Guatemala- A Trip to Celebrate

To celebrate Eric graduating from Northwestern with both his MBA and his MEM we decided that we needed to take a trip to celebrate! The only obstacle we faced was a lack of funds, so while the initial planning begat an itinerary that included Southeast Asia and China, our budget plotted otherwise. We then put that trip to the back burner and hit the drawing board again. After a bit more research and a few more scrapped itineraries, we decided that we would take a 20 day trip to Guatemala. The flights and food are cheap and they have lakes, Mayan pyramid ruins and jungle, so tons to do. We bought our plane tickets for less than what we would pay to go across the US and started making reservations and reading our travel books in anticipation. At this point we had about 3 months till Eric graduated and we moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where Eric got a job in his ideal field of energy. We were busy with plans and saying goodbye to Chicago when we got 2 tickets to see Oprah in her last season. We went to the show and while sitting in the audience Laura looked at Eric and said, I think I am pregnant. A few hours, a train ride and a test later, it was confirmed, baby on board. At this point we had to decide if we would take the trip to Guatemala or not. Obviously we decided to go for it (kind of a no-brainer for us, to travel or not to travel...)

We had a pretty decent time in Central America. The food was pretty yummy (Eric did come home with a bit of a stomach bug, but that is a whole other blog posting) and the people were friendly. We really enjoyed being immersed in another culture again and had a blast seeing the ancient ruins. All in all it was a successful trip, our first as a trio. Laura didn't have too many issues with being pregnant, just a little tiredness, the massage she got helped with that =)

Well, we will let the pictures and captions tell the story of our trip. Enjoy. 


A parrot in the lobby of our hotel in Panajachel!

On a boat on a tour around lake Atitlan

Eric on the boat (Thats a live volcano behind him!)

Laura touring a small town by the lakeside

At the lakeside restaurant

Chillin in the atmosphere.

Lakeside condo anyone?

Mixing in with the crowd at Chi Chi Castenago

The church at Chi Chi

a cool looking cemetery..but not too close!  Dont tempt fate. :)

Getting to know the locals

Loving the lake up in Flores

Laura by the lake!

The mysterious island..

Sunset from the hotel window

On top of temple IV at Tikal...Star Wars, Return of the Jedi anyone? (George Lucas filmed here...)

Long way down!!!

View from the top of a pyramid- Laura was 4 months pregnant and climbed to the top!


Eric and Laura in front of a huge ruin

Climbing around the smaller ruins

Its massive!

In front of a giant, and mostly complete, temple

Eric and the guard

The jaguar temple..the most famous of the Tikal temples

Eric in front of the Jaguar

Laura overlooking the temple and ruins beyond

Taking a rest

Eric at the top of the queens temple

Another shot of the jaguar

Pyramid backside

Eric and Laura exploring...

...and having fun!

Conqueror!

There's some carvings!

In the woods, exploring some rain forest

Outside of a church in Antigua

In the main town square of Antigua...very colonial!

Having our first authentic Guatemalan meal

Exploring a ruined convent (The volcanic eruption/earthquake took it down back in the 1700's)

In a church square..its a market as well

Another ruined church facade.

In front of a cobblestone street and a volcano

Exploring some convent ruins

A ruined convent courtyard

taking a small rest from the heat

Posing for a picture

Great view of the pregnant chick

Yes he climbed up there

Great shot of the countryside

More exploring the covenant

Covenant gardens

Covenant grounds

Hiding from the rain in the covenant, it passed quickly so we could explore more

The stairs that went no where

Cool fountain, Antigua Guatemala 

We rode home in the rain in a horse and cart one day in Antigua

Enjoying the tropical vacation

Eric exploring

Pooltime!

Having a cup of hot coco on a rainy day

Where we had breakfast

Prego pic

Waterfall in the jungle

Eric crossing the bridge in a nature preserve

Great shot in front of a creek


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