After the adventure that it was to get to Antigua, it was really good to be there. In the Lonley Planet guide book, there´s tons about Antigua, but it is a really touristy place. There´s a lot of old Colonial buildings and it´s a cool city, but it was like a mini Eurpoe with all the non-native people walking around with all their quick dry clothes and cameras around their necks. Not thát I´m not a tourist, but you know, that´s not what we can down here for. We had been dropped off at a somewhat lame hotel, with very little personality and only one other group staying there. So during our first walk around the city we ran into a guy that we had met in Belize who was staying at a way better hostel called the Black Cat that we moved to the next day. It´s amazing what a difference a better atmosphere makes. We got some beds in a dorm room and the place was alomst full even though it´s not even high season. There was a restaraunt attached and the $8 per night included a great, big breakfast. It was just a way better place and we were lucky to find it, but I have been a little bummed that we haven´t found more like that. It would have been a bummer trying to travel by myself and not being able to meet people as much.
The top pictrue and this one are views from our hostel. Really cool old, broked down churhes were everywhere. The next day we took a tour up to the Pacaya Volcano. It was really cool! It was pretty cloudy and a little rainy and cool the whole way up, then when we got to it, it was really warm and walking on the hardened lava I could feel the heat through my shoes. Here´s a video of some of the lava.
Garrett has been having a great time taking tons of pitcures and it´s cool to see his creative genius at work. Just so you know, in Nov he´s going to be having an art show that I´ll post about later, but he´ll show his pictures from this trip so stay tuned for some amazing photos at that show!
We went on a police-escorted hike (they say it´s dangerous, but I think it probably is just at night and it´s a little bit of fear mongering going on) to an overlook of Antigua. This is looking at Pacaya Volcano that we hiked. It was mainly this kind of weather all the time if not more cloudy and rainy. It´s good with it being the rainy season because thére´s not many people here, but kind of a bummer when we are quarantined to our hostel by the occasional down pour. 
However, the clouds do lead to amazing sunsets. After a couple days in Antigua, we took a couple buses to get us to the coast, to the city of Puerto San Jose. The guidebook doesn´t really say much about this city, so it was a bit of a gamble, but we really lucked out. The first night we went to the first cheap place we could find. $3 a night, but it was pretty bad. Our room was really small, Garrett couldn´t stand up straight and it smelled pretty bad, so we had taken our mattresses out on the porch to sleep. That night was the biggest storm we´ve seen. It was prety amazing! More rain that I´ve ever seen, and fabulous lightning that was lighting up the whole sky, and thunder that rocked the whole place, it was really cool. Again, we were pretty much the only ones there except for the owner´s friends who we were pretty sure were in the mofia. There was a no guns sign bythe restaraunt, and a group of guys with thier prize girlfriends were there with a Marachi band serenading their lunch. So needless to say we were happy to find somewhere else to stay. Garrett has been wanting to surf and we thought there would be a shop here to rent borads, but upon asking around, we found that there wasn´t one, but there was a guy who surfs, and these kids took us to his house. Turns out he is this great guy, Daniel, who is sponsored by Quicksilver and his brother owns a hostel. Daniel has a couple extra boards that he´s been letting us use. 
The problem is, he´s like most other Guatemalans in that he is probably 5` 4 or something and he´s a great surfer so they´re these little sporty boards that aren´t great for learning, especially for Garrett. But it´s been pretty fun to just go out and get worked. We went out without boards and just stood in the way of the waves to purposly get rocked to get back in the ocean mode. We´ve been here for a couple days and there´s been a lot of relaxing going on. I´ve been studying a lot of Spanish and I´m more than half way through the 1067 page feat of reading Atlas Shrugged and I can´t put it down. Here´s where I´ve been spending a lot of time.
Daniel has three great kids who patiently help me with my Spanish, and come over to play every day because it´s their summer break right now from school. It´s great to play with them in the ocean too. It´s amazing how kids can play in the ocean forever and be super content, and how fun it is to be out there playing with them. 
We lucked out finding this place for sure. ´We´ll be here for at least a couple more days. Another friend, Mark is coming this weekend and we´ll figure out more when he gets here what we´re going to do, but we´ll probably head back up North to see the ruins of Tikal and go to this cool sounding place called Coban. 
Anyway, we´re enjoy the beach life, even though it was nice to be in a little bit cooler weather. I woke up early when Garrett went out to shoot to sunrise and went for a run, and I was so sweaty when I got back!! I´ll be stoked to get back to dry weather and snow!! from what I´ve heard! It´s amazing to meet people down here who are genuine and it´s sad how it´s out of the ordinary to find someone here who wants to help you to be nice, not for money or any other sort of compensation. Daniel and his family are great. We´re going to BBQ with them tonight and it should be really fun. Hope all is well with all of you! We´re down to less than two weeks left. It doesn´t sound that long, but when each day is stretched before you, and you really can enjoy and relish every minute, it´s tons of time to soak this all up.
The problem is, he´s like most other Guatemalans in that he is probably 5` 4 or something and he´s a great surfer so they´re these little sporty boards that aren´t great for learning, especially for Garrett. But it´s been pretty fun to just go out and get worked. We went out without boards and just stood in the way of the waves to purposly get rocked to get back in the ocean mode. We´ve been here for a couple days and there´s been a lot of relaxing going on. I´ve been studying a lot of Spanish and I´m more than half way through the 1067 page feat of reading Atlas Shrugged and I can´t put it down. Here´s where I´ve been spending a lot of time.Daniel has three great kids who patiently help me with my Spanish, and come over to play every day because it´s their summer break right now from school. It´s great to play with them in the ocean too. It´s amazing how kids can play in the ocean forever and be super content, and how fun it is to be out there playing with them. We lucked out finding this place for sure. ´We´ll be here for at least a couple more days. Another friend, Mark is coming this weekend and we´ll figure out more when he gets here what we´re going to do, but we´ll probably head back up North to see the ruins of Tikal and go to this cool sounding place called Coban. 
Anyway, we´re enjoy the beach life, even though it was nice to be in a little bit cooler weather. I woke up early when Garrett went out to shoot to sunrise and went for a run, and I was so sweaty when I got back!! I´ll be stoked to get back to dry weather and snow!! from what I´ve heard! It´s amazing to meet people down here who are genuine and it´s sad how it´s out of the ordinary to find someone here who wants to help you to be nice, not for money or any other sort of compensation. Daniel and his family are great. We´re going to BBQ with them tonight and it should be really fun. Hope all is well with all of you! We´re down to less than two weeks left. It doesn´t sound that long, but when each day is stretched before you, and you really can enjoy and relish every minute, it´s tons of time to soak this all up.
1 comment:
They sound like such a great family. Have fun the rest of the time.
Post a Comment