Antigua, day two

Monday 30th July 2012

I woke up at around 3:30am this morning and was wide awake from then on - oh dear. I got up at 5am to be ready for 6, including packing up all my stuff so that I could switch rooms; I'm sharing with Natasha from now on until practically the end of the trip. We all got into a mini bus not long after 6am, and after picking up a few others it stopped at a coffee shop so we could get drinks for breakfast. Cinammon tea, yum. It went nicely with the oatmeal and raisin cookies that Ernesto had got us.


After having breakfast we got onto a different bus - a yellow American school bus - and it took us an hour and a half (ish) to drive to the bottom of Volcan Pacaya. We then spent more than an hour and a half climbing up it. The path was cobbled to start off with but as we climbed higher it turned to ash, like black sand. Men with horses followed us the whole way up, trying to entice us into riding instead of hiking up. They called the horses "natural taxis" and when we asked one of them what their horse was called he replied, "Toyota." Haha. There were plenty of rest stops along the way and we got views of Volcan de Agua and the surrounding valleys on the way up. It was really beautiful. At first there were trees and plants on the way up, as if we were walking through woods, but as we climbed higher the landscape became sparse until eventually it was just an expanse of black sand with rocks dotted about.

You can't go all the way to the top - apparently it's too hot. Sometimes, when the volcano's been active, you can see lava and you have to be careful where you walk because the soles of your shoes can melt, especially if they're flimsy. I think someone said the volcano last erupted two years ago, so there wasn't any lava. Where we stopped there were holes in the rocks like small caves, and you could feel warm air coming out. The guides gave everyone sticks and marshmallows to toast. We had time for photos and a bit of a rest and then went back down the way we had come.

I managed to sleep on the bus journey back to the hotel, despite the cobbles. We went straight out for lunch to a place where you could choose one main and two side orders from a huge selection of different dishes. For some reason, as a vegetarian they said that I could choose FIVE side orders to go with my main, corn tamales. I think they were afraid I would starve without meat! I only took three sides in the end, as the portions were enormous - mini mountains of different sorts of mixed vegetables. I didn't even eat the tamales in the end, there was so much. We definitely needed a good feed after all that hiking.

On the way back to the hotel Ernesto took us to the Choco Museo - a chocolate museum. We got to try cacao beans, which are used to make chocolate - chocolate in its purest form, and very bitter. Natasha and I had cinammon chocolate drinks where you had to mix cacao beans, cinnamon, chocolate sauce and warm milk yourself. Gorgeous. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and went our separate ways for the afternoon. I headed straight out again with the intention of seeing a few parts of Antigua I hadn't been to yet. Instead I went to Bagel Barn first, had a gorgeous strawberry smoothie and proceeded to waste an hour or so on free wifi. By the time I'd done it was just past 5pm, and I realised that most of the museums and things shut at 5. Oops. I wandered round a few shops and then went back to the hotel a bit early before meeting everyone to go out for tea.

Ernesto took us to a place called the Rainbow Cafe this evenin, and I had Israeli falafal with houmous and warm pitta bread. YUM. Quite tired from the early morning start, we all went straight back to the hotel afterwards. Trekking up an active volcano takes it out of you!

Antigua, day one

Sunday 29th July 2012

I woke up quite early this morning; before my 7:30am alarm. Must be the jet lag. I was awake a little through the night, too. I battled against the language barrier again to get some tea and toast from the hotel, and then headed out to explore.

Parque central

I went to the Parque Central first, Antigua's main square. At 10:15am there were already quite a few locals there, sitting on benches around the fountain. Musicians were setting up to play, and horses and carriages waited around the edge to give peope rides. A few street peddlers approached me trying to sell textiles, jewellery and flutes, but none of them were pushy about it. There was a service going on at the Catedral de San Jose, which takes up one side of the square. Apparently there are ruins round the back of it that you can explore, as most of the catedral was destroyed in 1773 when it was only a little over 100 years old. Will have to go back tomorrow.

All of the streets here are cobbled, and the buildings are painted different colours. It was easy not to get lost because everything's built on a grid system. The city is surrounded by three volcanes: Agua, Acatenana and Fuego. (I briefly wondered if one of them was errupting this morning when I heard loud banging outside, but it must've been some fireworks. Haha.)

