Fire in the countryside and in the old city..

Saturday, July 22nd

5:35am the alarms start ringing. Fortunately, I´ve been using these cheap but effective ear plugs that pretty much will let me die sleeping in case of emergency in the middle of the night. So the rest of the guys wake me up around 5:45am and we are ready to go with 5 minutes on the clock to spare. Our ride is supposed to show up at 6:00am to take us to the volcanoe. It was still dark.

At this point all of us are kind of regreting the decision we made last night. We thought it would be great to wake up early and see this active volcanoe in all its glory early in the day. But it was so rainy, kind of cold and still dark.. We took a mini-bus together with an american couple who was as cheap as we were and are staying in the Ruiz 2 as well.

After the mini-bus, we were asked to get off this vehicle and wait in a tiny tourist office where a chicken bus would take us to the volcanoe. We did negotiate a $5 discount on the tour price per person so I was afraid that this would turn around to bite us very soon. Our american couple friends left in the comfortable mini-bus, without us.

The morning came about with a deep blue contrast in the sky. Now, we have been waking up really early these days so my body is ready to go to the bathroom around 6:30am. So as we waited for the chicken bus I saw my only chance around to make use of a semi-acceptable bathroom setup. After running to this tourist office and stealing toilet paper I was ready for exploring hot lava in a few minutes. The toilet paper will come in handy later in the day as you will see which justifies me telling you the story in this paragraph.

Well, so we are waiting in the chicken bus and they tell us that we are being changed into a medium sized bus. (Again I am becoming increasingly suspicious that our $5 discount was not a deal afterall) All of us were in good spirits though and after about an hour ride we were already up in the mountains. I´m wearing my black going-out pants and a slick shirt.. really looking ready to hit the clubs but all my clothes are at the washers today. The bus driver tells us in his very limited English after stopping the bus in the middle of a dirt road: ¨Go to top bus beautiful picture¨. Most tourists in the bus including us did not understand what he meant but a few of us stood up and decided to go out and check it. In the end Greg, Alexey, a few other tourists and myself rode on the top of the bus for the next 10 or so minutes of ascent. Todd decided to stay inside the bus. It was incredible! Beautiful views of the Agua volcanoe from the back side (the front side is visible from Antigua itself), coffee plantations and all sorts of mountain ranges.. After managing to avoid tree branches, take pictures and hang for our lives, we arrived to the base camp for our hike to the lava filled volcanoe top.

This is where we met our guide for the hike. Arturo was trained for 1 week by the government to be a tour guide. He knows a few words in English but does an incredibly good job of speaking veeeerrryyyy slooooowwwwwlllyyy so all foreigners understand him. If you are in Antigua, you are studying Spanish anyways.. so it´s good practice, I guess. His partner in crime was Julio. The pair of local campesinos communicated through a complex patttern of whistling. For this, Arturo used his mighty whistle (picture something that a 2nd grader would use to annoy everyone in the neighborhood).

Once on our base, we all grabbed cups of fresh Guatemalan coffee and were ready for the road. Alexey had been feeling bad all morning by now. Something was wrong with our boy. The ascent was actually quite ardous and a middle aged woman was even put on top of a horse so as to not slow down the group. Arturo assured us that we were only 5 minutes from the top (if this wasn´t the fifth time I heard him say it, I would have belived him). The views kept getting better and better! Everyone kept making stops to rest but not us, huh huh.. we were in the zone.. Alexey had to make a technical stop somewhere in the woods and this is where the TP I stole in the tourist office at 6AM came in handy. After this, we reclaimed Alexey and he was in good spirits once again!






As you can see, after getting to the top, the views were awesome! The Pacaya volcanoe was smoking and you could see all of the lava it had spit splashed in this dark black color mass. Arturo decided to go check if the solidified rock was not too hot. He actually sports rubber boots so if it were too hot, the only way of telling would be him losing a foot. He came back and ordered us to go down the rocks. Our feet kept getting warmer and warmer, now really hot! We finally got to a place where lava was slowly flowing out of this mountain.. what a beautiful sight! You can feel the heat in your whole body even though the air was actually quite cold at this altitude. Arturo decided to put a wooden stick into one of the orange glowing liquid rock apertures and it caught on fire to the admiration of all tourists.. you could just hear the ¨WWWWOOOOOOWWWWW¨ running through everyone´s mind.




We left the area and we were taken to a different path that we were assured was much more ¨dynamic¨ than other tour groups would do. Our guide was not kidding.. we stopped at a really steep hill to rest. Arturo mentioned to be careful but have fun in the next leg of the trip as he started sliding off the cliff on this volcanic ash path. Everyone followed him. This was one of the best experiences we´ve had so far! We were jumping into the air looking down the cliff and landing softly onto the ash filled path.. Our shoes got filled with little stones everywhere but the experience was unforgetable!



So we got back to Antigua and picked up our laundry. Finally!!! clean clothes for all of us.. (If you´ve been in a long trip you know this is a festive day). After napping and showering, we are ready to explore. Unfortunately, it has started raining and it´s 6PM. Most tourist things to see close at 5PM. So we are out of luck. We try walking towards the market.. There, we hit this lady selling tamales and empanadas in the streets.. One word for you guys: ¨Fabulous¨. Don´t know what the recipe is, but we all agreed this was the find of the century. They were 2.5Q each which is something like $0.30 US. Next stop: The Landivar Monument!!! YEAH! Here in Guatemala, as it turns out, there are quite a few Landivar such as myself. This guy, Rafael Landivar was a poet and is highly regarded here. So much so that he has his very own monument with arches and all. Very neat.

Pictures flying everywhere documenting our pass through Antigua. We hit the artisan´s market where Greg and I scored some pretty cool candle holders. Very quaint town with a colonial feel. Lots of people say it´s too touristy, which could be right, but it really is what you make of it. We have interacted quite a bit with locals. The guys' Spanish is improving as well.

In a change of events, we have for the first time hit a town where we won´t barely miss the festivities. Antigua celebrates their patron saint Santiago´s day next Tuesday so today there is a concert in the Plaza Central which is their version of a Mexican Zocalo. Cerveza Gallo is a big sponsor and they were running a music show there in the park. They called three guys to dance with their professional (pretty hot looking and lightly dressed) dancers. Guy number 3 knew this was probably his best and only chance to get near a woman of that caliber so he grabbed all he wanted. The crowd was pleased and awarded him the prize.. probably a beer can.




Strolling through a town in festivities is awesome. Lots of people selling stuff in the streets and just in general a very cool local feeling. Fireworks were heard in the distance. Street meat was calling us. We went for it without inhibitions. I think after the past few weeks of adjusting we are all becoming more adventurous with the food. Greg and Alexey tried some plantains dipped in mole sauce and some Bunuelos with some sweet sauce we can´t decypher yet. Todd and I went for the pupusas, him chicharon and me the cheese. We are now ready to rock and roll at the bars but not too late.. we have to wake up early tomorrow.. not sure why, but something will come up. Perhaps church.. yeah! church it is! Everyone, get ready for 8AM mass!.

And more pics of Antigua!..