Hola! Today begins early. Very early. At 6am we were on a bus heading out of town. What were we doing? Why going to hike an active volcano of course! We went early as the weather conditions were likely to be better (which is lucky, more later). So bleary eyed about half of our tour group went off for a morning of hiking.

Our destination was a volcano named Pacaya. While not the biggest in the area, it was still about 2600m, but it meant we could get to the top and back in a morning, good for those of us not quite up to hiking fitness, and leaving us time for the afternoon in Antigua for more activities.

We arrived and were met by a local guide who started us on the path up. While I am pretty fit, I always forget was constant uphill hiking is like, especially when getting to a noticable altitude. The group was doing pretty well, although the regular stops for photos were welcomed by all.

As we went further up the weather got a bit nastier. Not too bad, but the wind picked up and the fog settled in. About 2/3 of the way up Kate was struggling a bit, so jumped on a taxi to get a bit more of the way up. A taxi? Of course! Well, not a traditional one, but a young kid with a horse who was taking many people up to the top on horse back. So Kate jumped on her trusty steed, named Sparkle, and we continued to the top.

Now Pacaya is an active volcano and usually you can see steam coming out the top fairly regularly. But alas the weather conditions meant we couldn’t see anything. Huddled in the wind, we had our breakfast food we carried to the top, whilst perched in the middle of a dried lava field. Even though the conditions were not great it was still awesome to be sitting on top of a volcano in a lava field having brekky. Must remember to leave a good review of this breakfast place on Trip Advisor.

With that it was a quick trip back down. We had to go back the way we came as our planned route was a bit to precarious with the weather. In o time we were at the bottom, all quite tired and on our way back to Antigua.

Now Kate was clever. I usually am telling her she is, but she had booked a massage for 2pm which was perfect timing for our arrival back from a volcano hike. I took the time to wander a little more, before we all hooked up again at 4pm for another activity.

What goes with coffee? Chocolate of course! Most of the group headed to a nearby chocolate museum for a history lesson and most importantly making our on chocolate. Mmmm.

Our guide (who’s name escapes me) was great, running us through the whole history of chocolate.

The most fun came however when we all got to make our own crazy combinations of chocolate. Given a bowl of our preferred blend (dark for me) we got to mix in all kinds of things and then into the fridge it went for collection at the end. Yes!

The rest of time was spent converting cocoa beans into chocolate by roasting, smashing, and mixing. We got to drink cocoa tea and see all kinds of things that could be done, eaten and drunk during the process.

In the end we all had our chocolates and were super happy. But Kate was even happier at the end. Why? Because one of her priority activities was upon us. Deiber whisked 5 of us away from the chocolate and straight into a dance studio. Dance studio? It was time for salsa!

Kate was super excited. Me? I was a little more apprehensive. But when in Rome (or Antigua) right?

For the next hour we were bombarded with a bunch of moves and my head was spinning (faster than my feet). Kate was all moves, me… I was a bit more of a fumbling mess. But it was great fun and the 5 of us that did it had a ball. There was a lot of laughing as our instructor tried his best with his very limited English to get us moving.

In the end I have to say that I had a couple of moves down. Kate wasn’t too embarrassed with me, so I will take that as a win! Good times.

We had no time to catch our breath and it was off for dinner. This was a special one for two reasons. First it was Christmas Eve, so we had some celebrating to do. But secondly, and a little more sadly, it was the end of the tour for about 2/3 of the group. So it was also a farewell.

Deiber organised not only a restaurant but a Secret Santa where we all had to buy some small gifts. Best thing was about his plan was that we didn’t just buy a gift for a particular person, rather people could pick on from the pile one at a time and then the next person had a chance to steal something already picked. It was great fun as there was thieving going on left right and centre.

I ended up a with a cool carry bag, Kate with a beer mug. Not he preferred present, but a nice souvenir nonetheless.

We kicked on for dinner a little more, singing local Christmas songs, before hitting a couple of bars to celebrate and say farewells. On the stroke of midnight we said good bye to some of our new friends, and ready for a relaxing Christmas Day in Antigua before meeting the new folk for the second half of our tour.

Hola Amigos! Time to catch up on some posts.

