Guatemala Part 2

Rio Dulce

Sunday Feb 17

Sunday after waking up and realizing it was going to be our last morning in a tree house, we shed a few tears had our final delicious breakfast at Finca Ixobel and headed in to Poptun. We met a super awesome Canadian couple that morning who are in to real estate and travel 6 months out of the year. They had a truck and the dad Patrick was so sweet and gave us a ride in to town. Half the fun of traveling is all the amazing people you get to meet on the way who can be so nice and helpful! We were also especially grateful because of the long long (but seriously long) dirt road we would have had to walk down just to catch a Tuk Tuk in the first place! After that we caught a bus in Poptun to Rio Dulce, and checked in to Backpacker Hostel not a backpacker hostel THE Backpacker Hostel, apparently they thought they were cool enough to pull off a bold name like that :) and then set off to explore. Rio Dulce is an awesome little town that is set up around a big river that goes out to the Atlantic. A lot of foreigners dock their sailboats there for the winter because it’s far enough in land to be safe (well safer) from hurricanes. Because it’s on a river almost all the hotels and restaurant are set up along the river so it makes for an awesome way to spend the afternoon. That night as McKay was showering he discovered 5 ticks on his body! We were scrambling pulling them all out and trying not to leave the heads in. I even ran down to the front desk and got some matches to try and burn them out, the only thing that resulted in was me singeing some of his hairs and burning his leg! Poor guy, I couldn't stop laughing and feeling extremely bad for him at the same time. Luckily we never found any on me, and the only thing we can think is he must have gotten them on the hike to the cave the day before! He must have sweeter blood than me... We later read that lime disease can show up, up to 60 days after the head is left in...Hopefully not to be continued! :)

As we were waiting for the bus to Rio Dulce this truck came cruising down the street blasting advertisements about a circus and pulling tigers in a cage. You would have thought I’d never seen a tiger in my life the way I got so excited and was jumping up and down. It was crazy they were just right there, nothing stopping you from reaching your hand in and getting it bitten off! They were so pretty but I couldn’t help but also feel bad that they were being traipsed around like that.

This is the view from the massive bridge crossing over the river. Sorry my husband is so hard core, he just got his head shaved this day and the instant tough guy effects from that had clearly set in... :)

Just enjoying a little smoothie, a little internet, and a little water along the river.

Guatemala City/Antigua

Monday Feb 18

Took a bus first thing in the morning to Guatemala City (which will henceforth be called Guate in the spirit of acting like a local) where we would then head to Antigua. We ended up taking a bus company called Fuente Del Norte which was half the price of others, included a fresh vomit smell, and made 20 minute pit stops every hour. Let’s just say if we had been on Let’s Make A Deal, we definitely would have been Zonked (maybe some of you remember my brief unemployment period where day time television became my friend?). We ended up getting in to Guate at about 2, the bus dropped us off at this big mall with lots of buses. Sounds promising right? Wrong! Somehow out of the 1500 buses that seemed to be flowing in and out not one of them was headed to Antigua! It was going to cost us another 80Q’s just to get to the right terminal. In the end we found a bus company that was going to Antigua at 6, but first we had to get on one of their buses at the mall to take us to another terminal, where we then got on one of their microbuses which then took us to the right place to wait to leave. It ended up costing us just as much as if we had taken the nice bus in the first place and took us an extra 5 hours! Moral of the story, stop being such a tight wad! :)

As we were crossing the bridge on foot to catch the bus that morning, (because we were to cheap to take a Tuk Tuk) running late as usual, this saint of a guy in a truck pulled over and told us to get in (note to other travelers, this is probably how a kidnapping starts) so naturally we did! He stopped and picked up two other backpackers on our way across the bridge so we had them capture the moment with this epic action shot. I am clearly pumped to be there! :)

The one good thing about that bus taking us to the mall was it had a Little Caesars! I’m seriously not even posing in this picture, this is what my face was doing from the second I spotted someone carrying a Little Caesars box from 20 yards away until I was desperately inhaling that pizza as if I hadn’t eaten for a month! Don’t worry we each bought our own pizzas and then walked around carrying our own boxes… I’m sure everyone was thinking, "Ok, you big fat Americans, eat your pizza." Also, as we were waiting for our pizza we saw these girls who looked like they could be sister missionaries but we weren't quite sure and didn't want to stare too hard. So, instead we did the awkward let's walk around them to see if they're wearing name tags but don't look too obvious that we're trying to get a better look at them dance that we've all done in the past.   Strangely one of them kept staring right at me and I thought, how does she know that we're members? As we got closer she walked up to me and was like, "Do you play soccer at Ogden Indoor?" I was in shock and my first thought was, I'm famous! Then, I realized I was wearing an Ogden Indoor Champions shirt (they don't just give those out for free ya know?) that she had recognized with a keen eye. Her name was Sister Montoya (?) and she was from South Weber and we ended up knowing a bunch of the same people. What a small world!

