Ashanti's Place Antigua Guatemala

... on a guided hike.

A van picked up the group in Antigua and delivered us to the town of San Francisco de Sales on the side of the volcano. At an altitude of 1818 meters, San Francisco de Sales is 432 meters or 1,417 vertical feet below the volcano. Because the volcano is a national park we had a Q40 entrance fee to pay. The driver collected all our fees and took them in to the park office to pay. As soon as the van stopped it was surrounded by kids ...

... was dusk and difficult to see the path. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to make it, and had to pause every five minutes. I couldn’t help but think that my butt had better look fabulous as a result of this extreme workout. I trudged on.



Suddenly I felt it. As the path turned to all volcanic rock, the wind swept the heat down from the volcano. It reminded me of that particular ...

... we were attacked by little kids selling walking sticks for about 25 cents.. definitely one of the greatest purchases of our trip so far. The ninos were also selling marshmallows, which we thought was a very random thing to be selling. Only later would we understand. We met our spunky little man of a guide, Sergio, and set off with a group of about 25 people. The trek, through dense green foliage, wasn´t too bad and had really cool views of the ...

... make due in a makeshift shack of corrugated tin roofing (used both as walls and as roofing) much exposed to the elements and a dim old adobe hut...and many more children who would've liked to go to school, but there was simply no room for them. Now the village is well on its way to having improved facilities for an improved education. The progress on construction in this village has been unlike any I had seen in my 3 years in Guatemala! An ...

... in your face with various names of places that will definitely start you off in some kind of trajectory, it may not be the right one but its always a start!
So we did just that, we got pulled on to the first bus that came our way and soon found ourselves ratting along to the sound of some pumping rigaton away from the lake. As we scaled the mountain to take us back the pan American highway we were once again surrounded by people as various what would be passers byers ...

... Il se compose de puree de pommes de terre avec des morceaux de patates par-ci par-là, d'un piment vert et, caché bien au fond, d'un morceau de viande : poulet dans mon premier tamal et porc dans le deuxieme. Epicé, mais sans exagération. Juste comme il faut. Ce fut un véritable assaut des sens : il faut d'abord défaire la paquet, ouvrir les feuilles de bananier et soudain, le tamal fume tellement il est chaud et diffuse ...

... on my feeble brain. However, even the teachers at Proyerto Linguistico Francisco could not make a difference. All was not a loss though. The markets alone were worth the trip and we brought back some old textiles gained through a Mayan Culture center. Our accomodation included a rooftop retreat where we could enjoy our market purchased fruits before the afternoon rains. Around the town square are ...