Antigua and the Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala

Antigua is a nice colonial looking city and the cultural capital of Guatemala. We decided to take a spanish language course to improve our spanish further more, especially the goddamn subjunctive. Bjoern`s teacher Pedro was the best one he ever had. Thanks Pedro for all the fun that we had – you are really an outstanding man. My friends, i ll tell you all the stories that involve him when i am back in germany. We spent our time learning and exploring Antigua. A highlight was the climbing of the Pacaya Volcano, an active volcano located an 1.5 hour drive away from Antigua. We climbed it for 1 hour until we reached the top. The picture was amazing. There we stood on hard lava right next to flowing, hot one. We roasted some Marshmellows in it and took millions of pictures. By the time we descended it was dark. We made it halfway down the mountain when all of a sudden the volcano started exploding. It was a majestic view…

1. Climbing the volcano   

2. Yes, it s active   

 3. Lava    

 

4. View from above  

5. Exploding volcano  

6. Antigua    

7. Best teacher   

8. Getting smart  

Semuc Champey, Guatemala

Our guatemaltecan dive instructor had recommended us to visit Semuc Champey, so this was our next stop on our journey through Guatemala. We went there in a van that fit 9 persons. On the way to Semuc Champey, which should last 7 hours we discovered that our driver did not think so. He constantly pushed in more people who wanted to get a ride in order to make more money. This stop and go tactics made us arrive in Semuc Champey after 10 hours. Well it was fun though, because we met a nice couple from Israel, who were travelling with their kids, talked a lot with them and were quite excited when we had to cross a river in a ferry that was steered by one guy with a little boat motor (see the pictures).

We arrived in a town 15 kilometers away from Semuc Champey and changed to a 4WD. Then it was another 30 minutes ride through lush tropical forest and we arrived in our Ecolodge right on the side of a river. It was a real paradise, electricity was only available from 18:00 – 22:00 o clock and all the guys that worked there spoke an indigenous language as their first language. Jana was sick after the bus ride, so we took it easy on the following day, while the Israelis took a tour to see the lagoons of Semuc Champey and went tubing in the river afterwards. They were all so excited when they came back and told us that we definitely should do the same on the next day. So on the next day we went on the tour and it was amazing:

First we had to climb a mountain to get a spectacular view of the lagoons. Then we went down to the lagoons, took a swim and Bjoern climbed a 8 meter high tree and jumped from it into the water. Then we climbed DOWN INSIDE a waterfall to reach a cave, which was really spectacular. Afterwards we went tubing in the river next to our ecolodge. We knew some nice people during the tour who stayed in our ecolodge (what s up Jonny!) and spend the rest of the day talking.

1. Crossing the river   

2. Ecolodge 

3. View from above (Semuc Champey)  

4. Beginning of the river   

 

5. Lagoons   

6. Jumping from the tree  

7. Tubing    

8. On the road again   

Rio Dulce Lake & Tikal Ruins, Guatemala

We arrived in Rio Dulce (translates to sweet river), which is actually a lake and tried to find a hostal. We heard before that there would be some nice hostals on the other side of the lake, so we crossed it in the boat of some guys from switzerland and stayed in their hostal. It was a very nice Ecolodge right on the lake and upon arrival we met almost everyone who stayed in it. Had a poker competition during the first night and exchanged surf information and horror stories of shark attacks with an english-australian surf couple. We took it very easy on the following day- the location was just so inviting to hang around and read. Then we went to see a hot waterfall located in the jungle, messed around with the bats that lived in the cave beside of it and got a ride back to Rio Dulce in a military bus full of Guatemaltecan military with machine guns – FUN.

After 3 days we went off to Tikal, the famous Mayan ruins, where the third part of Star Wars (the one with the Ewoks) was filmed. We took the sunrise tour, which started at 3 o clock in the morning and climbed temple 5 where we stood still for 30 minutes listening to the jungle waking up. Then we had a guided tour in the park, saw all the different ruins and a lot of wildlife including tarantulas, monkeys and all kinds of birds.

  

3. Sunrise in Tikal   

4.Wildlife (Tarantula,Tukans)   

5. Park with ruins   

     

6. Temple 5 view from below   

  

6. Temple 5 view from above   

7. Stickbug with wings  

8. Military

9. Flores