Language School, after Day 4

We've settled in to a weekday routine... up at 7am, breakfast on the table at 7:30 (made by our house mother Estela), and out the door to school at 7:45.

My teacher and I in school

It's about a 10 minute walk from our casa to the school. Each student/teacher pair gets a desk, and there are about 30 desks scattered around the school. We get a break from 10:00 to 10:30am. There is an old woman selling meat pies on the street at break. Or you can go next door to the internet cafe.

During the morning, one of the people from school comes by and describes the day's afternoon activity and asks if you want to participate (all in Spanish). Yesterday, it was a free Salsa/Merengua class. Today it was a visit to Mayan family house for a demonstration on weaving, a mock wedding, and some 'plata typica' (typical Mayan food), with, of course, an opportunity to buy some Mayan handicrafts (yep, bought another one).



Tomorrow the activity is a bicycle tour of Antigua. These are generally free or inexpensive. And they are all in Spanish.

School ends at 12 noon. Lunch (back at the casa) isn't til 1pm, so we have time to either check some email or lounge a bit before lunch. Most of the afternoon activities start at 2pm, so it's back to the school for that. We are usually back at the casa by 5pm, where Estela has dinner ready.

Then we study... an hour or two, perhaps interspersed with a little bit of TV. (CNN in English, sometimes a Spanish channel).

Every weekend the school also organizes a group tour for the weekend, to some place in Guatemala. This weekend the tour is to Coban, Lanquin, and Semuc Champey. This is an area of caves and rivers, where the attractions are rain forest, caves, tubing, and waterfalls. The cost for the trip, including transportation and hotel, is $85 pp. This is an area that Dave has been dying to visit. So when I heard that was where the trip was, I called him and asked if he wants to try to meet me. He researched the logistics of getting from the Rio Dulce, and said it was do-able. He also enlisted our friends Ron and Dorothy. So the three of them are going to catch the Litegua bus to El Rancho, where the road from Antigua/Guatemala City turns left to Coban.

Note: Coban is not Copan, which is a place of ruins in Honduras.

Our humble abode.

Off to Language School in Antigua

One of our cruising friends decided she was going off to language school in Antigua while her husband tore the boat apart to repair leaky fuel tanks. Since I had been wanting to do the same thing, and Dave kept saying he had too many projects to do to go off on anther trip, I volunteered to go along with Sue from Infini.<

Sue had done all the research and had picked the school already. I checked out the La Union website and agreed it looked like a good school. La Union website. The cost for 4 hours a day with a private tutor is $90 a week, and room and board in the 'student house' is another $83/week. Sue and I both signed up via a form on their website. Some schools require as much as a $75 registration fee, but La Union does not.

We left the Rio on the Litegua bus on Thursday and started school on Friday. We opted to take classes on Saturday (at least THIS Saturday), but we are taking today off. After 2 days of intense study, I have 'verbos irregularos' spilling out of my brain. I am learning, I just hope it sticks.

I would probably be learning more if I had opted to do a 'home stay' (stay with a family who won't speak any English to you). However, we both wanted the freedom of a less intimate setting. The student house has turned out to be kinda fun. It is typical of the low end hotels in Antigua, but kind of family style with communal meals. The accommodations are bare bones, but clean enough. (Sue bought a roll of paper towels today so she could clean up her bathroom a little better).

Our 'house mother', Estela, lives elsewhere, but comes in at 7am to make breakfast, and stays til 5pm. She does the cooking and the cleaning. Lunch is ready for us at 1pm, when we get out of school, and she makes dinner and leaves it for us when she leaves at 5pm. We are free to eat when we want by warming it in the microwave.

There are 6 rooms here. Most of the students are young Americans--just out of college. They seem to drink and party more than they study. One is actually working as a bartender in a local student hangout. Sue and I are the oldest. There's another older student who's an American, but who is originally from South Africa. Brian is currently living in the Dominican Republic and an aid worker with a non-governmental organization based in the DR. He desperately wants to learn Spanish, and studies
every night. We have had an interesting time talking around the dinner table. He has family in South Africa and New Zealand, some of whom are sailors. So he is curious about what we are doing and why (and how much it costs).

