Speaker 1: Hello, everybody, Welcome to episode six. I've been there, Dean that.
Speaker 2: I love that name.
Speaker 1: Today we got a great episode for you because my
Speaker 1: wife joins me back in studio.
Speaker 2: I was about to put myself up yep, thanks for
Speaker 2: doing it for me and what I was going to say.
Speaker 2: And you've got a great guest.
Speaker 1: And we've got a great guest today. It's weighing in
Speaker 1: at a whopping ninety six pounds hailing from Fredericksburg, Virginia,
Speaker 1: Kaylin Bell.
Speaker 2: Are we one hundred and ten pounds?
Speaker 1: But thank you six pounds?
Speaker 2: I only weigh eighty two pounds.
Speaker 1: We got a really great episode for you guys today.
Speaker 1: Not only is my wife joining us, but that's actually
Speaker 1: really the only reason it's going to be good episode today.
Speaker 2: So where are we going? Where are we traveling to?
Speaker 1: Last week we talked about photography, well, I talked about
Speaker 1: it by myself because I don't want to burden you
Speaker 1: with coming in here and recording these things with me.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm so burdened, yep, I know you are.
Speaker 1: This week, I want to talk about one of my
Speaker 1: personally personal favorite trips. Yeah, do you know which one
Speaker 1: it is?
Speaker 2: If you had a guess, well, for me it's Italy,
Speaker 2: but I bet for you it's Japan.
Speaker 1: Nope, it's a trip we went on to Gamala, Guatamol.
Speaker 2: Ladies, gentlemen, Upton, what is it? Altallan like?
Speaker 1: At it Lon is what you're thinking of. So how
Speaker 1: long ago was that, Kaylen gosh Dang?
Speaker 2: Maybe three three years October three years ago.
Speaker 1: I think it was more than that, because I think
Speaker 1: it was before my.
Speaker 2: Leg four years accident.
Speaker 1: I want to say it was fifty months ago.
Speaker 2: Okay, it was October four years.
Speaker 1: Ago, October twenty twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: Twenty nineteen, for sure.
Speaker 1: So what Kaylen and I did when we were trying
Speaker 1: to spice up our relationship a little bit, we we
Speaker 1: decided we wanted to bring the other person on a
Speaker 1: surprise trip to the to a destination. So I would
Speaker 1: book a trip bring Kaylen. She wouldn't know where we're
Speaker 1: going until we get there ideally. And then she book
Speaker 1: a trip and same thing. I wouldn't know where we're
Speaker 1: going until we get there ideally. Both of those did
Speaker 1: kind of fail. Before we even left the airport. We
Speaker 1: got to lax and she still had no idea whe
Speaker 1: where we were going. And I.
Speaker 2: We liked, do you remember correctly what happened?
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember. We like went to with terminal
Speaker 1: that wasn't the right terminal, Like we had to check
Speaker 1: in at terminal three, but then we flewed a terminal four.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we were at the Influencer Awards, the American
Speaker 2: Influencer Awards. First I had to present. We left the
Speaker 2: second I presented, and then got to the airport as
Speaker 2: soon as we possibly could. And then we're like super stress.
Speaker 2: We're like, we're gona miss our flight. We're in terminal three,
Speaker 2: and the guys like, oh, yeah, you check in here.
Speaker 2: But and we didn't have to check back, so it
Speaker 2: was pointless for us to go to terminal three'es like,
Speaker 2: you better sprint to terminal four if you're trying to
Speaker 2: get catch the Guatemala flight.
Speaker 1: How many times have you had to sprint through the
Speaker 1: airport do you think in your life? Maybe like twice,
Speaker 1: that being one of them. Yeah, and the other one
Speaker 1: just some other time that you can't think of right now,
Speaker 1: but you know it probably happened in another time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, like you know when layovers, you have a
Speaker 2: layover and then your first flight's delayed and you almost
Speaker 2: missed your second flight, probably a couple Oh oh yeah,
Speaker 2: South Africa, Yeah, Germany.
Speaker 1: Well, we were in Germany, Amsterdam, Amsterdam on a layover.
Speaker 2: But the whole point of that story was because the
Speaker 2: guy's like, if you're trying to get to Guatemala, you
Speaker 2: better sprint. And that was the first time I heard
Speaker 2: we were.
