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As we headed into Guatemala City that morning, we were surprised by the lack of traffic, until we remembered that today they were celebrating two hundred years of independence. This was good for the traffic on the roads, but meant that a lot of places were shut. We drove across town to the drone repair workshop first. He wasn’t there so we waited outside till he arrived, his business was run out of the garage. Said garage was lined floor to ceiling with drones of all sizes. W

After a lengthy stop at Lake Atitlan, we needed to start thinking about leaving Guatmela soon. There were however a few points on interest left. One of them being the highly recommended city of Antigua. Somewhat of a tourist hotspot, this pretty town is full of nice places to eat and drink as well the projected ruins of many churches. It’s little cobbled streets and bright yellow buildings are full of artisanal markets and cafes. In the middle of town it is possible to park f

After the road to leave Lake Atitlan, any drive would seem nondescript, but we were happy with something straight forward and simple. The next test would be to our endurance rather than that of the campers. The following morning, we planned to climb Volcano Acatenango. This route is around 5 miles long and is estimated to take the same number of hours, which gives you an indication of the speed that they expect you to be going at. We had booked a tour guide, while it is possi

One of the other highlights of San Marcos for us, was the health food shops. While you felt like you had been mugged after, when you emerged thirty pounds poorer, clutching your vital wheat gluten, you could buy things here that would have been hard to find in Europe. Lee has been wanting to make his own seitan for a long time, but it’s impossible to find the ingredients here. Now though, we finally had them. It was a little disconcerting to try a new recipe that featured so

Our slow descent through Guatemala, meant that Hanno and Kikki were only a few days behind us, having returned from a break back home. Until they arrived, we concentrated our efforts on finding the best priced Spanish lessons and camping spot.  Our initial plan, had been to stay at Pasajcap for the night and then drive around to San Pedro the next day to check out other camping options. In reality, the road was pretty horrible and so we decided to take the boat across instead

Having visited Semuc Champey, our next major stop was going to be Lake Atitlan in the south of the country. This is a fair drive on slow roads, so once back in Coban we stopped off at Orquigonia for the remainder of the day. We were there mid morning having left Laquin early, but we were happy to have a relaxing day after two sleepless nights in the petrol station. The cats too, were happy for freedom after two days cooped up. The owner Panchete is a VW enthusiast and we chat

Although we found ourselves in a new country, we we still scared by our attempts to fix Ruby's many problems over the last couple of months. Even basic VW parts seemed hard to come by, We held little optimism in the parts arriving within a reasonable time. In actual fact, it took us surprisingly little time to find a new steering box and arrange for its delivery, with some help from Louisa. We paid at the local bank in town and waited only a couple of days for it to arrive. C

We spent a surprisingly quiet night by the road at the entrance to Tikal, so we were up around 6am and soon ready to go. We had decided to give Aimee her cat flap, so that she could explore during the night, but the sound of her fighting something in the surrounding jungle quickly changed our minds. Are jaguars still in the wild in Guatemala? We bought our tickets first, before returning to the van to decide how best to hide the cats. Tikal has a strict no pet policy. Some pl

Picking up our story, we are driving from the last Mexican town, Tenosique to the Guatemalan border. The engine cooling was still rather erratic, but we were moving still none the less. We arrived at a final checkpoint and were greeted by some very cheery policemen. They were very excited by the kombi and soon waved us through with great big smiles. As we pulled away from them the gearstick slipped out of place and we lost the ability to change gear as we wrestled it back. Ru