We plan to stay here in Antigua studying for 2 weeks, and then Sue will fly back to the States for awhile (while her husband Mike finishes the messy project), and I will go back to the Rio Dulce. If Dave and Mike can take a few days off from their 'projects' next weekend, we hope they'll meet us in Guatemala City for a day or so.

LOB (Lost On Board)

Back in June, I reported my watch as lost. It went missing the day we finished our 4 day crossing from Dry Tortugas to Belize. It didn't plop overboard, but I just sort of lost track of it on the crossing.

However...

a few nights ago...

I was headed for the head at 4:30 am...

and danged if I didn't hear my missing watch a-beepin'

I could hear it very very faintly, only because I was standing right next to the 'dive locker'.

Wow! WOW!!

My favorite watch (really, you have no idea), risen from the dead. When it went missing, I whined to Dave for a week. We spent quite a bit of time in Belize City trying to find another genuine waterproof Timex to replace it. They sell lots of watches on the streets of Belize, but they're all really cheap knowck-off.

My watch was really a pretty cheap Timex Triathlon... sells for about $30 at Walmart. But I have taken that watch down to 100' while diving. It keeps time like a Swiss watch. It has an alarm clock and a timer I use all the time. I just really liked it.

I never did figure out what happened to it. Because we'd been on passage for 4 days, I was a little foggy the day it went missing. When it didn't turn up around the boat after a few days, and I didn't ever hear it beep again (it was set to beep once on the hour every hour), I figured it must have somehow gone over the side the day we reached Belize (I went snorkeling right after we put the anchor down). I had long since given it up, and had daughter Nicki send me a new one in the last mail package.

So, the other night when I heard it, it was like it had risen from the dead. I hung out for another 5 minutes to see if it beeped again. If it WAS really my watch, it would beep again in 5 minutes. Yup, THERE IT WAS!! How exciting. But still so faint I couldn't really tell where was coming from.

When I told Dave later in the morning (Though I wanted to, I couldn't REALLY wake him up at 4:30 in the morning to tell him I heard my watch beeping, could I?) I'm not sure he really believed me.

At a decent hour, I rummaged around in the 'dive locker' to see if I could find it. The 'dive locker' is really a full-sized 'forward head', turned into a It is a huge space, relatively speaking. On Soggy Paws, Dave converted this big shower area into a storage space. To name a few things stored there... the dive compressor, 4 dive tanks, about 3 full sets of dive gear (wetsuits, BC's, regulators, etc), our safety gear (harnesses and abandon ship bag, our luggage, some other stuff). It is jammed full, top to bottom.

So when I suggested we unload it to look for my watch, Dave thought I was nuts. I racked my brain for what we might have done that day it went missing, that it would have ended up in the dive locker. We checked the normal set of dive gear, and our inflatable harnesses that we would have had in the cockpit (twice). no luck.

I promised I'd get up at 4:25 to listen for it again, so we unloaded the top part of the stuff (mostly dive equipment). I set my watch for 4:20, but I was so psyched to find my watch, I actually woke at about 4am. (yeah, I know, that's kind of sick ... it's just a stupid plastic watch).

I did get up, but with little success. I found that it was actually going off at 4:28 instead of 4:30, so I missed the first one. When it went off again at 4:33, I did hear it and did confirm that I could hear it louder if I leaned into the dive locker. I also stuck my head up toward the forward head to try to see if it might be coming from there (a much more likely place for me to have lost my watch).

The next night, I forced Dave to get up and listen with me (4 ears are better than 2). Dave is a guy who likes waking up around 8am. 4:30am just ain't his style. But he's a trouper, so he didn't grumble too much.

On the first time it went off, I had him positioned in the main cabin, on the outside of the dive locker. Maybe it wasn't really in the dive locker? I could barely hear it and he didn't at all (I swear he thought I was hallucinating).

The next time it went off, I was positioned up on deck (we'd been putting the dinghy in the afternoon it went missing), and Dave had his head in the dive locker. Well, at least he finally heard it, faintly. At least he knew I wasn't crazy. But we were no closer to finding it.

