Vagabond and Beyond: Volcano climbing and eco lodging

It’s been a very busy month of travelling and activities for us so we have fallen a good bit behind in updating our blog so hopefully we will get a few out in the next couple of weeks.

After San Pedro La Laguna we got a bus to Antigua, a beautiful colonial town (a lot of colonial towns on this journey) that is surrounded by three towering volcanoes (Fuego, Acatenango and Agua), this blog is all about the volcanoes.... We stayed in Casa Jacaranda, a nice hostel not too far from Parque Central. The first day we booked a tour for a hike up the Pacaya volcano which was just over an hours bus journey from Antigua. The first place we went to book the trip, Old Town Outfitters, wanted to charge $50 for a tour which was ridiculous. We ended up booking a tour for about $10 in the end in a tour agency near the famous arch close to Parque Central. With the tour booked we headed off on a walking tour of Antigua following the walking tour suggested by Lonely Planet. It brings you to all the main sites such as the main square, ruins of an old church and the relic of Hermano Pedro. The relic of Hermano Pedro was situated in beautiful landscaped gardens within the church grounds of San Francisco. People who were sick used to flock here for the hospital that was set up by Hermano Pedro who is now a saint. Inside the museum there is thousands of photos and testimonials on the wall of people who claimed to have been cured by San Pedro. There are also many crutches and prosthetic legs donated by the cured (although now that I think about it I don’t know how you could cure a prosthetic limb?). Just outside the church a Guatemalan kid was following me and when I turned around he had a camera with him which I assumed he wanted me to take a picture of his family with. However, he wanted to take a picture with me! So after the picture with him and his sister, Sarah took a photo of the kids and the mother with me. I can only presume that the red beard I was sporting had a large part to play in this weird surreal moment to the delight of Sarah. There was a bit of Christmas spirit around Antigua with reinactments of wise men etc. happening around town which was the first signs of Christmas we had really seen anywhere. That night we found a recommendation to eat in a place called Sobremesa (‘at/on the table’ – referring to the time after the main meal of the day when families linger at the table and have desert and drinks before returning to work) just off parque central which is both a restaurant and art gallery. The American owner, Alexander Ferrar is a painter, fantasy writer and chef and also had an exotic ice cream shop around the corner. He also lived in Ireland for 8 years painting horses to pay his way. Around the restaurant he displays his own and local art and has copies of his fantasy novels. Food was great too, I had a unicorn steak, weird I know, and Sarah had a sirloin steak and after we tried some of the exotic ice cream. Sarah tried some pistachio ice cream and I had some Indian Spice ice cream. Definitely recommend this place to anyone who visits Antigua as it’s more than just a restaurant experience.

We were up at 6am the next day for our hike up the Pacaya Volcano where we were joined by 3 other people and a local tour guide. Pacaya is one of the most active volcanoes and last erupted in May 2010 showering Antigua and Guatemala City in ash and is famous for its lava rivers. There is a massive crater at the top from the last explosion that blew the summit off. The hike was tough enough at the start but got easier as the hike continued. For the first 30 minutes or so there are a few local children that follow you with horses shouting taxi at you. But if you get through the first bit you don’t need a horse to carry you up the remaining part of the volcano. There were some amazing views of the larger Fuego and Acatenango volcanoes with some smoke rising from the former. We stopped off at a couple of points along the way to roast marshmallows or to stand in a small hole in the volcano which acted like a natural steam room. On the way up we took a few trick shots with the camera using the whole distance thing. The top resembles a moon like landscape and makes a massive difference from the greenery at the base. It was a good hike that I'd recommend and the tour guide told us loads about the area. It was about an hour and half up and about 30 minutes back down, a morning well spent. If you are looking for more of a challenge you can climb one of the other 3 larger volcanoes surrounding Antigua that are a two day trip which includes camping one of the nights on the volcano.

We got back for about lunch time which was perfect timing to catch a pick-up to the Earth Lodge, an eco-friendly mountain lodge and avocado farm just twenty minutes outside Antigua. The lodge hosts a BBQ every Sunday so we were able to get on pick-up with a few other people that were heading up for the BBQ party. After the pick-up it was a 10 minute hike to the lodge with our packs. We decided to treat ourselves to the Deluxe tree cabin for three nights. The tree house cabin had floor to ceiling windows and the view was of two volcanoes in the background of the valley where Antigua town was situated. The view from the bar/restaurant was even better and for the next few days we didn’t bother leaving the Earth Lodge as it was a bit of distance from everything so we just ate and drank at the earth lodge. They operate a tab system and at night there are family style dinners that were pricey but it was great food, especially seen as it was nearly all vegetarian which one Aussie guy did not appreciate. We got up at sunrise one of the mornings to take some photos of first light hitting the volcanoes over Antigua. We met a few interesting characters while there, one guy called Marco from Toronto who resembled Hagrid from Harry Potter was one such character. He told us about a story about when he married a couple while travelling in Mexico. Apparently they asked him after they liked the look of him or something. The fact he’s not a pastor/priest didn’t seem to matter at all. Instead of exchanging rings he asked the groom if he could roll a massive joint so the couple could share and then pas around to all the guests. It was an odd story for an odd guy. One night we had the pleasure of meeting two complete idiots. They were two Australian girls who had been travelling for the last couple of months but had no clue about anything. They didn’t understand the concept of different currencies, why everyone insisted on speaking Spanish, a basic understanding of geography or why the hell they were travelling. They said they would follow anyone that had an idea of where to go and what to do and would copy them so they would remain safe etc. They travelled straight from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Mexico because someone told them that’s where they would find more beaches and more westerners. When they were buying things they would hand over a load of money and hope they would get change. Plenty of missed flights and crazy drunken stories that make it a miracle they are still alive! Very entertaining though, they had us in stiches laughing all night. At the earth lodge a couple of the staff had attitude problems with one woman in particular being a bit of a bitch. We couldn’t think of a job that would suit this woman less than a service industry job like working in a lodge. Speaking to a few other people it appears the feeling is shared among most of the people staying there. One thing was that she didn’t believe Sarah was a guest there for some odd reason. Despite this we met a few cool people and enjoyed the nice weather, beautiful views and also the amazingly hot showers, always a massive plus in Central America : ). After Earth Lodge we stayed in Base Camp Hostel in Antigua for one night before catching the bus to Lanquin in Central Guatemala were we planned to go on a candlelight cave tour in the beautiful Semuc Champey where we would stay in another lodge called Zephyr.

At this stage we were thinking of skipping Belize until after Christmas as we heard it was crazy busy with Americans for Christmas and it would be hard to find accomodation but as you will see things turned out for the best and we got to stick to our plans of going on the Raggamuffin boat trip along the coast of Belize with our friends Ade and Aisling who we met in San Pedro La Laguna. We are about 3/4 blogs behind so hopefully we can get a few more out over the next week.

Apologies for all the photos of volcanoes but you have to agree they do look amazing...