Hot Lava

Ahmet arrived on Friday and we got the hell out of Dodge, I mean, Guatemala City. Took a shuttle directly to Antigua, which is a lovely colonial town with cobblestone streets only 45 minutes from the airport in Guatemala City. Yesterday we hiked up the Pacaya Volcano which was unbelievable. The guide took us all the way to where we could see lava flowing and hear the volcano erupt (liability?). Some tourists even roasted marshmallows over the lava. A very unnatural feeling, standing on a volcano but it was definitely a thrill.

We had a dinner at a gorgeous monastery called Casa Santo Domingo on our first night in Antigua. Highly recommend. It's also home to a museum and a hotel. The monastery was built in 1666, but later destroyed in 18th century earthquakes. The hotel, restaurant and museum were built in the restored ruins.

We were on top of hotel reservations for once, but failed to realize that we didn't have our internal flight booked. It's the Fourth of July weekend with lots of Americans here, so after checking a travel agency and the airline TACA, we found out that all the flights were booked. Finally, we found a travel agent that got us a flight at 7:00am, requiring us to leave our hotel at 4AM. Ahh, the value of planning ahead.

Today we are waiting to check into our hotel in Flores, wandering around the town with big backpacks like lost turtles. Tomorrow we will go to Tikal to check out the ruins. Happy Independence Day! We saw fireworks oddly in Antigua.