Next Stop: Guatemala City

I doubt many people out there read these posts without also following one of our social media accounts, but if you are one of those people, sorry for keeping you in suspense. We found out only two weeks after submitting our bid list that our second destination with the State Department will be Guatemala City, which just so happened to be our top choice. What’s equally exciting is, in addition to having several friends recently assigned to nearby countries, the flight home will be less than half the time as Israel. And that includes the layover in Houston!

Being in my 30’s, you’d think I’d be more accustomed to planning my future. Yet, having the next several years concretely planned out is an odd feeling. We will be in Israel until February of 2022. When we leave, we will head back to Washington, DC for six months of Spanish language training. Then we will take about a month of home leave (the State Department mandates 20-45 days of home leave between every tour) late summer of ’22. Finally, we will find ourselves in Guatemala to start our next two year tour in October of 2022.

That means, at a minimum, our future plans are locked in through October 2024, or 3.5 years from now. We also have a good idea of our strategy for the following tour, but I’ll save that for another blog. Now, we still have several ideas for how to spend the next nine months in Israel, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t already looking ahead. We watched a Netflix movie named Guatemala: Heart of the Mayan World that got us nice and excited for the trip. For anyone thinking about visiting Guatemala, it’s a great watch. Below are a few places we will definitely be visiting.

Lake Atitlán is located in a massive volcanic crater west of Guatemala City. It is at the top of almost every tourism list I’ve come across. I expect it will be our first big road, roughly three hours away.

The second most popular tourist destination is Tikal National Park. This archaeological site is nearly 2000 years old and features some of the most impressive Mayan ruins and pyramids. The park is located in northern Guatemala nearly 10 hours away by car.

Also listed on many tourism sites is Antigua, a UNESCO World Heritage Center famous for its Spanish colonial architecture and stunning volcanic scenery. It’s only an hour from where we’ll be living, so I expect it will be one of our first stops.

Misha loves chocolate. The only thing she loves more than chocolate (and isn’t a dog) is coffee. As it turns out, Guatemala is excellent at producing both! Needless to say, Misha will be in heaven when we go on chocolate and coffee tours and see the process from bean to bar and mug.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, you may be thinking. And you’d be right. With nine months left to go, we still have plenty of time left to enjoy the Mediterranean. We are considering several options for upcoming trips, so we’ll have more to post as the summer wears on. Until then…