Antigua

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  Antigua, Guatemala
Saturday, June 16, 2007

Well we have had a fantastic week in Guatemala. From flores we went south to a little town called Sayaxche and did a boat ride out to Aguatec ruins. They are barely excavated and were in the middle of the forest. We got dropped in a cleaing in the middle of nowhere an pointed n the right direction. It was amazing, there was noone else there, it was like discovering it ourselves. Some of the ruins were very well preserved and many of the stelae stand in their original position. It is thought the royal family of this city were linked to that of tikal, which was interesting.

It was nice to see somewhere untouristy, but as there was very little to do we got on a bus the ext day to Coban. I now understand the full meaning of īchicken busesī. we were on an old american schoolbus and there were 3-4 people per 2 peson seat. minimum. the central americans clearly have no concept of personal space

Dave toasting a marshmallow on lava!

. it was a painful (literally) 8 hour trip and we arrived to coban in torrential rain and had to hike up and down very steep streets to find a hostel. nice way to see a new town though! Again, there was litte to do in coban, its another place where you wander, look, meet the locals and soak up the atmosphere.

The next day we headed further south and arived in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. The bus ride there was rather err 'exciting'. The diver was a loon hairing round bends, but it was beautiful as we were travelling through mountains. It was lovely to see all the women in their brightly coloured embroidered traditional dress as we passed through villages. The scenery at the lake was incredibly dramatic. The lake is surounded by mountains, past volcanos, and the low-lying cloud and mist creates a mysterious air. It as beauiful though. We spent a coupe of days in Panajachel , wandering around, looking at makrtes of traditional hand crafts and eating and driking very very cheaply. We also went over to San Pedro La Laguna, one of the small towns dotted round the lake. Its basically a hippy town where people relax, life is slow, and drugs are readily available - even from behind the bar. It was here we were sitting on the balcony of a bar when we felt the earthquake that hit central america his week. The balcony was on sils overlooking the lake so the shakig was quite strong, things rattled and it was very bizarre

Laura toasting marshmallows

. We later found out it had been 5.4 on the richter scale.

On our way to Antigua we went to a place called Chichistenango where there is a massive market twice a week. Managed to get a few bits and pieces  for very cheap, but it was very repetitive and very tiring. Very odd, i never tire of shopping!

We arived in Antigua, again it was raining, and found a chea hostel to say in. We met up with Babs and James and just had a relaxed evening in a couple of bars. (They have now moved onto honduras and we will follow them tomorrow.) Yesterday we sepent the morning wanderng round Antigua. Its beautiful. Very colourful colonial buidings and lots of ruins of ornate churches and monasteries. In the afternoon we climbed Volcan Pacaya, a live volcano. In the past they allowed people to climb right to the crater, but since 2000 the volcano has been very active and now they cant. However we did climb high up and stood righ next to a moving lava flow. e were close enough to toas mashmallows.It started to rain which made the molten lava glow brightly and movee quicker. The guide says rain maks i more spectacular and it really was. I was blown away. The experience seemed like it couldnt get better until we climbed down a few feet and the volcano started reupting. It was firing jets of magma high in the air

Volcanic eruption

. It was mesmerising. That climb was one of the best experiences of my life. An earhquake and volcanic eruption in a week. How cool!  We had a great night out in  a bar with locals last night. They were all dancing the salsa like it was second nature. I danced with a Guatemalan guy, Diego, and he lead me so easily in salsa that it made me look good too! I had a blast.

Tomorrow we move to Honduras, as i said, to see Copan ruins and do some diving, finally!  I am using a very stixy keyboad so i apologise for an funny spellings. Hope you get the jist though. Lots of love xxxx

ps- photos to follow, especially of volcano!!!!

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