Antigua, liquid hot lava, and Monterrico

Antigua is a lot like the Disneyland version of Guatemala. I think the people who made Epcot Center must have visited Antigua. The town is very quaint, with cobble stone streets, and dozens of beautiful old churches. Most of the churches are now in ruins (once the Spanish colonists left there weren´t enough people or money to keep them up), but the ruins are still beautiful. The tourist police make sure there little to no crime and it´s pretty easy to ¨experience¨ Guatemala by sipping a banana licuado in a garden court yard.

The biggest highlight of Antigua (and possible the whole trip) was visiting the Volcano Pacaya. We successfully made it to the top of this one (luckily only a 1.5 hour hike uphill) to GREAT rewards. Pacaya is an active volcano that spurts liquid hot lava all the time. And, since there are no saftey precausions in Guatemala, they let us walk right up to the liquid hot lava and poke it with sticks. The motlen rock is actually mushy and of course lights the wooden sticks on fire instantly. We walked on lava fields that felt hot because of the hot lava running beneath it. 2 girls even fried some egges over the hot lava. The pictures and videos really say it all, but it is surreal to see hot molten rock flowing down the mountain about 10 ft away from you. It was a good thing we wore good hiking shoes since we could even feel the heat through those.

Next, we decided to heat to the southern coast to Monterrico. This is where Guatamalas from the capital often spend the weekend to get away from the big city. And, man, it was definitely away. Monterrico consisted of 1 main street lined with a few tiendas (small curb side shops) and comedors (local diners) and a strip of mostly empty hotels. We stayed at a nice place on the beach with lots of hammocks for about $10 a night. The ocean water was very warm, but the waves were crazy big. The undertowe was killer (literally, we were warned), so you couldn´t go swimming much in the ocean. So, we spend a few days just hanging out by the pool and reading in the hammocks. We probably would have stayed longer, but the constant heat both day and night (without airconditioning) and swarm of mosquitos at night became pretty exhausting. We did take a great tour of the mangroves which survive in a mix of fresh water and salt water. They reminded us a lot of the bayous of Louisiana-- although these smelt like rotten eggs because of the decaying mangrove leaves. After all this relaxation we decided to hit the road, local style, and try our hand at travelling by chicken bus....