Southern Mexico and Guatemala

 Puerto Escondido and Further South
Surf continued to roll in over our week in Puerto. It's the kind of place you could stay for months, but months could turn in to years and before you know it you're selling jewellery on the streets for your next meal. With this in mind we decided we had to move on, but we only made it less than 100 km south to a secluded surf break, which turned out to be one of the best surf locations we've found so far. A perfect right hand point break nestled under a granite headland capped with coastal jungle. We stayed a week and scored some great waves.

 Volcano Tajamulco
Crossing the border to Guatemala we ascended the coastal range to the cool climates of a town named Quetzaltenango (aka Xela). Unprepared for the cold climate we stocked up on Guatemalan llama-style beanies, gloves and jumpers. Our new outfits we also for our planned hike to the top of one of the local Volcanos. With the help of a local guide we scaled Volcano Tajamulco over a 2 day hike. Ascending the peak at day break in the freezing cold was worth the magic views from the summit. We looked along the volcanic mountain range stretching far into southern Guatemala, with other prominent peaks highlighted by the morning sun. Magic!

 Lago de Atitlan
It hasn't all been carefree holidays... we returned to school for another week of Spanish in one of those 'postcard worthy' towns on the shores of Lake Atitlan (which has been described as possibly the most beautiful lake in the world - it was pretty nice). While studying Spanish we lived with local families, eating meals at the family table etc. This was an attempt to immerse ourselves in Guatemalan culture and Spanish. It helped, but we still have a long way to go before we could claim to 'speak Spanish'. After 5 tough days, school was out and we had time to explore the lake, including some classic cliff diving spots (photo) into super deep (up to 320m) crystal clear water.

 Antigua
The old capital of Guatemala, Antigua is as close to the perfect Spanish Colonial town that we've found, with pastel coloured buildings lining cobbled stone streets. Daniel has been roped into salsa dance classes and its proving to be yet another difficult Latin American skill to learn. Also, we have seen many volunteer possibilities here, but we're still looking for a good match to our skills and interests. If not here, we'll look again in Nicaragua.