Day 26 05.08.15
Today we left this amazing accommodation to travel to Antigua.
Third time lucky, we were again blessed with a great breakfast. Some of us boarded the boat to the mainland with our entire luggage, which we then hoisted onto the top of our van. We were absolutely drenched in our sweat as the temperature was already climbing. We could have had a shower right then and there.
Just after packing the luggage on the van we stopped for some quick photos on Guatemalas longest bridge. (About 2 km long) and enjoyed one last view of the wonderful Rio Dulce.
We enjoyed another ride on a private van, which meant that we could stop by for lunch at a hotel that also had a large swimming pool. I shared an avocado salad and enjoyed a ceviche, which was quite nice during the heat. It’s hard to eat some heavily fried food that might even come with heavy frijoles (beans) when you are feeling really hot. We cooled off a bit in the swimming pool and drove on.
As the trip to Antigua was quite long, we also stopped at a place to grab some ice cream along the way. Some of us got frozen yoghurt with all kinds of fruits mixed into it. We could watch them making it with an interesting machine that forcefully pressed all ingredients together. They looked delicious – I definitely should have had one instead of a cookies ice cream, which tasted different than I had imagined it would.
On our way to Antigua we passed Guatemala City. It was the first time on the whole trip where I felt afraid. It got to the point, were we stopped at a petrol station and I decided not to leave the vehicle. Everywhere you look there are people with large shotguns, men in full combat uniform (ok, it might have just been bullet proof gear) and partially other weapons too, protecting anything you can think of, from a normal petrol station, a place where you can change your tires, a supermarket, natural houses, literally anything. I am a person who hates seeing weapons as my head directly associates this with violence. It also didn’t really help, that one of my travel companions decided to read the chapter on Guatemala City from the lonely planet guide. “Whatever you do, don’t go out in Guatemala City at night” “Don’t board the red chicken buses, especially at night, don’t board them if you are female, they are prone to rape and robberies” the list goes on, hence making me feel very safe and secure – not. I was happy when we finally had passed through the danger zone and were back on track to Antigua.
We finally got to Antigua and it is just such a lovely little town. Completely kept in the colonial style, it just has so much charm. The streets are completely cobbled (sometimes making it quite hard to walk on…), there are no buildings which are higher than a second floor, and the whole city is laid out in a square of streets in a perfect grid. Find out more about Antigua on the World Heritage site. The buildings are all kept in the 16th century style and make Antigua a very unique place. I am a real sucker for colonial building and so I love it here!
The hotel is amazing too. It has a little courtyard and a great roof top terrace. As soon as we arrived we all changed into 6 year olds, giggling, inspecting each others hotel rooms, running about and checking out this roof top terrace from where we were in awe of the surrounding volcanoes as at least I had never seen volcanoes, let alone an active one. Very picturesque!
For dinner we went to a lovely place called Las Palmas, where a live band was playing and the atmosphere was just great. I enjoyed some Argentinian sausages that were delicious, and everyone was having a great time. At one point I joined the smokers onto the roof terrace, where I got to see the most amazing site. From this roof terrace we could see the volcano fuego, which is active, spit out lava in huge eruptions. It was quite impressive!
Due to the live music being played, I had been itching to go for a bit of dancing and so we went on to a bar, which to that point was still relatively empty. They only had indie music playing, and not really what I was hoping for, and so we moved on to an Irish bar – Reillys.
At first I was a bit disappointed, seeing as this was clearly not going to be a place where I could dance salsa. There was karaoke going on and it felt a bit off. However, we did meet some of the friends of our tour guide, which instantly eased up the situation and with the rum flowing some of us started dancing. As it got later more locals joined in too and it was just an amazing time full with great dancing. We even got to meet up with another tour from G Adventures, which we had already met in Playa del Carmen and in Caye Caulker, who were pretty much doing the same tour as we were only in a different order. Oddly, it is always great seeing old faces, as all you do is see new ones wherever you go.
It was a long night full of dancing, which I will always remember.
