Lago de Atitlan

The day after the volcano excursion, J and I went to Lake Atitlan, which is a beautiful lake that is surrounded by volcanoes. This day was much more chilled out, which was nice as the two days before it were jammed packed with excitement. At Lake Atitlan we took a boat around the lake and stopped at different villages, shopped around, went to markets and really just relaxed. It was super nice and a great way to end our trip.

One note about our trip – it was by far the best spontaneous vacation that I have ever been on in my entire life. We went without a guidebook, not knowing where we were going – let alone staying. We had never been to any of these places before and in a sense it could have been kind of risky to set off on this adventure with a complete lack of information. However, the entire trip went flawlessly and the Universe provided for us in so many ways. We were always taken care of and everything was so easy and it all just fell into place. Everyday we were amazed at our good luck and how beautifully our unplanned day had gone. We both agreed that it couldn’t have gone any better – part of that was because we were with each other, but the other part was just that it all fell into place and because of that we experienced some amazing things in those 5 days of our trip. I wouldn’t recommend traveling like this often, as I am sure that it always doesn’t work out this well, but in this instance, the spontaneity of it was great….

Living the dream....

About two years ago, I heard that there was a place in Guatemala where you could climb a volcano and roast marshmallows over lava. As soon as I heard about it, this activity of roasting marshmallows over lava went to the top of my bucket list. Jonny and I daydreamed about going there together – not really thinking that it would happen – but then when he came back to Belize, we decided to go on vacation together, and we changed plans to go to Guatemala, we realized that our dream was about to come true and we got so excited.

We left for the volcano around 2:00 en la tarde and started hiking around 3:30. It was a long hike up, but totally worth it. As we got closer to the lava and the volcano, we could start feeling the heat underneath our feet and see the steam coming out of different areas in the ground. When we finally got to the area where we could make our lava-roasted smores, it was hot and intense. We had carried sticks up from the trail (as obviously there are no trees on an active volcano) and put our mallows on the sticks and placed them right over the lava. They started on fire instantly and we let them burn for a few moments, before we blew them out and put them with graham crackers and chocolate. And that was by far the best damn smores that I have ever eaten in my entire life – hands down. Nothing will ever compare with that ever again. Being up there on the volcano was so much fun and by far one of the best days of my life. I was livin’ the dream folks, and it felt good.

After we got our fill of lava, marshmallows and melted shoes, we started the hike back down. During this time, it turned dark and as we looked up at the peak of the volcano, it started to erupt and we were able to watch hot magma (think Austin Powers here with the word magma) blast out of the volcano. They said that it only erupts about once a month and so we were really lucky to be able to witness it. Seeing that was also another dream of mine that was fulfilled (I kind of have an obsession with lava – it’s so cool!) and was a great end to a perfect day.

P.S. My favorite quote of the day was "Did I just hear someone say 'holy shit - there's lava??!!" hahahahaha

Semana Santa - Guatemala Style...

So last weekend, Jonny and I were supposed to go to Honduras, but we literally changed plans last minute and decided to go to Guatemala instead. We were supposed to take a boat to Honduras, but last minute decided to take a boat to Guatemala and then take a bus to Honduras, and then once we were on the boat we decided to scratch Honduras completely and just go to Guatemala - and we are so glad that we did as it ended up being one of the best vacations of our lives.

When we were on the boat, we met this guy who was driving to Guatemala City and he offered us a ride, so we jumped on it and drove to Guat City with him. I've never been to Guatemala City before (or hitched a ride with someone I have never met in another country) and everything that I have heard about it is that it is so dangerous and that you just want to get in and get out. However, on the boat ride we also met this girl who was going to Guatemala City and then down to Antigua and she said that she was staying in a really safe part of the City, so we went with her and stayed in the same hostel and it was great - super nice and felt pretty safe.

The next morning we woke up at the butt-crack of dawn we went down to Antigua for Semana Santa. Antigua is famous throughout Central America for it's Easter celebrations and rightfully so as it was one of the most amazing Easter celebrations that I have ever witnessed. They cover the streets in these elaborately designed flower carpets and then they have these massive processionals where they walk through the flower carpets, and then they just make new flower designs throughout the day - it is so beautiful and a phenomenal cultural experience.

During the processionals, everyone is either dressed in purple, black or another color. The people in the processionals carry these massive, extremely heavy floats on their shoulders that sometimes weigh up to two tons and they carry them for hours to represent the pain and struggles that Jesus went through. One thing that I loved about this (among many) is that the men all carried a float, and then the women all carried one just as big and as heavy. A lot of times in Central American countries, women do not have as much importance as the men do and therefore wouldn’t participate in something like this – however in every single procession, the women were right there alongside the men – working just as hard and carrying almost as much weight – and I loved that.

I don’t think that my words or pictures can do this experience justice, as it is something that one has to experience in person. With that, I highly encourage all of you to someday make the trip to Antigua, Guatemala for Easter as it will by far be one of the most profound Easter celebrations of your life – it was for me anyway.