Guatemala

So now we are in Guatemala, not straight from Barcelona we had 10 days in U.K visiting my family and then 2 weeks in the U.S visiting Kens. Had a fantastic time but both of us are absolutely burnt out from all this travel and meeting new people. To make matters worse we decided to book the cheapest and therefore longest flight we could find. We left at 12 at night and got in at 2 in the afternoon with 3 hours time change, what a nightmare!
From the airport we got a shuttle to Antigua, which one of the tourist towns of Guatemala, but not to be missed according to our guide book. We decided this would be the perfect place to relax for a few days and get ourselves amped for the trip.
Still our first night was not a fun filled one, our hostel was noisy and our room was airless, our very small twin single beds rock hard. So after a shower we headed out to find a better hostel for the rest of our stay. The second one we looked at was a winner, nice big light filled rooms and a nice outdoor courtyard with tables and chairs. So had a quiet night with tacos and gallo (local beer).
The next day we moved in and set off to explore and make a kind of plan for the next few weeks. Antigua is a lovely town, all the buildings are painted bright pastel colors and there is some great architecture, mostly a little crumbly around the edges. There are quite a few old churches which would have been impressive in their day. And there are ladies wearing the traditional dress, the bright hand woven fabrics carrying bags and bundles of all sorts on their heads. This being the first place we´ve been i´m really impressed, but I do realize this isn´t the "real" Guatemala, almost everyone speaks at least a little English and if not there are so many tourists you can always ask them! This is a really popular place for people to come and study Spanish, but I don´t know if you would really be forced to practice it. There is also a subway, Mc Donalds and burger king also hinting that we have not left gringoville.
We both still like it here though and it is a nice way to ease into traveling.
We found that our first day here we were walking around the same four blocks, mostly around parque central and the arch, so we wanted to get out of our rut so started walking... wait for it...the other way! We discovered a huge market, selling everything from burnt CD/DVD's, clothes handycrafts etc. There was an artesans market which was really cool, they have beautiful tapestries and embroidery here, it´s almost overwhelming the amount of colors and the amount of stuff they pack into their little stalls. We started wandering around the back of the markets which is also the bus station and absolutely crazy with all the chicken buses (Old U.S school buses painted in bright colors) pulling out and people running everywhere! We were looking for something to eat but at first could only find fried chicken and chips (YUK) so kept wandering and finally found a lady making beans and rice served with salsa and tortillas. Full and staisfied we continued walking and ended up in the a huge market inside the market which I guess is where the locals do all their shopping. There were vegetables, fruit, meat, seafood, and many weird and wonderful things for sale. It was a great experience, and this place was like a maze, we walked and walked and never seemed to see the end! Finally we went through a huge food court area, again very local with pots of boiling pots of food and grills with meat and hot tortillas all packed into tiny stalls. At this point we could see daylight so walked towards it and came out of a small doorway, almost hidden in the main market, right next to the CD´s and handwoven knickknacks we had walked past earlier.
Anyway we were pretty excited about our intrepid exploring of the markets so went off to book a Volcano tour!
Antigua is surrounded by volcanoes and mountains which one of the reasons tourists come here. There are 3 Volcanoes that I know of but the most famous one, or the most climbed one is Pacaya.
Our tour group left at 2 in the afternoon and it was an hour and a half drive up there. The walk up was about and hour and a half too, and because at least most of our group was fit we were charging up pretty fast, and getting a good work out. Once at the top a thick mist engulfed us, there was only about 2 meters visability. And then the wind picked up and the mist was swept away and we had an amazing view of 2 more volcanoes across the valley from us, one of them smoking. We continued further up the volcano into lava territory, the ground we were walking on was all hot flowing lava at some point now cooled and hardened. This made the ground hard to explain, nothing was flat, it was coils of rock and some parts were hollow. Even cooler sometimes you would feel a very warm breeze and look down to see a crack in the rocks that was red underneath, the guide stuck his walking stick down one of these cracks, and when he pulled it back out it was on fire!
