After flying from Buenos Aires to Minneapolis for four days, then to Texas for a week, we’ve stopped in Belize (a small Central American country) for Elizabeth’s brother’s wedding.

Our original plan was to stay here until early January, then spend a few weeks traveling around Guatemala. But, as travel plans do, ours have changed. The Argentina leg of our trip ended up costing more than we’d hoped (more on that to come). And after spending the holidays relaxing with family, we weren’t looking forward to constantly thinking about where we’ll go tomorrow, how we’ll get there, where we’ll stay, what we’ll do, and what we’ll eat.

Plus, Lonely Planet Guatemala starts its Dangers & Annoyances section with “no one could pretend that Guatemala is a very safe country,” then goes on to list highway robbery, rape, and murder among potential problems. I’m sure we’d be fine, but at this point in our trip we’re in the mood for more mindless travel.

Now the plan is to go to Tikal in Guatemala for a few days after the wedding to see Mayan ruins. Then we’re heading back here, to Hopkins, Belize for some down time on the beach. But don’t worry — there will still be plenty of travel stories to tell. We’ll be back in the U.S. in mid-January.

I’m sad we won’t be able to experience Guatemala in the way we’d hoped — volunteering, taking language classes, and touring the country. But at the same time, I realize we wouldn’t have been able to fully appreciate it in our burned out state. I’m glad we decided to save it for a future trip and I’m looking forward to getting to know Guatemala later.