Today we had another travel day, but thankfully just a quick 3 hours. It was time to travel from Panajachel to Antigua. Antigua was one of the places Kate and I were most forward to going to. We knew a bit about its colonial charm, but also were looking forward to 3 days in the same place and the chance to do some more different things.

After a fairly lazy 9am departure, it was off to Antigua. I kept myself amused by trying to take more Chicken Bus pictures. I got some better ones this time, but I knew I would have a chance to see more when we got to Antigua.

So around lunchtime we arrived. Antigua, like San Cristobal de la Casas is a beautiful city of old school charm. It is UNESCO Heritage listed, so wandering around the old town is absolutely delightful. Deiber gave us a quick orientation, and my head was spinning as he was pointing things out at rapid speed. While everything was a grid, I was a little confused, but was sure that would work itself out.

The other incredible thing with the city is the surrounds. Three volcanos look upon Antigua, and it was breathtaking to see them as you turned a corner and looked down the street.

After a quick bagel lunch it was time to do our first activity. Kate and I decided to try some different things. Just 5 minutes out of the centre of town is Filidelphia, a hacienda that is part coffee plantation, part hotel and part nature park.  I was all about COFFEE! COFFEE! COFFEE! But Kate was all ZIP LINING! ZIP LINING! ZIP LINING! While I would have loved to do that, I couldn’t be in Guatemala and not embrace the coffee. So we split up on arrival at Filidelphia for our respective activities.

The coffee tour was mostly about the production process. At Filidelphia the entire process takes place, so we went out first to see the plants. It was pretty crazy to find out how they get the best coffee, but transplanting Arabica (better quality) plants onto the roots of Robusta to stop the bugs having a good meal.

We got to pick a berry and move on to the next part of the process… where the bean is taken out and pass through various stages of removal of layers and drying. This part of the tour was a little disappointing as it was a bit late in the day but also a holiday, so most the production parts had closed up.

What was interesting was that they sun dry the beans given the climate and sun so to see all the coffee beans lying there sunbaking was cool.

We then moved right through the process to the end where were able to finally have some coffee! Alas, we only got to try one blend which was pretty disappointing. I was hoping for a trip through all their blends, but it wasn’t to be. Oh well.

Kate however was buzzing. Not from coffee, but from zip lining. She had a trip to herself and jetted through the woods on half a dozen zip lines. While I was glad to do the coffee, I think she chose most wisely.

From there it was back into town to have a wander. We had a couple of hours until dinner so soaked up some more of beautiful Antigua. We visited the famous arch of Arco de Santa Catalina, one that appears in all guides about Antigua.

We then just chilled out, Kate especially feeling that this was the best place we had visited yet (I was line ball between here and San Cris).

A group dinner wound down the day, and it was off to bed for an early start in the morning.

Feliz Navidad! (i.e. Merry Christmas if you hadn’t worked it out)

Regular blog posts coming in the next day or so, but we are currently in gorgeous Antigua in Guatemala. Be back with posts soon, but have a great Christmas everyone!

Today was a free day in Panajachel. We had the option of a few different activities, but in reality the day was pretty well planned for us. An included trip was to visit some of the local Mayan communities, where we would meet some artists, some local medicinal experts, and also some cotton makers and weavers. This kind of thing is typical for G Adventures and
similar tours.

Deiber had suggested a particular place for breakfast that was across the lake. He talked about how great a breakfast it was and there would be a place to swim in the lake there. To be honest I didn’t think too much of it… I just assumed it would be a nice enough place. I was wrong… but I’ll get to that.

So we jumped in a boat and headed to the restaurant. On the way we had breathtaking views of the volcanos across the lake. They looked incredible in the early morning, with some cloud skirting the top.

In 15 minutes we reached the breakfast location. Deiber was not wrong… it was magic. It was right in the side of the mountain overlooking the lake. We ascended many flights of steps to sit on the balcony overlooking the lake, volcanos and mountains. the whole group was smiling, thinking that life was pretty good about now.

The menu looked great as well, so good I needed two breakfasts. An absolutely delicious granola along with their speciality breakfast burritos. Holy cow. By the end I was stuffed.

