Volcanic activity

Yesterday I did one of the standard tourist-activities in Guatemala - hiking a volcano. The hike was pretty easy, only about 3km up (and down), and takes about an hour and a half. The main attraction of the hike is the views of the Antigua region you get from the top, unfortunately, the severe rain storm meant they weren't all that great, and being cold and wet made me not so enthusiastic about the whole experience!

This morning I got picked up by my shuttle at 4am which drove to Honduras. I'm now in Copan Ruinas, a rather charming small tourist town in the north of Honduras.

After the rain storm had cleared...

Tour around Antigua

I took a tour round some of the villages near to Antigua this afternoon. It was nice to learn a bit about the history of the area as well as see some of the local arts and crafts. The first village we visited was the home of the first bishop of Guatemala, which is now a museum / home to a groups of nuns, and generally offers impressive views of the valley in Antigua.

The chapel in the Bishop's house

 The second village was only a quick stop for the church, and the ladies doing their laundry in the main square.

Nice church

Doing the laundry, Guatemalan style

 The final village is famous for its weaving, and here we got the chance to be super-tourists and dress-up in traditional Mayan costumes. There was some pressure to buy stuff at this place, and whilst I do quite like a lot of the traditional produce here, I couldn't really bring myself to buy anything that I'll be hauling through Central America for the next month.

Feeling as stupid as I look

Hello from Antigua (Guatemala, not the island)

I completed a bit of a geographic jump on Monday, still slightly exhausted from the trek, and barely rested from the one night opposite the bar in the hostel. My flight to Guatemala City involved a trip to Lima and Costa Rica, before arriving in Antigua (about 40 minutes from Guatemala City) at around 8pm. The flights were uneventful, other than the 3 legs of the journey meaning I got to taste the breakfast, lunch and dinner culinary offerings of TACA airline.

The town of Antigua is very picturesque. Lots of Colonial buildings and cobble streets, which serve a dual purpose of making the place rather quaint and forcing the traffic to move at a slow speed. This is probably the first central/south American settlement where crossing the road doesn't present the biggest danger to your health! I haven't really taken any photos of the town yet, mainly because online there is a whole collection of the buildings in Antigua taken by people with far superior camera skills, and I'm also a bit weary about walking around and taking out my not very subtle camera too often. UNESCO site about Antigua.

My host family is just one woman who owns a small shop selling hand-made bags. The house seems quite typical here - you come in through a large wooden door into a courtyard and the rooms all come off that courtyard. The roofs are all tin, making it pretty loud when it rains. The weather is pretty nice though, other than a thunderstorm when I arrived its hot, but not too hot, and in the morning sunny. The food here is very good (and cheap). I'd say it's pretty Mexican in style, lots of tortillas, rice and beans, but the host mother does a good job cooking for us.

I'm not yet sure what the next plans are. There are plenty of places around here where I could relax and spend a few days, but I'm thinking of moving slightly south first. Some Mayan ruins on the boarder with Honduras that could be worth a trip, or up towards Mexico there are some more, although this would be in the wrong direction for my final destination...

Part 2 of the adventure

Machu Picchu in Pictures

Waiting to cross the bridge at 4.45am, before climbing the 1700 steps up to MP.

MP at dawn

Sun rising over the mountains

MP in the sunshine

Taking a break on MP.

They built nice buildings, those Incas.

The Trekkers - a sitcom idea

Plot: take 16 people, previously unknown to each other, and follow their progress across a roughly 80km, 5 day trek, to the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu.

