Winding down in Antigua

The last day of this trip, a day to end all days.  Full of sun and crisp perfect weather and it doesn't rain even once. Instead the usual heavy afternoon clouds roll in around 2 pm full of wet portent but then move on. As if they know.

After much surveying of fellow travelers and internal deliberations, I decided to stay in Antigua instead of heading to Guatamala City for my final day, to see what I could see there. Yes, it would have been nice to get to know the capital a bit and some of the country's finest museums and the hostel where I would have stayed (included nice conveniences like a complimentary city tour and ride to the airport!) .... but returning to Antigua after my few days away at Laguna Atitlan felt surprisingly like coming home. I was just so happy to be back, on such pretty, familiar territory.

Once back, I also finally (!) got to experience a Guatamalan volcano. After two previously thwarted attempts due to rain or poor "registration," I found a group leaving Antigua for nearby Volcan Pacaya the very next morning (at 6 am to be precise about it). Antigua is surrounded by several volcanos, including Volcan Agua which at 3766 meters dominates the southern end of the city, serving as a constant, handy point of orientation. Also visible is Volcan de Fuego, which coincidentally erupted in full flowing lava swing just the other day. Acetanango is the "big Mama" at 3974 meters and plenty of local tour agencies offer overnight trips so you can watch the sun rise before making your way back down.

Pacaya moonscape

By these standards, Pacaya is puny though still impressive - and also quite active.  It last erupted almost exactly 2 years ago and plumes of hot smoke are everywhere. It's a popular volcano because it's so accessible -in just 1 1/2 hours we were on top, surrounded by surreal moonscape views of black volcanic ash and lava rock. It is like being on another planet. Only with marshmellows, which we gaily toasted over the earthy fire.

In addition to adding another Central American volcano to my list, I finally also made it Cafe No Se. Cafe No Se is really a bar, where Ilegal Mescal is served in its own special room with a sign warning "2 shot limit" as you enter. The other really amazing and special thing about Cafe No Se is its location directly across the street from El Hostel, my Antigua home away from home. I haven't had as much fun in a hole in the wall tequila bar and met as many fun, cool, open, gregarious and also inebriated people while listening to great live music, as I did during my 2 nights at Cafe No Se. Where, once again, I almost got talked into postponing my flight home.

Cafe No Se

Other highlights resulting from choosing to stay in Antigua: wandering its streets some more; revisiting el mirador; yoga at Hotel Panza Verda; talking mangos with the fruit stand lady; hearing Luis and Jancho play at the Rainbow Cafe; bonding with fellow El Hostel mate Jaime; discovering rellenitos de platanos; and absoring the charm and warmth of Antigua deeper into my psyche for future reference.                                  

I can see why so many expats come here then never leave. I am sure I would have found Guatamala City gratifying in its special own way. But Antigua was what I needed more. I leave Guatamala the right combination of happy and sad, for inspiring future visits.

Jaime y yo

Note: click here for more Antigua highlights captured

Getting a little bit sick of the rain

The rain keeps sabotaging everything.  Hellllloooow WET season!

Wet season lasts from May to about September/October here in Central America and I´m learning the hard way it´s not messing around. The rain was lovely when it started back in Nicaragua turning Ometepe vibrant green and the Antigua streets shiny for a few convenient hours, but now it´s done nothing but sabatoge my plans and make me really soggy.

Wet season means ¨low¨ season in Central America, therefore a difficult time to find groups for planned outdoor activities. With only 2 people signed up, Quetzeltrekkers canceled the 3 day hike I was so looking forward to from Xela to Atitlan.  Then after finally finding a guide willing to take just one person up Volcan San Pedro, I woke up this morning to the strongest downpour since arriving at Lago de Atitlan on Wednesday.

