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Published: March 24th 2008
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Antigua
One of the many stunning colonial churches in the city 17th-19th February
We arrived in Antigua late afternoon. Along the road to the hotel in the middle of it were murals made out of thousands flower petals being laid by the locals.
The hotel we were booked into was known by G.A.P to be the top hotel of thiers in Central America winning the gold medal award for the last 4 years running. So we were all really looking forward to staying there. When we arrived the lobby was packed and beds were being carried in by ladies I guessed were the hotels maids. After a few minutes we learnt that the place was overbooked and that the hotel had arranged for us alternative accomodation accross town. We jumped into taxis and were suprised when we arrived outside a museum. The Hotel had arranged for us to stay at the conference suite. At first it was a bit surreal but when we got into our rooms (which were huge) we quickly made ourselves at home. We had a mezanine level with table and chairs, T.V., fridge and our own personal T.V./lounge room. By far the best place we had stayed in so far!!
Even though we were all quite tired
we headed out for a meal to a restaurant that was set in an atrium, very nice. It was then that the 'petal murals' became clear! Outside on the cobbled streets was a huge procession of men dressed in purple robes carrying a float with a religious theme, the men were swaying to the live band with this float (it was 20feet long and as wide as the road) moving very slowly, this was the first procession for Easter and every Sunday until Easter these processions happen. We all sat down and went back to our meals but were soon back up outside again to see a smaller procession of women carrying a smaller float again with many religious symbols. The petal murals the floats and the music are all linked to Easter it was very different to anything we have seen before but it's extremely popular with the locals there was a crowd of about 500 people following the procession.
Persuaded a little by Chimi we headed out to a bar, Reillys (an irish bar) for one drink! As usual one drink turned into a few Cuba Libres and Tequilla shots and before we knew it we were off
down the road to the local Salsa club. We arrived and ordered a drink, within seconds Guatemalean lads had taken all the girls for a slasa lesson, they were all teachers at the schools and it was great to have free lessons!! I think we all danced with pretty much all the men in the club (even sleazy Pedro), but I wasn't very good it was really hard to pick up the beat when the music was so fast. Dan had a lesson from Chimi and another tour leader he was just about getting the steps when it was time to leave! After waiting outside for half an hour for Rachel and Nicki, the doors to the club closed and it was only then that we realised that they had probably already left! So Charu, Dan and I headed back to the museum!
After a long lie in, we needed it, all of us decided to climb a live volcano called Pacaya. So we got on a bus with 30 other people and headed up some very windy roads to the start of the walk. While we were standing around waiting to start the climb, I heard a familar
voice, saw a familar walk, and realised that the guy behind me was a tennis coach I used to work with my friend from Reedham Steven! How wierd is that, we both had know idea each other was going to be there and I meet him on top of a live volcano!!
Anyway, we started the walk up the hill, and we just continued on going up and up and up and at any point you felt tired there were men on horses shouting taxi, taxi. For just a small fee you could get on the horse and they would take you to the start of the lava flow! But as there would be no achievement in that we decided to keep walking, about half way up we both realised how unfit we were, it was hard work! But it was worth it when we reached the top and looked down the views of the lava and the landscape was amazing. The Volcano had had an eruption 15 days before we were there so we couldn't go too close to the crater but we were close enough to stick a wooden pole a meter long into the hot flowing lava.
The heat was unreal the lava there was 500 degrees celcius and it was great to spend time up there, the biggest problem was the number of people in total there were about 100 people around the lava it was just too many, but we did enjoy it. The walk back down was in the dark except for those clever people who had brought torches, we had but mine was dying and had no spare batteries, not very clever, amazingly none of us fell over we came very close a couple of times but managed to stay on our feet!
Once back at our museum it was down to dominos for pizza, walk out to Reillys to meet up with Steven (we seemed to miss each other though!) and back to the T.V. lounge for a lazy night on the sofas!
Our last day in Antigua was spent exploring the town, looking at the ruins and the colonial architecture! It was a very beautiful city good shopping as well if you liked jade jewellery! Unfortunately, we had to cut our exploring short as Dan wasn't feeling too good so we headed back to the museum. I left Dan in
bed and went out with the rest of the group for a salsa lesson, with Chimi, before another trip to a salsa club hopefully this time knowing a little bit more about what we were doing! We had great fun learning how to salsa and actually wasn't as bad as I thought. The club we went to was more like a meat market than a slasa club it was full of sleazy men not trying to Salsa, I got accosted on the dance floor by one guy and he wouldn't let me go! But i did get to dance a little bit of Salsa (for those of you who know about my dancing when i was younger i ended up managing to put Chicken wings into salsa not quite sure how but i did).
Antigua is a great city it has a lot to offer in the way of culture, dance and activities we both would definately go back we loved it!
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