I'm Nomading Again!

Now that I have been back in Ithaca for exactly one year... its time to travel again!  Funny that it has been 1 year to the day from when I returned to Ithaca, to when I flew out to Guatemala.  April 18.  Anyway, Nico has been down here in Central America for a couple weeks now, and it just seemed silly that I was in Ithaca, not even at a real job, and and not traveling with her.  This time we actually have return tickets though - May 10, two days before Rachel graduates college.

Arches in Antigua

So anyway, it seemed kinda surreal as I was taking a taxi from the airport in Guatemala City to Antigua to meet up with Nico.  It's been so long, and its clearly not the US (although not as much different as I was expecting), but it seemed so normal to be there and barely able to communicate with my taxi driver.  Although of the three of us passengers I was the one with the most Spanish skills, and attempted to have a little conversation with the driver.  I am definitely pleasantly surprised how much I remember, considering I haven't taken any Spanish since 11th grade.

Volcan Agua looming over the city.  View from the
balcony of our hostel.

I met up with Nico in Antigua and it was really awesome to see her again.  Unfortunately Antigua turned out to be a bit of a letdown.  It is totally gringo central, and it seems like the Guatemalan culture there is not so genuine, and everything is really just to cater to the tourists.  It is certainly a nice city, with cobbled streets and some different architecture than I am used to.  There was a definite lack of street food and hole in the wall family restaurants... and so we actually ended up cooking most of our meals there.  We spent one day getting our bearings straight and wandering the city, cause that's what we do.

Then yesterday morning we went on a guided hike of Volcan Pacaya.  Pacaya is an active volcano about 1.5 hours drive from Antigua (depending on how many guesthouses your shuttle stops at on the way).  I feel like this was in line with the spirit of Antigua so far, kinda nice, but not as good as we were expecting.  It was a nice easy walk up, in a group of 13 with a guide who at least spoke clearly and slowly such that I could actually understand everything he said.  We were not allowed to go all the way to the top cause they are afraid of us falling through an old lava tube... fair enough.  There were some neat spots though where steam was coming up through the rocks.  It seems to the traditional tourist thing to bring up a bag of marshmallos and roast them.

After the hike we actually did some planning, and organized a 6 day hike in the highlands with a company called Quetzltrekkers.  So Mom, don't expect to hear from me from the 24th to the 29th.  We also figured out how we'd get to Xela, which is the second largest city in Guatemala, and in the heart of the highlands.

White horse on a black lava field

Normally I am not one to like larger cities, but Xela has so far been so much nicer and more genuine than Antigua.  Hard to explain, but people here are here to live their lives, and not just cater to tourists.  It is definitely refreshing.  After a 3:40am wakeup to get here, we only managed to wander around before having an early dinner, and its not even 8, but I'm ready for bed.

I guess that's about it for now.  Hopefully I'll get to write some posts as I go so check back every once in a while.  Oh, and now that I no longer have a camera, all the pictures that we take will be on Nico's picasa site: picasaweb.google.com/nicotedesco