We’re up early after a few hours sleep to fly to Dallas (4 hour layover in the boring airport with bad food) and then onto Guatemala. We arrive at our little hotel on the outskirts of town around 8pm and after dumping the packs head into town for a local meal ..... our diet of beans, spicy salsa, guacamole and tortillas for the next few months is off to a good start.
Antigua is a very old Spanish colonial town, in the 1600s it was the Spanish capital of Latin America. Built around a central plaza, the town is a mix of rambling, brightly coloured houses and over 40 churches. Many of the churches lie in ruins courtesy of the earthquakes that plague the area owing to the town’s scenic, but misguided, location between 3 volcanoes. It’s a great place for wandering with many shops selling local arts and no shortage of Mayan Indian women and children trying to sell you useless but pretty handicrafts. It’s a relaxing place to start our Latin America adventure.
In the afternoon we undertake a 5 hour round trip hike out of the town and up into some beautiful rainforest. The small park is virtually deserted with the exception of a few locals bathing in the towns’ only swimming pools and hundreds of species of birds that we can hear but are unable to see through the spectacularly dense green vegetation. The hike is steep and humid but well worth the effort.
On Wednesday morning we are up at 6am to head to the Volcano “pacaya”. A small group of us with a local guide head up the side of the live volcano and after a couple of hours our efforts are rewarded when we arrive at a scorched wasteland where lava is oozing out of the ground. If this were in Australia we’d be 250m away looking through binoculars ..... but we’re in Guatemala so we’re just 2.5m away and left to our own devices to keep out of the way of the slowly spreading but searing hot molten rock. Brilliant!
My afternoon is spent reading and Sav wanders through the town’s shops successfully finding some not so small mementoes of our Antiguan trip.
Antigua is a very old Spanish colonial town, in the 1600s it was the Spanish capital of Latin America. Built around a central plaza, the town is a mix of rambling, brightly coloured houses and over 40 churches. Many of the churches lie in ruins courtesy of the earthquakes that plague the area owing to the town’s scenic, but misguided, location between 3 volcanoes. It’s a great place for wandering with many shops selling local arts and no shortage of Mayan Indian women and children trying to sell you useless but pretty handicrafts. It’s a relaxing place to start our Latin America adventure.
In the afternoon we undertake a 5 hour round trip hike out of the town and up into some beautiful rainforest. The small park is virtually deserted with the exception of a few locals bathing in the towns’ only swimming pools and hundreds of species of birds that we can hear but are unable to see through the spectacularly dense green vegetation. The hike is steep and humid but well worth the effort.
On Wednesday morning we are up at 6am to head to the Volcano “pacaya”. A small group of us with a local guide head up the side of the live volcano and after a couple of hours our efforts are rewarded when we arrive at a scorched wasteland where lava is oozing out of the ground. If this were in Australia we’d be 250m away looking through binoculars ..... but we’re in Guatemala so we’re just 2.5m away and left to our own devices to keep out of the way of the slowly spreading but searing hot molten rock. Brilliant!
My afternoon is spent reading and Sav wanders through the town’s shops successfully finding some not so small mementoes of our Antiguan trip.
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