Speaker 1: Going to Guatemala, right, so he spilt the beans.
Speaker 2: I was so pissed. Not only was I pissed that
Speaker 2: we were like about to miss our flight, I was like,
Speaker 2: do you know what you just did?
Speaker 1: And there's one thing about Kaylin. When she gets under
Speaker 1: a little bit of stress, she can turn real mean,
Speaker 1: real fast, mean until the stress is gone.
Speaker 2: Mean yeah, not mean, but you yeah, not mean, Thank you,
Speaker 2: not me?
Speaker 1: Can you stick with me? No, you're very sure.
Speaker 2: Sassy and sassy, I'll take sassy.
Speaker 1: And so you were sassy because we were running late,
Speaker 1: not because of my doing, by the way, because you're doing.
Speaker 1: You just had to present at the American Influencer Awards.
Speaker 2: And I got my makeup done for that and I
Speaker 2: had to take my clear photo that day on that
Speaker 2: Guatemala trip, and great photo. For four years, I had
Speaker 2: a great photo.
Speaker 1: Great photo. So, yeah, so we're running late for this flight.
Speaker 1: Caylen just finds out where we're going. We're going to Guatemala.
Speaker 1: She it instantly jumps on Google and she's like, oh, Guatemala.
Speaker 1: That can't be safe. Do you remember that.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't say Guatemala that can't be safe. I
Speaker 2: just looked up Guatemala and the first thing that comes
Speaker 2: up is something ridiculous, like it's the most dangerous country
Speaker 2: in the world or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so not only were you stressed about running
Speaker 1: late for our flight, but then you're also learning information
Speaker 1: at the time about how dangerous this country was, and
Speaker 1: it was it took a couple of days for you
Speaker 1: to warm up.
Speaker 2: I kind of remember it differently. I kind of remember
Speaker 2: like a few days in me googling that because I
Speaker 2: felt kind of safe, and then I was a little trepidacious.
Speaker 1: I think what you're thinking of is you google it
Speaker 1: again a few days into the trip after there was
Speaker 1: no danger ever, and you're like googling it more to
Speaker 1: like maybe cite the source and see like who's writing this,
Speaker 1: because it didn't feel like it was right or something.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know when you ask a question on Google,
Speaker 2: and then the first thing that pops up, it's like
Speaker 2: that might not even be a legitimate source, but you
Speaker 2: look at it and you're like, there's my answer. Yeah, goodbye.
Speaker 1: So then here I am having to explain to her
Speaker 1: it's not as dangerous as some random person on the
Speaker 1: Internet says. Just because people get murdered there doesn't make
Speaker 1: it dangerous.
Speaker 2: People get murdered everywhere.
Speaker 1: People get murdered Chicago, we still go there, never been,
Speaker 1: but yes, most people get murdered in Colorado. We live here.
Speaker 2: True, I will say I felt incredibly safe.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know we're going to get to this,
Speaker 2: but it's such an incredible, beautiful country with great people
Speaker 2: and great food, and I never once felt him safe.
Speaker 1: The food was really good. So what did we do?
Speaker 1: We flew into Guatemala City, I believe where you rented
Speaker 1: a car, which, if you're going to spend an extended
Speaker 1: amount of time in Guatemala, highly suggests renting a car.
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty necessary to get around. You could definitely
Speaker 1: like bus and do it that way, but just for
Speaker 1: convenience sake, I think the car rental was probably only
Speaker 1: like fifteen bucks a day. Too, or something like that.
Speaker 2: You're a little burbie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just took a sip of coffee. If you
Speaker 1: guys go and read car and you find a purple
Speaker 1: hydro flask in the back seat, please return it to me.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that was just devastating for you.
Speaker 1: And I love that hydroflask so much. So we got
Speaker 1: to Watamala City, Guatemala, shilly, silly city, and what did
Speaker 1: we do from there? We stayed the night in Guatemala City,
Speaker 1: but then we drove out.
Speaker 2: To We stayed at this like cool boutique hotel. We
Speaker 2: stayed at the very front, right next to the reception.
Speaker 2: It was a beautiful hotel with great breakfast, and then
Speaker 2: we were just right by reception, so we kind of
Speaker 2: like heard people talking all night.
Speaker 1: I wanted to in preparation for this, I wanted to
Speaker 1: pull up some pictures and videos and to kind of
Speaker 1: like relive it with you.
