Adventures in Central America: Volcan Pacaya, Guatemala

I had an early start this morning, up at 5:30 and out the hostel gate by 5:40.  I was splitting the day between two trips outside of Antigua, and this morning I was headed to Volcan Pacaya, one of three active volcanoes in Guatemala.

I joined another $10 shuttle, this one more like a bus (there must have been almost twenty of us), and we headed out of Antigua as the sun rose.

An hour and a half later, or so, we were in the village of San Francisco de Sales, just outside of the Volcan Pacaya Park.

Each of us paid a 50 quetzales entrance fee and our group was assigned two guides.  The one I became friendly with was a young guy named Kevin, and he is Mayan, as is everyone in his village, he said (although he also told me no one in his village speaks their Mayan language anymore, but some older people in other nearby villages do).

We began the ascent, strung out along the trail.

Pacaya last erupted in 2014, but it remains active, so really the hike is not up to the top of the volcano (which is considered too dangerous to take tourists too); rather, we hiked for about an hour and a half to a point where we were in an ideal spot to view the volcano (basically we climbed to a ridge which is more or less where vegetation stops and the lava field begins).

Kevin told me in another hour we could be at the top, which surprised me, because it looked much further.  He showed me video he had taken a couple of weeks ago at nighttime when he and his friends went up.  Close up and at a night, the hot lava was orange and bubbling and dominated his smartphone screen.  Today, I could see hot lava, but only barely.  What was easy to see was the smoke billowing from the crater.

The cooled, black, hardened lava absolutely covered the mountain and created a field in front of us.  We descended a small slope to the lava field.    

We hiked over a small portion of the lava field, then stopped at a particular place, where Kevin pulled a rock from a crack in the lava and passed it to me.  It was so hot, I couldn't hold it in one hand for long!  Kevin pulled out small sticks and marshmallows and we roasted them in this little crevice.  Even with the marshmallow on the end of a stick my knuckles were getting uncomfortably hot.  I was really amazed, because on the surface the lava was cool.  

After our marshmallows we headed back down the mountain.  The group became much less cohesive on the descent, and I ended up traveling most of the way down with another single guy about my age in the group, who said he's an injured NHL player who travels to a new country every week while he's recuperating from a back injury.  I didn't ask for his name, and when I Googled him later some things didn't seem to add up, so I'm not so sure his story was for real.  But who knows; it was an interesting and fairly elaborate story even if it was all a lie.

 Back at the parking lot we re-boarded the bus and headed back to Antigua.

Adventures in Central America: Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

I had a long, ambitious day today, making a day trip out of Lake Atitlan.  In an ideal world I would have enough time to spend a couple of nights around the lake, but, as it was, I only gave myself the day.  After a "tipico" Guatemalan breakfast (refried beans; fried eggs; fried plantains; bread; and coffee)--during which I read a Guatemalan newspaper, complete with a commodities price page that included an update on the day's coffee prices--I caught a packed-to-the-gills $10 USD shuttle from Antigua at 9:00.

We had a stop for gas, bathrooms, and snacks at some point along the highway.

Sometime after our stop we eventually began our descent on the northwest side of the lake.  Coming down towards the lake was really something else--absolutely spectacular; but unfortunately I was never able to get a good picture of it.

Lake Atitlan is surrounded by many small villages and towns, but there is no road circling the lake, so the easiest way to get between most of them is by ferry.  In our case, our first stop was San Marcos and from there there is a road to San Pedro, which was my destination.  We arrived around 12:30.

Originally I wanted to come to San Pedro to hike up the Volcan San Pedro, but I wouldn't have time for that today.  Instead, I was really only here to get a sense for the village and then take the ferry across the lake.  I walked around, ordered a banana smoothie, and ate lunch.

San Pedro, like many of the lake villages, is popular amongst expats, especially hippies and retirees, so it definitely has an interesting tourist-hippie-Mayan vibe.  I went down to the pier to catch the ferry at around 13:30.

The ferries are remarkably powerful speedboats with maybe twenty or so seats (probably can fit double that if people are motivated).  They reminded me of the ferry my brother and I took across the Amazon.  Crossing the lake from San Pedro to Panajachel (roughly directly across the lake) took about twenty minutes, I think, and cost about $6.  Actually the boat went so fast that the crossing was not especially enjoyable (very bumpy); plus, it was quite cloudy, so there was not much of a view.  It did give me a good sense for how big the lake is though, and I was surprised that I could not see land on three sides for much of the trip.