While waiting in the terminal for the bus to go to Antigua we met Caitlyn. I seriously love her! She is from Byron Bay in Australia and is a total hippie, I‘m talking crystals, rainbow gatherings, shaved head with a few little curls here and there, the whole bit. She’s been traveling for the past 14 months and just kind of living day to day working here and there making things to sell, trimming (which I later learned meant plowing marijuana plants) etc. She also spent a bunch of time traveling on a bus that ran on Vegetable Oil. She told us they would raid all the fast food dumpsters at night looking for discarded oil. She was on our little microbus to Antigua and is a total sweetheart and made me laugh so hard. It was fun chatting with her and hearing some of her fun stories. She’s thinking about heading home soon because her brother’s girlfriend is having a baby, so she told us total straight faced, “I want to be there waving crystals at it as it’s coming out.” I started laughing and she was like, “No, I’m serious.” It was so funny, but we had a really good time with her and ended up staying in the same hostel. This was an awesome little street vendor we ate at in Antigua for 20 Q's, it came with meat, beans, avocado and a tortilla, so good!

Tuesday Feb 19

We ended up staying at the Hostel A Place to Stay, which made it difficult to find because every time we asked if someone knew A Place to Stay, they kept directing us to other Hostels…. Get it? I’ve been waiting 3 weeks to use that one! :) It wasn’t anything fancy but it was $15 a night and included a free breakfast! The first morning it was juevos rancheros with this awesome salsa and bread, so delicious! Later that day we booked a sunset hike up the volcano Pacaya about an hour away from Antigua.

On our way to the Volcano, we stopped partially to get a pic with this awesome view and partially because we were hiking up a mountain and we definitely needed the break! Notice the stick McKay's carrying, he got conned in to "buying" it from one of the kids at the bottom. Apparently buy is not the right word as they encourage you to recycle your sticks so the kids can take advantage of the next set of tourists that pass through. :)

Oh sure, I look tough now, just don’t look too closely or you’ll see all the sweat pouring down my face! I thought I was going to pass out hiking the 4km up this thing. My heart hurt, my lungs were burning, and I was so out of breath I only made 1 LOTR reference the whole way up. :) In all seriousness the week before someone had a heart attack doing this hike and ended up dying. I tried to use that as a reason why I needed to ride a horse up, but McKay thought if the 70 year old lady in our group could do it on her own, so could I. :)

Look at my handsome shaved head man. He shaved his head so he would look tougher and all the bad guys would stay away... So far it's worked like a charm! Behind all that toughness is the peak of Pacaya, this is as close as we could get to the top because it's not safe due to recent activity... Personally, I don't understand how it can be any safer to be this far away from the lava, but hey who I am to judge, we got to climb up a volvano. 

No BD, just cookin some mallows from the heat coming off the lava right below us, the sulfur taste was an added bonus! I'm pretty sure this girl in the background has been following us since Mexico waiting for a chance to photobomb the blog, well, whoever you are your time has finally come, you're welcome....

Just hiking through Mordor, we’ll be sure and tell Frodo hello for you.

After hiking around the volcano we hung out on top and watched the sunset, it was so pretty! Also, in case you were wondering despite sitting on top of a mountain of lava it was freezing, hence the sweatshirts!

Wednesday Feb 20

Getting to Lake Antitlan

We woke up in the morning and after enjoying another amazing free breakfast, this time of pancakes, we walked around the market in Angtigua. Where, my husband willingly asked to not only try on a pair of fake crocs but then proceeded to buy them for 30 Q’s. I never thought the day would come and I’m still in shock just thinking about it! After that we found the chicken buses to Lake Antitlan and headed off. 

McKay discovered these little gems on our first day and couldn't get enough, it's a frozen banana dipped in chocolate for 2 Q's, that's like a quarter, but seriously though.

I on the other hand opted for the ever classic snow cone. Only they do these ones by hand with a big block of ice and a shaver and then they add in addition to heaps of the snow cone syrup delicious things like canned strawberries, nuts, canned cream etc. Delicious! :)

One of my favorite things about Guatemala, is the way they pimp their buses! All the drivers are so proud of their buses and of making it their own, the inside is usually covered in bling and the outside is decked out with flashy paint and flashing lights galore! This was the third bus we had to switch to on our way to the lake, I especially liked it because it was named Wendy! :)

Construction stop! This was particularly painful because we could finally see the lake and knew we were so close and yet so far away! We sat there for an hour with no movement whatsoever, finally I think our driver was just done and got everyone to band together and away we went! Construction work be danged!

Coming soon, the lake and what it's like to have a bathroom where your neighbors have a direct view of your toilet from their balcony...