Speaker 2: And this is like what three months into us stating
Speaker 2: four months into as stating, So I'm new to hiking,
Speaker 2: new to all these things, and Dune just was like,
Speaker 2: let's jump right into it.
Speaker 1: We had just done just before the trip, we had
Speaker 1: done have a Suphie.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm not totally in novice, but still, you.
Speaker 1: Like ten miles into have a supie. We should actually
Speaker 1: make I have a supery episode at some point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I didn't hike out. Yeah, but that's how
Speaker 2: she returned. He's a mystery.
Speaker 1: They that for that. I have a supery episode. So
Speaker 1: I'm going through some Do you remember these photos we
Speaker 1: hiked actually.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was one of my favorite trips in my
Speaker 2: entire life. Of course I remember.
Speaker 1: So we drove in. I was hoping that I was
Speaker 1: going to have the locations on these.
Speaker 2: If you shot them on your camera, you don't have
Speaker 2: the location. If it's on your iPhone, you do.
Speaker 1: That's probably right, That is right. Yeah. Yeah, so we
Speaker 1: don't have city names, which is such a bummer because
Speaker 1: this very beautiful city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, prepared more gosh darn it.
Speaker 1: Well, I this is already. I'm recording this later than
Speaker 1: I then I would normally record. So that's why I'm
Speaker 1: doing it this way. Look at this beautiful part of
Speaker 1: the city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was gorgeous. I forgot about that day. We
Speaker 2: just walked around town.
Speaker 1: So we drove this beautiful little town, just walked around.
Speaker 1: It was amazing.
Speaker 2: And then no, it's easy to find because there's that
Speaker 2: we hiked, I mean baby baby hike to that huge cross. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so if you just look up like huge cross and
Speaker 2: Malla's city, it's easy to find that cute little town
Speaker 2: we walked through.
Speaker 1: Oh, Antigua, Antigua Antiga, Guatemala is the name.
Speaker 2: That's where we stayed.
Speaker 1: Yes, I highly recommend going to Antigua. You could spend
Speaker 1: probably two days there. And I remember after walking around,
Speaker 1: we did struggle to like find touristy things to do.
Speaker 2: But we but also they remember I think that was
Speaker 2: that time there were like cute, little like healthy restaurants.
Speaker 2: It was very like yoga hippie.
Speaker 1: Yesque As Guatemala. I think just kind of threw them through.
Speaker 1: It is like that.
Speaker 2: I loved it.
Speaker 1: And then what did we do with Then we did
Speaker 1: a little mini hike up a volcano. We found a
Speaker 1: tour guide.
Speaker 2: Many that was brutal or no.
Speaker 1: We drove to the trailhead right and we wanted to hike,
Speaker 1: but they wouldn't let you hike without a tour guy.
Speaker 2: So we found one.
Speaker 1: So we just yeah, it'll be like bumped into one
Speaker 1: there that was like obviously willing to do it because
Speaker 1: we have to pay him, so then that's probably his job.
Speaker 1: So he showed us up this volcano. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Is the first time in my life I'd ever seen Magma.
Speaker 2: Yeah, also, I'm glad that we did, and because I mean,
Speaker 2: these guys do it all the time. They're prepared. They
Speaker 2: bring marshmallows, you roast marshmallows. I know, some people bring
Speaker 2: pizza and you like cook a pizza up there, So
Speaker 2: it's really cool. And getting to roast marshmallows on Magma
Speaker 2: that's probably a once in a lifetime thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So then we According to my phone it's called
Speaker 1: San Vicente Pakaya, but I don't remember that being the
Speaker 1: name of this volcano. But anyways, we just did a
Speaker 1: day trip up on this volcano. It's like a pretty
Speaker 1: easy hike, maybe an hour up, an hour down or
Speaker 1: something like that. And that was in preparation for the
Speaker 1: next adventure that we were going on. That was preparing
Speaker 1: us for the next adventure that we were going on.
Speaker 2: So then what we did was I just want to
Speaker 2: say too that I have no idea on this trip
Speaker 2: what we're doing, what is being planned, Dean said. He
Speaker 2: prefaced with You're gonna not really enjoy the first half
Speaker 2: of the trip, but you're really going to enjoy the
Speaker 2: second half.
Speaker 1: Of the trip, And you enjoyed it all I did.
