more guatemala

view from the plane

Guatemala City from the sky

largest fountain in central america

pretty yellow church in Antigua

geothermal energy plant outside Antigua, Guatemala; if they can do it, why can't we?

queen of Central America!

This weekend I summited the highest point in Central America, Tajumulco (hence the reason I am now queen of the region, much like ¨King of the Mountain¨). We hiked up to 4000 meters yesterday right before the rain set in, ate some dinner, and went to bed. I was in my sleeping bag at the ungodly hour of 7:00. On a Saturday night. My day today began at 3:30 with our wake up call for a summit push (4220 meters/12,660 feet - damn metric system) in the dark in order to see the sunrise over Central America and Mexico. Below are some photos from the spectacular sights of the morning events, including some of my travel buddies.


Sunrise beginning

Dave (American) and me trying to keep from freezing to death in my sleeping bag- Mexico is behind us

Matthias (Austrian) and me enjoying the view

Here comes the sun...

Volcanic range

Tikal - Mayan ruins in Guatemala

It took some major dedication to get to these ruins, and luckily they were worth the long bus rides. These are some of the largest concentration of Mayan ruins and they are very different from other Mayan ruins because they are tucked in the jungle with monkeys and toucans roaming around all over the place.


Temple I - one of the larger remains


Spider monkey swinging around the tree overhead


Toucan (it´s in the middle of the frame - yellow bill and red tail- I don´t have a way to edit, so no cropping yet!)

Lago Atitlan

This is a beautiful lake where I spent a couple of days last week. It´s surrounded by volcanoes, as you can see.

Lago Atitlan, Guatemala


me with the volcanoes

Hiking on vocanoes

As a quick update to this small trip I took, there was a renewable energy plant in the middle of nowhere, Guatemala, pulling energy from the volcano and supplying electricity to the towns around there for super cheap. If they can figure out the technology in Guatemala, then surely we can figure out how to harvest enough renewable energy in the US. I mean, come on!







Volcan Pacaya








Hot lava - watch out!