We just returned from an INCREDIBLE week in Antigua. What a way to wrap up this cruising season. Once the capitol of Central America, Antigua is a popular tourist city in Guatemala, steeped in history, full of museums, beautiful scenery and cozy patio restaurants. The streets were lined with colorful buildings with large doors that opened up into the prettiest courtyards we've ever seen. The Posada we stayed in- Juma Ocag, was the cutest, friendliest little place and only $16 a night. Because the city has suffered so many earthquakes in the past, the capitol was eventually moved elsewhere, and the ruins of the huge chuches (there were something like 28 churches at one time in history) and buildings are now being refurbished as museums.

We spent a fair amount of time just mosying around the city exploring old shoppes, going into churches & museums, visiting the handicraft markets and heading out each evening to listen to live Andean music at what became our favorite restaurant. The food was good, inexpensive and the atmosphere was great. Touristy or not, we quickly fell in love with Antigua.

The craft market was our first real experience bargaining with the Mayans and seeing their colorful, indigenous dress. I hate bargaining for anything but some of the women would crack us up with their lines such as "Name your price, good price just for you, you pick it out, husband pays... what you want, I give you special price".... and on and on it would go until you either run away or buy something. If you started to walk away, the price would go lower and lower. I loved sitting in the beautiful Park Central watching the locals stroll past the fountain- I find them to be a beautiful people.

Guatemala has 3 active volcanos and we climbed up the one called Picaya. We started out with an hour long minibus ride that took us to the park, then we were escorted by a guide onto the trail, and it was about 3km to the top. Partway up, we came upon an area where 10 months ago, there had been an overflow of lava down the side of the volcano. All around it was green grass and trees, except for this trail of black lava- very odd! But, even odder was when we got to the top and the air just kept getting hotter and hotter until the alpine scrub disappeared and there was only black lava rock and bright orange flowing lava! Where we walked was black on top, orange underneath, just like the coals on a BBQ. Our guide kept saying "crazy isn't it?!" while we were looking down at the melting soles of our sneakers thinking what in the world are we doing here! If you poured a little water out of your water bottle onto the coals beneath your feet, it would sizzle and steam right away. There were about 15 of us on the tour and we all took turns taking pictures of each other as the lava moved closer and closer to where we were standing. It was quite a thing to see, even if our shoes did take a beating! Plus, we all survived to tell about it!

On another day, we did a 6 hour kick butt mountain bike ride all through the countryside outside of the city. We went with 2 guides and asked to have an extra long ride so we biked from Antigua to the outskirts of town, then up into the agricultural fields of corn and greens, across beautiful hills and down steep slopes, often on single track trails that have been trod upon by farmers for years and years. At times, the sides of the trail would be above us as we peddled though, worn from years of footsteps and rain runoff. Every so often, we'd come upon some locals, whether it be an old farmer dressed in his cowboy hat, carrying a huge bundle of grass on his back, or a family walking along leading 2 cows, or a little boy sitting on a rock beside the trail- all of these picture quality images that seemed to represent the true Guatemala. It was fantastic and well worth the money to get ourselves out biking; seeing and doing more than we ever could on our own. Our legs were shot after that ride!

There were two interesting shoppes that we came upon- one was a candle shoppe that was well over 100 years old. Candles are popular in Antigua, what with all the churches and ceremonies that they have, so candle making is very important. It was an old building with wooden cases displaying all shapes & colors of candles and the lady who waited on us said it has been a family business for over a century. The other store was an old coffee shoppe. In it was this friendly man who roasted the coffee right there and would make you a cup if you wanted, or you could buy the beans. He was also making chocolate from the cocoa pods right there. Jon was so excited with the place that even he had coffee!

We didn't have nearly the time we wanted in Antigua but we hope to be back again this fall to explore it more and also visit the highlands of Guatemala where the temps are even cooler and the mountain scenery supposedly even more breathtaking. For now, we're once again working on final preparations to leave our boat and head home for a visit and a few paychecks. Hopefully, all will go smoothly for both us and Evergreen!

We got some pretty good pictures- including plenty of lava of course! But also of the church ruins, market, the band that played the Andean music and even one of a local costume dance that we happened upon on our bike route.