After wandering round quite a while, past a handicraft market, the Arch of Santa Catalina and the church of La Mercad, I decided to change some money at the bank. Even though most tourist places will (according to the guide book) accept US dollars, all of the prices are in the Guatemalan quetzal.

 

I walked back to the hotel to drop of some stuff and collect my netbook, then went to a cool little place called the Bagel Barn - mostly because of the free wifi. I realised that the wifi means I can message people through What's App on my phone too, yay. Gorgeous bagel - called guate guate, with egg, cheese and black beans and a bit of guacamole. It also came with a strawberry smoothie and a cup of tea - perfect. While I updated my blog I got chatting to an American called Corey; a really friendly guy who's been travelling for months and to most of the places I'm going to be visiting, so he was telling me lots about it and showing me some of his photos.
We decided to go up to Cerro de la Cruz together, via my hotel to drop off my netbook. (Thankfully it was on the way.) While I was there I briefly met two of the girls from my group, Rose and Una (from Australia and Ireland respectively) and my tour guide for Guatemala, Ernesto.

I headed back out and walked up the hill with Corey at a leisurely pace. The weather has been just perfect today - sunny and warm (shorts and t shirt weather) but not too hot for me. It was nice chatting on the way up, and when we got to the top the view was beautiful. There were lots of Guatemalan families there as well as some tourists, and a few of the locals wanted their picture taken with Corey just because he's black and over six feet tall.

We said bye after walking back down the hill, and I went back to my hotel as I only had an hour or so before my group meeting. I saw Ernesto and Rose again and also met Jeremy, another Aussie, before having a quick shower - my feet were so dusty from Cerro de la Cruz. We had the group meeting, where I also met Natasha, another Aussie who will be my roommate from tomorrow. There was also a German couple - don't know their names yet or if they're travelling with us for very long. Ernesto's really funny, and everyone seems really nice. We went out for tea together - I had yummy spinach and cheese quesadillas - and then a few drinks at an Irish bar before some of us went home for the night.

Planes, planes, and more planes

Saturday 28th July 2012

A loooooooooong journey to get here! I was up at 5:30am and left the hostel in London just after 6, and I arrived at the hotel in Antigua, Guatemala at approximately 5:30am GMT on Sunday morning.

Highlights:

getting an aisle seat on each of my three flights

watching Damsels in Distress and In Time on my London to Newark flight

watching new episodes of Glee and Once Upon a Time (probably the one I'm missing this Sunday)

getting my vegetarian meal about half an hour before the "regular" meals - yay for veggie perks

the yummy "Peach Passion" fruit smoothie in Newark airport

eating spinach and mushroom pizza in Houston airport

         

Low points: 

• no food on two out of three flights
• arriving at Heathrow to find out I should have completed something called an ESTA to be able to enter the US (even in transit) and the mild panic that set in as I went off to find a computer to complete the application
• spending most of all three flights feeling absolutely freezing - silly air con

I got my first couple of stamps in my passport (yay) and managed to heave my bag back onto my back, despite feeling absolutely shattered. (It weighed 19.8kg at Heathrow - oops!) I was really relieved to see my airport transfer waiting for me when I left the airport, even if he was holding a sign for someone called "Mike Cloughlin" haha. (I made sure it was definitely for me by asking him the name of the hotel first.) He was nice enough to stop at a shop on the way so I could get some water, too.

The hotel seems nice, and the room's fine. The owners don't speak English, though, and my Spanish is limited to about twenty words or so, but so far we're managing!

London

Friday 27th July 2012

For those of you who had high hopes for this blog, it's not exactly a thrilling first entry! After waking up at silly o'clock to get a few last minute jobs done, I started my journey at the bus station, with mum waving me off. Owing to the early start I thankfully snoozed my way through most of the megabus journey down to London. It was during the walk from St Pancras International to the St Pancras Youth Hostel (just across the road) that I began to panic about the size and weight of my bag, as my pace got slower and my face redder with every step! Why do I always pack more than I can comfortably carry? Oh dear.