But I took the 7:30 am lancha from San Marcos where I´d been staying to San Pedro anyway, fully optimistic and hopeful the rain would stop by the time it arrived - even though San Pedro is just a 15 minutes boatride away. Nevermind that climbing a steep volcano when it´s wet nevermind raining is not a good idea by any rational standards, I just really wanted to HIKE. Unsurprisingly my guide wasn´t going anywhere.

So instead I have a day to kill in San Pedro La Laguna. Not a terrible place to while (wile?) some time away on a rainy day... getting to know this other pretty town on the laguna, eating lots of freshly made tamales, catching up on emails and some reading. Besides, I love tamales and my room at Hotel Tepepulkan has a good view of the lake, appropriate for my last day here.

Tomorrow I will forget about Volcan San Pedro and visit Chichicastenango´s famous Sunday market instead.  I will practice non-attachment, roll with the punches. I´ve been wanting to visit Chichicastenango anyway.

Oh look! The sun is coming out.

POSTSCRIPT(S)

That sun was a momentary hoax.  It peeked out then went away again. The rest of the afternoon continued to be heavy with clouds and the portent of more rain to come.  I did manage to sneak in two fresh tamales on a street stoop before it returned!

**

My grand accomplishment of the day: finding San Pedro´s used bookstore and getting a new book (did I blog about how my trusty Kindle died when I landed??).  Finally finished the copy of ¨The Lost City of Z¨ that Natalie gave me when I left Salinas about the early 20th century explorer Percy Fawcett and loved it very much. I will be returning to the U.S.A. reading - or perhaps having finished? - Margaret Atwood´s ¨The Blind Assassin.¨ 

**

I am happy for this stolen day roaming San Pedro´s winding streets. Just 15 minutes away but so different from San Marcos, more like an actual Guatamalan town than a gringo hippy commune kibbutz. Though San Marcos is where I met amazing artist and newest friend David Perez Sacach and I will remember it fondly thus along with our hike along the lake and through the hills all the way to Santa Cruz.

**

The girls.. sisters, cousins, friends?... are glued to the TV. The small gaggle of them is gathered there mesmerized by some Spanish variety show where adults are performing slapstick routines that keep sending them into fits of hysterical laughter. Even if I have come for tonight's chorizo taco special I am clearly sitting in what is also the family living room. No matter. I am the only one there, awaiting my taco special among the plastic tables and chairs and every once in a while I set my book down to see what's so funny. Whenever they burst into laughter the youngest one looks over, as if curious to see whether I find all this funny too. I make a point of demonstrating that I do. Outside dusk has become night and the rain falls in heavy sheets.

**

All afternoon people return my smiles. I will miss that about Central America, the exchange of pleasantries that seems to come so easily here with just about everyone. Old women with bundles on their heads. Kids playing on the streets or biking past. Men walking to the fields with their hoes and machetes. I usually start it saying, "buenos dias" or just "buenos," or "adios" and they all smile warmly briefly back and say something in kind. Today an older San Pedro gentleman wearing a cowboy hat stopped me on a narrow path we were crossing to introduce himself. He held out his hand and I hesitated just briefly before taking it. "Mucho gusto," I said meaning it before we both just carried on.

#
     

Miradors, puposas and coffee

Today was a good first full day in Antigua. Spend the morning leisurely enjoying my free hostel breakfast then follow the street up from El Hostal in search of Antigua's mirador, Cerro de la Cruz aka Hill of the Cross. I was told morning is the best time to go for both the sunnier views overlooking the city and optimal chances of not getting mugged. Although according to Lonely Planet, "no crimes against tourists have been reported since the tourist police squad started patroling the area."  Thank you, tourist police squad!

Cerro de la Cruz and Volcan Agua

The walk up is more strenuous then I anticipated because I pick the wrong fork in the road, therefore find myself huffing and puffing up an S trail meant for vehicles. Flashback to me doing something  similiar while searching for a castle in Portugal, only thankfully this time it only lasts about 20 minutes and there are no trucks. On top I mistake Plaza del Santiago for the mirador and wonder why the cross has been replaced with an equestrian statue. A nice park attendent tells me the actual mirador is just a little further up so I continue on and lo and behold there's the cross. And the views! And all the other tourists!

