A Jam Packed Week In and Around Antigua

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As soon as we stepped off the chicken bus in Antigua, we knew we were going to love this little colonial city. The streets were buzzing with energy, and many of the local women were wondering around in traditional dress which just added even more charm to it. We head through the markets and into the centre to find the Jungle Party hostel, which again we loved instantly. It had a great atmosphere, with people lounging around watching films on the big tv, chill out music on in the backround, and everyone chatting about their trips and getting on really well.

We dumped our bags in our dorm, and head out into town to have a quick wonder round the city when, just down the street, we bumped into a girl from our hostel in Granada! After standing on the street for nearly half an hour catching up on the past few days, we all head back to the hostel together for some drinks. We soon ended up meeting more and more people, and before long we had the whole hostel sitting out in the courtyard playing various silly games and all getting on like a house on fire. It´s always great when you find a hostel like that, and we soon knew we would be staying in Antigua for a while.

The next day we wondered round the city and chilled out at the hostel for most of the day. It was great to just relax after so much travelling in the past few days, and we knew that the next week would probably be pretty manic with all the day trips we had decided to sign up to.

We were glad for the rest when the next morning, we had to wake up at 6 to get on a bus to Chichicastenango, which is a HUGE outdoor market in a town a few hours from Antigua. We had read about it, and knew it was going to be massive, but we hadn´t realised just how big it was going to be until we got there. The market was pretty much the size of a small town! There must have been thousands of stalls set up, not to mention the countless women (again, in traditional dress) and children who were just wondering around selling things on the streets too. The locals were selling everything from food and flowers to clothing and shampoo, and of course the usual souvenirs. It was incredible to wonder around between all the hustle and bustle of it all, taking in all the wonderful colours and smells. After 4 hours, when we had to get back on the bus, we doubt we even managed to cover half of the market, despite trying to see as much of it as possible. We managed to get a few good bargains, bartering down various things to as much as a quarter of the starting price. It was exhausting constantly having to say no to people and barter down the prices, but it was well worth it. It was an truly awesome day.

The next day, we decided to climb Pacaya volcano, which is an active volcano about an hour out of Antigua. We signed up to the evening walk, as we heard it was pretty cool to see the lava at night, so at 2pm the bus arrived and we all piled on in the boiling heat and head off to the volcano. It was pretty hard work walking up hill in what was mostly black sand for 2 and a half hours, but getting to the place where all the lava was was so worth it. It was so hot, and people had brought marshmallows and even sausages to cook and eat up there which was pretty funny to watch. Stu managed to go right down next to the lava, and was probably less than a metre away from it at one point. It was absolutely roasting hot, apparently the lava is about 900 degrees (we still aren´t sure whether or not to believe this, but either way...it was HOT!). Unfortunately, the wind changed while Stu was down there, and the guides started getting worried, so everyone had to climb back up and we started to head back down. It was still light most of the way down, which was probably a good thing considering it was pretty tricky at points, so we didn´t get to see the lava in the dark but it was still bright red and moving which was pretty cool to see. We got back to Antigua at about 9pm completely exhausted and a little achy, and, worried that we wouldn´t be able to move the next day, we decided to postpone our trip to Honduras for a day to recover. So we crashed in front of the TV to watch a film and had an early night.

Luckily, we were absolutely fine the next day, which we were slightly annoyed about because we really could of saved a day and gone to the Copan ruins in Honduras that day. We spent the day wondering around the city and relaxing at the hostel, waiting for yet another early night before the 3:30 am start for the day trip to Honduras.

The next morning we piled into the bus, bleary eyed and wondering why on earth we were up so early, and tried to catch up on some sleep. It took just over 5 hours to get to the Copan ruins, which are just over the border. Luckily, due to the military coup, it took no time at all to cross the border and, when we arrived at the ruins, there were barely any other tourists there. We pretty much had the site to ourselves, which was awesome. The ruins were pretty cool, and we got a guide to take us round which was really interesting, especially as they were our first Mayan ruins so it was great to get a real understanding of it all. Copan is famous for how decorative the ruins are, with many of the engravings still quite clear on the statues and on the ruins themselves. There was one huge staircase which had 300 years of history carved into the steps, unfortunately historians can only work out the first 15 of the 67 steps, as archaeologists had put the rest of the steps back together all mixed up, but it was amazing to see.

When we got back to Antigua, we decided to book ourselves onto a bus to go to San Pedro, which is a small ´hippie' village on Lake Atitlan. After speaking to a few people we had heard some great things about it and decided it was not to be missed. The next morning, we left our big bags at the hostel and head off with our little backpacks. We instantly fell in love with the town when we arrived, and decided to change our return bus and stay for 2 nights instead of 1. That afternoon we wondered round this cute little town, which had so many little backstreets it was almost like a maze and had lunch in a restaurant right on the lake, which really is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world.

The next day, after a huge English Breakfast (with bacon and even PG Tips!!!! almost made Poppy cry with homesickness!) we head out in a kayak on the lake for a couple of hours. It was great fun kayaking around the lake, and over to the other side where there is a little fishing village called San Marcos. Unfortunately, the weather turned towards the end, and we found ourselves slightly under pressure as we kayaked over ever growing waves back to the shore trying to get there before our 2 hours was up and it started raining even more heavily. Luckily, we made it back in time, and wondered back to the hostel slightly exhausted.

That evening after dinner, we went to a little salsa bar where they had a live band playing which was great fun. We decided Guatemala was definitely up there on our list of favourite countries, and started to wish we had more time there. The next day, we head back to Antigua and Stu finally got his hair cut before we jumped onto the night bus (which was FREEZING) on our way to Flores, which is a island town that we would use as a base for visiting the Mayan ruins in Tikal. We were a little sad to leave Antigua, we had had such a great time in and around the city, but with only a few weeks left in our trip it was time to get moving if we ever wanted to make it to Mexico!

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