Guatemala

Leaving San Pedro after two weeks was fairly difficult. It had left a HUGE impact on us even though we were only there for two weeks.
We jumped on our shuttle and Elena walked the long way to the mercado to wave farewell to us one last time. I will miss that cheeky grin I got every meal time when she would be teasing Lewis or me.

We had a four hour trip over the long windy road to Antigua. The shuttle was full of Australians who were still drunk from the night before. I can kind of see now why some tourists give travellers a bad name. They were loud and sadly didn't really care about how they disrespected the local people and the town. After four hours of travelling around we made it to Antigua, a famous, highly touristy town in Guatemala. The town was vibrant and it had a great vibe. After doing some research about where to stay in Antigua I discovered a eco-hostel just out of Antigua called Hobbitanango...How could we not go when it had a name like that!?! What I didn't realise was how much of a mission it was going to be to get there and back without our own transport. As we arrived in Antigua at lunch time we were straight off to try Pappy's BBQ. A place I had found online and then heard amazing things about from a fellow Kiwi in San Pedro with us, Craig.

The pulled pork was fantastic! So tasty especially with the special mustard sauce and extra pickles. I think it was the best pulled pork that we have ever brought anywhere, I still prefer Lewis homemade version, but this was good! We arrived back and called the number to get the shuttle to take us to Hobbitanango. 20 minutes in Guatemalan time (2 hours later) our driver arrived and took us the 15km through the hills to the hostel. This place was completely different than I expected but I feel in love with it rather quickly. The bar/restaurant had a massive blue circle door that looked out onto a volcano. It was full of people there for the day and a few staying the night (like us) from Guatemala City. We were the only people that weren't from Guatemala! The view was outstanding especially with a cocktail or two in your hand. As the sun set I discovered the place has minimal/no electricity (there are no lights just candles everywhere). This with the flowers everywhere really added to the charm of the place.

As the sun set the people left and only those of us staying remained. There was basically 15 of us including the bartender who stayed in the dorm with us. We meet an awesome Guatemalan couple who had amazing English so it was awesome to be able to speak some Spanish and English together. Cards Against Humanity (The English-Spanish Version) came out that evening. We ended up having to have all the cards translated into Spanish as we had a few playing that had no English. This lead to it being even more hilarious and it was a great ice breaker. Later that evening in the freezing cold we helped create a bonfire with a can of lynx...it was pretty hilarious considering quite a few drinks had been had by those making the fire. Lewis and I headed down to the hut early as it was freezing and discovered our lovely bartender, Carlos strumming away, playing his guitar. His music was hypnotic and beautiful to listen to. Carlos, we discovered, had been to New Zealand and had written a few songs about it and his ex-girlfriend. He was an interesting guy and hopefully he makes it into the music scene. I headed to bed early...freezing as we were so high up (I had three blankets on and a jersey just to sleep). I awoke at 3am in hopes to see the volcano red from the lava. Sadly it erupt that morning for me .
We awoke to a sea of mist the next morning; you couldn't see a thing in front of you. The crazy thing was that the mist cleared in less than an hour. After a massive breakfast it was back down to catch our shuttle...who we were told would be hanging around the bottom of the hill for us. We waited 30mins in the drizzle but there was no driver....Our options were fairly limited. We asked some of the locals leaving where they were headed in desperation....After being rejected by 5 groups of people we finally found a couple who were willing to take us back down to Antigua and take the long way back to Guatemala City. The woman could speak excellent English so with the help of Google translate for anything we didn't know we had an awesome chat. They were an excellent help and helped us figure out where we can go when we return to Guatemala (Elena believed that would be in two years...lets hope so it is a great place )

Back down in Antigua we found our hostel and started exploring. Our first stop was for lunch in Ricon Tipo a typical Guatemala comidor where the meat was a rotisserie BBQ. We ordered just one plate which was MASSIVE and feed us both easily. The chicken was moist and flavoursome. The salads were delicious! It was a bargain as we received all of the food, tortillas and a drink for 30 Quezals (NZD $6).

On our way out I discovered a herbal shop that made it's own sorbet. It was pricey but the flavours we delicious. Lewis opted for Banana Strawberry and me, guanabana. Both were delicious. Especially considering how hot it was! We continued walking around the awkward uneven cobbled streets admiring the gorgeous old buildings and church ruins. It really is a gorgeous city that is well maintained, if not a little touristy.

That night it was back to Pappy's for more pulled pork as we thought it was closed the next day, turns out it wasn't, and this resulted in Lewis having pulled pork every day we were in Antigua!
We spent the evening walking around the city admiring the lights, lightening and the people of Antigua.

Our final day in Antigua began with a run up the hill to the Cross on the Hill. The view was gorgeous! Sadly the volcano was capped with clouds but to be honest I still thought it was spectacular. The rest of the day we spent cruising around seeing more of the gorgeous places and posting photos to our lovely hosts, Dom and Linda, in San Pedro. On our way to the Post Office (where we had a mean, grumpy lady who ensured that anything we asked was a mission) we passed McDonalds, normal this would be not a big deal but the McDonalds in Antigua is in a beautiful old house and has a massive garden in the middle. The garden is gorgeous! After a quick glimpse at the garden we were off again. Even a gorgeous garden wasn't enough to make McDonald's tempting when we had a normal stomach.

Our next morning it was another shuttle. This time it was sadly out of Guatemala. The month in Guatemala zoomed past faster than I hoped and we still have so much we will have to go back and see. Antigua was a great place to send off. Sadly due to the lack of time we ran out of time to do everything we wanted too but that is a great excuse to go back and I can't wait! Thank you Guatemala!