Advertisement
Published: January 24th 2009
A couple of weeks ago my mom, sisters (including Sheena), and Joel Dean (sausages) came for a visit. It was a vacation for Ben and I as well, being only our second time away from quetzaltrekkers. We met them at the airport and taxied to Antigua (nobody wants to spend any time in the capital). First day was spent just milling about, checking out the market, stuffing our faces, exploring church ruins (antigua has been destroyed by earthquakes a number of times). Next day we were up early to climb volcan pacaya, getting up close and personal with "liquid hot magma" (of course it was really lava, but alison sounded so cute repeating this phrase that we let it slide). It was really amazing to see a river of lava eat its way through older rocks and flow down the mountain...still doesn´t feel real. That afternoon chicken bussed it to the lake. Visited a hot springs that ended up being a teeny tiny part of the lake that happened to have scalding water seeping into it. Fun to see how many people we could get in the pot, but not exactly the relaxing soak we had in mind. The pitcher of
margaritas we ordered afterwards was also a letdown...it ended up being an entire bottle of crappy tequilla chilled with dirty ice and mixed with the juice of maybe one lime. Foul. The sun setting behind the volcanoes made up for it all. The days passed quickly at the lake. We visited a nature reserve, rode around in boats, tuk tuks and pickups, went to the famed market in chichicastenango, saw some ruins (sort of...they were mostly unexcavated), went on a zipline, drank lots of margaritas, ate lots of street food, etc. Before i knew it we were saying goodbye, which made me pretty sad. Ben and I stayed one more night at the lake before returning to Xela for our last couple of weeks of volunteering. We're done now, still getting used to the fact that we get to spend our time however we want to. We've decided to push back our tickets a few weeks. We'll leave Xela tomorrow for Mexico (we've got to leave to country for 3 days to get our visas renewed). Afterwards the plan is to swing through northern guate, head to the carribean coast, possibly get scuba certifications in honduras, say hello to quetzaltrekkers
nicaragua (if there is time), see some cool national parks in el salvador (while stuffing our faces with pupusas), quick trip back through xela to pick up our stuff, then back to the ol' u.s. of a (a much more inviting place as of three days ago!!!!). We had our despedida last night, which is largely to blame for the fact that my brain doesn't work and I can't for the life of me make this entry very interesting. Hopefully the pictures (thanks to todd) make up for it. If you can, listen to the audio on the video...highly amusing.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 53; dbt: 0.063s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Nancy Heiser
non-member comment
enjoyment!!
Rachel - I love your travel blog. I am finding myself feeling quite envious. Somewhat envious of the experiences you are having, but most envious of your spirit of adventure - something I have never had. I just thoroughly enjoy reading and looking at your amazing pictures. You always make me smile. Stay safe sweet niece :) and thank you for sharing! Love you - your aunt, Nancy