¡Nuestra primera semana en Guatemala!

¡Hola amigos y familia! We are, true to form, writing this post about Antigua from a place other than there! We are actually in a city called Quetzaltenango, but known to the locals as Xela. However, bring you tales from Antigua and...other places.

After being searched twice at Logan International Airport (randomly. Or so we were told...), experiencing the most terrifying flight of our lives (well, Shayne´s life) where the pilot decided the plane was really a rollercoaster, we arrived in Guatemala City Airport.

Guatemala City is a stinking hole. According to Shayne. It is filthy, polluted, and it just feels dangerous. Eva feels the need to point out that we´ve never actually stopped there for more than 5 minutes, but has no real desire to either. We were picked up by our driver at the airport (good thing he was there, or we would have been utterly swamped by the throngs of people hustling outside the airport. Now we´re quite used to the crowds, but after two connecting flights and getting up at 4.30 in the morning, it was all a bit overwhelming.) and he drove us to our swish hotel in Antigua, which Eva´s sister Katie kindly bought us a night in. The hotel, Hotel Meson de Maria, was one of the most charming places we´ve stayed in.

This is the courtyard where we ate breakfast.

The people you can see in the picture are part of a large group of Canadian Christians who had apparently come to Guatemala for a "building for the poor people" project. Nice people, but a bit loud, really. Especially when they "sang". When they started, Shayne retreated with Cora to the little patio outside our room. Loyal readers know who Cora is, and the special place she has in Shayne´s heart.


On our last day there (we stayed for two nights) we discovered the roof top. Spectacular views of not only the surrounding buildings, including its signature structure, the arch on 5a Avenida Norte (peach with the clock. Well, really yellow, but Eva is colour-blind):

but also of the FREAKING BIG VOLCANOS!! Shayne was not told that there were volcanos in Guatemala, not to mention active ones. Eva assumed Shayne knew...
This is Volcán de Agua, to the south of the city, which is dormant:

and we think this one is Volcán de Fuego, which, as you can see, is active.

It is, unsurprisingly, unsafe to climb. There is an active one about 20 minutes from Antigua called Pacaya that is considered safe to climb, although considering the lack of health and safety regulations in this country, "safe" might be a rather relative term. Eva does plan to drag Shayne´s reluctant backside up Pacaya, kicking and screaming the entire way.

Antigua has a lot of history, like most major centres in this country. Its streets are entirely cobbled, its Colonial heritage gives it a bit of a European feel, which blends surprisingly well with the local Guatemalan culture. It used to be the capital before much of it was destroyed by an earthquake (we forget when). Since then, much of it has been rebuilt but there are still a lot of ruins around, such as this one:

Even before it was destroyed, the original Antigua was entirely flooded when Agua erupted and disturbed a body of water inside its crater. Instead of wisely moving the city away from the volcano, they just moved it to the other side. Smart. At the centre of the city is a large park, which at first Shayne was rather disappointed by, as he´d heard so much about it and when he got there, he saw a big, sprawling concrete expanse broken up by a few trees and park benches. It quickly becomes apparent, though, that it really is a hub of activity, colour and movement, and provides a great meeting place for tourists and Antiguans alike. This photo is of the central fountain in the park, which features four identical nymphs clutching their breasts as they spurt water into the fountain. Obviously a fertility symbol or something, but Freud would have had a field day nonetheless:


One thing about Antigua that isn´t so endearing is the multitude of tourists there, even during the offseason. Pretty much every gringo who comes to Guatemala comes here. Including us...because of this, property values are so high that only very well-off locals can afford to live here. People from the surrounding pueblos (towns) come here every day to ply their trade to the tourists, including our Spanish teachers (oh,segue-way!).

After a whole morning visiting different Spanish language schools, we finally decided on a school called Ixchel. We would recommend this place to anyone who wants to learn basic Spanish in a week or so, and there are people who have stayed for much longer. Our teachers were two lovely chicas, Stephanie (Eva´s teacher) and Helen (Shayne´s teacher). It´s depressing that they were significantly younger than us...


Part of the experience most schools offer is a homestay with a local family, which includes meals and more español than you can throw a stick at. We lived with a particularly well-off family (by Guatemalan standards - they had a huge house with four bathrooms and two cars!). Our hosts were a lovely couple called Gloria and Rodolfo, seen here with Eva:

They were very patient with us and our halting, inaccurate Spanish, especially Rudolfo, who would slow down, make sound effects and play charades when all else failed.