During the daytime, we unloaded more of the dive locker, and went over everything more carefully. I kept insisting it was in there and Dave kept suggesting it must be somewhere else (mainly because he could think of no good reason why it would be in there).

On the 3rd night, (we can't actually remember what happened, but I know we were both up listening for the damned thing, and we were no closer to finding it).

The next day, we unloaded MORE of the dive locker. Still didn't find it. I spent literally an hour in the forward head looking through the cabinets. I spent another hour looking through the bags stored up against the bulkhead near the dive locker. It was really starting to bug me.

The 4th night, we put Dave up forward and he heard not a peep. Though we had all the dive gear out of the locker, there was no sound coming from the heap of stuff on the couch. On the second try that night, I unloaded a bunch more (unlikely) stuff out of the locker.

LO AND BEHOLD!! The sound moved from the locker to the couch!! We did finally manage to track it down to a bag full of safety harnesses... one that we hadn't used on the trip. We had searched the other bag, with the inflatable harnesses, 3 times already, but had neglected the one with the old style harnesses. But we found it.

And are we glad! What a relief to finally find it, and NOT to have to get up every morning at 4:30 am to listen to a ghost!!

Stop the bleeping beeping!

We have an inexpensive window air conditioner on Soggy Paws. It is a Maytag, but from pictures of other similarly-priced units on the web, it could be any low-end brand.

It is a pretty nice reliable unit for a window a/c.

It has an electronic control panel with a timer, a digital temperature setting, and a fan/hi/low setting. One of it's 'features' is a loud beep emitted when any button is pushed on the control panel. Others on the internet complained of this when the unit is working properly, just because changing a setting in the middle of the night makes a beep loud enough to wake the family.

Sometime in the last few months, the a/c started beeping on its own. Watching it, it looked as if a ghost was pushing the timer button on and off at random times. It started out happening only occasionally and gradually increased in frequency. We could not correlate what might be making it beep. Dave thinks the thing came with a remote (which can't be found) and one theory was RFI from something else was putting it in and out of timer mode.

So we played with computer and cell phone chargers and even asked the neighbors in the boat next door what they were doing when it would beep.

As it started to increase in frequency, we started unplugging the durned thing during the day. However, there was no way we could silence it at night.

Finally, after one night when it persisted in beeping on and off at 5 second intervals at 4am... I requested that Dave take a look at it.

Over the next 3 days, he patiently (and carefully) dismantled the A/C, trying one thing and another. First starting with cleaning and re-seating all the contacts we could get to. Then leaving the control panel unsecured... to try to eliminate heat and pressure issues. Next was de-soldering and removing the legs of a transistor (I think) that looked like it was controlling the beeper. We ended up finally taking the whole darned thing off. The a/c still worked but the beeping continued.

Next was de-soldering removing what we thought was the beeper (a small round black thing). The a/c STILL worked but the beeping continued. Have no idea what those parts were, but he did put them back on.

Then we unplugged some contacts to a big toroid looking thing. Nope, not that. Hmmm...

Finally, he went one layer deeper into the a/c, opening up another area behind the control panel. Then we plugged it back in and listened for another beep (it's not predictable--might take 5 minutes, might take 5 hours). Still beeped, but... alas, the beeping was not coming from the control panel we had spent 3 days fooling around with, but from something BEHIND the control panel.

So, Dave removed one more thing. And yup, that was it.

YAY FOR DAVE!!!! NO MORE BLEEPING BEEPING!!!

Sorry, didn't think to take pics of this operation.

Quirigua

On our jaunt around the highlands, we got to looking at a map, and realized that there is a Mayan ruins site that is within an hour of the Rio Dulce. So once we'd recovered from our highlands trip, Sherry organized a day trip to Quirigua (kee-ree-gwa).

The first step was to announce on the morning net that I was putting together a trip for next week. We got an unexpected boost in interest when one of the 'old hands' on the river came on and said that Quirigua had the best stellae (carved stones) that he'd ever seen. Within an hour I had about 15 people on my list. The last few I had to tell that I wasn't sure I could fit them in. I wasn't sure if I could get more than a 12 person van.

