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Published: February 7th 2009
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Antigua is cold this time of year! I wish I had figured that out before I arrived carrying nothing with me except light t-shirts & clothes.
I had no idea what to expect when I arrived in Guatemala City Airport except the hope that someone from my language school would be there to pick me up when I got out. As soon as I cleared customs - There he was. Sergio, my driver.
It was going to be a 45 minute drive from Guatemala City to Antigua. I didn’t know what time it was. I was too tired to ask and soon fell asleep as soon as the car started moving. All I knew was that according to my watch it was somewhere close to 12am and I could no longer remember which timezone I had originally set it for.
I was dropped off at my homestay (Mi madre de la casa es Miriam!), was shown to my room, dumped my things and fell asleep. I had an early start the next morning to visit my school and figure out what the plan was going to be over the next few study weeks.
My school is just
Monterrico Beach
Nothing to mar your view other than a few beach huts and some hostals along the beach front..... around the corner from where I am staying and I walked there the next morning together with my fellow housemates (both of them from Canada). I wasn’t due to start clases till Monday - so having finished my registration I spent the remainder of the day wandering around the streets of Antigua getting lost and dodging cars.
Having no idea what to do with my weekend before classes started - I decided to join a girl I met during lunch who was going to the seaside town of Monterrico for the weekend. I was looking for anywhere that was warmer than where I currently was and was glad of the opportunity to go exploring with someone else.
Dos chicas vamos a la playa……
There are a multitude of travel agencies offering shuttle bus services from Antigua to Moterrico which is about 2 hours outside of Antigua. They all range in price (and of course! quality!) and you can generally pick something up for between 10-15 USD (one way). Marina & I found an agency, neogitated a price (or I should say - Marina negotiated while & just sat there nodding, pretending like I understood!) and arranged to
Monterrico Beach
The currents in the water are very strong. If you aren't carefull you could be choosing to save your bikini bottoms or come up for breath....or worse!!! be picked up the next day.
We got picked up by the shuttle bus around 7am the following morning from our respective casas and finally arrived in Monterrico around 11am. Saturday night is the most popular night for weekending locals & students from all around Guatemala - so having not booked anywhere we trudged around the various hostals looking for availability and eventually found something after our fourth stop. I wasnt expecting the ritz and what we did eventually get had a certain "rustic" charm to it (
please note author's right to creative licence!).
About the town itself - If isolation & relaxation is what you want then Monterrico is the perfect place. It really only has the one main road (called Calle Principal - Of course!), with dirt tracks & small roads leading off it where all the main hostals & pensions are located. There are no real 'shops' to speak of & only a small handfull of smiling, not so pushy sales people showing their wares.
For me this meant only one thing....A chance for me to do absolutely nothing for the next two days. (How difficult could that choice have been really!!). As soon
A very hectic afternoon
This is for all of you at work!! It was a very difficult decision to make - but after much umming & aahing - I finally settled on this hammock! as we got settled in we quickly got changed and headed out to the beach to soak up some sun and to try to shake of the cold from Antigua. Not being a sun baby - The rest of our afternoon was spent selecting the perfect hammock to go with our mojito cubanos. (Is it ever too early to start drinking one of these?).
There are loads of restaurants lined along the main strip. Its not too difficult to grab a bite and being the beach - the best selection has to be seafood....We picked our restaurant of choice & I managed to convince Marina to try her first ever 'whole' fish (which she did & loved....she is Swiss after all!!).
At around 5:30pm the Turtle conservatory isolate a section of the beach to release baby turtles back into the sea. For 20 quetzales, you can hold your own baby turtle and watch it run down the beach toward the sea in a race against the other turtles. It was all a bit too commercialised for my liking - People were swarming everywhere to get their hands on the turtles, helping them into the water and practically stepping
The Monterrico Ritz!!!
What do you expect for $12 pp per night?? This is what you get for doing things last minute - but it suited our needs.....Dontcha Luv my wonderfull mosquito net!! on some of them in their haste to get a close up of ‘their’ turtle. Needless to say, I didn’t opt to get my own baby turtle to join in.
All of my lazing around that day made me very sleepy (Was it that or did it have something to do with the mojitos? I don’t remember!). Anyway.....dinner & dancing was supposed to be on the agenda for the night - but sadly early drinks & some dinner was all that we could manage. We barely had enough energy to finish our food before heading back to the room to crash out - so no interesting evening stories this time round I’m afraid. Besides we had a very early start the next day!.
Another typical Monterrico activity (for those so inclined) is the 5:30am morning tour of the ‘Biotopo Monterrico-Hawaii’, which is a 20km long nature reserve of coastal mangrove swamps. Ever the tourist - I couldn’t give this a miss, so I signed up for the pleasure of getting up at the crack of dawn to sit in a boat and be paddled around a swamp, whilst listening to the guide in Spanish - desperately trying to
understand every third word he said.
It was nice! It was early! I saw the sunrise & the got a glimpse of the volcanos! I also saw a four eyed fish (Yes! As a result of nature - not radioactive waste like in The Simpsons!) - then it was back to the hammocks for me to spend the rest of my afternoon before my shuttle bus back to Antigua.
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gilnar
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keep them coming
hello my lovely missing you heaps!!! am so loving reading your blogs. please keep them coming! anxiously anticipating your next one. look after yourself