Last night in Antigua

We got back to Antigua and checked into our favourite hostel, before rushing off to buy a bus ticket in the nick of time. Unfortunately it left at 4am, but since it was our last day in Guatemala we decided to go out and celebrate anyway, and pay for it the next day.

After a nice meal we found ourselves in a trendy bar with live Cuban music (one of the guys from the Buena Vista Social Club) had a few drinks, danced around in our seats and a little on the dance floor. Salsa dancing is not easy, we gave it a go for a few minutes, but I failed miserably. The Guatemalans made it look so easy...

After that we went back to our hostel and prepared ourselves for a meagre 4 hours sleep before the long trip. Dragging ourselves out of bed the following morning we waited around for our shuttle bus (which was 30 minutes late) only to find out they had one tiny seat for the both of us! So we went back to bed and arranged for another bus the following morning at 4am! 6 hours later we were in Copan in Honduras extremely disheveled but looking forward to visiting the Mayan ruins.

Monterrico & Hawaii

After the cool evenings of Lake Attitlan, the heat in Monterrico was a shock to the system! It's on the Pacific coast with miles of empty black sand beaches and a haven to several different species of turtle that nest here each year. Amy was volunteering at a place that rescues the eggs from poachers then releases them back into the wild.

Just back from the beach is a protected area of mangroves, home to caimans, iguanas, terrapins and all sorts of cool birds. We were able to take a boat ride through some of it with a local guy, in a scheme to give the egg poachers an alternative source of income. It was really cool, the boat had to navigate through tangles of tree routes whilst we found a good spot to release an iguana then we continued on to a lake right in the middle. Unfortunately it was dry season so the boat couldn't go any further so we had to step out of the boat to carry on, but to our surprise the water barely covered the tops of our feet! The water was so murky we expected it to be at least to our knees, the bottom felt like carpet too, not muddy at all. From there we had a great view of some huge storks nesting in the trees, and the chance for a few piccies.

Next stop, is Antigua before heading on to Honduras!

Lake Attitlan

After a 4 hour bus ride from Antigua I arrived in Panajachel. It used to be a hippy hangout back in the 70s, but not it's just a big tourist town on the banks of the lake, so I decided to catch a boat to San Pedro.

The lake itself is a huge volcanic crater and surrounding it are 3 more volcanoes, so the boat ride was pretty spectacular. San Pedro is on the slopes of one of the volcanoes and is a popular place to learn Spanish and hang out for a bit as it's really cheap. The nightlife is also one of the big draws here, but since I was by myself I just went to a nearby cafe for a couple of beers and a movie. The following day I decided to find a more socialable hotel and make some friends, but everywhere was full up so I decided to move on to San Marco.

San Marco is a New Age town full of old hippies who arrived in the 70s and decided to stay. It's much more relaxed than San Pedro and lots of people go there to take meditation classes, yoga and other new age stuff. I was content doing a little sun bathing by the lake and having a having a good wander around. Still not satisfied that I'd found the right place I decided to continue on to Santa Cruz.

I found a nice backpacker lodge to stay at right on the banks of the lake that was much more what I was looking for. Similar to the place we stayed at in Lanquin, it's pretty much a cheap hotel, restaurant and bar with a few activities thrown in for good measure. Best of all they had a plentiful supply of tea, which I'd been craving for ages, so I was able to laze around in my hammocks drinking tea and reading a book or admiring the view.

Still, even I can't lounge around forever, so I decided it was time to catch up with Amy in Monterrico.

Volcano Pacaya!

One of the most popular things to do from Antigua is climb the Volcano Pacaya, it's the active volcano I mentioned in my previous post.

They take you about halfway up in a bus then a guide leads you to the summit which takes about 1.5 hours. It's a pretty steep hike though woods, but the path is good so it isn't too knackering. On reaching the lava field the scenery changes completely to black volcanic rubble and smoke. It'd be really easy to get lost, since everything looks exactly the same, so big white splats of paint a put here and there to show the path. Still it's not the easiest of routes to follow as its easy to slip on the rubble and the rocks are razor sharp.

After a while following the path you start to get hot blasts of air (it was starting to get cold on the trek up) and looking down at your feet you can sometimes see a red hot glow through the cracks. Everyone starts to look a little more serious at this point, as the prospect of falling into lava isn't a very nice one, but it doesn't seem to bother the guide who happily takes shortcuts from the marked path and throws boulders at cooling lava so fresh stuff spills out.

Eventually we reached the top, and although it wasn't the raging torrent of lava I was hoping to see, it was a pretty impressive sight. Unfortunately, it was starting to get dark so we had a few minutes to take photos and then nervously picked our way back over the lava fields to the trail.

Next, I'm going to Lake Attitlan for a couple of days whilst Amy finishes up her studies on the Pacific coast, then we're off to Honduras!

Antigua

Antigua's probably the main tourist place in Guatemala. It's colonial town that used to be the capital of Guatemala until it was flattened by a series of earthquakes. It was rebuilt, but there are still quite a few ruined churches and monestaries which now serve as tourist attractions.

The town is surrounded by three volcanoes, and when the air is clear the views of them looming over you are fantastic. Worryingly one of the volcanoes is still highly active, often splashing lava about the place (although I didn't get to see it!)

There's not a huge amount to do here, but it's a nice place to stay for a couple of days just wandering around the cobbled streets, browsing the market, stuffing our faces at the nice restaurants and having the odd beer here and there.

Lanquin and Semuc Champey

We arrived in Lanquin a couple of days ago, about 5 hours south from Flores, and we´re staying at an amazing place in the loft of a thatched cabana. The location is really special, all around us are green hills and a river runs right past us. The food here is really good too, and every few days they throw an all you can eat BBQ followed by a boozy party.

Yesterday we took a tour to nearby caves and a series of pools called Semuc Champey. Ive never really been caving so it was quite an experience, especially since our only source of light was a candle that each of us carried. The guide lead deeper into the caves climbing up ladders, squeezing between rocks and swimming with one arm whilst the other carried the candle. It was super good. It was pitch back too, and felt pretty creepy to be at the end of the line of people with nothing but blackness behind me.

After that we had half an hours hike up to a view point, and then back down again to the pools. They were cool, crystal clear and the perfect way to cool off after the hike.

Today is a lazy day, but tomorrow we´ll be taking some inner tubes down the river then doing a night tour of some more caves to see the bats. Then on to Antigua.

Spanish School

I got back from Spanish school on Monday. It was a pretty good experience and has definitely given me a basic foundation of Spanish to build on, Im still pretty crap at it though.

The school was in San Andres, a small town by the lake near Flores, and there were just 5 students including me. The teaching was done one-to-one by teachers who knew almost no English, so it was quite an interesting experience. At first it was very difficult to learn anything, but after the first day (and passing a dictionary between us) we were able to move along pretty well. I did 4 hours a day and the rest of the time was my own to swim in the beautiful lake and generally laze about.

I stayed with a Guatemalan family (Amy stayed at ARCAS finishing up her study) arranged by the school, in a basic room with 3 meals a day. They were a good bunch, being an old couple called Carmen and Rosa, their daughter, her 2 children and a few other misc family members, so it was quite a squeeze. They couldnt speak any English so at first it was pretty difficult, but after a few days and say a few things to them in faultering Spanish. Even though the food was just different combinations of beans, chicken, cheese, eggs, rice and tortillas it was really good. Surprisingly eating your own bosy weight in beans per day doesnt make you trump as much as youd expect and Ive come to really like them with all their lardy goodness.

We both finished on Amys birthday, so we met up Flores and stayed at a posh hotel, had a slap up meal and generally spoiled eachother.