Speaker 2: I mean, if I were to do that again, I
Speaker 2: would definitely enjoy the first half more now because I'm
Speaker 2: more fit.
Speaker 1: So then what do we do? We checked into a
Speaker 1: hostel and my first ever it was your first ever
Speaker 1: hostile experience, and it's kind of frustrating because I booked
Speaker 1: a private room, or at least like a queen's size
Speaker 1: bed in a room that was supposed to be private,
Speaker 1: at least how I understood it. And so we're laying
Speaker 1: in bed after our briefing on what we're going to
Speaker 1: be doing the next day, which was hiking Bulkan Fuego.
Speaker 1: So we get into the meeting for that and they're
Speaker 1: like running us through everything in Kalyn super.
Speaker 2: Steep, ten miles up, ten miles down.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Kaylyn keeps looking over at me like, what the
Speaker 1: hell are you about to make me do? So we
Speaker 1: go through the briefing, we stay the night in the hostel,
Speaker 1: We get into our room, we're like kind of snuggling
Speaker 1: on the bed watching a show or something.
Speaker 2: We're in bunk beds. I'm up top, you're on the bottom,
Speaker 2: and then a man walks in and I jump into
Speaker 2: bed with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, French guy walks in and she goes, why is
Speaker 1: this guy in our room? I was like, well, it's
Speaker 1: a hostel, that's how hostles work. And she was like, what,
Speaker 1: people just share rooms. I was like, yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: cheap no, no, no, no, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: I understood the sharing of the room. What I didn't
Speaker 2: understand is this guy just getting naked barely saying hi.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, my virgin, I can't see this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, get he did take his pants off.
Speaker 2: I remember, Yeah, there's bathrooms.
Speaker 1: And at this point in life, you hadn't really traveled much,
Speaker 1: even though traveling was sort of your thing, you hadn't
Speaker 1: really traveled much. Had you. You'd been to Asia? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it, we had been.
Speaker 2: I think we went on my trip clingha.
Speaker 1: No, that was after this trip. I was a spoiler
Speaker 1: alert for next episode, Caylen, come on, beep, just peep
Speaker 1: it out. And so yeah, so then we had to
Speaker 1: deal with the French guy that was gettingnked in the room.
Speaker 1: It really was not an issue. It was just kind
Speaker 1: of funny to see kill in the reaction. And we
Speaker 1: woke up early the next day, took the bus up
Speaker 1: to the trailhead for the volcano with a group of
Speaker 1: probably what like fourteen other people.
Speaker 2: I don't really remember the bus up there at all.
Speaker 1: It was well, I mean, obviously we had to take
Speaker 1: something to get to the trailhead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't remember it.
Speaker 1: I remember it. It was a beautiful drive, maybe like
Speaker 1: an hour or two drive. But the group was big, right,
Speaker 1: it was like fourteen people.
Speaker 2: Yes, I do know. Yeah, yeah, we had to split
Speaker 2: up into like two vans.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the group being big?
Speaker 2: I would say it was like fifteen people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly what I just said. Well one more
Speaker 1: than what I just said. So we get to the
Speaker 1: trailhead start hiking. It's a beautiful right out of the gates.
Speaker 1: We hiked for I want to say, like six or
Speaker 1: seven or eight hours, probably.
Speaker 2: A long time, and I thought I would be the weakest.
Speaker 2: I was maybe the second or third weakest.
Speaker 1: You were in the middle of the pack, Yeah, which
Speaker 1: is good. And that's kind of a testament to this
Speaker 1: type of stuff too, with these guided tours. Is you
Speaker 1: don't even necessarily have to be the strongest or the
Speaker 1: fastest or whatever. I talk about that all the time, like,
Speaker 1: you'll get to where you're going eventually. So if you
Speaker 1: think that you're not in good enough shape to do
Speaker 1: something like this, I mean, obviously still train and prepare
Speaker 1: for it. But if you think it's something you can't do,
Speaker 1: I can't assure you it is something that you can do.
Speaker 2: And they divvied up our food and our packs, like
Speaker 2: they divvied everything up amongst everyone. And Dean was so kind,
Speaker 2: and because we had just hiked have a soup by
Speaker 2: he knew that I struggled and it's hard for me
Speaker 2: to carry away and hike, so he carried everything and
Speaker 2: I had to carry nothing, which is very sweet of you.
