Guatemala: Roasting Marshmallows Over Flowing Lava

So yes, how many people can say they have done that in their lifetime?! It's certainly something I never envisaged myself doing! First things first, upon leaving Buenos Aires, I had a couple of flights, up to Miami, then back down to Guatemala City with a 9 hour wait at the airport in between them. I arrived there and managed to catch a taxi fairly quickly, and cheaply, to Antigua. I headed to the hostal and talked to Lee briefly as we organised meeting up before I had my first night without someone snoring in the room for 3 weeks. Heaven!

And just to compound my lack of recent sleep, the following morning I was up at 4.30am as I had organised a hike up Volcano Pacaya, where the title of this blog gets it's name. Our group of about 12 headed up there and luckily we were one of the first groups to leave. It wasn't too difficult a hike and after an hour and a half, we were at the top seated only a couple of metres away from flowing lava! A few people had the foresight to bring up some marshmallows, so we sat there cooking and eating those before we made our way down. Good timing too as the crowds were starting to catch us up so we were lucky to have the time we did with a bit of peace and quiet at the top of the mountain.

Back in Antigua, I took advantage of the sun shining and went around exploring a bit while planning to meet up with Lee the following day in Panajachel. Antigua is reknown for being one of the more beautiful towns in Central America and it certainly does have a certian rustic charm, which maintaining the feel of being quite tropical as well.

The following day was a bit of a write off due to some miscommunication, as I went to Panajachel to meet Lee, while she came to Antigua to meet me there. By the time we had realised our error, it was rather late in the afternoon so I relaxed at La Iguana Perdida, a hostel in Santa Cruz on the lake, before heading back to Antigua the following morning.

Eventually we met up in Antigua and spent the afternoon wandering before organising a night bus to take us up to Flores to see Tikal. We first had a couple of hours to wait in Guatemala City at the bus station there - certainly not the accomodation highlight of the trip! But we managed to get on the bus with getting mugged so a success.

The night wasn't that comfortable, but we survived and pulled into Santa Elena about 5am, where along with a Mexican girl we had met, we headed along to the Los Amigos hostel. Our plan was to dump our stuff and head straight out to Tikal, but as we all had problems trying to withdraw money, we spent the morning sorting that out before a siesta in the early afternoon. We finally made it to Tikal just after 3.30, that being the time where if you enter after, you can get in for free the next day. So we had a look at a couple of the main impressive sights then headed back to Flores for a quick swim in the lake. We had a couple of drinks at the hostel before some dinner, before heading to bed before another 4.30am start.

We were up early to try and catch the first bus out to Tikal, which we succeeded and I am glad we decided to do it, despite the hour. The place was virtually deserted and the animals were out in fine voice before the influx of tourists drove them deeper into the jungle. Before Lee mentioned Guatemala, I had never done much research into this area, so had never heard of Tikal or her ruins, but they are incredible. Up there in terms of size with Machu Pichu, just without the amazing 3 day hike preceding it. We walked around for several hours and checked out the stuff we hadn't yet seen and finished up by early afternoon before heading back to Flores.

We organised bus tickets for that night, then relaxed and caught up on a bit of sleep back at the hostel before another night bus, on the way back to Guatemala City, and my flight early in the morning. I started to panic a little when we were stuck in a traffic jam for over an hour but in the end, we made it to the airport on time and I said my farewells to Lee as she had to wait another hour or so before her flight back to New York.

The flights were uneventful and before I knew it, I was back in London! So after just under 6 months away, the trip finally has come to an end. On the flight back, I was getting a little nostalgic over all the places I have been and people I have met over the course of the trip and it certainly has been another amazing experience. The next big adventure is getting a job and a flat and readjusting back into London life!

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