But there was swimming to be had, so off we went back down to lakeside. There was a nice area to relax, with some great diving off points. Of course I had to take the opportunity, so off I jumped! The photo above was captured by Deiber and to say he was quite chuffed with his handiwork was an understatement. To be fair though, I gotta say I was pretty impressed with his photo too! Captured my Spiderman leap perfectly.

I blazed a trail and next thing we knew everyone was leaping off. We were all having a blast… swimming, relaxing… we were content to stay the whole day.

Instead we wandered to another part of the lake, to visit a local Mayan community. First visit was to some local artists. Their work was brightly coloured and captured the vibe well, especially all the ones involving food. We couldn’t help but pick up some things, especially when converting to our currency. We felt kinda bad that they weren’t charging more in a way.

It was now lunch time! This was actually spent with a local Mayan family who cooked us all up a treat. It is odd being in someone’s house, with them waiting on us and providing delicious food. But Deiber told us that they feel very privileged to have us and that we are actually providing a lot to their community. In the end I could hardly eat all my food, being still full from breakfast… but who was I to insult my hosts?

Next was to visit a medicinal garden, and run through how the Mayans use natural herbs and the like for their remedies. It was pretty interesting to see how they still try to use natural things where they can.

Finally we visited a local women’s group who specialise in cotton production and crafts. What was amazing was to see how they use all natural things to colour their cotton. carrots, avacado stones… you name it they use it. And the colours were incredible. Kate and I got a bit of shopping done there too. It was great stuff and nice to be able to by proper
handicrafts from the local community.

Sunset was fast approaching, so it was back in the boat back to Panajachel. It was a quiet night where we could all do our own thing, so Kate and I just chilled for a bit, grabbed a bite and had a little wander. The township itself was nothing spectacular… just a main touristy street really. So we spent a little more time checking it out before repacking for our trip to Antigua tomorrow.

Hola Amigos!

This post comes to you from mountainous Guatemala! Land of the Chicken… but I will get to that.

When I left you last we were still in San Cristobel de la Casas. That was a beautiful place that we became quite fond of and were a little sad we didn’t have another night to spend there. While we had time to see a lot of the city, we felt it would have been the perfect place to chill out for a day mid-tour. Alas, it wasn’t to be. 

We finished the night enjoying some Argentinian cuisine. It was both on the recommendation of Deiber, but also it was a nice change of pace from the constant Mexican food that while tasty, we could use a reprieve from. And this was delicious! Check out the size of the piece of meat above. Cooked to perfection over fire. Mmmm.

With that it was to bed for the early rise. We had another epic journey, this time leaving Mexico and into Guatemala! The trip consisted of two private small buses. One to get us to the Mexican border, and one to take us into Guatemala.

The border crossing went nice and smoothly. Deiber had it all organised, however involved relinquishing the passports for a period of time while it all got sorted out for us. Always a strange thing, but it all went without a hitch.

There seemed to be in instant change on the Guatemala side. Everything looked that little bit different. Hard to pinpoint how, but I was excited to feel I was in a new country.

The first thing that hit me was the crazy number of public transport buses. And not just any bus… Chicken Buses! These were quite colourful and elaborately painted buses that are used for public transport where they are jammed with people, luggage piled on top, and as Deiber mentioned “you are very likely to find chicken’s on”.

What followed was a long 7 hour bus ride to our destination of Panajachel, situated in the Guatemalan highlands on Lake Atitlan, with me trying to snap pictures of the chicken buses (to no real avail). It was 6:30pm before we arrived so all was dark, but the drive through the highlands, especially near Panajachel was quite spectacular. Looming large over us was one of the main volcanos, and resting below us was the majestic lake. 

Given it was dark on arrival, we settled into our hotel and wen tout for some food and an explore of Panajachel rather than go down to the lake. The Guatemalan cuisine already felt a little different… more chicken, different tortillas, more salad. Mmm… I could get used to this.

Also the beer was different. I think I found my favourite local beer of the trip (maybe running close with XX Amber). This was called Gallo. How could you not love a beer with a picture of a rooster on it? I am imagining I will become quite acquainted with that one.

Off to bed after a long day, and with the prospect of both a sleep in and some shenanigans down on Lake Atitlan I drifted off to sleep.