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My return trip to Hostel el Sol was met with a surprise. This time, I’m the only gringo, and the only person in the hostel, aside from staff, who doesn’t speak Japanese. However, I looked at this as a challenge. For the past two days, I’ve given myself a crash course in Japanese. I found […]

One of my missions on this blog is to inspire people to travel, and I think that’s fairly easy to achieve no matter what your finances. Here are some easy New Year’s travel resolutions to make. 1.     Go some place you’ve never been It can be tough to jump into the unknown, but it’s completely […]

What a wild night! Tourists from Guatemala, Spain, the United States, Canada, South Africa and all over the world were in San Pedro la Laguna last night to ring in 2013. Central America loves its fireworks. As I write this, I hear people setting off some of the louder ones. Last night, was no different. […]

The spiritual energy was in the air last night. For the first time in 394 years, the Mayans in Guatemala brought in a new b’ak’tun. Ceremonies were held across the country, and in San Pedro la Laguna was no exception. That afternoon, the locals unveiled a replica of a Mayan freize, then played music with […]

I spent two days staying at a Japanese hostel on the outskirts of Panajachel. The city is the largest on the shores of Lake Atitlán. While some people choose to skip Pana altogether for San Pedro or San Marcos, I chose to see what I could find on the shores of the public beach.