Antigua, Guatemala and Volcan Fuego

Monday February 8. Leisurely morning. Ate breakfast at the first restaurant and were pleased to find the best hot chocolate yet. Asked what brand they use, they answered it is their own house specialty. The drive to Antigua was unremarkable, except the usual: terrible signage resulted in sub-optimal routing through town, rescued by maps.me. We are getting used to it. The territory is gorgeous and heavily agricultural, in small scale farms cultivated by hand, with potatoes in abundance. Still very mountainous, so lots of ups and downs and curves. A combination of the tourist map we received at the border and maps.me got us to the tourist information office in Antigua about 4:30, but it had already closed. So we walked around and eventually found the office of the tourist police, where RVs are allowed to park for a small donation. The neighbors from Argentina are in a VW bus; the neighbor from France (female) is camping solo; and there is a guy in a truck with a motorcycle from Colorado.

Tuesday February 9. Another leisurely morning. Sharman has now contracted a mild version of Mike’s cold. Our #1 priority for the day: laundry. A large load washed dried and folded cost us

Q60—about US$8. #2: more hot chocolate and internet to catch up with email and plan our route for the next couple days. I wish we could get good information about the hassle factor at border crossings and how good or bad the roads are, but all we have are google maps recommendations.

   While Antigua is famous for its colonial era churches and architecture—indeed it is a UNESCO cultural heritage site—for us its most striking feature is the three volcanoes next door to the south and west. One of them—El Fuego—is erupting with smoke and ash. But we enjoyed walking around town looking at the ruins, poking our heads into churches and convents-turned-restaurants or galleries, nodding to the numerous other tourists, and noting all the shops, restaurants and hotels that cater to them.

   We were settled into the van for dinner and the night. What’s that sound? It sounds like thunder, but

Volcan El Fuego by night

not likely. It couldn’t be a glacier or avalanche. Could it be the volcano? We exit the van to look. OMG! there is red hot lava exploding into the air and running down the sides of the mountain! We run into the street for a better look, then to a rooftop terrace at a nearby bar. Locals report this is the largest eruption in 30 years. One fellow tourista says he climbed the adjacent Volcan Acatenango today and could feel the earth tremors and had to cover his mouth and nose from the ash. A couple others said they would sign up for the volcano hike tomorrow. We watched for an hour, admiring the most dramatic explosions and watching the changes in the radiant lava flows.

Wednesday February 10. We rerouted our drive plan to get a better look at the volcano. We considered climbing Acatenango but ended up deciding the access road was too long and bad, the eruption was past its peak, the daytime views  were just smoke and ash, we didn’t want to be downwind, and Mike is still feeling pretty marginal with tourist tummy. But we drove around

El Fuego by day

the base and got good views from different perspectives, and saw some charming small towns and countryside as well. One town had 16 boot stores in two blocks!