Volcanoes, and Caves and Islands oh my!


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Published: January 26th 2011
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Well its been a bit since a posted something here but it seems the farther north I travel the crappier the internet connections seem to be. Since I last posted I have seen and done a lot. I hiked a volcano! Volcano Pacaya to be exact. It is a small volcano near Antigua. As far as Antigua goes, I did not care too much for it. It i full of of gringos and all you hear is english. Which also explains why everything was overpriced there as well. The volcano was amazing. I didn't get to see any lava as it had just exploded last spring but we did get to toast marshmallows over some flames there and walk into a steam cave! It was definitely the highlight of Antigua for me. I spent about 4 days in Antigua before moving on to Languin. However I think I should write about my last night in ANtigua as it was quite comical (Mom you may wan to skip this part) In my hostel where a few Peace Corps volunteers awaiting news of on their pending evacuation so we made fast friends. I went out dancing with 2 of the girls Thursday night along with another PCV friend of theirs from another hostel Their friend who I will just call señor Piss (you will find out why later) We had a good time dancing and when the bar closed got invited to an after party by these Hondoran-German-Jewish boys who lived in Guatemala. Their house was in a town about 30 minutes away s we piled in the car and away we went! We we having fun chatting and dancing when Señor Piss starting acting super weird. Talking about cannibalism and trying to convince us that the guys hated him and wanted to kick his ass ( by the end of the night he was dam luckily they didn't) He kept insulting our hosts , staring intently at everyone and just giving off super creepy vibes. Around 4:30ish as we were getting ready to leave ( our hosts were driving us back to Antigua) he started freaking out in the car which got us pulled over by the police! Never again to I want to be pulled over by the cops at 4:30 AM especially in Central America! After the guys driving talked to them (and payed them some cash) we were free to go. Señor Piss could not tell us hoe to get back to his hostel so we shoved him in the extra bed in our dorm room where he passed out for about an hour. He then fell off the bed (top bunk) and proceeded to piss inside our room all over my jacket and flip flops and all over another Peace Corps dudes bags. At that point the other PCV ( Who just got his bags pissed on) shoved Señor Piss out of the hotel and on to the street, I have no idea if he made it home safely and at the time I honestly didn't care. I now had about 30 minutes before my bus was going to leave so i got my bags together and sat in the hall waiting for my bus to take me the fuck out of Antigua!
Next stop, Lanquin! After about 8 hours in a crammed mini van we make it to Lanquin, a mellow little town in centralish Guatemala. My hotel, El Retiro was magical. Located a bit outside of town of the grassy banks of the river it was very relaxing. I spend most of the days hanging out in the hammocks or swimming in the river. There was also a wood burning sauna there that made for very relaxing days. On the outskirts of Lanquin are some bat caves. So you spend about an hour trekking through the slippery caves with all kinds of stalactites and stalagmites as well as these crazy scorpion spiders. At the end of the cave there are no lights and you sit and watch tons of bats fly all around, it was really cool. Then a couple days later I took a day trip to Semuc Champey. WOW!!!!!! Beautiful does not even come close to describing it. First we spend about an hour and half exploring water filled caves lit only by the candles we carried! Then we tubed down the river for a bit before heading to the pools. The pools were the most amazing color of blue I have ever seen in nature. I had thought the photos I had seen had been photo shopped, not true, they are that blue! They run and flow into each other for miles! THere is a raging river that flows below the pools and exits via a waterfall! WOW!
Next stop Flores! While at Lanquin I had met some people who had been talking about El Mirador, a site containing the tallest Mayan Pyramid


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on the hike up Volcan Pacayaon the hike up Volcan Pacaya
on the hike up Volcan Pacaya

I liked the color contrast of the red with the black and greys
Creavase with volcanic flames inside!Creavase with volcanic flames inside!
Creavase with volcanic flames inside!

We roated marshmallows over this!


9th February 2011

Senor, I think I know him
Wow, Senor piss I know that guy. Very funny story, after the fact. You certainly don't have to travel far to find that kind of excitement. I've always wondered about Antigua from hearing about it in the news. Thanks for your perspective.
9th February 2011

missing text
it seems only 1/2 of what i typed showed up on the blog, trying to figue out how to fix that

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