Antigua

First day of the big adventure! Flights went well, but I paid extra for window seats, and on the flight to Guatemala, the one I REALLY wanted the window for, I didn’t have one lol. Just an extra panel of airplane siding. Bummer! But no biggie, Dana sent me an awesome video of their descent into the city with the surrounding volcanoes, so I just held my phone up to the wall and managed to enjoy the scenery in a creative way haha. I got to Guatemala around 1pm, went through immigrations and customs, and with excited anticipation, walked outside to the cafe and spotted Dana and Hayden sitting at a small table. I tried to sneak up on them, but Dana saw me hehe. I made it! I gave them big hugs and we were all smiles and cheers, absolutely tickled with the idea that we were meeting somewhere so far from home, and with so many adventures ahead of us. Here we go! 🤗

Our shuttle driver, Rudy, came early, and we took off through the traffic filled streets of Guatemala City. We had a comic conversation the whole way, filled with laughs and fun insights: Hayden and Dana don’t like papaya! What?! Haha. Winding through the mountain roads towards Antigua brought me back to my previous adventures. I LOVE IT HERE. I feel so inexplicably connected to this area of the world. 🙂

Being back on the cobblestone streets lined with brilliantly colored colonial buildings brings me such joy and zest for life, and seeing the colorful artesanias makes me smile to no end. I am so thrilled to be here yet again, and to be sharing a place I hold so near and dear to my soul with two of my favorite people on this planet. It’s a really special moment, and I will treasure it forever. 

We walked to the Cerro de la Cruz, and they are doing some construction, so we didn’t quite get the same photo op as I’ve had in the past, but the hike was a nice warm-up to the monstrous hike that we have planned for Acatenango. Which I am supremely psyched about! We got to sit on a roof-top bar for dinner and watch Fuego tease us with little puffs of ash clouds, releasing her tension. Seriously cannot wait to do this hike again! 

When we got back to the airbnb, we did some “work,” and planned a bit more after Copán, and Dana showed me how they do their budget, with a per diem goal amount, and an excel formula that tracks their daily spending and shows up as green or red, depending on whether they’re under or over budget. Such a cool system! And because they do it daily, it ends up being a really detailed record of where they were and what they did each day of their travels.

I also have an idea of a tattoo; the fuego-Acatenango profile, with some pink(?) “smoke” coming from Fuego. And possibly a sunset cloud behind. Would be really cool to get that here, but it’d be a spur of the moment thing. I might ask around tomorrow and see what pricing and timing would look like. 😎

The next day, we woke up early and snagged a few photos with fewer tourists at the infamous Santa Catalina Arch. It used to be a secret bridge between the church and the convent, for the nuns to use to get back and forth. We then stopped by a Starbucks…..groan, but we used the bathroom, and boy were we glad we went inside! It was so beautiful! Worth the pitstop for sure :). Then we met at the Central Park for a walking tour, and we set off to see a few things. It wasn’t a very impressive tour, and the guide asked for tips in a tacky way afterwards. We all agreed it was gross, and didn’t tip him the amount he “requested” lol. So annoying, but so it goes. The most interesting thing we learned was that the stones used for the streets of Antigua all came from the Agua Volcano, which watches over the town.

We then took off to have a delicious lunch to help fuel our bodies for the big hike tomorrow! It was so yummy! I had estofado, which was a mix of shredded pork, beef, and chicken, complete with rice, beans, and tortillas. We then had to satisfy our sweet tooth with some unique ice cream flavors at Doña Gavi’s. She even had ice cream flavors with alcohol! Hehe. We opted for the cheaper variety; the fruit flavors, and Dana got guanaba, Hayden got mora (blackberry) and I got zapote, a local pink and creamy fruit. Hard to describe if you don’t know what they are hehe. They also had jocote, nance, and mamey, which seems like another variety of zapote. 

We are back at the airbnb, just relaxing, and are waiting to head out to the pre-hike meeting at OX, the business we are doing the hike with. CAN’T WAIT! Hehe. This will be hike #4 for me, and I’m really hoping to add on the Fuego section, AND I want to run the crater again. Call me crazy, but I LOVE this volcano!

The pre-trip meeting was amazing! The OX office is in a completely different location, and they no longer have a hostel. They had an epic poster of what the hike consists of, including elevation gains, and difficulty ratings for each section. I was stoked to be listening to all of this information again. There were some differences, though…..They built cabins at the base camp, so we no longer needed to carry tents or sleeping equipment! Score!

After the meeting, we took a trip to “La Bodegona” to gather hiking supplies, mostly high calorie snacks, and we ran into several other soon-to-be hikers. I always loved the pre-hike snack run….its a great excuse to buy all the sugary and carb loaded snacks you typically try to stay away from. I got a special cinnamon roll for the special climb to the Fuego ridge, something I never did on the previous 3 hikes. I never felt fit enough to accomplish that. But this time, before the trip, I committed to a few stair climber workouts, trying my best to simulate a steep, vertical hike. The hardest thing to prepare for would be the lack of oxygen. The poster board at OX said it was 40% less at the summit. Yikes!

Once we got our goodies, we walked back home and I cooked a quick pasta and veggie dish….Have to carb up! Haha We ate all that we could, and still had some left over that we had to toss. We happily packed and divided up our snacks, and attempted to get some sleep before the big day. I fell asleep dreaming about my favorite hike the world, and wondering what kind of show Fuego had in store for us. Not exactly counting sheep, but it worked, and soon I was asleep, my body preparing itself for what’s to come.