We screwed around for a few days with Steve from Bruno's, trying to get a price for a trip to Quirigua. For whatever reason, he wasn't very interested in the business. Finally I gave up and asked our friend Russell from s/v Cookie's Cutter to call the van driver they'd used before. With Russ's help, we hired Edgar for Q600 ($80) for the day. He said it would be Q40 ($5.25) a head if we had 15 people. We asked him the max he could take and he said 17. (NOT!!)

I finally got 15 people confirmed and told them to meet at Bruno's at 8:30am on the appointed day. Everyone kept asking me questions that I couldn't answer (since I hadn't been there). I did a little research on the internet to better plan the trip. There wasn't much about Quirigua... it seems to be a short stop on the way from Copan to Tikal or Guat City for most tours. So I told everyone what I thought and that we'd be winging it.

A bunch of us at Tortugal were going, so we took the Tortugal launch over to town in the morning and had an early breakfast at Bruno's. While at breakfast, Ron got to talking with some backpackers who were looking for something to do for the day. We told them we were going to Quirgua and we could probably squeeze in 2 more. Fortunately they decided to go elsewhere, as there turned out NOT to be room for 17 in the van.

Edgar showed up on time. It was a decent van--not one of the top of the line Tourismo vans, but not bad. Pretty much what I'd expected for the price. With 15 of us, and almost no luggage, we were pretty crammed. If we did another trip in that van we would limit it to 12 or 13.

One guy brought a cooler, and it had to go on top. There wasn't enough room behind the back seat to even put backpacks. Edgar originally said we could have A/C for Q5 more per head, but I guess he was hot and turned the A/C on anyway.

Since I hadn't done the trip before, I had to guess at the plan... my guess was an hour's drive, about 2-3 hours there, lunch, and a drive back, and we'd be back by about 3pm. I ended up spot-on. I suggested everyone bring a bottle of water and a snack. Dorothy's idea of a snack turned out to be lunch for everyone (a bottle of wine, pate, cheese, crackers, etc, complete with a table cloth, wine glasses, and wooden bowls). I had NO IDEA she was lugging all that stuff around until she started unloading it.

Quirigua is a small place with big stones. There might be more unexcavated stuff in the jungle, but the part that's open to the public was pretty small. The interpretive center was all in Spanish, so a few of us who could read it, interpreted for the rest. There are no plaques around the stones, and no brochure. One part of the site was actively being excavated and was fenced off.

We managed to pick up an English speaking guide (who didn't know the place well) and his buddy, who did know the history, but spoke no english. Between the two of them, they did a pretty good job of guiding us thru the place. We all pitched in a couple of bucks a head to have them tag along with us.

It had rained hard the night before, and the grounds were kind of swampy. The mosquitos were brutal. The place was set in heavy jungle, so there wasn't a breath of air stirring. Fortunately there was a paved path with some shade over it. But most of the people who came with us didn't venture close to more than one or two of the stones. ("Seen one rock, seen them all").

We were finished looking at everything in about an hour and a half. Dorothy decided it was time for 'snacks' and sat down next to a ruin, in the shade, and started pulling stuff out of her backpack. Those of us that had perservered through the mosquitos, heat, humidity, and the climb up over the ruins, had a nice picnic lunch there.

The others had apparently had enough of old rocks and had headed back to the van--a cell phone call revealed that they were back at the van waiting for us. We promised them we'd finish off our wine and cheese and go to lunch with them.

Back in the parking lot, we did a little shopping... I bought a glasses case with Guatemalan weaving for $1.25.

Then it was off to Mariscos, a small town on the far side of Lake Izabel. Edgar wanted another Q10 a head to take us to Mariscos. After the drive there, I understand why--it was quite a ways off the main road (it was only 1/4" on the map!). You know how high gas is in the States? Well, it's higher here.

Anyway, it was a good fun day trip. Total cost, including lunch: $15 per person. (If you were booking the same trip through a gringo hotel, it would be $50-$75)

See all our Quirigua (and Mariscos) photos here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qEcjjKJ4UBrHH9hl1

Santiago Atitlan

We hired a launcha from Casa del Mundo to take us across the lake one afternoon to Santiago Atitlan.

