Guatemala - Antigua and El Fuego

From Semuc Champey we drive to Antigua. Again, a long and very exhausting journey. The traffic in Guatemala City is insane, we are stuck in traffic for about 4 hours. Our destination Antigua is a colonial city in Guatemala, which was the capital of Central America for a long time during Spanish rule. We have stomach problems again and spend a few quiet days here. The town is a good starting point for climbing the surrounding volcanoes, and the market is as always exciting, but otherwise there is not much going on here. In our opinion, the two Mexican colonial cities of Oaxaca and San Cristobal offer a lot more. The only thing that really impressed us in Antigua is the excellent coffee and delicious chocolate!

And here we finally get to know the chicken buses. These are old decommissioned US school buses that are pimped up and used for public transport here. The black smoke quickly explains why they were decommissioned in the USA, but here the buses have a very long second life. Each company has its own color design and the buses are the usual means of transport for the locals here in the country. However, they only cover short distances of maximum 3 hours or so, which is why we are using them now. In Guatemala, long-distance transport is rather scarce or not developed at all, which is why travelers who want to travel through the country often book shuttle buses that are more tailored to tourists if they don't want to change buses 20 times. Some Guatemalans also use these shuttles if they can afford it. However, the journey by chicken bus is a much more authentic and interesting experience 😊

Colorful, fast, crowded, noisy, bumpy, funny. Many people with their belongings in a very small space, the bus races through the streets with the sound system turned up to the maximum, probably to drown out the noise of the engine. We haven't heard music at a normal volume for a while. The motto since Mexico is loud, no matter where. On the street, in the car, at the pharmacy...the speakers crackle, the sound quality is horribly bad, you can't understand a word, but it doesn't matter, as long as it's loud. Our ears are suffering, quiet is simply not provided here. And of course, reggaeton is the number one music. We are extremely happy about Shakira and Enrique Iglesias, because everything else is even worse 😆

Buying little things like stamps can be complicated here. The post office is obviously in a transition from public to private and therefore doesn't work. There are various other postal providers, but either they were closed or unbelievably expensive - 50 euros for a postcard! 😅 We didn't have any power outages here (we had them very often in the short time in Belize), but they turned off the water for a whole day 😮 What we like here compared to Mexico is that there is usually very little garbage on the street. In Mexico, there was tons of plastic garbage on the side of the road, in forests, meadows, rivers...everywhere! Here it is usually much less, and there are signs everywhere asking people to dispose of their trash properly. Exemplary!

From Antigua, we climb the dormant volcano Acatenango to admire the active volcano El Fuego. The ascent takes 2 days and is only possible as part of a guided tour. There have been accidents and fatalities in the past because people climbed without a local guide, and there is absolutely no signage, so it makes absolute sense to go with a guide. Wilfredo our guide, the two of us, and 7 others (from Canada, USA, and Guatemala) climb 1200 meters in height on the first day and set up our camp at about 3600 meters. From there, we have a fantastic view of El Fuego, as long as the clouds don't interfere. The volcano is constantly rumbling, emitting smoke clouds and rocks without pause, and at night, luckily when all the clouds clear, we see how it spits out masses of lava like a fountain and slowly flows down its slopes. WOW! Unfortunately, there are no usable photos of this because it was dark... at half past three at night, both of us get up and with Wilfredo we set off to the almost 4000-meter high summit of Acatenango to see the sunrise from there. But it got cloudy, so we don't have a view from the summit 😕 Nevertheless, we are happy to have dared the ascent. It was our first time walking at such altitudes. Breathing becomes more difficult, and we had headaches from the pressure difference. A new experience and the effort is absolutely worth it when you stand on the summit and have succeeded!

The next few days we will be at Lake Atitlan and then we will continue to Honduras!

We arrived from Semuc Champey to Antigua in an endless journey. What was supposed to be a 6-hour journey turned into one of almost 12 hours. And it is because passing through Guatemala City is total chaos with giant traffic jams, but at least the bus left us in front of our hostel. Antigua was the capital of Central America during the conquest, and that is very noticeable in its colonial architecture and the number of churches there are, many of them practically in ruins, which we didn't imagine were in that condition due to some earthquake. It is a beautiful city, but in a day or two, you can visit it. And as always, the markets are always highly recommended, although here the authenticity is a bit lost, as it is full of gringos.

Antigua is a city practically surrounded by volcanoes, and one of the days we decided to take a trip to Acatenango, from where you can see the Fuego volcano, one of the most active in Central America. The ascent takes two days, and we do it with a guide since the path is not marked, and on foggy days, it can be very dangerous. In fact, in January, 6 hikers died of hypothermia who did it alone. Our group consists of 9 people from Canada, the USA, Guatemala, and us. On the first day, we set up camp at around 3600 meters. Luckily, we have impressive views of the Fuego volcano at night, which is very active. We constantly hear explosions and see how the lava flows down and produces columns of smoke. The next day at 3:30 am, only Ninja and I dare to climb to the summit with Wilfredo, our guide, since it is very cloudy. The goal is at about 4000 meters, and the ascent is quite tough because it is a sandy path, and at that altitude, it is a little difficult to breathe. At the top of the volcano, there is nothing to see because it is full of clouds, but we are glad to have managed to reach the summit as a personal challenge.

The next day we leave Antigua heading to Panajachel on the so-called Chickenbuses, which is the type of transportation that local people use. These are second-hand American school buses that apparently are no longer wanted. When they arrive here, they are tuned with bright colors, lights, and chrome, and they are used for not very long trips. Until now we had always taken so-called shuttles, which are actually vans for about 12 people that are the ones that make longer direct trips more oriented towards tourists. The experience on the chicken bus is noisy, fun, and a bit exciting. As soon as you get on and start, they play reggaeton and cumbia at full volume, we assume to drown out the noise of the engine. The driver seems to be in the movie The Fast and the Furious because of the hurry he is in, and in each curve, you have to hold on tight to the seat. The experience is pretty cool, and it is one of the contexts where you experience something authentic of the country :-)

Now we will spend a few days at Lake Atitlan and then head to Honduras!