The flight from Denver left about 20:00 and, after a stopover in LAX and San Salvador, landed in Guatemala around 09:00 the next day. From Guatemala City Airport, Dad and I took a shuttle bus to Antigua. We arrived during the most festive month, known as Semana Santa. Holy Week. The shuttle dropped us off about five or six blocks outside of Parque Central.  Central Park.

I had been to Antigua three times last year so I knew my way around quite well. My favorite hostel, the Black Cat, was just one block East of the park. An employee I knew from last time remembered who I was, Jim was his name. ‘Hey, where's your bike? BMW, right?' were his first words.  Despite that it was the busiest time of the year we were able to get a room without a reservation - thanks to Jim.

Dad thoroughly enjoyed Antigua. No buildings are over two stories, the streets are perfectly gridded and cobblestoned, most locals were in their native brightly colored attire, and the town has over thirty monuments and old ruins. And Dad had his own personal translator - me (he won't admit it but I think he was actually impressed at how well I knew Spanish). Antigua was also a place where we could eat like kings for cheap at any of the four hundred restaurants. For dinner that first evening we ate in a courtyard with fountains, foliage and an open sky. The weather was perfect.

That night was Riley's Irish Pub. We watched the Precession from the doorstep. A precession consists of hundreds of locals dressing up in bright purple robes and carrying floats, much like parade floats, from atop their shoulders. The floats display various scenes from the crucifixion. Boys carried incense that burned the eyes and caused many coughing fits.  A band marched behind playing somber music. Thousands of people lined the streets to watch and take pictures.

After the precession passed we stepped back inside. We drank a few beers and met some good people. Then we drank a few more beers and met those same people for a second time. Five hours later we were grateful to the low altitude of Guatemala, otherwise we would have been passed out on the benches in Central Park.

The next day we took an afternoon shuttle up to the Volcan Pacaya trail. It's a fairly steep, hour long walk up to the base of the volcano. Dad and I both found that we were not in the amazing shape that we imagined, far from it actually.

When we got to the top it wasn't as I had remembered it. Last time I was up there it was clearer. This day was very hazy because of the volcanic smoke and the fog - not a fantastic day for scenery pictures. The lava oozing out of the side of the volcano was neat to see, last time I hardly got to see any lava, which was fine because the highlight was the sunset view from the top.

An adventurous individual brought marshmallow. The marshmallows were loaded onto a stick and they smoked and burned even at two feet away from the lava. Another guy brought some hot dogs. He got too excited and pulled them away from the lava too fast and the weenies fell off. He then loaded a cigar onto his stick and lit the cigar successfully. I give him an A in creativity.

That night we slept well and took a morning bus to Coban after breakfast, it was a five hour ride along beautiful countryside. Coban is not known for anything significant except for a few coffee farms that give tours. Though near Coban lies Semuc Champey - one of my favorite places of all time. Neither words nor pictures can do justice to the beauty of Semuc. A river gushes through a large cave, but the river also runs on the surface in a slow but large stream creating seven pools of perfect turquoise water. Between each pool is a waterfall. It's in a valley and huge green mountain walls surround the area. It is a paradise.

We met up with two girls from our hotel before we left and ate breakfast with them since they were going to be joining us on the same tour. In conversation they told us they had been traveling for a few months and used to work at a nude resort somewhere in Mexico. Their personalities were great and they were a riot to be around, cracking jokes every second. They were a fun addition to our tour of Semuc and we hung out with them most of the day.

Dad and I each forgot our swim trunks so I went swimming in my jeans and he in his shorts. We brought some extra clothes to change into for the cave exploring tour. The caves were easily reached twenty minutes away with our shuttle bus. I had been to these caves before, along with a few others, and they were definitely worth a second visit.

The cave ceiling in some parts was hundreds of feet high and stretches for over ninety miles. We ran into plenty of bats and massive albino cave crickets. Cool stuff.

We arrived back at 20:00. I walked into our hotel room, which was unlocked - odd considering I remember locking it.  I changed my clothes then went to get something out of my bag. The bag was empty. My computer, new SLR digital camera that I had just bought for fifteen hundred dollars and my wallet were all missing. I screamed an obscenity and ran out of the room to check in the lobby to see if anybody had my stuff. A useless act considering it had probably happened hours ago.

The hotel owner was called and he was useless. He just recited the hotel liability policy. He was a flat out prick. I know the Guatemala police to be corrupt and useless and I didn't want to waste my time filing a police report. I had been royally fucked over and there was nothing I could do about it. I found out later that the thieves charged over two thousand dollars on my credit cards before I could get them canceled. We were both starving so we went to the beautiful hotel restaurant, dined with the girls, and I decided not to stress out about it. I had been traveling for two and a half years with no problems. I got to relaxed and got screwed. Lesson well learned. Now give me a beer.

The next morning we left to Tikal where there are dozens of Mayan ruins including massive pyramids. I had also been here before but sadly I was not impressed again. It's a place worth seeing once, not twice. Last time I came when there were absolutely no tourists. Now tourists were swarming which I think completely ruins the atmosphere.
It was too late to explore the ruins after checking into our hotel (prices were raised from last time), and taking showers. We had met an Argentine couple on the bus to Tikal and we dined with them that evening then shared political views over a few beers.

We awoke at 04:30 in the morning to catch the sunrise from atop Temple IV, one of the tallest pyramids. It was very foggy and the view was crap however we got to hear some howler monkeys. They sound like ferocious lions but they are actually very small creatures. We took a tour after the sunrise with a well educated but horribly spoken tour guide. The tour lasted until 09:00. We went back to the hotel and had breakfast. I went back to the hotel to get more sleep while Dad caught another tour.

He arrived back at 13:00 and we had lunch with some friends he met on the tour. An Indian guy was full of stories, opinions, jokes and other information. Everybody enjoyed listening to him. Dad and I are ready to go to India next year after hearing some of his stories. We got his email and will definitely keep in contact with him.

We met back up with the Argentine's and took a bus to Flores, a small island near Santa Elaina. We had planned on staying there the night but found an overnight bus back to Antigua that left at 21:00. The bus broke down at two in the morning (on Friday) and we had to transfer buses. We arrived in Guatemala City at seven in the morning and had to take a taxi ride to Antigua twenty minutes away. We checked back into the Black Cat and spent the first part our or last full day wandering around Antigua.

While walking down the street I ran into my good friend Jorge. He's from Honduras but I met him last year (same month) in Antigua. On my motorcycle trip to South America I stayed at his hotel in Honduras. It's more of a fifteen bedroom mansion than a hotel.  He's the type of person who everybody likes and wants to be friends with. He's fifty but looks thirty five. It was amazing to randomly run into him in Antigua. We spent the rest of the day with him and some of his German friends. It really cheered up my mood since I was still infuriated that I had everything stolen in Coban.

We scheduled a shuttle bus to the airport at 04:00 the next day, Saturday.

It was a nice trip and Dad was great to travel with.