Sofia Somewhere

Every time I try to write about Antigua, the word beautiful pops up way too often. In aiming for simplicity, beautiful is truly a word to describe the town, and the past weekend, it was made even more beautiful with a flower festival. We walked out early on Saturday morning, but most establishments were still in the process of setting up their decorations. It was still quite nice to get a glimpse of what it would be like. Aside from private businesses decorating their facades, the municipal government also decorated some public spaces like their fountains.  We went a bit out of town for brunch, and when we walked back into town after, the streets were packed! We managed to see some beautiful displays, but didn't have the space to take photos. The next day, we headed out again in the early morning. A lot of places had taken down their decorations for the night, but we saw some that were still out, and had a more relaxing stroll taking pictures. Forever charmin...

This past week, Chris and I did our first "visa run." Upon arrival in Guatemala, tourists are granted a 90-day visa that is valid for the C-4 countries of Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. After these 90 days are up, you can renew your visa at the Immigration Office in the City for another 90 days. After the second set of 90 days are over, you then have to leave the C-4 area. Most tourists make a quick border crossing to Mexico in what is popularly called a "visa run." I don't know how long you technically have to be out of the country for; there doesn't seem to be a set law or rule that people refer to. Some say it has to be 72 hours, while others have said they've had luck crossing the border and coming back on the same day. Since we were on our mid-year school break, we decided to make a vacation out of it (and not take our chances) and visit San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico for a few days. It's possible to make the trip cheap...

Whenever Chis and I decide to eat out, I'm always torn. On the one hand, I love going back to our favorite restaurants or our tried-and-tested ones, but on the other hand, I also really love trying new restaurants. Over the last months we've tried some new ones, and revisited some olds one, and I've rounded up another list to add to our Antigua Eats  ( Part 1 of which is over here ). Before discovering Red Koi,  Kabuki  (6ta Avenida Norte, 14A)  was my go to Asian restaurant, albeit it was more just Japanese food. I satisfied my tempura cravings here, and a few months back tried some yakitori which was new on the menu, and liked those even better. The sushi is not the best here -- though it is still delicious -- but the other plates on their menu have made my stomach very happy. The ramen craze hit Manila several years back, but I was never a fan until I went to Japan . I don't crave it often, but every now and then, I do enjoy a good bowl of ramen . I wa...

After moving to Guatemala, the question I get asked most often is (naturally), "Why Guatemala?" At first, I wasn't specifically looking to land myself here. After leaving Spain, all I knew was that I wanted to go to another Spanish speaking country. I looked at several countries in Central and South America, and in the end, finding a job at UPAVIM pushed me in the direction of Guatemala. So it wasn't a dead-set vision of coming to Guatemala that brought me here, but over the course of my first year here, I came to love it. Traveling around Guatemala introduced me to the country's captivating culture. Living in La Esperanza and meeting so many wonderful women and children exposed me to the warmth of the Guatemalan people.  And my every day life in the city manifested Guatemala's similarity to the Philippines -- from city and provincial life to government and politics to quotidian habits; I've lost track of how many times I've said to others, "Just...

For the next half of our travels we headed east. We were initially just thinking Rio Dulce, but then that expanded to Livingston, and then to Puerto Barrios, but just to catch the bus back from there. So first up, Rio Dulce! Like I mentioned on my last post, traveling via public transportation can get tricky. Researching showed that to get from Lanquín to Río Dulce would have taken us at least 3 bus changes and 9 hours, and that’s if we were lucky and the buses pass by at certain times. In the end, we decided to just get a shuttle for Q175, and had an easy and hassle free journey to Rio Dulce. Ready for more travels We left Lanquín at around 8:20 (supposedly 8am, but we had to wait for a few people), and had a direct trip with no stops to Rio Dulce, getting us there 5 hours later. It’s a small town, so we got off with everyone else and walked the 5 minutes to our hostel, The Shack. It was right on the water, and seemed really fun. It was a small two story hut with a bar below ...