fter our escapades at the Honduras-Nicaraguan border we didn’t have much daylight left to make it to our next goal of hiking the Somoto Canyon.  We did however pull into the town of Somoto where we found an inexpensive hotel (Hotel El Rosario) where we were able to park in the courtyard. Score (I wish we had parking options like this at home sometimes.).

The murder capital of the world.

The next stop for us was El Porvenir, where we would be situated for a week volunteering with the Muskoka Foundation and Honduras Child Alliance.

We almost skipped El Salvador because we were in a bit of a rush to make it to Honduras to start our next round volunteering with the Muskoka Foundation.  Instead of skipping it we decided to spend seven days there and then book it straight to the north coast of Honduras after that.

The hike was the most challenging and lengthy that we’ve ever done, but totally worth it.

En route to Panajachel, Lago de Atitlan, Chichicastenango is a cute town in Guatemala, famous for its Wednesday and Saturday market which is said to be the largest in the country.

Our stay in Acul definitely felt like a vacation from our travels.  The air was fresh, the vibe was muy tranquilo, and we settled in and read books and relaxed.

All we heard was POP! PSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! as our tire deflated rapidly (like seriously rapidly, as in it as fully flat in less than 60 seconds).

“Hey, I’ve got you on my Instagram!”  Umm, what??

The ruins of Tikal were worth the unnerving drive.

What do Canadians do after spending some good quality time at the beach?  Head into the mountains, of course!

We (Richard, Ashley, Wilson, Sarah) were sitting down to dinner at Backpacker’s Paradise when Wilson proposed the unpaved Coastal Highway as a route to get to Hopkins Village the following day.  After a teeny bit of hesitation, and some Google imaging, we decided to go for it.

Island life in Belize.

Yes, we did it.  Funny blog post name about Belize: Check!  We spent 4 months in Mexico and, although we loved it, were ready to explore some new territory.

By the time we made it to Palenque we were deep into the jungle. Vegetation is radically different, the humidity skyrockets, and the resulting mosquitos are relentless. Oh yeah, there are howler monkeys too.

Mole, mole, mole (sauce).

Coffee, coffee, coffee… and Frida Kahlo.

This ain’t Egypt.

A 5 hour drive north from Patzcuaro took us to the Unesco World Heritage Site and colonial town of Guanajuato. We had heard romantic musings from fellow overlanders about how much they loved this city.  We agreed.

So yeah, our truck got broken into again…