Checking in at the hostel I found that there was still just over an hour to wait until I could get into my room, so I stuffed my humungous backpack into a locker in the hostel basement and headed out in search of a Post Office. No matter how much time I spend preparing, there's always something left to do at the last minute. This year, it was getting my currency, after traipsing round various places yesterday proved fruitless. (Nowhere had US dollars except to order.) No big deal - a not-so-quick trip to the Post Office opposite Kings Cross sorted everything. A much-needed cold drink at Costa Coffee (I'm developing an addiction to the orange and raspberry fruit cooler) took me beyond the 2pm check-in time, so I headed back to the hostel. I felt much safer after leaving my newly acquired cash in my room locker, and finally I headed out to explore a bit of the capital.

This is only the second time I've been to London. I decided to make the most of the sunshine and check out Hyde Park, since I'd read that there was a free event there for the Olympic opening ceremony. The crowds were growing steadily and all headed in the same direction; after a lengthy walk through the park it became clear that it was a free event that required you to buy tickets to enter. Hmm. Maybe not, then. Keen to visit Kensington Gardens but not so keen on the crowds, I thought I'd be clever and skip the walk by taking the underground one or two stops to other side. Not so clever after all. The first underground station I got to was closed. Assured that the next one was only five minutes away, I set off and ended up battling through crowds on Bond Street - five minutes was nearer ten or twelve, and a malfunctioning lift meant descending millions of steps.

Feeling quite tired, I finally arrived at the other side and found the Peter Pan statue. What a gorgeous little part of the park, and a lovely statue. I've always loved Peter Pan, and JM Barrie actually chose the location of the statue when he gave it as a gift in 1912.

After soaking up a bit of sun I headed to the Victoria station, and took in one of the bigger London landmarks: Buckingham Palace. I had to walk the long way round in order to get a view of it, because some of the roads were closed, and you couldn't get any nearer than the monuments in front of it. (Don't know if that's normal.) It seems that long walks are definitely the theme of the day.

I walked down the Mall, and then Pal Mall, all the way to Trafalgar Square, where I met another crowd. This time, the people were gathering to watch the clock count down to the start of the Olympics. Just about everyone was a foreign visitor, some waving flags and excitedly taking photos in front of the clock. I also spotted several tv crews reporting from the square. Quite tired by this point, I only stayed to take a photo of the clock at the "2 hours to go" mark and then went back to the hostel, picking up some food on the way.

I arrived back at the hostel at around 8pm, tired and with aching feet. (Gladiator sandals are not my friend.) After retrieving my backpack from the basement and taking it to my room seven floors above (thank goodness for the lift) I did a bit of reorganising, sorted things for the morning and then went to the hostel lounge to see if the opening ceremony was showing on the tv. I'm glad I came early - quite a crowd has gathered to watch it and I'm really enjoying it so far. I managed to bag myself a spot at a table in the back so I could type my first blog entry while watching the opening ceremony. It's nice to watch it with a crowd, and I'm glad I got to see it live instead of via whatever highlights they'll be showing in a month's time.

Bed time for me soon. I figure I need to be up at 5am in order to get Heathrow in time for check in tomorrow morning. Ouch.

Itinerary

My itinerary for the summer....

27.7.12 - Travel down to London, England.
28.7.12 - Fly to Guatemala, arriving the same day.
29.7.12 - Antigua, Guatemala. Meet my group.
30.7.12 - Antigua, Guatemala.
31.7.12 to 2.8.12 - Panajachel, Chichicastenango, Antigua, Guatemala.
3.8.12 to 4.8.12 - Copan, Honduras.
5.8.12 to 6.8.12 - Suchitoto, El Salvador.
7.8.12 - La Union, Potosi and Leon, Nicaragua.
8.8.12 - Leon and Granada, Nicaragua.
9.8.12 - Granada, Nicaragua.
10.8.12 to 11.8.12 - Ometepe Island, Nicaragua.
12.8.12 to 13.8.12 - Samara Beach and the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica.
14.8.12 to 15.8.12 - San Jose, Costa Rica.
16.8.12 to 17.8.12 - Monteverde, Costa Rica.
18.8.12 to 19.8.12 - La Fortuna and Arenal, Costa Rica.
20.8.12 to 22.8.12 - Puerto Viejo and Cahuita, Costa Rica.
23.8.12 - Puerto Viejo and San Jose, Costa Rica.
24.8.12 - Depart San Jose, Costa Rica, for London, England.
25.8.12 Arrive home.

Countdown begins

Two weeks to go!

My route through Central America