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Published: July 30th 2008
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In Guatemala we headed for Antigua, a town near the dangerous Guatemala city. Antigua is an old city that has cobblestone roads and stone buildings all in the same style. Every shop seems to fit the style of the town. This is a backpacker hotspot as there are a few missions nearby so Antigua is a good base. It constantly rained while we were there and the streets seemed to flood every night.
We planned a visit to Mt Pacayo a local volcano, which has lava flowing all of the time. The best time to see it is early morning or in the evening so the glow of the lava can be seen. Since being in the heat of central America for some time now our flip flops had become our main peice of footwear. For Ben they were his ONLY shoes!! Without shoes since they were stolen in his bag back in Ecuador, we headed for the markets where we were assured to find some sturdy shoes suitable for climbing up a volcano. These markets were the biggest we had come across so far. Super cheap and a bit of everything. You could get lost easily as there are
a lot of similar stalls set up. The local vibe I got when asking for size 11 or 12 was that basically i had clown feet. Every single person we asked just straight away laughed, looked at my feet and then shook their heads!! The Guatemalans have tiny feet. After searching through about 30 different shoe stalls it was clear that my trusty thongs would have to guide me up this volcano that afternoon.
A bus trip got us to the base and we started our trek up. The guides gave me a look as if to say "what are you thinking dumb aussie." True I guess, but what could I do? After a fair walk up a slightly muddy trail, we turned a corner and could see what we came for, the lava. Not as we had imagined the volcano to look, the typical cone shape, but more like a valley with red goo oozing out the side. We dropped down into the valley and reached a dry river of lava, which we were told was flowing not too many months before. Crossing this dried crusty lava was difficult in my chinese safety boots. The lava dries like
razor blades and one slip wouldve meant a sliced foot guaranteed.
The heat coming from some cracks was hot as you could imagine. In some spots you could see lava below the dried crust through the cracks. Nearing the hot syrup was cool, we got about 10 m from it but any closer and our skin wouldve melted off. On our arrival Em's pulled out a couple of beers and we sat down and admired just where we were. On a Volcano 10 meters away from real Lava. Wow what a spot for a Beer! As the sun fell the the lava's glow intensified, but before long we had to head back as the walk back to the bus was already going to be in the dark. The walk back was even more challanging as my thongs were a little worse for wear now and Both Ems and I had forgotten our head torches. Somehow we made it back across the dried Lava river without a fall, and headed back to the bus. A bit of rain fell on the way making the trail really muddy and slippery. My trusty thongs that had walked me to many places on
the journey since I left sydney had their last day on the trip back. It was a sad moment.
Returning to the town we attempted to find the hostel. This would normally be an easy task except that every building looked the same. There was a huge downpour that night so we walked around in circles for an hour through flooded streets until we stumbled across the hostel. Ah what an adventure.
The next morning the poor road workers were clearing the mud off the same street that they cleared the day before. It was about 6 inches deep all through the streets after the floods.
We travelled North into the jungle to a place called Tikal, a group of ancient Mayan ruins which are surrounded by big old trees full of monkeys and toucans. The large temples towered over the jungle canopy, which made for a climb up steep stairs or ladders. We got in to the ruins early one morning to watch the sun rise and hear the jungle animals wake up. We had to bribe a security guard the day before so we could enter before opening hours with a group on a tour
who payed alot more to get the chance to get through the gates early.
There was a camp ground out the front of the ruins where we stayed. It was just us and a another couple from germany camping, so we hung out with them. We were planing on traveling to belize at the same time so we had some company for the bus rides.
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Hane Nanny
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Lava Baby
So you guys got to see some lava in the end! Nice werk!