Melt my shoes. Or not.
I was very excited to get to Guatemala after hearing backpackers rant endlessly how amazing it is, and for once I was not disappointed! Guatemala IS amazing and I gladly pronounce here as my favorite central american country.
After another long day of crossing another border (these are coming way too frequently now, it seems) I strode into Antigua trying my best to not twist my ankle on the uneven cobblestoned streets. In the hostel I met Chris from New York who I immediately liked, mostly because he wasn't at all in your face and, when asked, said he was "from the US" and not from "the states", which most of you should know peeves me beyond belief. After a bit of talking I also liked that his story was almost uncannily like mine--a distaste for our respective careers, a long term plan to save money for travel, and eventually a massive backpacking trip, only he had been gone for 3 months longer than me. We bonded over our mutual exhaustion, general lack of enthusiasm for colonial towns, and eventually this became the beginning of 2 weeks together travelling about Guatemala.
Antigua is...nice. Actually scratch that, it's very nice. It's just not anything I haven't seen before. The main square reminded both Chris and myself of the main plaza in Arequipe, Peru, so aside from walking around and checking out the extremely colorful (but ultimately tacky, i think) souvenirs, my first day was underwhelming. I couldn't even manage to inspire myself to go into teh convent I was standing RIGHT outside of, if that's an indication of anything.
We instead tried to take the Pacaya Volcano tour that afternoon, but somehow got left behind by our bus in the kerfuffle, so were forced to go early the next morning instead. This hike is what I would definitely call "challenging", maybe even the hardest hike I can remember doing in my entire trip, although this is saying very little. I at least didn't feel as bad as I did on the sandboarding volcano in Nicaragua, which made me feel relieved that it really was the lack of sleep and I haven't just become that much of a fat, lazy pig. Regardless, I didn't feel great hiking that early in the morning, made worse from a team of guys on horses following directly behind me asking repeatedly if I wanted a "taxi". Trust me when I say that it's a cute joke the first time and made me feel like a maniacal killer by the tenth time. Still, getting to the top was great, because waiting for us at the top was, get this, LAVA. This was quite, for lack of a better word, hot. Painfully hot. The few seconds that you pose next to the lava for a photo is terrible, making your flesh crawl with a...er, well I guess a burning sensation. Even standing on the rocks nearby I eventually noticed the oppressive heat enveloping my shoes and feet, making me hop from foot to foot like some ridiculous hot potato cartoon character. I was sure that the soles were being melted straight off, but luckily they weren't as I still had to hike all the way down.
I only wish I had had the foresight to bring marshmallows to cook like some other, more enterprising tourists.
After another long day of crossing another border (these are coming way too frequently now, it seems) I strode into Antigua trying my best to not twist my ankle on the uneven cobblestoned streets. In the hostel I met Chris from New York who I immediately liked, mostly because he wasn't at all in your face and, when asked, said he was "from the US" and not from "the states", which most of you should know peeves me beyond belief. After a bit of talking I also liked that his story was almost uncannily like mine--a distaste for our respective careers, a long term plan to save money for travel, and eventually a massive backpacking trip, only he had been gone for 3 months longer than me. We bonded over our mutual exhaustion, general lack of enthusiasm for colonial towns, and eventually this became the beginning of 2 weeks together travelling about Guatemala.
Antigua is...nice. Actually scratch that, it's very nice. It's just not anything I haven't seen before. The main square reminded both Chris and myself of the main plaza in Arequipe, Peru, so aside from walking around and checking out the extremely colorful (but ultimately tacky, i think) souvenirs, my first day was underwhelming. I couldn't even manage to inspire myself to go into teh convent I was standing RIGHT outside of, if that's an indication of anything.
We instead tried to take the Pacaya Volcano tour that afternoon, but somehow got left behind by our bus in the kerfuffle, so were forced to go early the next morning instead. This hike is what I would definitely call "challenging", maybe even the hardest hike I can remember doing in my entire trip, although this is saying very little. I at least didn't feel as bad as I did on the sandboarding volcano in Nicaragua, which made me feel relieved that it really was the lack of sleep and I haven't just become that much of a fat, lazy pig. Regardless, I didn't feel great hiking that early in the morning, made worse from a team of guys on horses following directly behind me asking repeatedly if I wanted a "taxi". Trust me when I say that it's a cute joke the first time and made me feel like a maniacal killer by the tenth time. Still, getting to the top was great, because waiting for us at the top was, get this, LAVA. This was quite, for lack of a better word, hot. Painfully hot. The few seconds that you pose next to the lava for a photo is terrible, making your flesh crawl with a...er, well I guess a burning sensation. Even standing on the rocks nearby I eventually noticed the oppressive heat enveloping my shoes and feet, making me hop from foot to foot like some ridiculous hot potato cartoon character. I was sure that the soles were being melted straight off, but luckily they weren't as I still had to hike all the way down.
I only wish I had had the foresight to bring marshmallows to cook like some other, more enterprising tourists.
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