post.