Hotel la Tatuana Antigua Guatemala

... blaest vaek ved synet af de store vulkaner der omkranser Antigua - Fuego, Acatenango og Agua. Fuego er en aktiv vulkan og en time efter min ankomst, saa stod der en ENORM roegsky op af krateret og jeg foelte mig befriende langt vaek hjemmefra. Laenge siden jeg har oplevet en totalt fremmedartet natur og har kun faaet appetit paa mere.

Resten af dagen gik med at holde mig vaagen`i Antigua ved at gaa rundt paa markedet i byen. Om eftermiddagen lejede vi os ind paa et hotel ...

... that big.

The graveyard was a riot of colours from the kites, picnics, flowers and people scurring around. Ringing the scene were the majestic three storey kites with more going up as we wandered around to great cheers from the crowds. These large kites were made out of bamboo structures and very thin paper sections all displaying various messages from anti-abortion slogans to political parties preferences. It was very interesting to see the ...

... do here, so it was time for Mark, Beko and myself to do a bit of exploring...
Hiring out a few dodgey pushies, we tackled some of the toughest terrain of the trip. For about 2hrs we peddled our way to the base of this volcano. Upon arrival we filled the water bottles and soldiered on on foot for another 2hrs til we got to a pretty damn big waterfall. So far so good, but as the rain began to pummel and the light fade, we had to go. So there we were speed trekking ...

... as offerings, in Bo´s case its more often than not cigarettes and shots of mezcal (a fiery Mexican drink not unsimilar to tequila). We paid homage to Bo and then went back to our seats to look around this interesting bar.

Its described as a bar with uncomfortable seats, bad food, an ill-tempered dog... but its possibly the coolest place to hang out in Antigua. The guys playing guitar in the front bar section sounded like Jack Johnson, the "ill-tempered" dog ...

... br>Today has been a wander-y sort of day, nipping into churches, ruined and complete, garden courtyards, cafes (Antigua is surounded by coffee plantations, first good coffee of the trip) and artisan markets. In a moment we are off for a salsa lesson - Dave has gone to prepare for his "performance".
Tomorrow we move on to Panajachel. Oh, it has just started rainig heavily so Im going to get wet on the way to salsa (sorry Tess, cant find ...

... around all day - to the market, churches, etc. Our lunch consisted of chicken, rice, beets, and tortillas for about $2. We all tried a typical Guatemalan drink called Mechelada which is beer and bloody mary mix from what I could tell and I was not a fan. Our second day in Antigua we made our way to Volcano Pacaya at 6 am. It was an hour hike to the lava. The altitude wasn´t bad at all so the hike was pretty easy ...

... jede Frau um mindestens einen bis zwei Koepfe. Mir ist dieses Land echt auf Anhieb sehr sympathisch. Obwohl man ja sagt, dass Antigua eher Maerchenwelt als 'real Guatemala' ist, mal schauen. Ich freu mich jedenfalls darauf, mehr zu sehen. Antigua ist umgeben von drei verschiedenen Vulkanen, ist auch etwas erhoeht uns somit etwas kuehler. Einfach herrlich nach der Hitze in El Salvador. Ich "besuchte" dann mal wieder einen Vulkan, den Volcán ...

... our hostel). Might go look at some of the museums with lower entrance fees. (Feb. 24) Walked to a little town called Jocotenango with Joel and Andrea. There wasn't much to see except for one central cathedral. We then decided to move on to a town we'd read about called San Antonio but apparently there are lots of places called San Antonio so no one knew how to tell us the way there. We instead hopped on a bus to a town called Pastores which only consisted of custom ...

... i det kristent evangeliske samfund i Antigua. Af samme grund var jeg længe tilbageholdende med at berette om min irreligiøse, filosofiske viden og erfaringer, men det faldt efterhånden helt naturligt. Reinkarnations-tanken frem maner ellers ofte stærke reaktioner hos religiøse mennesker, men José lyttede interesseret. Det endte endog med, at han takkede - fordi også han havde haft udbytte af samtalerne. Det satte jeg stor pris på, så havde jeg da ikke trådt helt ved ...