Well Guatemala´s great. Our bargain basement priced flight was over-sold of course, and we got ourselves bumped up to business class! We didn´t even realise till we got on the plane so it was quite a nice surprise. It would have to have been on the shortest flight of our trip though wouldn´t it? We took advantage of every single service offered on that 80 minute flight! Be nice if we get the same on the flight back to Melbourne.
On arrival in Guatemala city, we haggled an airport taxi down to shuttle bus price and rode to Antigua in comfort. The entire morning went very smoothly and we arrived at Antigua´s pretty Parque Central by about 1pm with plenty of time to find a hotel (got a good one!) and cruise the streets for a bit. It´s a beautiful town; a bit of a Spanish colonial relic and completely unlike the rest of Guatemala. Cobblestone streets, 500 year old churches (most of them partially destroyed by earthquakes) and all surrounded by volcanos galore (thus the earthquakes). We had a great view of the place from our hotel roof (see photos). It was hard to stop taking pics of this place. In the morning we went on a cycling tour of the area, to a couple of outlying villages and an organic macademia farm. All very picturesque and a great way to see it all, if quite taxing on the old bods.
A quiet afternoon and then... volcano hike!!!!!!!
Oh yeah. We did it. There are a couple of active volcanos near Antigua - part of a chain of 30 which run through Guatemala. Fuego is the most violent. You don´t climb that one. The other, Pacaya, hasn´t erupted for quite a few years but has had a constant, steady lava flow since 2006. We booked this tour with the most adventurous of spirits - feeling like real daredevil types (especially after experiencing our first earth tremor the night before - very surreal that was). So, I imagine, did the 2000 other people who arrived at the bus drop off point, 1700m above sea level on the side of this 2500m high volcano. It was really very disheartening. A small sea of tourists and locals with horses awaited us. Turns out its a very popular pilgrimage to trek up the dusty, dirty horse crap ridden track which leads up to the home of the lava gods. If you don´t like the hike you get a horse - so the locals tell us. All quite irritating... untill you reach about 2000m and you actually see it. The old lava flow has left a frozen river of jagged stone which you walk/climb/scramble across to get to the live lava, which is absolutely breath-taking. We arrived in time for sunset - still breath-taking. The traditional way to pay homage to the great lava gods upon completion of the pilgrimage is by toasting little pink marshmellows in their mouths. Seemed kind of weird but hell what a cool thing to do!
The walk back in the dark was a lot harder, but it was all so worthwhile. Fuego, not to be outdone, gave off a burst of lava, erupting in the distance. We weren´t able to catch it on camera, but... wow.
Now we´re in Panajachel. More adventure awaits!