For New Years Eve we headed two-and-a-half hours back to Antigua to ring in 2010. We checked into the brand new hostel Dionisio, and headed for dinner at Kafka, where I savored the most delicious macaroni and cheese I have ever eaten. Then we joined the festivities taking place in the streets. Families, tourists, and Guatemaltecos from bordering cities descended upon Antigua to enjoy the picturesque colonial city and its agreeable weather. Bands were playing at every corner, flame throwers and circus parades gallivanted through the city entertaining the masses. Small kioskos sold beer and alcohol well into the morning, and everyone celebrated on the cobblestone pathways of the city center to call in the New Year.

As the year came to a close, the old buildings shook from the harmonized countdown, and when the clock hit 12:00am, a master display of fireworks unleashed, music blared, champagne sprayed and everyone rose in a chanting chorus of “Gaute, Gaute, Gaute!” It was invigorating and uplifting, instilling hope for a better year to come than the one just completed, marked by crisis and hardship on so many levels.

Read More...

Nora Walsh's Guatemalan travelblog, part 3

Back to Antigua

For New Years Eve we headed two and a half hours back to Antigua to ring in 2010. We checked into the brand new hostel Dionisio, and headed for dinner at Kafka, where I savored the most delicious macaroni and cheese I have ever eaten in my life. Then we joined the festivities taking place in the streets. Families, tourists, and Guatemaltecos from bordering cities descended upon Antigua to enjoy the picturesque colonial city and its agreeable weather. Bands were playing at every corner, flame throwers and circus parades gallivanted through the city entertaining the masses. Small kioskos sold beer and alcohol well into the morning, and everyone celebrated on the cobblestone pathways of the city center to call in the New Year.  

As the year came to an official close, the old buildings shook from the harmonized countdown, and when the clock hit 12:00am, a master display of fireworks unleashed, music blared, champagne sprayed and everyone rose in a chanting chorus of “Gaute, Gaute, Gaute!” It was invigorating and uplifting, instilling hope for a better year to come than the one just completed, marked by crisis and hardship on so many levels.

Read More...

Nora Walsh Guatemala travelblog, Part 2

Lake Atitlan, San Marcos

To get out of Chichi we hopped on a chicken bus (an old US school bus decoratively painted for its second life) for $1.50 and rode an hour and a half to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. When we arrived in Panajachel, we walked about ten minutes from the bus stop to the docks, where I parted with the girls and caught a 25Q ($3.10) “lancha” or a small boat to a village on the lake called San Marcos. Caveat: many unethical salesman will try and convince you that you have missed the last boat to your destination (no matter what time of day it is) and will try to convince you to take their private boat for 100Q or more, rather than the standard 25Q, which by the way is the tourist price, not the local price which is 10-15Q.

San Marcos is known for its beauty and spiritual qualities. It houses a host of mediation and holistic centers including Las Piramides, which has two Meditation Temples, pyramid-shaped cabins, a library, medicinal herb garden, communal kitchen, sauna, a private dock, a vegetarian restaurant, and also offers courses spiritual courses.

Having recently herniated discs in my neck and lower back I needed more of a medical massage than a relaxing one, and serendipitously discovered Pascal Steiner who owns Vitialis Health. Pascal is a Swiss transplant who is schooled in various massage techniques as well as Neurostructural Integration Technique (NST), which is essentially a soft tissue osteopathic-style therapy, designed to remove pain and physiological imbalances by restoring the structural integrity of the body. 

Read More...