Career change
Feb
20
2017
Time to trade in that cushy graphic design job for a job unloading trucks in Guatemala.
Time to trade in that cushy graphic design job for a job unloading trucks in Guatemala.
There were two options to renew our soon to expire Guatemalan visas. Apply for quick and easy visa extension in Guatemala city Make a border run to Belize or Mexico Guatemala City is located an easy one hour’s drive from where we were staying in Antigua. Option one. Clearly too simple. A cross-country, multi-day road trip to Belize sounded like more fun. A lot more fun. Option two it is!
The city of Antigua is a tapestry of colour. To save you from having to do very much reading, this post is simply a patchwork quilt. A collection of some of the colourful walls and fabrics found on the streets of this UNESCO world heritage centre. Pour a cuppa. Set your eyeballs to ‘relax’ and enjoy.
The crumbling, earthquake ravaged churches of Antigua are a photographer’s dream (and quite possibly a civil engineer’s nightmare). I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself a photographer, but I can categorically state I am not a civil engineer.
This post is about some things that people from our home town of Christchurch are sick of hearing about. Earthquakes. Rebuilding. And crumbling stone churches. It seems appropriate to be writing about the crumbling earthquake-ravaged churches of Antigua today. Just as our home country was yet again thrown into turmoil by one of Mother Nature’s tantrums.
A life of travel is certainly not destined to be one of routine.
Lago Atitlán is just one of those places that pulls travellers in like a magnet, many never leave. Some visitors find themselves living there years later after what was supposed to be a short backpacking trip. We weren’t feeling too bad about our eight week stay.
The town of San Pedro la Laguna sits on the shore of Lago Atitlán. This town is awash with Spanish schools. Much like Starbucks stores in the US or 7 Elevens in Bangkok. You can stand at the doorway of one and see the sign for the next one just down the road. This over-abundance could make selecting a Spanish school either very easy or very difficult.
The distance on the map didn’t look to be that far. Really, kilometre-wise it wasn’t. But how long it takes to get there can depend on which roads you drive on.
Border crossings in Central America are famous for being chaotic and stressful. We had heard stories of ‘border helpers’ swarming vehicles on arrival, everyone trying to get their cut, bribes, fees, corrupt bureaucrats, confusing paperwork, people stuck camping on borders for days because of technicalities outside their control. It was with some trepidation that we rolled up to the border with Guatemala.