getting down and going up in antigua

fountain with mermaids, main plaza
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touristy, but sweet

that is how i would describe antigua. fresh off the bus i was instantly impressed with the spirit and friendliness of this town. it feels very unlike any other guatemalan town, and it really has an artistic, modern, even international flavor for such a small city. it felt a bit like a guatemalan version of tuscon, arizona, or los gatos, california. you know, kind of a wine and brie crowd, but not really so pretentiously upper-class about it.

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the two hostels i had read about and was interested in were both full, but on my way down the street past them, i was approached by a tiny little woman in a doorway. "do you need a room?" she asked. "you have rooms?" i replied, because from the outside you would never guess it. an unassuming wooden door has a letter size sheet of paper stapled to it announcing that this is "estella's house," and that they have rooms with hot showers and free coffee and water all day. sure, i said, let me check it out.

view of the volcano over antigua
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it's so sweet inside. a long hallway leads back to a tiny patio. downstairs is a kitchen, bathroom, and showers, and two rooms, all small. stairs lead up too five more rooms, two with private baths. estella, her friend rosa who me at the door, and one young schoolgirl all live here and rent out the rest of the spaces. the rooms were clean and comfy but it was the sweet friendliness of rosa that really made this a place to stay.

my first adventure in town was to find food, but instead i found music. in a plaza under the brightly lit ruins of an old decrepit church, a stage had been set for a rather amazing three piece jazz band. i had no idea how starved i was for music that did not involve an according, some blaring trumpets, and an oompa-oompa base line, because it was just heartrending to hear this gorgeous music, and the setting could not have been more superb. the plaza was packed.

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food is plentiful and good here, with an amazing array of vegetariano options. prices for rooms and food are not that much more than other less touristed parts of guatemala. you do get more of a mix of visitors here, and while i do prefer the cultural-immersion type backpacker found in the more remote areas, this crowd still seemed pretty respectful compared to your average american tourist.

one thing antigua has is a lot of active volcanos. and because of that, antigua has a lot of earthquakes. this goes a long way to explain antigua's other major export: church ruins. i swear i have never seen so many piles of rocks and towering pillars with half-collapsed domes in my whole life. you can hardly go two blocks without encountering yet another church with yet another informative plaque, decalaring "built 1723, destroyed by earthquake 1762, rebuilt 1806, destroyed by earthquake 1854," and so on.

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hiking the volcano

as i said, one thing antigua is famous for is the volcanos nearby. in fact the only reason i decided to come to antigua at all was to hike the active pacaya volcano. enjoying antigua itself was a rather pleasant surprise.

the volcano hike itself started out as a letdown. it took forever to get the van loaded and out of town. then traffic was horrible. the trip took us through the south end of guate city, which i had just left, and i felt like a fool for backtracking so much. then our driver had to make a stop in town for some paperwork and the twelve of us waited in the van. more traffic. and finally, we arrived on the volcano, and the late afternoon fog had rolled in and we could not see a damn thing. the entire hike was done in the fog with our tour guide occasionally waving at the mist and telling us about all the magistic vistas we could not see.

ruins of a convent
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but the top made it all worth it. about three quarters of the way up one encounters a vast black volcanic rock debris field, left over from the 2006 eruption. the trail picks its way across this still smoking heap, and the sharp, glass-hard rock chews up your shoes. god help you if you tripped and fell on this stuff. whitish sulphur-crusted holes vent smoke and hiss when water is poured on them. still deeper holes glow a warm red at the bottom. all i can think of as we pass these pits and steam vents is, gee, i wish i had brought a gold ring with me to toss in the pit at the top. gandolph will be so proud of me!

lava stream running down
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a traverse across the debris field brings you to an actual lava flow. a bright red snake a semi-liquid rock oozes out and down the hillside. some generous hikers on their way down had given us the remains of their bag of marshmallows, and yes, we were able to roast them over open lava! i do recommend a long, long stick, however. i had to get close enough to the lava that the bottoms of my shoes were smoking a bit.

night fell as we were on the side of the peak, and the lava here and above us illuminated the fog in the most amazing fashion. the hike down was a bit scary as my flashlight batteries had died and me and a friend lingered a bit long and lost our guide and group. even with the traffic on the ride home i would still count this as a rather successful adventure.

lava rock skree slope
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now i am sad to say i do not have photos of me on this peak. on the way out of antigua i pulled a stupid tourist move, and on the bus i placed my shoulder bag on the overhead rack directly over my head. some hungry opportunist behind me took this as a sign to pickpocket my bag. i lost ibeth's cell phone, my camera, 2Gb camera card, and all my photos on the card.

but all was not lost. through some strange intuition i had just made a CD backup of my camera card in xela before i went to the bush protest, and so have three months of photos. and the bush protest itself i had just uploaded to my flickr account. so all i lost was my antigua and volcano shots.

where isss it, my presssscious!
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and i never liked that camera anyway. i have replaced it with a $100 canon that i like much better. in the end only the photos are irreplaceable. and it is hard to fault that thief, when even a $200 camera might equal might equal a month's average income in this county, and 1 person in 6 would not earn $400 in a year.