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Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
14° 33' N 90° 44' W
May 16, 2008 00:47
Distance 140km

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Other entries in Antigua Guatemala

Oh look..another 'Colonial Gem'!

Text written in: English

After a nailbiting ride through the notorious Guatamala City, we successfully emerged on the other side without our bus having been hijacked at gunpoint, with no sneaky pickpockets, with no random shootings, and with at least a small part of our lungs still functioning after braving the smog!  Fortunately not far down the road, another world exists, with cobbled streets, brightly painted houses, leafy plazas, impressive churches and every kind of market/shop/cafe/restaurant/bar a backpacker could wish for; all of which is encircled by the looming presence of three (one still very much active!) volcanoes.  There's no denying it...Antigua's a gem!!

With all that Antigua has to offer we happily wiled away a few days checking out most of what the city has to offer, without really even trying to do much in the way of sightseeing.  Eventually we jumped on the tour bandwagon to visit the nearby 'Volcán Pacaya', a heavily touristed, but also heavily active volcano!  Climbing into the clouds, we soon reached what we could only assume was the edge of the crater, since visibility only reached to about 5 meters.  Hoping that this was the case, and trusting heavily in our guide, we scrambled down the loose, ash dust slopes into the crater until we reached the eerie, moonscape like crater floor, where solidified lava created insane shapes in the dark volcanic rock.  Picking our way across the razor sharp rocks, the orange glow we had been waiting for eventually emerged through the mist as we approached a river of molten lava!  Fortunately for us, this particular river was a slow mover, although it didn't dissapoint as the flow tumbled rocks, revealing the molten goodness glowing fiercely beneath! We clambered around the crater viewing this awesome river from every angle, occassionally having to step back to recover from the immense heat on our faces.  Eventually the mist began to clear, revealing glimpses of the crater edges around us, and yet more rivers of orange creeping across the barren landscape.  It was hard to drag ourselves away as the light began to fade as we descended the forested slopes by torchlight.  There was part relief, however, in having managed to get to see this phenomenon without incident.  Bear in mind this volcano blew it's top in 2003, damaging nearby villages severely and no doubt giving a few inquisitive backpackers a fright!

With the weekend upon us, we decided to join many of the locals for the three hour bus ride to nearby Chichicastenango, with it's legendary market.  Getting up at the crack of dawn to beat the dreaded tour groups to it, we quickly got lost in the immense market, with it's endless rows of traditional fabrics, Mayan clothing, arts, crafts, hammocks and every type of food imaginable.  We think it's safe to say we shopped until we dropped...onto the 'chicken bus' home.  We should mention at this point that chicken buses are the favoured method of local transport in Guatemala, basically consisting of a fleet of retired American school buses (like in 'The Simpsons'!) considered too knackered to run the young 'uns to school, and so named because anything goes in terms of carry on cargo!  Little did we know but this would be a bus journey quite like no other, with a wannabe rally driver taking bends at breakneck speed, ploughing through speed humps and drag racing other buses towards oncoming traffic, bringing a whole new meaning to the term 'chicken' bus!

For our final day in town, Alex took the opportunity to dust off his surfboard and join a surf shop trip down to the coast to surf Iztapa, Guatemala's best break.  Meanwhile Sal embraced her surf widow status and indulged in a day of chilling in cafes and exploring town armed with her trusty camera, it's got to be said these colonial gems sure are photogenic.