Speaker 1: Just such a lucky girl I am. So we hiked
Speaker 1: up on the hike up, I remember there was like
Speaker 1: halfway up there was like a food not a food truck,
Speaker 1: but like a food tent and they would serve you
Speaker 1: coffee and stuff.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was amazing. It was great coffee.
Speaker 1: It was really cool. And then we got to our
Speaker 1: campsite for the night, which is adjacent to directly to
Speaker 1: an erupting volcano. So this volcano erupts every I want
Speaker 1: to say, like every ten minutes, to varying degrees. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they're massive, sometimes they're kind of smaller. But it's amazing.
Speaker 1: During the we got up there during daylight and you
Speaker 1: just see like big plumes of smoke kind of coming
Speaker 1: out of the volcano occasionally, and you can hear it,
Speaker 1: and you're not close to it, but you're much closer
Speaker 1: than I would have ever expected to have gotten too
Speaker 1: an active volcano.
Speaker 2: And it had erupted and tragically killed a lot of
Speaker 2: people a year prior.
Speaker 1: It wasn't in a year, it was like twenty years prior.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, yes, it was. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: I'm right.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't know, I believe you. Maybe I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean, to your point, it does erupt
Speaker 1: semi frequently and causes destruction.
Speaker 2: But also so all the tents were set up, I
Speaker 2: don't know if we had people hiking ahead of us
Speaker 2: to set up our tents.
Speaker 1: Do you remember I think that we had some sort
Speaker 1: of porters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think we did have porters as well.
Speaker 2: So we go there, our tents are set up, and
Speaker 2: then the guide is like who wants this one? And
Speaker 2: it's like front facing directly, it's like the best spot
Speaker 2: to see the volcano erupting all night. And Dean is
Speaker 2: never one to like, I don't know, You're like kind
Speaker 2: of passive and you'll let anyone like have the best experience.
Speaker 2: But Deane was like, nope, we'll take it. And someone
Speaker 2: was already someone wanted it, and then Deane was like,
Speaker 2: oh man, we really wanted that. And He's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: you can have it. And Deane was like, yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't remember that I do. And I was like, I've
Speaker 2: never seen you be so assertive like that before.
Speaker 1: I just when it comes to that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: I know that I'm going to have a good experience
Speaker 1: no matter what, and so if someone needs to be
Speaker 1: in a better position for them to enjoy it more,
Speaker 1: then I'm happy to give it to them because I
Speaker 1: know either way, I'm going to have a really good time.
Speaker 2: I think you kind of did it more so for
Speaker 2: me and maybe the photo too.
Speaker 1: I think I was setting my camera up for the
Speaker 1: night shots or something and I wanted to be close
Speaker 1: to it. Maybe is why. But yeah, so then we
Speaker 1: you know, we had a delicious dinner with this tour guide.
Speaker 1: I wish I could. I probably can figure out the
Speaker 1: name of the tour group, just in case you're thinking
Speaker 1: about booking a trip out to Guatemala and you want to.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Ox Expeditions. We'll found that really fast.
Speaker 2: Our guide was wonderful. I don't remember his name, but
Speaker 2: he was amazing.
Speaker 1: I don't remember him being especially good, but I don't
Speaker 1: remember him being bad at all.
Speaker 2: Oh. We enjoyed his company because we both are people
Speaker 2: that like to be to ourselves and don't love big
Speaker 2: group things. But we both had a great time, me
Speaker 2: more so than you.
Speaker 1: You had a better time than I did.
Speaker 2: No, like, I like to be alone more than you do.
Speaker 2: I don't really like big groups.
Speaker 1: I think that we dislike it equally. I just can
Speaker 1: cope with it better. Yeah, it's maybe be a better
Speaker 1: way to put it. But yeah, So we stayed the night.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, it was so cool. They cooked us a
Speaker 1: delicious dinner. We played games with the group, like under
Speaker 1: the tent watching this volcano or ups consistently every ten minutes,
Speaker 1: and they give you an option for the next morning.
