Guatemala 2011

May 12,  Antigua, Guatemala

Up shortly after 5 am!  Not nice, but at least the hotel had coffee in lobby!

Off to climb Volcano Pacaya.  This is an active volcano, that erupted last year.  February I think.

Apparently about 1 meter of rock fell.  Most of this rock is black lava rock in small pieces!  It destroyed many crops of corn, coffee and tobacco.

Difficult walk as up for about 1 3/4 hours.  But worth it!  Did not see any molten lava but lots of others.  Even walked through the vapou coming out of the volcano, and there is lots of it!

Easy walk down,  and back into town.  Took about 1 1/2 hours to drive there.

 May 11,  Antigua, Guatemala

Lazy day today.  Did not do much,

Went out for lunch to small local place.  Order what I thought was going to be a grilled steak!  Well turned out it was grilled steak, grilled chicken, grilled sausage, and grilled ribs!  Got potatoes, tortillas and salad with it!  The cost was $5.  Can't beat that.  The bonus was that it tasted great!  i have no idea what spice they used but was very good.

Then went shopping!  In the local market.  Here you can get anything you could want, only if you can find it.  It is a huge market!

May 10,  Antigua, Guatemala

Took a tour to  2 villages outside of the city.  Interesting as they also had cobblestone streets, in most places, and many of the houses were the same.

Stopped to see the ruins of the old palace, but it was in the middle of an elementary school ground.  We just walked in and had a look, with all the kids running around and screaming!  Must have been the break.  Surprised that today was not a holiday as it is Mother's Day here.  

Visited a convent that is still active with apparently 6 nuns, but did not see any of the them.

The guide was a very talkative guy, and more so when in one of the villages as it was where he grew up.  He seemed to know most of the people we met!

Stopped at one of the community laundries.  2 ladies there with clothes hung all over the place.  Turned out to be a mother and daughter.  This was about 11 am and by the look of it they had been there for a while.  The mother also had 1 hour bus ride to get there. The guide said that these were more gossip centres as well!

Went into one market.  Ladies there were very nice.  One lady tried very hard to sell me something.  I told her that I wanted something different and special.  She ended up telling me I was a problem, of course with a huge smile on her face!

Was also interesting to watch a woman weaving.