The Lake Atitlan fishing boats are a funny shape

It was a sleepy afternoon and we were apparently the only tourists in town. I was pretty much shopped out by then, but Ron and Dorothy wanted to stop in every shop, and Dave was on a mission for a specific gift for his cousin Bryan.

The main road in town leads up the hill to a large church and square. So we walked up the road to the church, looked around some, and came back down past all the shops again to the docks.

The church was a little run down, but still beautiful. Ron took a bunch of pics inside but I feel funny about snapping pictures in churches. But you can see some of his pics in my photo album.

Ron and Dorothy hadn't been buying anything on the way up (but Ron was having fun negotiating anyway). After our experience in Chichi, where we discovered the price comes WAY down when you start to walk away, Ron knew that you don't buy on the first look.

One of the interesting things we saw was a man working on an old loom. We learned later that the huilepuil's that the women wear are woven in 18" wide strips by the women on a 'backstrap loom'. The other weavings, for general cloth around the house and some of the men's clothes, are woven by men on a big loom.

On the way back down, Ron and Dorothy started buying a few things. The closer to the dock they got, the lower the prices got. Once they started buying, word got around among the women on the street that someone was buying, and everyone in town headed for Ron. By the time Ron arrived back at the dock, he was surrounded by a swarm of Mayan women all thrusting their goods on him. All were amazing pieces of workmanship, taking literally months to make. Being offered, at that time, for about $10-$20.

I still wasn't buying--I really don't like to be pressured to buy something. (Especially something I don't have a need for or room for on the boat). But I got some great pics of Ron.

I did end up buying one off Dorothy later, who bought her last one on the dock from a young girl, just because she felt sorry for her. Though we felt Dorothy had 'stolen' it at only $10, the girl was really happy about her end of the transaction. I saw her look of triumph as she got the money from Ron.

Our Santiago Pictures are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/teM0B22tR3p50vz12

Lake Atitlan and Casa Del Mundo

Friends on the Rio Dulce had highly recommended that we get out of Panajachel and visit Casa del Mundo, out on the lakeside.

We only booked one night ahead of time, but ended up staying 2 nights once we got there, because it was such a nice place. Booking ahead was interesting, because they want you to pay ahead of time. They don't accept Paypal, and there's a 6% surcharge if you pay by credit card (this is common in Guatemala). So, while we were in Antigua, we pulled cash out of an ATM machine, and went to their bank and deposited the money directly in their bank account.

To get to the Casa del Mundo, you have to take a water taxi. We had been warned that the price should only be Q10 (about $1.50) but many times they will charge the gringos 2 or 3 times that. Dave did the negotiating and we got the Q10 price.

We had so much luggage by this time (what we originally bought, plus all the trinkets we'd picked up at Chichi) that when a Tuk Tuk drove by as we came out of the hotel, we got the brilliant idea to hire it for about $2, load it up with all our luggage, and send Dave off to the dock with the luggage. Since we'd been to the water's edge the night before, and seen boats, we thought we knew where the dock was. The PROPER dock turned out to be a lot further away than we'd thought. We were double glad we weren't lugging all our luggage that way. Dave talked us in to the proper dock by cell phone.

Even though we were prepared for a really amazing place by our friends, we were still amazed by the Casa del Mundo.

Built by an American who married a Guatemalan woman, one bungalo at a time, it's a beautiful place. Each room is hanging on the cliffside with fantastic views. Even our budget room with shared bath (about $25 US) was nice (no lumpy pillows). And it is truly a world traveller's place. At the 'family style' dinner every night, we met travelers from all over the world. We sampled
their wood-fired jacuzzi, took kayaks out on the lake, and took a lancha across the river to Santiago Atitlan. The grounds were immaculate and bursting with all kinds of tropical vegetation.

Ron and Dorothy's room (about $55/nite) seemed to be the 'honeymoon suite'. It was way up on the hillside (about 3 flights of stairs up), a huge room with huge bed, and one whole wall was windows. It was really gorgeous (but with our old knees, quite a climb to get there).

Make sure you visit the photo album to see the rest of the pictures of the lake and grounds.