Speaker 1: You can wake up at like what was it like
Speaker 1: four or five in the morning, hike up to the
Speaker 1: cause you're you're kind of camping. I want to say,
Speaker 1: like fifteen hundred feet below the summit of the mountain
Speaker 1: that you're the volcano that you're on that's not actively erupting,
Speaker 1: and it's just a good campsite because you can clearly
Speaker 1: see the volcano that is erupting. And I think you
Speaker 1: probably aren't allowed technically to camp any higher than what
Speaker 1: we did, but they give you the option to wake
Speaker 1: up super early and hike up to the top and
Speaker 1: then see their erupting volcano from the top adjacent to
Speaker 1: the one that's erupting. Obviously, so Caitlin chose not to,
Speaker 1: but I chose to go up and it was awesome.
Speaker 1: There was maybe like five or six of us that
Speaker 1: went to the top and just got to like stay
Speaker 1: up there for a long time. Once we got up
Speaker 1: to the top, there were other groups there, so I
Speaker 1: want to say there's maybe like forty or fifty people
Speaker 1: at the top of total but it's cool. There's like
Speaker 1: this big crater. There's a little like scientific research center
Speaker 1: in the center of it, and they let you run
Speaker 1: a lap around the crater and if you do it
Speaker 1: in less than like a minute or two minutes or something.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what it is. You win a prize,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I can easily do that, and
Speaker 1: you're probably pretty tall. I want to let me see
Speaker 1: what the altitude of that volcano is real quick. Do
Speaker 1: you know what it is? Galen?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Do you have any guesses? No? Well, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: right now. It is three and three seven hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty three meters, which is about twelve thousand feet a
Speaker 1: little over twel thousand feet. So that's pretty tall. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not as tall as the fourteen ers that I climbed,
Speaker 1: but you know, still very very tall. And so we
Speaker 1: were up there for a little bit watching it erupt,
Speaker 1: came back down, packed up our tents, and then went
Speaker 1: back down to Antigua. From Antigua, we went to like
Speaker 1: at at Laon, which is probably like a four hour drive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that was the part of the trip that I
Speaker 1: was like, You're gonna like this part of the trip
Speaker 1: a lot more.
Speaker 2: It was. I gotta spent a whole week there. It
Speaker 2: was amazing. The Hotel Jean Shows was incredible.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah. So we got into the lake at
Speaker 1: at Lawn Town. I can't remember what Lake Atlan is huge.
Speaker 2: By the way, I feel like we I don't know why.
Speaker 2: I feel like we were on the east side.
Speaker 1: We were good job.
Speaker 2: I don't know how I knew that.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to say we were in
Speaker 1: a pana pana hochel.
Speaker 2: Because someone was talking about how like Atolon can be dangerous,
Speaker 2: like I don't know if it was the northwest side
Speaker 2: or something, there's parts of it that are dangerous. Yeah,
Speaker 2: is what like our boat driver I think said.
Speaker 1: To us, Yep, that's right. But still I mean I
Speaker 1: never felt dangerous.
Speaker 2: No, No, that's why I'm saying. That's why at the
Speaker 2: side we were on, that's where I see.
Speaker 1: I see. Yeah, So what we did? We drove the
Speaker 1: road there. I remember it got kind of scary near
Speaker 1: the end or do you remember this? It was like
Speaker 1: a highway for ninety percent of it, but the last
Speaker 1: ten percent of it. I don't know if it was
Speaker 1: a Google Maps issue or what, but it takes us
Speaker 1: down these like single track dirt roads.
Speaker 2: Winding round like a stopoint or something.
Speaker 1: Winding around the mountain. There was like a the river
Speaker 1: was higher than it normally is, and so we had
Speaker 1: like drive through moving water, you know, which can you
Speaker 1: never move Driving through moving water scares me because it's fun,
Speaker 1: but you never know how deep it's going to be
Speaker 1: in under the water, So it could be six feet deep,
Speaker 1: it could be a foot and a half deep. I
Speaker 1: think it was like a foot and a half, but
Speaker 1: I just remember it being kind of like you were
Speaker 1: kind of sketched out a little bit about driving through it.
Speaker 1: So we got to the city, or we got to
Speaker 1: the town, which I again I think it was Pana Hochel.
Speaker 1: I'm so probably mispronouncing that, but it was like in
Speaker 1: the northeast corner, and we jump on a boat and
Speaker 1: go to our hotel, which I wish I could remember
Speaker 1: the name of our hotel, do you No, I.
