Volcanos, Lakes and Markets!

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After a bit of a fiasco with buses, we made it out of Flores a day later than we'd planned. There was no direct bus to Lake Atitlan, where we meant to go to next so we decided to go to Antigua first instead. As we had to go through Guatemala city, it was a chance to get a good look at the place from a mini bus window; once we changed bused in the main terminal. Guatemala city has a bad rep, and everyone I spoke to who had been there said not to bother with it, so I was surprised to see how modern and nice it looked. In my head I had it as a real run down shanty town, and though its a bit like that at the edges it looks quite nice in the centre, but we were only passing through, and an hour later we arrived in Antigua.

Antigua is a UNESCO world heritage site and it's location is stunning. There's a dorminant volcano, overlooking the whole city, just like the volcanos you used to draw as a kid. In fact the whole way from Flores to Antigua there are many spiky chimney top mountains, just like kid's drawings, the landscape is amazing! Antigua really reminded us all of Oaxaca in Mexico, but an even cutier version, but we weren't prepared for the amount of tourists there, it's just full of them. It's famous for it's language schools so that's one of the reasons, but every second person that you meet is a tourist, which was stange for us as we hadn't met all that many along the way. Antigua has great shops and restaurants too, so we were well feed and we all got some nice things (including a dress for Alison's wedding!)

One of the main things to do in Antigua is to climb Volcano Pacaya, an active volvano quite close by. I was quite nervous about this but decided to go ahead anyway and Aoife had been speaking to an elderly German couple who had bone it in Sandals so I though it can't be that bad.... I was wrong!!! We were being picked up the following morning at 6am, so the night before I went to dig out my walking shoes from my rucksack, but only one could be found!! Obviously I had left the other one under a bed somewhere on my travels. As there was nothing I could do about it, I decided not to worry as the guide laughed at me when he saw my sandalled feet getting into the mini bus. The bus takes you about three quaters of the way up the volcano and there are stunning views of the group of 3 other volcanos opposite (it's Volcano valley round here) one of which is active and you can see the smoke plumbing out of it. I was really surpried to see a village high up on the side of the volcano we were climbing but I supposed it doesn't bother the inhabitants!

We went got to the part where we had to start walking ourselves, I had been hoping to do the whole trek, but the error of the foot wear, meant that I decided to take a horse taxi man up on his offer to take me to the top. The horse taxi (poor horse) stayed with the group you are with so it's all good. The climb was almost vertical, so I don't know how the rest of the group did it and I felt sorry for my poor horse. The guides however, were running up no problem to them , not out of breath at all (but I suppose they do this 10 times a day). Eventually we made it up the top and I was well glad to get of the horse (don't like horse riding at the best of times, hate the sense of no control), but the worst was yet to come.... We were dropped off the horses (Dara had got one too ) on a Lava rock field. The rocks were in constant motion, so we were constantly sliding over them. We had to climb up an even more vertical landscape of moving rock and sharp edged volcanic stones so of course I cut my toe in the process. Luckily one of the German girls on the trip had plasters in her bag, so with the emergency adverted, up we went. After the hard climb, we made it to the top (almost) to be greeted with waves of boiling hot air and a river of Lava. Quite amazing!! My camera - which had been dying a death recently - decided to give up the ghost, so my pictures are pretty rubish so I'll have to wait till Dara puts hers up on Facebook and steal them for the blog. As my sandals were not the best, I didn't go as close to the lava as the rest of the group, for fear of having bar-b-qued feet. It was hot where I was but it was apparently like the gates of hell even closer, so much so that Aoife's glasses were starting to melt!! The guide shoved one of the sticks we were used for the hike into the lava and it immediately went up in flames!! He then used this to light up a cigarette, pretty cool! David, who we met on this trip and at Tikal, got some great shots of that too, which I need to steal!

The climb down wasn't so bad, I didn't take the horse as I don't like going down at a 45 degree angle on a horse and the guide held my hand most of the way (V. nice of him) Jelly legs again at the bottom. All the guides had the most amazing green eyes (like in that pic of the Indian girl on the front of that most famous issue of the National geographic), must be common to the area. Just beautiful.

Back on solid ground, we spent the next day or so, just wandering and going for nice dinners, Antigua is again great for veggies but we bade farwell and got another mini bus 2 and a half hours down the road to San Pedro no. 2 at Lake Atitlan. It must be something to do with the name, but again I'm loving this San Pedro, which is good, cos Guatemala in generally wasn't living up what every one had said about it. I had found it very similiar to Mexico, and was expecting something completely different. But San Pedro's cool, it actually really reminds me of Varanessi in India, with sloping narrow cobbled streets and lots of sight and smells. The drive here was pretty amazing too, especially as we were winding round mountains on the sharpest hairpin bends I have every seen, when suddenly the lake comes into view. It's truly breath taking. You're so high above it and there's a mist over the trees in the mountains, the lake shimers like silver and wafts of smoke rise form the many villages dotted around the shores of the lake. WOW!!! The mountains are so sharp and the light put them in high contrast, it's like some of the landscapes form 'Lord of the Rings', so dramatic. As the camera had totally died on me, I decided to buy a new one in Antigua before I left so hopefully the photos are a bit better from now on, but the camera really doesn't do justice to what it actually llike.

After a death-defying tuk-tuk ride to the hotel (some of the streets just literally fall off the edge of the earth, and it was with squeals that me and Aoife clung to each other as we hurtled down an incline of about 80 degrees - no messing - while the tuk-tuk driver looked at us as if we were mad to think this was any way unusual) we checked in to the nicest hotel with the nicest rooms with lake view and a room each!!! All delighted.

I immediately fell in love with this place, the windy streets and alley ways. The restaurants again are amazing, food's been so good in Guatemala (not what I was expecting) and there's such a nice atmosphere here. Again it's sort of reminding me of Holland years ago (as the other San Pedro did), not in how it looks, but the way there's such a crowd of long termers here, lots of people know each other, really laid back and new people constantly coming and going. I could really see how easy it would be to stay here.

Yesterday we got the bus to Chichicastelango, where there's a massive market twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays, it's about 2 hours away so we spent the day there buying presents and having a look around. It's a Mayan village, so we didn't take many photos there, but it was really good with all the different types of items for sale in different parts of the market.

Up bright and early this morning, me and Aoife went to a yoga session outdoors by the lake; who can ask for more.....

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Photos

Vocano Agua
This dormant volcano dominate the city skyline

Old buiding in Antigua
The city is peppered with the remains of some buidings pre 1773, when a massive earthquake levelled the city and it's status as a capital moved to Guatemala city

Chicken buses
These re-painted US school buses are every where in Guatemala, the fumes from their exhausts are the dirtiest and blackest I have ever seen!

Almost there
Apologies for Blurriness if image

The crater at the top
You can just make out the smoke

River of lave
Look closely and you can see the river of lava on the edge of that crest

Close up of Lava
Terrible pic, I know, I'm going to replace these once Dara puts hers up

See how close everyone is!!
Again sorry about the blur

Fab dogs in the hotel in Antigua
Clear pics again, thanks to new camera!!