Just a short minivan trip west from Antigua and down into a massive caldera surrounded by volcanoes is the beautiful Lago Atitlán. All the towns around the lake are named after saints and my base for this stop is in San Pedro la Laguna, which is probably the most popular one with the most hotels, restaurants, etc. The lake is considerably bigger than it appears on the map! My hotel is right on the shore of the lake and holy…
My flight from Flores was so quick, it felt like it was over before it began. Less than an hour after take off I was on the ground in Guatemala City. After a quick lunch at the airport I was in a car on my way to my next stop, Antigua. Despite Guatemala City being the capitol and the most populous city in Guatemala, Antigua is the epicenter of the country, at least as far as tourism goes. With it’s…
Another bus full of tourists, another border crossing, without the corrupt officials this time though, and it’s welcome to Guatemala. My base for this part of the trip is the tourist saturated Flores, a tiny little island in Lago Petén Itzá connected to Santa Elena on the mainland by a quarter mile long causeway. Flores is a cool place to stroll around, but as far as I can tell its just hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. I’m staying in Santa…
My border crossing from Chetumal, Mexico, into the next country on my list, Belize, went pretty smooth, if not a little slowly. I took a bus full of tourists, just like me. First we exited the bus to get stamped out of Mexico. Normally you get charged a Mexican tourism tax with your airline tickets, which I did, but I read that the border guards try to scam tourists into paying it again when leaving. Me and the couple in…
I hope you’re comfortable because this post is gonna be dense. I left Tulum on an early bus going further south to Chetumal and then got right into a taxi to take me to the airport where I rented a car for this next leg of the trip. Because a car equals freedom. But before driving out of Chetumal, I made a quick stop at their Mayan Culture Museum. The museum was fairly small, but sure packed a punch. They…
Another adventure has begun! This has probably been the roughest start to any of my many trips so far, though. So much so that I’m not even in the right country. I was planning on three months in Thailand, but due to lots of miscommunication between Thailand immigration, the airlines, myself, and one stupid typo, I wasn’t allowed on the plane. The saga probably deserves a post of it’s own, but I’ll leave that for another time. Thailand, unfortunately, will…
This last post from Namibia is going to be a short one. My final stop was in the far south of the country, Fish River Canyon. It was a long six hour drive that also included one tire exploding. Seriously, it exploded! Scared the crap out of me! Changing a tire in 100° heat wasn’t fun either, but I arrived safely. First thing, I had to check into my campground at the Canyon Roadhouse. To say this establishment seems out…
The drive from Brandberg was, in short, about seven hours of sand. Haha! Luckily, though, my route took me back through Swakopmund, and at lunchtime. So I went back to Fork ‘n Nice for another helping of the best fish ‘n chips on the planet. After a couple of hundred miles the terrain finally started to become a little more interesting. Suddenly, there were hills and then mountains as I got closer to my next stop, Naukluft Mountain Zebra Park….
There really wasn’t much difference in the scenery driving inland from the Skeleton Coast. Lots and lots of remote desolation, sand, and very foggy, misty air. Eventually the air got drier and warmer and I was able to stop and wipe the coating of brine off the windows. I haven’t been able to see out the side windows or the mirrors in a few days. Yuck! Brandberg is actually a small mountain range in a part of Namibia known as…
A relatively short five hour drive from Windhoek and I’ve reached the edge of Namibia, on the Atlantic coast, specifically the city of Swakopmund. Swakopmund is considered the adventure capital of Namibia. It’s true, if you want to go parasailing, skydiving, boating, surfing, or riding dunes, this is the place. The city, however, is just a quiet, peaceful seaside town. Namibia was a German colony in the late 19th century, so many of the businesses and streets have German names…