Speaker 2: Just know it was amazing and the food was great,
Speaker 2: and we were only there one night, but like at
Speaker 2: night it was so gorgeous, and then you wake up
Speaker 2: and they bring you breakfast and everything's really healthy. They've
Speaker 2: got green juices and smoothies and tofu. I think it
Speaker 2: was like all vegetarian maybe or vegan.
Speaker 1: I think it was called Kasa Prano Hotel.
Speaker 2: Sounds like a possibility, but I remember.
Speaker 1: I booked it specifically because it was a short boat
Speaker 1: from the town. Yeah, it was cosa Prano hotel right
Speaker 1: now two hundred and fifty bucks a night, which I
Speaker 1: don't think it was nearly that much when we went there.
Speaker 1: But you get to the town, you take maybe like
Speaker 1: a twenty minute little boat over to the hotel, check in,
Speaker 1: they take your bags. It was kind of like a
Speaker 1: yoga retreat in a lot of ways that hotel at least,
Speaker 1: so we kind of like just stayed there for the
Speaker 1: first night. We posted on Instagram that we were in Guatemala,
Speaker 1: do you remember this? And these people that owned a
Speaker 1: hotel nearby hit us up and they're like, hey, we
Speaker 1: own this hotel over here. We would love to like
Speaker 1: come host you guys and you know, give you food
Speaker 1: and drinks and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: We get there and they're like, we're going to pick
Speaker 2: you up by helicopter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we take the boat over there and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we own a house in an how we're easty here.
Speaker 1: Do you guys want to come? And we're like well maybe.
Speaker 1: They're like yeah, we can take our helicopter and we're
Speaker 1: like yep, yep, we're in kind of site ze. So
Speaker 1: we're get in this helicopter and just take us off
Speaker 1: off the cliffs side in Guatemala.
Speaker 2: It was on the roof of their rest their hotel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the landing pad, I don't think it was
Speaker 1: on the roof. I think it was like on the
Speaker 1: mountain and they fly us and out. I think the
Speaker 1: flight was probably thirty minutes because it's a helicopter, goes
Speaker 1: a lot faster to be lost.
Speaker 2: They also the pilot let Dean fly for a bit.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, move my first helicopter there. What a great day.
Speaker 1: And they take us to their state. It was like
Speaker 1: an estate. They were incredibly wealthy, I'm sure, and we
Speaker 1: just like spent the day out there.
Speaker 2: It looked like a hotel itself. It was wild. There
Speaker 2: were like twenty bedrooms.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that I guess that was kind of a
Speaker 1: unique experien for us that we wouldn't have had unless we.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and landed on They lived on a black sand beach,
Speaker 2: which was cool because we didn't see that where we were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the black sand beach was really cool. And then
Speaker 1: we flew back and got back to our hotel and
Speaker 1: drove back to Guatemala. Cily the city. I want to
Speaker 1: see how far these. This drive was from like at
Speaker 1: it long to Guatemala City because I remember it being
Speaker 1: like generally pretty far. Do you remember how far it was?
Speaker 2: I thought it was four hours, Yeah, three.
Speaker 1: Hours twenty minutes, but it took longer because Google Maps
Speaker 1: doesn't account for some of the road speeds, like the
Speaker 1: super slow speeds that you have to go. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was our trip to Guatemala. It was, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: one of the best trips I had ever gone on
Speaker 1: with you, because you got to enjoy the nice serenity
Speaker 1: of the lake afterwards. You're so funny to do things
Speaker 1: like this with because tell me what, I'm funny because
Speaker 1: you grumble the whole time.
Speaker 2: And then then I look back and I'm like, that
Speaker 2: was the best trip of my life exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you grumble and then you do it, and you
Speaker 1: like always kind of question your own ability, which you
Speaker 1: never should because you can do anything and you always do.
Speaker 1: And then you get back and you're like smiling ear
Speaker 1: to ear, having had the best trip of your life.
Speaker 2: Yep, that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 1: Have a suphie Guatemala, Nepali.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think what else, but yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that you do secretly really love hiking, but you just
Speaker 1: don't yourself.
Speaker 2: Well, I've never considered myself to be strong until like
Speaker 2: I'm stronger than i've ever been, so now I'm more
Speaker 2: confident in my abilities to do things like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you should keep it up. So if you're
Speaker 1: thinking about doing a trip to Guatemala, definitely one hundred
Speaker 1: percent don't miss Valcan Fuego. That was in my opinion,
Speaker 1: and like, that's one I really want to go back
Speaker 1: to the Vulcan Fuego because I wasn't very good at
Speaker 1: photography then. I still am not good now, but I'm
Speaker 1: better than I was, and I want to like maybe
Speaker 1: devote more time to getting more like focusing more on photography.
