GUATEMALA: ANTIGUA; duckies and volcanos

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  Antigua Guatemala, Western Highlands, Guatemala
Friday, November 14, 2008

our week has been fanastic... the sun has shone and we have laughed our way through.  in the guide book you regularly read about people saying...oh has a week gone already...and thats what it feels like now we are back together.

to be fair, we have spent most of our mornings in spanish class with lucia, who was an angel, she had the patience of a saint with lukey and i when we get mischevious and start giggling... i can imagine lukey be would have been a nightmare in school!  she was so sweet and even gave us a giraffe chain to go on our phone... so sweet... its a shame that the owner of the school rips them off so bad..and only pays them a quater of what he is charging us!  on tuesday she took us to la finca de cafe..or a coffee farm....lukey was in his element.  we were able to go on a short tour about music through the times in guatemala, and even understood most of it even thought it was spoken in spanish.... then we went on a tour of the coffee plantation.  we learnt how it grew, and how it was dried and made.  i think lukey´s favourite bit was the taste session after...

antigua is a beautiful city... a bit mad at times... but great fun.  it has a central park or square where families flock and sit round a fountain particularly on sundays.  women sell clothes, table runners and any other items they have made by hand.  all in bright colours... we lay in a church park on sunday afternoon and got eaten by ants and pooped on by birds in the trees.  but it was lush way to do some revision, and we ended the afternoon having duckie races in the fountain.  see if you can spot the duckies... person who gets them right..or little people who get them right will get a prize....

that evening we were walking home and got stopped by a mini parade that had drummers at the front, followed by jugglers and mimers pretending to do all these things.  we laughed the most at these two clowns that were dressed in bright orange, and were dancing like idiots... brilliant free entertainment.

talking of ants..lukey b and i got our first taste of the little blighters the other day.  lukey the angel has brought me a pile of chocolate from england...with the full intention of feeding me it when i am either moody or dying...but i have gotten me mittens on the good old cadburies bag...and well..the other night i sat down to some tolberone...  i placed the box i had already had two pieces from on lukey´s chest..and noticed a tiny ant..then another..yes you get the picture... they were coming out of the chocolate... i spat my chocolate straight out..and the two of us giggled away...me particularly at the news that lukey had already eaten two bits.... yummy....

i think the highlight of this week was our visit to the volcano pacaya.  it is an active volcano about an hour out of antigua.  our bus drive was uncomfortable...neither of us got good seats after we were moved from a luxiourous bus to a dump.  we then had to walk up a steep, rocky and narrow path with a guide so we wouldnt get raped or mugged....nice to know!  it was all worth it an hour or two later, and a lot of huffing and puffing when we had climbed about 2000m of the 2600m volcano.  we had seen huge rocks fall down the mountain on our way up, but nothing could have prepared us for the heat as we stood beside..YES BESIDE! the hot lava..and it ran inches below our feet.  some people´s shoes were melting, and others were happily roasting marsh mellows...surreal.  unfortunately lukey got a rock pushed on him and he got some bad scrathes on his leg...war wound... and i was a bit nervous at how close the moving lava was to us, so we walked back down to a safe area.  i am glad we did because a huge dark cloud came in, as well as it getting dark very quickly...we safely sat and ate our sub way watching the red hot lava move slowly down the hillside in the night sky.... a fantastic trip..ending with us sat under the stars.

tomorrow we move on to lake atitlan. we´ll let you know how that goes in a few days..hope youre all well, and thanks so much for all the lovely messages and comments...

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one of the churches	antigua arch	lucia and lukey b at la finca de cafe	antigua and rio enjoying their first swim
old school ruins destroyed by earthquake 1773	active volcano pacaya	erm..how close to lava!

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