Antigua, Lago de Atitlan and Volcan de Pacaya, Guatemala

While Nyall hiked for a week in the highlands, I braved Guatemala on my own and traveled to the colonial, and muchly gringo, town of Antigua. In Antigua I took further classes in español, and enjoyed not having to pack and unpack my backpack every 2 days (we have been on the road so much lately, hardly staying in a town for more than a few nights).

Due to us getting progressively lazier with organisation, we had made no arrangements of where to meet each other again, apart from Nyall vaguely knowing that I would probably be in Antigua (6 hours from where he was), and I knowing the rough date that his hike finished. Our mobile phones don't work here, but thankfully we somehow managed to run in to each other again!!

Once back together Nyall and I traveled to the stunning volcanic Lake, Lago de Atitlan, and enjoyed three days in a beautiful hotel perched up on the cliffs above the water. Here we welcomed in the rainy season, celebrated surviving 4 months of travel, and spent our days reading and exploring the small Indian villages around the huge lake.



Early Friday morning we travelled back to Antigua, and arrived at about lunch time just in time to start a hike up a nearby active Volcano, Volcan de Pacaya. I am not sure what I expected from this hike, but it surely exceeded anything that I imagined it would be. With our group of six hikers and guide we left Antigua at about 2pm, and travelled by shuttle bus to a small village at the base of the volcano. As soon as our shuttle arrived in the town a bunch of small kids came charging at us with hiking sticks, demanding that we buy a stick from them, and not leaving us alone until all members of our group had purchased one. With the kids now settled, the stray dogs fed, and our last uses of a real toilet for 24 hours, we commenced our hike up Pacaya.



The hike up wasn't so bad, it was only about an hour, and I had Nyall constantly in my ear telling me that his hike the previous week was 20 times as long and steep as this. 45 minutes into the hike we had to quicken up the pace as the afternoon rains were about to set in, and if we wanted a dry place we sleep for the night we would have to get our tents set up before the real downpour. With a bit of teamwork we were all set up with barely minutes to spare, and then found ourselves hiking back down the hill into tree cover to escape the lightening flashes around us, where we were entertained by party games and corny jokes.



When the rain ceased a little we hiked back past our campsite, and onwards towards one of the lava streams of Volcan de Pacaya. We missed sunset because we were captivated by the sight and sounds of the lava stream, and our wet clothes soon became dry from the heat of the lava. Once warm again we were able to sit mere metres from a huge river of lava that was steadily flowing down the side of the volcano, enjoying a lightening show of the storm now passing over other nearby volcanoes, and something like a fireworks display proceeding from the mouth of Pacaya. We toasted marshmallows in the lava, listened to it's chinking glass type sound, and were mesmerized by the ever changing patterns. It was a magical experience, and something that is near impossible to describe to give it justice. Nyall and I decided that night that it was our most favourite experience of our travels this year.



Early, early the next morning we were awoken before dawn to climb the mountain next to Pacaya, in order to watch the sunset. We struggled to pull on our dampish clothes, and trudged up the mountain to enjoy a bagel and coffee breakfast with breathtaking views. We arrived back into Antigua about 10am that morning.





We are so pleased that we did the overnight Pacaya hike with O.X. They also offer a daytime hike, but seeing the lava after the sun has gone down is so much more spectacular. The thunderstorm was a little daunting at first, but it became fun, and I think added to the excitement of the adventure, particularly the lightening show it put on for us.

We left Antigua and Guatemala two days later, crossed our first overland border, and went through a Swine Flu checkpoint (not very thorough I should add: their questionnaire consisted of "do you think you have the flu? YES/NO. Sign here").

We have just arrived in Honduras, and right now are trying to come to terms with the sudden increase in temperature.