Gillespie en Honduras...

Sarah Gillespie, my BFF from college came last week to visit yours truly. She flew in to Guatemala City (the flights tend to be cheaper there), and from there we immediately caught a bus to Atitlan Lake.

The trip got off to a rocky start, as we had to duck under the windows so the cops couldn´t see us. The bus driver tactfully explained that it´s actually illegal to buy tickets from the office of the bus company, and that we were supposed to have purchased them at the actual terminal. Oh well. We had to take cover for about 10 minutes until we arrived at the terminal. See below for appropriate hiding position:




After the 3 hour bus ride we finally arrived at Atitlan. At the reccomendation of a friend we stayed at the Hotel Casa del Mundo, built on the side of a cliff. I kept thinking to myself ¨"I am in a hotel built on the side of a cliff, overlooking a lake made of collapsed volcanic cone. This can´t possibly be true." But I do have the photos to prove it...




From Atitlan we headed to Antigua for half a day, and rose early the next morning to catch the bus to Copan at 3:30am. Wow, that was really fun. Let me tell you how much I love not sleeping.
As soon as we arrived in Copan we headed directly to the ruins, of course during the hottest time of day. We toured the famed ruins, went to the scultpure museum, pretended to be cultured and then caught 2 buses to Cabañas, my beloved home town.




We spent a day in Cabañas, floating from casa to casa, introducing Gillespie to my friends in the community. Same conversation every time. "You both are so tall." "Your friend speaks a lot of Spanish." "You both have the same name? How come you don´t look anything alike?" Seriously, we did have a great time.

Afterwards, we headed back to Antigua. This bus trip was much more enjoyable, as it left at 12 noon, and the views were stunning. In Antigua we went out to dinner (I enjoyed a wonderful piece of dark chocolate cake!) and spent the next morning strolling through the streets, admiring the alfombras of Semana Santa. After an awesome brunch we headed to the airport to say our goodbyes. Who knew a week could go by so quickly?




Six days, two countries. Maya ruins, volcanic lakes, colonial cities.

Gillespie said it best, "I did not come here to relax."