Well it's another early morning, we're up bright and early, and in fact today's our
TREAD anniversary! it's exactly one year, since we quit our jobs and decided to travel
the world, and we're in our lovely hostel La Quinta and as we are up early, the chef
has very kindly come in, to make us some breakfast before we go !! and he is so lovely - this is and our chef and
his trusty assistant, good morning my name is Fabricio and we are here in Antigua - Guatemala waiting for you !!
Ah !! so come on down and they are going to do some cooking !!
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We had to pop next door to my favourite little pastry shop, because the Bus got here a little bit early so we didn't get time
for breakfast in the hostel. So we've got ourselves two Danish pastry mmm!!
So Lanquin, I think we've got about
an 8 hour, I think it's about an eight hour bus ride.
Yep, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride! and the in-flight entertainment.
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So we've arrived in Lanquin, and they have sent free transport! How amazing is that !
Chris is in the back with all the girls! and I because I'm a granny I get to sit in the car.
Amazing !!
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So after a nine and a half hour drive from Antigua, we have arrived.
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so sometimes we'd like to share with you where we are staying and we feel that
this place is one of those that we have to share with you guys
it's a hostel or accommodation called El Retiro here in Lanquin, which we're
staying at, to visit the water pools of Semuc Champey, which we're gonna go and
see tomorrow, and we're gonna take you on a little guided tour of where we're
staying, because it is just one of the coolest places that we have stayed so far.
In fact we've just booked an extra night, to extend our stay, because it is so cool !! We have!
Hot, it's very hot. It's not cool ! So we're going take a walk down here and show you
the reception area, and there's a number of different types of accommodation
dotted around, there's behind us here some private rooms, there are bathrooms and
showers, all around the complex here. In this reception there are
loads of different tours that you can join in up here, there's also shuttles
and transport, they've got lockers just over here so if
you need to lock your valuables away, anywhere then everything is just there
and safe, and then the reception desk here is super helpful and there's always
somebody around. Actually one of the most important places in this reception area
is the ice cream cupboard! Because it's rather warm here, so we've treated
ourselves a few times!! To do the tour to Semuc Champey or you need to do is write
your name on the board here, and they've got various tours, they've got
information on the walls behind me. So there's everything you need to know. So
we're really looking forward to doing that.
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So the accommodation here in El Retiro, in Lanquin is right next to the river
that you can see behind me in the distance. And this this town is
in the valley, smack in the middle of the Guatemalan jungle, and it is just so
beautiful, even looking at the wire behind me where the vine has literally
just covered it. You know you can really feel the nature around here and
there's so many beautiful flowers and plants dotted around here, they've
definitely spent a lot of time manicuring these gardens and it's just
absolutely stunning. It is definitely one of the best places we've stayed on our
trip here in Central America so far.
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So we're in the river, at our hostel and one of the advantages is it has this
pool area, that you can just chill out in !! although it's pretty cold !
The guy behind me there was the crazy one this morning,
that decided to jump straight in, that would definitely give me a heart attack
doing that, he's gonna do it again!! he's gonna do it again!! don't kill yourself
for the camera!!
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Hi ! how you doing ? good good, and how beautiful of a place are we! I mean we could be at home
working right!!
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So in the main restaurant area of this hostel they have it all
going on. They have an absolutely amazing swimming area in the river behind me
which is really deep you can jump off, you can do what you want in there. It's
absolutely beautiful, but the water is quite cold, and it's very refreshing when
the weather is so hot. We also have they have a pool table that you can see
behind me here, They have table tennis and they also
have an area where you can play Nintendo. Yeah, so you can sit here play your
computer games, with an absolutely fabulous view behind me. And in the
evening they do a buffet dinner, and there's various themes each night so
we've had Thai, we've had some local cuisine, and tonight is the Italian
buffet, which we're super excited about! Because I'm starving already, they've got
loads of different types of accommodation and we have a room with a
fan but we've also asked them to show us the upgraded model and it has air
conditioning as well, and the view that you get behind me it's just beautiful
we're just actually in that hut down there, so we're closer to the water, but we only
have a fan so if you need aircon they have that available here.
We found this property on booking.com, and it is 23 pounds a night which is
quite expensive, and a little bit more than we would normally pay, but when you
go through bookings you actually pay - if you booked for two nights or three
nights you actually get an extra night for free, so if you factor that in and do
the maths and divide it, it actually works out that we paid about 18 pounds a night.
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So we're walking around the town of Lanquin, and my God is it hot! hot! Whoa!!
We've just walked up the hill from our hostel, there's an ATM in town, various
shops, little restaurants, pharmacies and stuff but it's really really really hot
to walk around.
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Says the name of the place wrong !! - CUT
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