On the way out of Atitlan, we got a chance to stop at a beautiful overlook. There was a Mayan woman and her 2 daughters at the overlook. The woman was weaving (and selling cloth). Ron got them to pose for pictures (and I got to take a picture of he and Dave showing them the pictures).

Unfortunately Ron's camera was stolen in Guatemala city, so I don't have a copy of the great shot of the woman weaving.

Our Lake Atitilan Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BvDrbRNfSkIOXsTA2

Panajachel

After the Chichi market, we were driven in our shuttle van to Panajachel (pana-ha-shell).

Pana, as it's called by everyone who's been in Guatemala for more than a day, is one of the most touristy towns in Guatemala. It is the gateway to beautiful Lake Atitlan, and everyone goes there.

Because the Lonely Planet wasn't real high on Pana, we only planned to stay there overnight. After of our experience in Antigua--where we got to the hotel we'd chosen out of the book, late in the afternoon, and it was full--this time we eeny meeny'd from the choices in the Budget category in the Lonely Planet, and picked a hotel ahead of time, and booked it.

The LP guidebook says this about Hospedaje Tzutujil "Down a little alley set among the cornfields, this is one of the best budget deals in town, with clean modern rooms, balconies, and firm beds. Upstairs rooms have fantastic mountain views."

Well, they were right about the cornfields. The rooms weren't bad for $20 a night with a private bath and hot water. The view was so-so. There were no blankets in our room (Ron and Dorothy found theirs in the morning in the bedside table, but we didn't have any). The sheets were very low quality and the pillows were lumpy.

LP also didn't mention that there was a public basketball court next door (see last photo in the album). They played a lively game of basketball, with the whole town in attendance, until about midnight.

The next day, we visited a couple of other places in about the same price range, that had also been on our list. The one we'd come back to next time ended up being moved in the 2007 guide from LP's Budget category to the Moderate category (the price went up to $25/night), was the Hotel Utz Jay. It has very nice rooms, a jacuzzi, a small restaurant on site, a travel agency, and internet access. We didn't check the sheets and pillows, but I would assume they were better.

Note: If you don't like cheap sheets and lumpy pillows (they are endemic to the budget hotels), bring your own.

Lonely Planet says the Sunset Cafe was a 'don't miss'. However, we didn't see much sunset as the afternoon clouds were rolling across the river. But it was a nice view and a nice meal, and there was live music after dinner. (Dave and I were so tired after Chichi and a long day, we opted to head back to our room vs. staying for the music).

We actually did a little more shopping in the morning... I bought a really nice pair of sandals with Guatemalan cloth in the straps.

Next stop: 2 nights at the Hotel Casa del Mundo, on the side of Lake Atitlan.

Pictures of Panajachel Panajachel Album

Chichicastenango Market

Every tourist that comes to Guatemala is told that the Chichi Market is a 'must see'.

Chichicastenango is a small town in the highlands area that has the largest 'indigenous' market in all of Guatemala. Held twice a week, it attracts native Mayan traders from highland villages for miles around. Stalls and blankets are set up on the plaza and the streets around it.


This is supposedly "the place" to buy local handicrafts like as textiles, masks and carvings, and jade jewelry.


We spent the night before Market Day in Antigua, and had booked spots on a 'shuttle van' that was going to Chichi early Saturday morning. Dave had done a great job of negotiating for the shuttle van ride. We wanted to essentially move from Antigua to Panajachel with a stop at Chichi for a few hours. That wouldn't be too tricky, because on Market Day, all the tour operators go TO Chichi in the morning and AWAY in the afternoon... except for all our luggage... what to do with it while we're in the market. He talked with several tour companies and finally booked us 4 slots on a van that was going from Antigua to Chichi and then on to Pana, with all our luggage.

Pickup time at the hotel was 7am. As the crow flies, Chichi's not that far from Antigua, but... you know our old drunken crow. It was close to a 2 hour drive, with a short stop for breakfast in between. All the van drivers line up on this one street, a block from the market. On the corner was a really nice hotel, with a beautiful courtyard and grounds. Dorothy and I made a potty stop while the guys took pictures of the parrots and an old guy playing an instrument made of gourds.