The walk down is much nicer, because I am on the right path this time consisting of pleasantly spaced apart steps. I meet a beautiful American bull terrier with a giant head named Yuma and stop to say hi before continuing on (I miss Shusha! And Kalema!).

Yup this is Yuma

I decide on lunch before my planned afternoon coffee farm tour and head to the restaurant La Cuervita de los Urquizos near Las Ruinas de Capuchinas where the bus comes to fetch all the coffee farm visitors at 1:20 pm. I have a good hour. For lunch I settle on puposo which I've been wanting to try and because it's impossible for me to decide whether I should get the queso, frijoles or cerdo puposo I get the mixta along with a side of broccoli (broccoli!!!!) and a scrumtious jugo de rosa de jicama. Then it's about time for the bus.

The coffee tour on the Filadefia "resort" lasts almost 2 hours and by the end I am overwhelmed by my newfound knowledge about what makes coffee coffee. For example, before it is a bean, coffee is a flower (smells like jasmine!) then a fruit (looks like a red berry!). Also after following in the footsteps of a coffee bean from seedling to plant to fermenting to drying to husking to roasting, etc, I have never wanted a cup of coffee more in my whole entire life. We head to the "coffee degustation room" and I finally get to sample the "complimentary" cup included in the $20 tour.  It's worth every %$#*&$? penny!



Best end of a tour ever!



Pretty Antigua



Antigua's Parque Central

Antigua is as pretty as they say, in that quintessential way old colonial towns with their old colonial ruins, rain slicked cobblestone streets and small boutique shops are just so ... pretty.

Despite hearing about how pretty Antigua is from so many people on this trip it still comes as a surprise. Antigua, Guatamala is nothing like what I've experienced of Central America so far during my seven weeks in Nicaragua, with its rugged rural beauty and also frequently overwhelming heat. Antigua’s appeal is more like candy, and I spend the afternoon walking to soak it all in and also to stretch out my legs from the 20 hours it took to get here on a bus from Managua late last night (never again). With the fresh baked smell of the panderias; the vibrant colors of its handicrafts and painted facades; the cool ~1500m Highland Valley air, Antigua is an all encompassing sensory experience. Gillian and Tanya told me Guatamala was "magical" and already on my first day here I see their point.


Rainy Antigua streets


Already I can also see how hard it will be to “squeeze” Guatamala in. Coming here was a last minute decision, inspired by another traveler in Granada, NR a day before my designated flight home. The problem with having the so-called freedom to travel is that it easily becomes addicting - especially the longer you go. Exposure to other travelers only makes it worse, fueling the desire for further exploration with tales of their own.

And so I have come with only 9 days to experience one more country, and emotionally bracing myself for the fact that I will leave here wanting more. I have planned and re-planned my remaining days in my head multiple times and each potential itinerary is different. Is it worth taking a whole day to go see Chichicastenango? Better to spend more time in Antigua and/or Lake Atitlan instead? Should I visit a working coffee farm, that jade jewelry maker Robin and Aubrey told me about, or go see the lava flowing in active Volcan Pacaya? What is the best possible way to minimize the impact of a 5 hour bus to Xela then back to Guatamala City in time for my flight?

Guatamala is a big country full of wonders in all corners, including the famous ruins of Tikal and natural beauty of Semuc Champey. So I will focus my measly 9 days on just scratching the surface of its northwestern Highlands region instead, starting with the World Heritage Site that is Antigua then heading westward to Lago Atitlan. The crux and grand finale will be a 3 day trek from Xela to Atitlan with the volunteer-based tour organization QuetzelTrekkers over Memorial Day Weekend. Then Guatamala City. Then home by June 1st. Then turning 39 (!!!!!).

Phew. Yes this is the current plan.