Day 29 08.08.15
We drove back to Antigua the next morning, where our group would loose some people but gain new people for the next leg of the tour.
We headed back and I managed to purchase a new camera, have lunch and be prepared for a volcano hike in just 45 minutes. Yes, you read right, a hike up an active in some parts, but dormant in others volcano!
We drove about 2 hours, and stood in traffic for some, but arrived and started hiking up. It was a quite strenuous ordeal and there were parts were we all had to take breaks. Only one fellow traveller decided to climb the volcano on horseback but was at times really envied by those walking. We took about 2 hours to get to the top where at first, due to clouds, we couldn’t really see much.
Then suddenly the clouds lifted and we got to see the full impact of the volcano! It was amazing. We were up so high, that we really got dependent on the clouds not blocking our view, even though they too formed quite a sight.
After reaching our “individual peak”, we climbed down to a place that had been covered by magma only 4 years prior to our visit. It was definitely a lot hotter here, but we could still walk on top of the cooled magma.
At the place there was also a little shop selling jewellery that had been embellished by stones made from the cooled magma. I chose to purchase a bracelet with the symbol of my Mayan horoscope sign. I did some further researching when I got back, and found sites where you can have a peek at your own horoscopes. I found mine to be quite accurate, and also that of a fellow travel companion too. The Spanish version is a lot more detailed, but I know not all of you can read and understand it, so here an English website. Apart from researching my Mayan symbol I don’t really know how much the daily symbols will affect my life, and I am not 100% sure what the numbers mean.
We walked on to a place where you could roast marshmallows from a point that was nearly completely open to the magma. We couldn’t see liquid red, but the scorching heat really did roast our marshmallows well.
We had heard thunder and lightning every once in a while, but just as we were finishing our marshmallow roast, the drops started coming down, and the pouring rain followed suit. We rushed back up to be then nearly running down the hill to see who could get back first and be drying up the quickest. It was pitch black by then and we were happy for our head torches!
We hopped onto our van and drove back. As soon as we were back (it was about 9pm), we spread out to go for dinner.
We went back to the restaurant we had gone to our first night in Antigua, plainly because it was still open and would serve 7 people. It was great again – this time I had some lasagne. You can’t eat Guatemalan food every day. We were so tired after this long hike, that we decided an early night might be the better option.