Our room (the outside wall of which is terracotta-coloured) was on the roof:

and we had the most spectacular view of Agua. Yes, Shayne was ecstatic about that...actually, it did become a welcome sight every morning, especially when its cone was surrounded by mist.

Ixchel has a volunteer project in a nearby pueblo where they look after disadvantaged (even by Guatemalan standards) kids out of school hours. On our first day at the school (yes, with four hours of Spanish under our belts) we went out to check it out and to attend a birthday fiesta for all the kids who´d had birthdays in July and August. So, we stood around feeling useless until the piñatas came out! There were two of them, and they ended up being utterly destroyed...yes, that´s their function. Eva was called upon to hold and move the second piñata out of reach of the kids while they were mercilessly fooled by the presence of the previous one:

Eva has had experience with the conducting of piñata smashing before, and while it was slightly disconcerting seeing how few restrictions were put in place for safety of the kids, it was kind of refreshing to watch the total abandon with which the kids AND the teachers set upon the hapless paper sacrifice, and later the sweets as they fell from the desecrated corpse (ooh, the melodrama). Seriously, it was a free-for-all:


After four days of being in Antigua, and two of learning Spanish, we needed a break from the really unpredictable rainy-season weather and the brain-fry. We took a trip with our English amigo and housemate Roger, and another friend from the school Stephan (a German living in the US), seen here sleeping off hangovers on one of the three looooong trips between Antigua and Lanquin, where we ended up after 9 hours on the road:


The road was terrifying. Actually, no, the DRIVERS were terrifying. It´s very disconcerting being in a large coach and seeing the driver overtake on a blind corner on a cliff, narrowly missing chicken buses (former US school buses, named so because everyone, including their chickens, are crammed onto them)and semi-trailers, amongst others. After a while, this became commonplace so we weren´t so bothered - until the rain started. In bucketing torrents. Still, we obviously survived.

When we got to Lanquin, a tiny town in the highlands, the hostel we wanted to stay in (El Retiro,an awesome place beside a river with thatched huts and hammocks and buffet feasts for 50 quetzales, which is about 7 bucks Australian) was full. But we stayed in a hotel up the road and went to El Retiro for dinner and a few drinks. Well, more than we intended anyway. When we returned at midnight, we found that the hotel was locked. So what´s a group of drunken gringos to do? Break in, of course. To our defense, we didn´t actually break anything, just climbed a fence, a slippery, steep embankment, and a rather loose railing. Our good mate Stephan, who set the example, then pissed himself laughing and proceeded to take incriminating photos. Which, of course, we put on the internet. Shayne´s just glad we weren´t shot by a local.



The following day, we left at 6 in the morning for Semuc Champey. This niño at the hotel bade us goodbye,and seemed ready to go with us, as he held onto Eva´s leg and had to be prised off. He quickly settled for another sucker:

In general, most of the kids we´ve encountered, and the adults, for that matter, have been welcoming, warm, and friendly. We only wish our Spanish was better so we could properly converse with them, rather than use Spanglish and pantomime, although they´re generally very tolerant of this.

We had to get some local boys to find a ride for us after a lot of pfaffing around. After a bone-jarring 8km ride in a pick-up truck, we made it. And boy, it was worth it:


Semuc Champey is a kind of reserve famous for its bat-infested caves (which we didn´t have time to visit) and, as you can see, these amazing natural lagoons that provided one of the best swimming experiences we´ve ever had. Yep, the ridiculously long trip up here was worth every minute.

Unlike other natural wonders we´ve visited on our adventure thus far, there were almost no tourists. In fact, when we arrived, there was only a small group of local kids there.

Here´s another obligatory post-bathing shot (and this time, Shayne actually did get to swim!):


We climbed up the steep, slippery hillside for half an hour to get this breath-taking view:


We were very sorry to leave this place. Unfortunately we had to catch the shuttle from El Retiro back to Antigua, on another gruelling 7-hour bus trip, this time with a bunch of gringos from the hostel, including two charming English lads who were the original odd couple, bickering the whole way, and finally ending up with an exchange of extremely audible farts. Well, it was pretty one-sided. Ever time we stopped for the toilets, two other poms would restock on their beer supply. Eventually, Shayne, Roger and Stephan caved in as well and bought the local swill, Gallo, on our last stop, in Guatemala City.

So. That was our first week in Guatemala. As you can see, these posts might get a little long...yes, even longer than usual, as there is heaps to do here and we´ve been keeping very busy.

Stay tuned for - more Antigua and surrounding areas, Xela, and...who knows?!

¡Hasta luego!