As we walked out of the hotel, we were immediately surrounded by people selling handicrafts... beautiful woven cloth, wooden carvings, jade and stone carvings, old coins. We ultimately had to wade past them to get to the market (which was the same thing 100 times over). Alleys and alleys of people selling beautiful things... none of which we had space for on the boat (or at home, for that matter). We quickly learned that if you walk away, the price drops immediatly by at least 25%. And as a rule of thumb, if you do some negotiating, you can get everything for 25-30% of the original asking price. It was fun negotiating and we did eventually buy a few things--"Christmas gifts".

Dave was intrigued by the old coins and some of the old stone carvings. After seeing the same thing in several stalls, we realized the coins are replicas and the 'old stone carvings' were probably new last week and rubbed with dirt to make it look old. But it was fun looking and dreaming about possessing valuable antiquities.

We had lunch in a nice restaurant that had a balcony over the main street, and showed each other the stuff that we'd bought. Even though we had had no intention of buying anything, we'd all bought a few things.

The restaurant was a nice break from the closeness of the market and being bugged by young and old to buy their stuff.
However, INSIDE the restaurant was a nice lady selling her stuff (probably someone's mother).

Ron took this great picture of her.

We met back at the shuttle bus at 2pm and were on our way to Panajachel and the lake Atitlan area.

See the rest of our Chichicastenango Photos

Pacaya Volcano Hike

See all of our Pacaya Hike pics here: Picaya Volcano Hike Album

There are many volcanos in Guatemala. Almost every town in the Highlands has one or two within sight. Dave and I originally had plans to hike several of them.

However, we have a friend here who's business is to take wealthy clients on guided 'adventure hikes'. He is an experienced mountaineer and has done treks all over the world, including some serious high-altitude treks to places in the Andes and the Himalayas. He had just finished exploring Guatemala in preparation for guiding a group of clients. We sat down with him with a map and our Lonely Planet and got lots of good info. But the best piece of advice was... for your first hike, go hike Pacaya.

The main reason was twofold: (a) Pacaya is the shortest hike (the road gets closer to the top than any other) and (b) Pacaya is still oozing lava so it's more than just pretty scenery when you get to the top.

So, when we got to Antigua, and every tour company (there are 3 or 4 on nearly every street it seems) was hawking 'Pacaya Volcano Hikes', we signed up immediately. The price for a guided hike seems to run between $5 to $35 US per person. We chose a $8pp hike. The $5 version was a school bus sized bus where the $8 version was a mini-bus. The $35 hike was mainly for custom groups and an English-speaking guide. Our $8 hike was a good choice. We had a small group, a good van driver, and a very good guide, though neither guide nor driver spoke much English. Unfortunately we don't know exactly what tour company it was. It was booked through the Yellow House hotel (right next to Posada Don Quixote on the north side of town).

The mini-van picked us up at our hotel at 6am. The normal tours went at 6am or 2pm. We'd been advised to take the morning tour because the afternoon tour in the rainy season is subject to sometimes violent thunderstorms. We were in such a hurry to make use of our short time in Antigua that we neglected to check the weather forecast when we booked the trip. When we walked out the door of the hotel, we could see signs of rain and there was a pretty heavy fog. "It will burn off." we said optimistically.

Pacaya is actually closer to Guat City. You can't see Pacaya from Antigua because it's behind another mountain. But as the crow flies, it is not that far... maybe 20 miles. However, the winding roads and traffic turned the 20 mile drive into an hour and a half.

When we finally got up the mountain, we were dropped at a little store where the road ended, so we could go to the bathroom, and buy snacks and coffee. Also, this was where we met the guide and where the small boys of the town sold hiking sticks. Dorothy and I bought one for 5Q each (about 75 center), and blessed our good judgement the whole trip. There were a couple of guys with horses standing around too, offering to take anyone up on the horse. (we never asked them the price, I was determined to make it on my own 2 feet...)

We finally started up the mountain about 10 am. Our group included about 10 people and a guide. It was a mixed group... some college kids and a few of us retirees. The guide had a hard time keeping the group together because a few of the kids kept going ahead and a few of us wanted a more leisurely pace. The guide's job was to get us up and down safely in a limited time, so he was hustling us along, as well as yelling at the young guys to quit going too far ahead. Left, the slower folks.

