Week 6 - Volcanoes and Kayaks and Buckys, oh my!

Bucky gave me a bit of a surprise a couple of weeks ago when he confirmed that he was planning on coming down to Guatemala for a few days. I rushed to Antigua to see him, well boarded a direct shuttle from Copan to Antigua, at least.

After many weeks here in Central America, I definitely have a new opinion on what is considered an inexpensive hotel. Bucky, of course, doesn´t, much to my benefit. He found a hotel in Antigua that I would be semi-embarrassed to tell other backpackers the price. It was gorgeous though, a big room, with what must be in the top 10 of all Guatemalan bathrooms, including in the presidential palace. Seriously, not only did the shower have actual hot water (not from a little heater attached to the shower head that is waiting to shock you) but it also had a bathtub! You ask people down here if there is a bathtub, they will look at you funny, having never heard of such a thing before. Bucky, if you have a picture, please send it to me or post it in the comments.

We spent a couple of days in Antigua touring around the city and doing some shopping at the local markets. Antigua is a lot like Grenada, Nicaragua, an old colonial capital. The diffference seems to be the amount of money and the number of tourists. It is so much more glitzy, a spanish colonial vegas? The Parque Central is gorgeous and was all lit up for the holiday. The cathedral is a huge structure that has been destroyed by earthquakes and volcanoes several times but always rebuilt around the ruins of the old. Off in the distance you can see the volcanoes that surround, threaten and beautify the city.

The Cathedral

Some of the ruins inside the cathedral


La Lavanderia Publica

Bucky on our rooftop terrace (damn, that was a nice hotel)

We also decided to climb Vulcan Pacaya, an active volcano an hour outside of Antigua. After my horrible experience on Madera in Ometepe, I had a bit of trepidation, but this hike made up for the previous one in spades. We did the afternoon hike, about 2 hours of hiking up a trail and then over a scree field followed by staring at and being singed by lava in the fading light.

Real lava. Real hot.

Other volcanoes over the clouds

Bucky and I near the top.

After a few days in Antigua, it was again time to move. We decided to go to Lago de Atitlan, a few hours away from Antigua by bus. The lake is formed by an ancient and HUGE volcanic crater and is one of the most beautiful places imaginable. Hell, Guatemala is one of the most beautiful places imaginable! Nicaragua has beautiful mountains, jungles and volcanoes, but here it all just seems a bit bigger.

We stayed in San Pedro de Laguna which has an interesting mix of hippie internationalist dropouts and Mayan Jehovah´s witnesses, weird, but it seems to function. This is the kind of town where there is a sign on a bookstore advertising Space Cookies right next to a building with a sign reading Jesus is the Only Way to Life.

We didn´t do a whole lot over the next couple of days, except for try our hands at kayaking the lake. This turned out to be one hell of a disaster. The kayaks we rented were little sit-on-top numbers. Now the lake is usually calm in the morning and then the winds pick up in the afternoon, unfortunately, this was not the case for Bucky and I. We started off ok, but then when we got out a bit from the harbor, the wind picked up and white caps started to appear. Normally, this wouldn´t be too much of a problem, but our little boats were not up to the task. These things were uber-bouyant. They just bounced along the top of the water and anyone who has been in a kayak will tell you that bouncing isn´t so good. We started flipping and once we started it seemed hard to stop. I must have flipped 6 or 7 times! I ended up giving up. Bucky was able to make it shore and sent out a ferry boat to get me in to shore. Ugh, as somewhat of a kayaker at home, I am still embarrassed. As bucky said, we had an interesting perspective of the lake.

Bucky and I went back to Guatemala City on Friday so that he could head back to DC and I could continue the trip. Next I head for Lanquin in the central highlands....