Speaker 2: If I was there, you know, yeah for sure. And
Speaker 2: the shot that you got while you were there, you
Speaker 2: got a sweet shot of it was like a long
Speaker 2: exposure shot of the volcano erupting. So I can't imagine
Speaker 2: what you get now four years later.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I meant to say when we were talking
Speaker 1: about it earlier. So during the day you just see
Speaker 1: like plumes of dirt and smoke and dust and debris
Speaker 1: coming up, but when it gets dark, you can actually
Speaker 1: see the embers of the volcano, so.
Speaker 2: The naked eye can't see it during the daytime.
Speaker 1: Yeah, even though it's like this molten rock being shot
Speaker 1: out during the day, the sun overpowers it. But at
Speaker 1: night it's literally erupting magma. It's one of the coolest
Speaker 1: things I've ever seen in my entire life. Like, I
Speaker 1: don't think we'll ever get the chance to stand on
Speaker 1: the side of a volcano ever get and.
Speaker 2: Even sleeping next to it and just feeling the ground
Speaker 2: like rumble all night long and you can like hear
Speaker 2: it erupt all night long. It was very cool.
Speaker 1: And they do take you on a hike onto that volcano.
Speaker 1: You went on that one that same night. When you
Speaker 1: get up there the first night, they take you over
Speaker 1: to the volcano, and you're probably I'm going to be
Speaker 1: super wrong about it. No, I was gonna say, like
Speaker 1: five hundred feet from maybe more maybe that zero, maybe
Speaker 1: like a thousand, maybe fifteen hundred feet. You're a safe
Speaker 1: distance away, but you're if it was a big eruption.
Speaker 1: You can like it looks like it's fine from a distance,
Speaker 1: but then you get up closer to it and you
Speaker 1: like literally just see these basketball size chunks of rock
Speaker 1: landing on the ground semi close to you, and you
Speaker 1: kind of like it puts into perspective about how like
Speaker 1: reckless and dangerous these volcanoes can be. But yeah, seeing
Speaker 1: it at night was definitely a bucket listing for me.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad that we got to do that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's our that's our Quatemal trip. But what would you
Speaker 1: rate it? One out of ten?
Speaker 2: Nine?
Speaker 1: Nine? Yeah, not ten.
Speaker 2: If I did it again, it'd be a ten. Oh,
Speaker 2: so I wouldn't grumble, But.
Speaker 1: If you did it again, you wouldn't have the like,
Speaker 1: the novelty of doing it for the first time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna stick with nine.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think, Yeah, she's sticking with nine, folks.
Speaker 2: What's yours?
Speaker 1: Nine? Zero point five? Nine? No, I'm just kidding nine,
Speaker 1: because I don't think any trip ever gets a ten. Hmm.
Speaker 1: Okay if if if a trip got a.
Speaker 2: Ten, what about our honeymoon?
Speaker 1: Mmm?
Speaker 2: That was a ten for me.
Speaker 1: Nine, That was a perfect If it wasn't a twenty
Speaker 1: hour travel day, maybe it would be just signal the
Speaker 1: travel day. M Yeah, I can't do it anyways, that's
Speaker 1: gonna do it. For this week's episode of Been There, Dean.
Speaker 1: That next week, we're going to talk about Kaylen's trip
Speaker 1: that she planned secretly for me.
Speaker 2: It was wild. It was the most dangerous trip of
Speaker 2: my entire life. We almost died. I don't know why
Speaker 2: you laugh it because we did so dramatic.
Speaker 1: It was the most dangerous of your life. We almost died.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, because of me.
Speaker 1: It's a great cliffhanger, and I hope you guys seen
Speaker 1: him for that.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was a great Yeah, it was. It was a trip.
Speaker 2: It was certainly No. Nine.
Speaker 1: It was a trip. And so be sure tune that
Speaker 1: for that next week because it's fun. Kaylen's going to
Speaker 1: be here. We all love hearing her talk, so tune
Speaker 1: in for that. Or maybe we sucked just a little
Speaker 1: bit less