Advertisement
Published: June 22nd 2007
Hello family and friends!!!
So Cameron and I arrived in Guatemala City Tuesday evening with no problems getting here. It felt like many days of travel however, due to the fact that we had been up since 330am pacific time and traveled until 8pm mountain time...needless to say we were exhausted but very, very excited to start our adventure. Things proved quite interesting after we exited the plane and realized the airport was undergoing MAJOR reconstruction. We were basically cattle herded right out the exit and were instantly standing in front of about 200 Guatemalans waiting for family members to arrive. I have to go back for a second and tell you that we were expecting to exchange money and buy international calling cards in the airport but because we had already gone through customs we could not go back in to the airport...not good news. Luckily, a nice guy who worked for one of the rental car agencies spoke some English and he let us use his phone to call the hostel we were staying at that first night. After much difficulty of trying to understand one another, the house mother spoke little English and I speak little Spanish, we set it up that one of the guys that works at the hostel would come pick us up out front in about 10 minutes. Alberto showed up a few minutes later and took us to our hostel which was kind of nice but a little scary due to the fact that we were not at the main house but a private house all our own...not really how we wanted to spend our first night but there was nothing we could do.
The next morning Alberto took us to withdraw money from the Shell gas station which dispensed Quetzales and then on to catch the ¨chicken bus¨ to Antigua. We had heard the chicken buses were quite frightening because the drivers are a little crazy and they´re usually packed to the brim with locals and their livestock, however we had a very serene and beautiful ride through the mountains with a normal driver and no livestock. Once in Antigua we were approached by a young man who spoke English and said he would find us a nice hostel, set us up with Spanish lessons, and show us around a bit. Juan was extremely nice and did everything he said he was going to do. We are currently staying at a little hostel named Los Encuentros and our house mother Iirma is wonderful and funny too. She doesn´t speak much English but helps all of her patrons with their spanish. We are also currently taking Spanish lessons from a couple who are expecting their 2nd child together. Julio and Paolina are two of the nicest individuals I have ever met in my life and they are amazing miestros. We are doing accelerated learning and so we spend 5 hours a day speaking one on one with them in the afternoons. It sounds like a long time each day but the hours fly by with many laughs and good conversation.
In Antigua the best time to do some hiking and exploring is in the mornings because the afternoons usually become overcast and sprinkle. Because of this fact, Cameron and I decided to hike the Volcano Pacaya this morning. Pacaya is one of three, I believe, active volcanos in Guatemala and it is spectacular. We woke up early and were one our way with 8 other tourists at 6am! We got to the volcano around 8am and started our hike. The book says this hike is an easy one but on no breakfast, didn´t have time, and literal straight up trails, the hike got to me a bit and I threw up the water I had been drinking about half way up. This made me a little wobbly but I was determined to make it all the way up and see the lava flow. The final stretch of the hike is rock scrambling dried up lava flow that is not very sturdy. I decided to not go the remaining 200 feet up because the sturdiness and heat got even worse from there. So, I missed seeing the lava flow but I had to put my own safety first. Cameron went all the way up and said the flow was really cool, but it just looked like black rock moving very slowly down the side of the mountain. When we got back down to where we weren´t rock scrambling the volcano began erupting out of two smaller peaks at the very top so we got to see lava literally being spewed out the top and smoke bursting out of the giant. Everyone said that was even cooler than seeing the actual lava flow so I felt somewhat redeemed, somewhat.
When we got back to Antigua we were sooooo tired but had to go to school so we sucked it up and tried to remember everything from the day before. Now it is 1030pm here and for some reason instead of sleeping we are writing this blog, haha! Tomorrow we get to sleep in and take in more of this city and then do school in the afternoon again so it will be a much calmer day.
Well, we have to get off the computer now because our house mates are all sleeping and typing is pretty noisy. We´ll try and get some pics up tomorrow evening so check back again!
We miss and love you all!!! And don´t worry about us, we are having a blast!!!
Love from Antigua,
Em and Cam
Advertisement
Tot: 0.063s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0424s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Bev (mamisita)
non-member comment
awsome
you guys sound like you are having a blast and you are safe. that makes me very happy. enjoy it to the fullest . you'll be speaking spanish fleuently by the time you get back. I love you. mamisita