In Panajachel I walked around again and then relaxed by the lake with my book and a street-made mojito.

At 16:00 I caught another $10 shuttle back to Antigua. 

All in all it was a day of a lot of travel in cramped shuttles, but I felt like I had gotten at least a taste of the Lake Atitlan culture, and the few hours I had there were quite relaxing.

Adventures in Central America: Antigua, Guatemala

50!  Today I flew from Houston to Guatemala, and have now visited fifty countries in my lifetime.

After landing at GUA, I made use of a friendly shoeshine man to find a shuttle for Antigua, Guatemala's first colonial capital, and the main tourist centre.  When the man found out where I was from he was very excited and asked what the exchange rate was between Canadian dollars and American dollars, which seemed odd.  He was disappointed when I told him a Canadian dollar was worth about 70 US cents.  The question seemed much less odd when he pulled out a Canadian $5, then a loonie and a toonie and asked if I would exchange them for American.  At first I was thinking this had to be a scam, but all appeared legit.  I offered him $5 US, then we both agreed $6 was better, so I made the deal.  Of course Canadian currency is useless to me right now and the US cash was useful, but I was happy to help.

Anyway, I was the first one on the shuttle, and had to wait maybe twenty minutes for some more passengers.  Then we drove into Guatemala City and to a hotel where, lo and behold, we picked up three flight attendants from the flight I had just come in on.  They had already had a chance to check in and change.

Guatemala city traffic was awful, so half of the 90 or so minutes from GUA to Antigua was spent in traffic jams  Eventually however we got out of the city and onto the Pan-American Highway (Central American Highway 1).  The highway climbed significantly as we left Guatemala City and there were some good views down below.  We made good time and soon left the CA1 to take another highway that descended extremely sharply into Antigua.

Once here, I walked to my hostel, Hostel Villa Esthella.

There, go figure, a girl from Ottawa checked me in.  My room is adequate; the hostel's highlight is clearly it's rooftop terrace, with views of Antigua and the hills and volcanoes around it.

I headed out to get cash, eat a late lunch, and climb up to a place called Cerro de la Cruz (hill of the cross), where there is a large cross and an outlook over Antigua.

Unfortunately it was quite hazy this afternoon, so the view was limited.

Antigua reminds me a lot of the Panama City neighborhood of Panama Viejo, where my brother and I stayed in 2015.  Lots of old buildings, many restored, and plenty of tourist infrastructure--small guesthouses/hotels/hostels, cafes, restaurants, and so on.  

There are certain buildings (mostly churches, I think), that can be toured, but really just walking the streets feels exotic and museum-like.

Adventures in the USA: Houston, Texas

I flew to Houston this morning en route to Central America, where I will be spending a week in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

When I landed at IAH this afternoon, I picked up a rental car and headed straight to Jesse H. Jones Park, only a few minutes northeast of the airport.

It was a lovely, mostly sunny afternoon, and I had the trails in the park mostly to myself.

It was a neat spot, because there is a cypress swamp, and the cypress's have "knees" that stick up out of the water.

I have never seen anything quite like it before.  There were turtles in the swamp, and a magnificent male cardinal;

but, unfortunately, I did not spot any alligators, which was what I was especially keen to see.

After an hour walking through the park I checked in at my hotel close to the airport and then drove to downtown Houston.  I stopped at Minute Maid Park to take some pictures and look inside.

Then I drove through downtown to the Buffalo Bayou Park.  Buffalo Bayou is basically Houston's "river," and they have a nice park system along the bayou with pedestrian/cyclist trails and bridges.  Again I was hoping to see alligators, but I had to be content with some unique ducks and herons.  And also, bats, which actually I did not see, but I could hear them and see their roosts.

Interestingly, there is apparently a large colony of bats underneath this particular bridge.

It was now after 17:00, and I decided to go for dinner.  I had a couple of potential spots picked out, and decided since I had not been able to see an alligator, I would try to eat some.  I went to a place called Beaver's, pretty close to the park.

I ordered "fried alligator, crawfish, and grits."

The green things are pickled okra.  The dish was possibly even more delicious than it was interesting for me.

Tomorrow I am off to Guatemala City and here is my travel plan: