July 02, 2007
Antigua, Pacaya, and Byron
This weekend we opted not to go along on the school's trip to Monterrico, but instead to do our own trip to Antigua, the old historic capital.
Even though travel is crazy and fast in what are often called "chicken buses" (US school buses that are painted and decorated and packed full of people like a truck full of chickens) we had a long ride from Xela to Antigua with long waits for traffic and construction. Once we arrived we were dissappointed that the hostal reservation we had called in the day before somehow was lost and we needed to wander the city for another place to stay.
Early Saturday morning we got on a bus that would take us a little south for one of our primary reasons for our visit: a hike up the active volcano Pacaya. Of the 33 volcanos in Guatemala, 3 are still active: Santiaguito (right beside Santa Maria), Fuego (not far from Pacaya) and Pacaya. The hike is easy and the volcano is well monitered, so there were lots of people making the trip up and down. We climbed from around 1900 m to 2400 m. We could easily see the peak at 2500 m, but we weren't to go up the whole way. Still, it was really something new to hike on lava rock with steam coming up through and to have the chance to see some hot lava crumbling down the volcano.
After lunch, cleaning up and some rest, we took a stroll through the old streets downtown to see the ruins of old churches, lots of arts and crafts stores and other interesting sites. The highlight of the afternoon was stopping in to the internet and learning that Byron Peachey (friend and coworker at EMU) had finally made it through a delayed flight and long time traveling and had come out to Antigua for the weekend as well. He and his wife, Deanna Durham, will be leading the EMU cross cultural trip to Guatemala and the US/Mexico border next spring semester, and he's in the area for a planning trip. As we read his email at 5:30, we saw he suggested in his email that we meet up at a Cafe Condesa along the main plaza at 6:00, so we left right away. We found the restaurant and before long, Byron too! It was fun to catch up and talk about our experience so far and hear Byron's recommendations for other places and things not to miss.
In the morning we met up with Byron again for a delicious breakfast and then went together to visit, from what I understand, is the only 5 star hotel owned by Guatemalans. It is a large old Dominican convent built in the 1530s and has been partly restored and partly turned into really nice facilities. Apparently this was where Clinton stayed during his visit during his presidency.
We said our goodbyes to Byron before Rebekah and I went for an early lunch so we could get started on our trip back. We had some delicious pasta for lunch, picked up our bags from the hotel and headed back to Xela.
Posted by Derrick at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)