We got very close to the lava, actually as close as you wanted to get there weren't any real rules to this tour. We stood about a meter away from where the lava was coming out of the volcano, it is mesmerizing the way this semi- solid bright orange goo oozes out and piles on top of itself, making mounds and running a little bit further each time. We heard from another tour group that someone had poked the lava with their stick, but I wasn't game to get that close. Up a little higher than the lava everyone was crowded around the steam vents, where there was a few holes and some more lava cracks, to be honest I think everyone forgot that we were actually on a volcano until it started hissing! I don't think i've ever been so scared, my legs were shaking! The guide assured us that it was just high pressure build up, but i'd had seen enough and was moving to cooler ground. Ken on the other hand was fascinated and went up closer to poke his stick at it.
So that was our volcano experience, we wern't even at the summit it turns out, no crater to peer into, that was a practically vertical accent another 20m, but it was enough adrenalin for me and another experience for the books.
The next day we decided to take it easy, and the weather decided we should too because it rained all day long, in short drenching spurts. We are traveling during the rainy season but have been lucky so far as it has only rained at night time when we are tucked up in bed.
At 6.30pm we were picked up at outside our hostel, and took the night bus to Flores, which is the jumping off town for Tikal. After a very long bus ride we arrived in Flores at 7am. Flores is actually an island, connected to the mainland town of Santa Elena by a bridge. That means that almost anywhere you go on the island there is a magnificent lake view. Our hostel room had a balcony overlooking this lake and a rooftop area with hammocks, which was great for relaxing and escaping the humidity. The town of Flores is pretty small but cute, and there are lots of funky café’s and bars to go to. That afternoon we decided to visit the Gratus Actun-Can caves, supposedly a long walk from Flores or a short Tuk-Tuk ride, which is what we opted for. The caves were pretty cool, we didn’t want to pay for a guide so we just wandered around ourselves, and luckily didn’t get lost!
Next day we did Tikal, sunrise tour. We got picked up at 3.30am! Tikal is a Mayan ruins sight, and from what I gather the most impressive outside of Mexico. There are lots of pyramids and stone carvings set in a huge jungle area. The point of going in the morning is not only the sunrise but getting to listen to all the wildlife waking up. There is a large howler monkey population, which are really loud! There are also lots of different birds, spider monkeys, lizards, frogs, tarantulas and the place just sounded so alive! To watch the sunrise we went up the top of Temple IV, which is the tallest one. There wasn’t really a sunrise, but it was nice as we all sat in silence and watched as the sky lightened and the mist surrounded the temples and the howler monkeys made their presence felt.
Our guide was fantastic and gave us lots of information on the Mayan culture, the local trees and the wildlife. One of the most interesting facts was that all of the temples were in their positions for a reason, based on a certain day of the year, solstice for instance the sun at a certain time of that day would shine through one temple then hit another then another. This would last for only 5 minutes but that was their way of marking and celebrating days of importance. Have to say that I was thinking of Indiana Jones when I was listening to all this, so maybe that explains why I was so excited. One of the trees our guide showed us was nicknamed the “tourist tree” because of it’s red flaky bark, just like the tourists red flaky skin from sunburn, the other interesting one was the all spice tree, I always thought all spice was just a mixed spice concoction but it’s actually all from the one leaf. Another interesting fact was how Tikal was discovered, apparently when the Spaniards took over they completely missed it, and it was actually some Chiccleros who first suspected it. Chiccleros is the name for the men who collected the sap of one of the native trees to make chewing gum from. These trees were plentiful in the Tikal area and so they were the first to find the ruins, they then reported their suspicions and the archaeologists came in. The South Acropolis is still covered with trees, with only the odd stone sticking up to hint at the ruins beneath, kind of cool to imagine what this place looked like back then.
Today we are off the Belize, taking the early bus. We’ve decided to come back to Guatemala after Belize, there is still so much to see.

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