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Published: February 9th 2012
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With our first tour behind us, Chrissy and I now had 6 days to rest and recuperate in Antigua before our next tour started. We moved into Terrace Hostel and found that somehow we had managed to book a private room with only ONE queen bed. Seeing as the rest of the rooms did not have a private bathroom, we decided to put up with each other as bedfellows for the next week in favour of private facilities – we are two ladies, after all!
It was nice to be able to open our bags and not worry about having to re-pack them the next day, and consequently, our stuff went EVERYWHERE. It was nice to spread out.
We spent our first non-tour day in Antigua shopping at the supermarket and then a long wander through the tourist markets, of which there are many. Our tour guide Chris had bought us each a woven bracelet as a thankyou gift for being such a cool group at the end of his contract, and we decided to return the favour. You can have bracelets woven to include names or words, so we had one made for him that said “TOP BLOKE”.
We gave it to him the next night when we met up for drinks (ladies night again!) and he was very pleased with our Australianised gift.
We made friends with another Australian staying at the hostel named Keat (pronounced Kit) and the next day he and I joined a tour heading out to Pacaya Volcano. Unfortunately Chrissy was not feeling well and decided to stay behind. We had been told the walk up the volcano would be reasonable but there would be horses if we needed them. I was leaning towards a horse initially but when we got there and everyone else started to walk, I just fell in behind them.
Bad idea. The first section of the trail was steep and full of rocks to climb. As we are all well-aware and I am not ashamed to admit, I have 0 degrees of fitness and was gasping for air within 15 minutes. One lady with a horse had obviously picked me out from the get-go and was following behind me, asking every few minutes “Taxi, miss?” I ignored her for another 5 minutes and struggled upwards, but I was starting to have a lot of trouble with my
lungs and breathing, so eventually I gave in and got on my taxi-horse Silya. Turns out I’d managed to take a bit of fluid into my lungs because I was coughing and wheezing for a full day after that. What a sad case!
The rest of the group managed to persevere onwards and upwards, even Keat who expressed sentiments of envy at my leisurely ride up the volcano. I was glad I took the horse in the end because I was able to take in the view and enjoy the trip up instead of regretting I’d ever come near the thing.
We reached the top (but not the summit as you can’t go up there, it’s too hot and dangerous) and spent a few minutes taking photos of the volcanic peak. My guide even took a few photos of me on my horse – she had been laughing at me for constantly apologizing to the horse for having to drag my sorry butt up the mountain. We then descended into a crater filled with volcanic rock where we trekked across to a section that was still hot with steaming vents. Our guide made a fire inside one of the vents
and roasted some marshmallows for us, which were so good we went back for a couple more. But, even better than that was the view. Breathtaking doesn’t even quite describe it and I’m sure my photos don’t do it justice.
We had arrived in the crater just as the sun began to set and beyond the edge of the volcano lay a sea of clouds. We literally could not even see the ground and it felt like we were standing on the edge of the world. It was fantastic!
The trek down was much easier, an actual road as opposed to the bush we had battled through on the way up which I was annoyed about seeing as I could have walked up the road quite easily given the option. Keat and I were filthy and tired but really pleased with the whole experience, we had a great time.
The next day, Wednesday, I was quite sick and stayed in the room to get some rest in anticipation of the night ahead – Australia Day (in Australia). Luckily for us, our hostel ran a Roast Pork dinner each Wednesday night on the rooftop terrace, and combined with a few
drinks and some Eucalyptus branches Keat found, we had a nice little party going for our celebrations. A bunch of Aussies from other hostels came around too, and we streamed the Hottest 100 as best we could on the hostel’s faltering wifi. It was a great night, but unfortunately I was only able to make it through to the Top 20 before I turned in to bed at 2.30am and passed out. Keat, my ever-diligent little mate from NSW, was man enough to stay up until the wee hours to confirm my Gotye prediction for #1, so that was good news the next morning.
Thursday was spent not doing much at all and Friday was looking the same as Keat and I were lazing around the common room, and Christine had headed off to the post office. All of a sudden, a guy came into the reception to see if the hostel owner Brent wanted to go on a tour for promotional purposes but as he couldn’t go, he told them to take a couple of his guests – us!
They were offering a coffee tour and ziplining so we changed our clothes and off we went to a
farm within a remote Mayan community outside of Antigua. Straight up we headed for the ziplines which were strung up down the hillside amongst the coffee plants. They were really fun (except for the part when I was braking with my hand and the line burnt through my glove and gave me a nasty blister) and I was even more excited to try out the big lines in Costa Rica in a few weeks time.
We then had a basic coffee tour where they explained the process and then gave us a go at roasting and grinding our own coffee beans. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics of me doing this as Keat took them on his camera and hasn’t been able to send them to me yet, so the pics are of Keat instead – enjoy!
They served the freshly ground and brewed coffee to us for lunch and it was delicious – I didn’t even need milk with it which as some people know, I can NOT drink black coffee at home.
Prior to lunch, they sent us off into the fields to pick blackberries – my first berry picking experience EVER! We picked 2 baskets full and
handed them to the kitchen ladies who whipped them up into a delicious thick juice for us, which we had with our lunch of grilled chicken, trout, salad, rice and beans. After lunch, we thought they would take us back home but nope, time for a horseback ride around the farm and after that, the chance to milk a cow! It was a quite a good day all up, especially because we got it all for FREEEEEEE – we returned back to the hostel and reported good things back to Brent.
Saturday we packed up and headed to our new hotel to meet the new tour group: this time we were travelling with Tucan through Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to end in San Jose. We had dinner with them that night and were surprised that Chrissy and I were 2 of the 3 youngest people in the group. Our previous group had ranged in ages from 18 to 30, but this group ranged from early 20’s to early 70’s! However, despite age differences, we quickly discovered that everyone was really lovely and interesting, and we looked forward to travelling with such a unique group dynamic. We turned in
early as we were off in the morning on a 4 hour bus ride across the border into Honduras.
Goodbye Guatemala, it’s been amazing!
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