Guatemala!

Let me just say that I LOVE Guatemala. I have been to Peru, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Puerto Rico...and Guatemala just might be my favorite. It's definitely up near the top, at least. I'll write another post with more on that, but I wanted this one to just be a summary of our trip, in pictures.

We stayed in Antigua, Guatemala, which was the colonial capital of most of central America.

The main square is really pretty at night, too.

The cathedral used to be huge and it had domes, but a large earthquake in 1773 destroyed that.

There's also an arch in the city.

We climbed/rode a horse up a volcano.
"Oooh, let's go this way!"

This is the lava field we had to hike across at the top of Volcan Pacaya.

Hiking across the lava field - occasionally we would feel bursts of heat coming out from below.

This is as close to the top as we were allowed to get.  That's a sunset, not an eruption.

The next day we went to Lake Atitlan, probably the most beautiful in the world.

We took a boat tour to three Mayan villages, and these sweet boys showed us around their town.

We saw Mayan women at the market.

We saw other people out on the lake.

We saw lots of Mayan people - who don't all speak Spanish, by the way - going on with their traditional way of life.