On the Sundays of Spanish School I had the day off and so I visited the active volcano of Pacaya and the market town of Chichicastenago.
Chichicastenango (Chichi)
6 days of 8am starts meant it was a great idea to start my first day off with a start of 6am in order to make it nice and early to Chichi where the region´s best market kicks off.
Barely had the shuttle bus turned up had we spotted it´s flat tyre. 10 minutes later with one new tyre and the driver had an faulty starter motor. One huge push down the street and we were off again on the 2 hour journey.
50 minutes later and the starter motor died completely. 2 hours later we finally made it to Chichi and to a market more akin to a labyrinth than anything I was expecting. Losing time to a knackered old van before a replacement turned up wasn´t the end of the world as there is only so much a person can take of the market there. With touts only to keen to make you their new amigo it was a place ou had to do a lap of very quickly (in about an hour) before re tracing your steps to identify something you actually wanted and commenced Operation: Barter like Hell.
A few little presents later and I discovered that Chichi is hybrid of Mayan and Catholic tradition. The local church is to the untrained eye a regular catholic church, but head inside and it´s like the Mayan tradition has not gone far and the two religions are practiced side by side. With ornamental flowers, incense, statues of saints and crucifixes, this is quite a confused church but still one that has me interested.
Having soaked up the market (several laps - it is huge though) and visited the church I decide to risk a full meal at one of the market stalls. I figured, it´s time to test that constitution that seemed to fail after most visits to Chicken Cottage. After a tasty meal of fried chicken, rice, buritos, veg and something that looked suspiciously like a dried up poo (left alone I should add) I was on my way. On the bus back to Antigua it was clear to see just how many and how severe the landslides had been a month before. Whole sides of hills were gone in some cases and despite there being adequate diversions in place after seeing one landslide that had a truck at the bottom it, it was quite easy to see how fragile Guatemala when hit by the rainy season.
Volcan Pacaya
On my second Sunday in Antigua, and with a new partner in crime (Tom from Yorkshire, but with more of a Canadian accent) we decided to climb up the local active volcano with a bunch of randoms from Antigua. En route to said volcano I had my second, "it´s a small world moment", when I met Baz, who worked for The Guradian and knows a multitude of people from Mindshare, least of all Henrietta Bridgman and some lazy bum from Invention called Mark Campbell.
Finally at the foot of the volcano in the pooring rain we had our guide and security (this consisted of a man, a child and a donkey - fearsome, especially as the kid had a machete). Not a difficult climb but one tht had amazing views and even a vent up top where you could see some liquid hot magma. After melting my face off cooking a marshmellow we decended the volcano at what was now 6pm and pitch black. Far more entertaining in the dark with out a torch we skipped our way down the volcano whilst helping out the oldies and being scared shitless by the tour guide who took it upon himseld to jump out at us from no where! What a guy!
A great afternoon out but I´m still keen to get a good trek under my belt, as the volcano wasn´t that challenging and I had to resort to getting out a penknife to modify a marshmellow stick in order to feel a it more like Bear Grylls.
Chichicastenango (Chichi)
6 days of 8am starts meant it was a great idea to start my first day off with a start of 6am in order to make it nice and early to Chichi where the region´s best market kicks off.
Barely had the shuttle bus turned up had we spotted it´s flat tyre. 10 minutes later with one new tyre and the driver had an faulty starter motor. One huge push down the street and we were off again on the 2 hour journey.
50 minutes later and the starter motor died completely. 2 hours later we finally made it to Chichi and to a market more akin to a labyrinth than anything I was expecting. Losing time to a knackered old van before a replacement turned up wasn´t the end of the world as there is only so much a person can take of the market there. With touts only to keen to make you their new amigo it was a place ou had to do a lap of very quickly (in about an hour) before re tracing your steps to identify something you actually wanted and commenced Operation: Barter like Hell.
A few little presents later and I discovered that Chichi is hybrid of Mayan and Catholic tradition. The local church is to the untrained eye a regular catholic church, but head inside and it´s like the Mayan tradition has not gone far and the two religions are practiced side by side. With ornamental flowers, incense, statues of saints and crucifixes, this is quite a confused church but still one that has me interested.
Having soaked up the market (several laps - it is huge though) and visited the church I decide to risk a full meal at one of the market stalls. I figured, it´s time to test that constitution that seemed to fail after most visits to Chicken Cottage. After a tasty meal of fried chicken, rice, buritos, veg and something that looked suspiciously like a dried up poo (left alone I should add) I was on my way. On the bus back to Antigua it was clear to see just how many and how severe the landslides had been a month before. Whole sides of hills were gone in some cases and despite there being adequate diversions in place after seeing one landslide that had a truck at the bottom it, it was quite easy to see how fragile Guatemala when hit by the rainy season.
Volcan Pacaya
On my second Sunday in Antigua, and with a new partner in crime (Tom from Yorkshire, but with more of a Canadian accent) we decided to climb up the local active volcano with a bunch of randoms from Antigua. En route to said volcano I had my second, "it´s a small world moment", when I met Baz, who worked for The Guradian and knows a multitude of people from Mindshare, least of all Henrietta Bridgman and some lazy bum from Invention called Mark Campbell.
Finally at the foot of the volcano in the pooring rain we had our guide and security (this consisted of a man, a child and a donkey - fearsome, especially as the kid had a machete). Not a difficult climb but one tht had amazing views and even a vent up top where you could see some liquid hot magma. After melting my face off cooking a marshmellow we decended the volcano at what was now 6pm and pitch black. Far more entertaining in the dark with out a torch we skipped our way down the volcano whilst helping out the oldies and being scared shitless by the tour guide who took it upon himseld to jump out at us from no where! What a guy!
A great afternoon out but I´m still keen to get a good trek under my belt, as the volcano wasn´t that challenging and I had to resort to getting out a penknife to modify a marshmellow stick in order to feel a it more like Bear Grylls.
photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richsmith/sets/72157625283241404/
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