Antigua Guatemala

Well this is our first from Guatemala, and so far we have loved what we have seen. Having flown into Guatemala city, we decided to skip the capital and head straight for the town of Antigua. A mecca for Spanish schools, and still very colonial in it´s design with cobble stone streets and all that stuff.

On our first afternoon of arriving we decided to go to the main tour agency and check all the stuff that could be done around the place. Whilst in there we managed to bump into one of the daughters of one of Richo´s mum´s school mates, Robin and her boyfriend Luke, which was a fairly random but very cool encounter. Hope Honduras was awesome kids!! The sunset photo was taken from the skybar (rooftop bar) whilst having a few settlers with them.

Following a very late last minute decision last night, we decided to climb the still very active Pacaya volcanoe (one of the 4 that surround Antigua and can be seen from our rooftop bar and one of the 33 in Guatemala of which three are active), that can be seen in the photos above. We got up at 4 am in the morning (not needing to get up until 5am but forgot to wind the alarm clock back) and drove in the usual if ´I survive this bus trip its a bloody miracle´ manner which we have now become accustomed to, and reached the foot an hour and a half later. From there is was a 3km assent to the part of the volcanoe where the old molten lava had formed. Our guide then escorted us across the recently hardened molten rock, upon which we could see the glowing red molten through the cracks. OUr guide demonstrated just how hot it was down some of these holes by hovering a stick just barely inside the openings, only to have it burst into flame. This being the case, they allowed us to freely walk across the rocks, and generally do as we pleased despite the rumbling from the volcanoe above and the somewhat unstable ground beneath your feet. It is fairly safe to say that the public liability craze that is sweeping the globe is yet to reach Latin American shores.

Thats all for now,

Richo and Ebs