Last Days in Central America

El Delfin Hotel and Restaurant. Salute!

Tomorrow, I leave Lake Atitlan (still in Guatemala) and head to Antigua (also still in Guatemala) for a few days. These will be my last few days in Central America for a while. To be cliche, it seems like only yesterday that I arrived in the region with my model, @Kayci.Lee in Nicaragua and explored a few countries with her in January before she left early Feb. Then, I thought I'd be in Xela for only a few months, but that turned out to be six months instead. I thought I'd head up through more of Central America and make my way down into Colombia. I chose however stay put in one spot, save some money, and fly to Colombia.

So in September, I fly to Cartagena, Colombia and start a new adventure in places I have never been. Never been to South America at all. I've been throughout Central America quite a few times. I started out in Panama (twice) in my Army days and then for the first time as a civilian for 6 weeks with my friend, Heather in 2012. I came back in 2013 for 3 months alone and then again for 3 months with my girlfriend, Tracie in 2015.  This makes my 4th civilian visit here and also by far the longest I've traveled alone. No girlfriend. No model. Just solo. Eight months and its still taking a bit to get used to that.

Many thanks to my new friend, hotel and restaurant owner, Delfin (left) who took me up the mountain for sunrise pics.

So now it's off to new places. I don't expect Colombia to be terribly different from Central America, but I know it's not the same. Culturally and climate-wise, I can only assume similarities but I've been told many things about Colombia and its beauty, so I'm excited. Even today, in a barber shop, eyes widened as I corrected some assumptions that I was headed back to the states with this being my last day here in Lake Atitlan. Stories in English and Spanish poured out in abundance at the mention of Colombia. Once guy was disheartened when I confessed that I would not see the more southwestern city of Cali on this trip. My travels will keep me more northern this time around. I won't likely get further west than Bogota. From there, it's onto boating up the Amazon River in Brazil, up through Peru, and into Ecuador.

I think I have most everything I need going forward. Most importantly having a laptop I can finally edit on was chief concern. I left my macro lens back home in Texas. If I need macro work, I can use my 55mm with the extension tubes. I'll have to wait til this December for the Sigma 20mm 1.4 for Sony cameras. It finally became available right as I left stateside because, of course it would. An option could be to replace my Sony 16-35 f/4 with that and travel only with the Sony 55mm 1.8 and the Sigma 20mm 1.4. Yes, I know I forfeit anything telephoto, but you can't bring everything when you have to carry it all on your back. I can't say I'm still sold on the drone option, but I'll likely pursue it anyway. Again, weight is of primary concern. The drones are lightweight, until you consider everything else you need with it like spare batteries, spare parts, etc. Then  combine that with all the other "spare" stuff you already have for all your other systems. Traveling as a photog gets heavy real quick.

Lake City of San Pedro la Laguna sitting at the base of the San Pedro Volcano

For now, I have been here in San Pedro, Lake Atitlan for the last 10 days and I have to get some packing done. Tomorrow afternoon, I should be in the old colonial town of Antigua. All eyes are on Colombia at this point. In the next blog post, I think I shall touch on the new Nikon Z-systems and my feelings on them and Canon picking up the mirrorless banner.

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Central Park, San Pedro la Laguna Lake Atitlan