The trail was not bad at first...it had been terraced a little and there was at least one rest stop with a hut, a 'you are here' sign, and an overlook.

One or two of the horse guys followed us out of the village. Every time one of us looked tired (almost all the time) the boy would say "Taxi?"

We soon left the nice trail and started up what can only be termed a goat track. This was where Ron decided that it would be very risky for him to take his knees up the mountain. He's had several knee surgeries and felt it would be stupid to blow out a knee while he's on a boat in Guatemala. And he wouldn't consider getting up on a horse. So he went back to the village to wait for us.

Weatherwise, the trip up wasn't too bad. It wasn't raining (yet), just misting a little. But physically it was pretty grueling for us yachties. We all vowed to make time to get out walking when we got back to the boats. It was mostly scrambling up a dirt path at at 30-45 degree incline. (Think about a fast walk up a set of stairs for an hour).

When we got to the top it was pretty neat. We had been all hot and sweaty and shedding clothes, but the wind was blowing here, so we started putting our jackets back on. Though it was misty and cloudy we could see some of the valley below. We took a bunch of group shots, rested a little, and I thought that we'd probably be heading back down from there. But after a short rest, we headed further and started going down again at a fairly steep incline (but not back down the trail we came).

As we were going down, I says to myself "Self, I hope we don't have to walk back up this path." (We did)

Down a bit and around a corner, and there was the lava field (an expanse of grey rock). We were actually in the crater of the volcano! Cool! We could see some people through the mist across the lava field and then, "OH!, look, there's lava over there!" So we followed the guide, scrambling across the hardened lava. The guide told us (in Spanish) that it had been flowing where we walked in the last 7 months.

We ended up walking right up to the slowly flowing lava. The guides carried walkie talkies and seemed to have been scouting where the lava was oozing today. You could actualy see it flowing, but it was oozing, not rolling along. I was taking too many pictures to notice, but Dorothy said it had flowed forward about a foot during the half hour we were there. Our guide had a bag of marshmellows and a stick and roasted them over the lava. The hardened rock we were standing on was still warm and steaming from the heat of the volcano. I'm sure it was somewhat dangerous being out there, but the only reports I'd heard about tourist deaths were due to lightning strikes and falling off a cliff, and not due to lava flow.

While we were up in the crater, it started raining in earnest. It was still windy and pretty cold, but there was heat coming from the lava. My camera steamed up on the INSIDE, and eventually quit working. Fortunately the camera Dave had was the waterproof one that "the girls" gave me, and it was fine. (Dorothy's camera had gone back down with Ron).

After 15 minutes of playing around near the lava, the guide rounded us up and marched us back up the side of the crater (argh!) and back down the mountain the way we had come. Only this time, it rained all the way down.

Going down wasn't as physically exerting as going up, but it's really hard on the knees, and on some leg muscles that apparently rarely get used on a boat. And the dirt track had turned really muddy. Our guide was great, stopping to help us over the really gooey spots. Until one... when
the group was too strung out and us slower folks were lagging behind (Dorothy and I because we were tired, Dave because he was trying to keep his white sneakers clean).

Bottom line, on one muddy incline I grabbed a tree branch to help me down, it broke, and I slipped on my backside, covering my pants with mud. Everyone thought it was pretty amusing, especially Jose the guide, who frankly laughed his ass off when we saw me. I didn't mind. I was only worried that the van driver wouldn't let me back inside his nice van!

We did finally make it to the bottom. I was standing in the downspout trying to rinse the mud off, when some nice Guatemalan lady showed me to a sink behind the store where I could rinse off. With Dave's help I was able to get enough off to get into the van without covering everything with mud.

We made it back into Antigua by about 1:30. It took us several days for our legs to recover from the hike. It wasn't until 3 days later when we did the hot tub at Casa Del Mundo that my legs finally felt better.

We all joked about the plans to do several more volcanos on this trip... but no one seriously considered doing another one.

See all our Pacaya Hike pics here: Picaya Volcano Hike Album