Staring (in no particular order);

The Flying Dutchman - tall, has long legs, and walks very quickly.
The Beach Babes - the two Californian girls, prone to use the word "like" a lot, otherwise very good company.
The Basque Boys - from the Basque country, not Spain.
The Israeli Spy - just finished military service in the intelligence service. Won't tell you anything about it.
The one with inappropriate shoes - soccer shoes on a mountain crossing just won't cut it.
The oddball - because there's always one.
Debbie downer - urgh, they're giving us rice again? And we have to walk? And it's snowing. Urgh.
Actual Debbie - not to be confused with Debbie downer.
The Chilean - with an brother who is an Olympic gymnast.
Level-headed Lou - need I say any more? 
and
Wilfred - the 5ft guide with legs that move at a phenomenal cadence.

Plot summary:

Day 1: Long walk along dusty road. Arrive at camp site just as rain starts to arrive. Cold night.

Day 2: Uphill hike in the mountain. Snowstorm at the summit, followed by rain at lower altitudes. Mud. Lots and lots of mud.

Day 3: Shorter hike through the jungle. Starts to get warm. Insect bites. Trip to hot springs in the afternoon and camp fire in the evening.

Day 4: Hike in immense heat. Afternoon along the rail tracks next to the Machu Picchu train. Tourists in train wondering why anyone would hike along a train line with a pack in this heat.

Day 5: 4am rise to climb 1700 steps up to MP. Arrive at 6am, spend a few hours at the site before the 2-hr train then 2-hr bus back to Cusco.

The whole team

Snowy mountain. Think we may have crossed this one.

Boldly crossing the bridge.

Following the train line to Aguas Calientes, on the way to MP.

Scenic backdrop

Copacabana and Lake Titicaca

Yesterday I undertook a fairly adventurous (and ultimately totally redundant - more explanation later) day trip to Copacabana and Lake Titicaca (the world's highest navigable lake). The day started with an exceptionally slow bus ride out of La Paz, and the total trip to Copacabana lasted around 3.5 hours. The scenery was very beautiful, although I think I might be suffering from dramatic landscape overexposure, as doing my Spanish vocab on the bus seemed more exciting.

When I got to the lake I went for lunch, the obligatory trout fished from the lake, which is served at pretty much every restaurant. This was probably the highlight of the day, and was indeed very good and fresh.

After lunch I took a boat ride to Isla del Sol, which was a 90-minute stomach-turning experience. I try to have faith in Bolivian health and safety standards, but the 8 life jackets for the 30 people on board did little to settle my nerves that they had properly assessed the risks of crossing a very choppy lake Titicaca yesterday afternoon. For most of the journey I (and the French woman to my right) were convinced we were one wave away from capsizing. Having got the the island I only had about an hour to wander around, during which I marched very quickly up some Inca steps

before almost collapsing at the top in exhaustion. I suspect I had underestimated the altitude effect and in my high-speed sightseeing tour, overextended myself a bit.

The Incas love their steps

The island is meant to be a must-see, but i have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. I can put this down to having not nearly enough time (most people stay a night), but even the scenery didn't blow me away. It's certainly very beautiful, but living in Zurich means the "blue-lake-with-mountain-peaks-in-the-background" thing isn't so special.

Anyway, got the bus back to La Paz at 18.30, and the return journey was only 3 hours (if you look at the distance on the map, you'll see why even 3 hours seems a bit ridiculous), and checked into a new hostel for the evening, before getting up at 6.30 for a taxi to the airport for my flight to Cusco.

In comparison to yesterday's explorations, the flight was a definite success. Only left 30 minutes late (and this delay was explained) on a 60-seater plan that had around 15 passengers on it. The first 20 minutes of the journey were a lovely aerial view of La Paz, Northern Bolivia and... Lake Titicaca! Which, was much more impressive from the air, and this tour didn't involve 3 hours on a rubbish Bolivian bus (although, I suppose the fresh trout in Copacabana is the only thing that made the previous day's trip worthwhile). So, after a very nice plane journey, I'm in Cusco, staying at a fairly cool hostel (seems to have a sociable atmosphere without being crazy), and I've booked myself in for a fairly intense 5-day trek tomorrow which includes a trip to MP on the last day. I've been down to the market and stocked up on nuts and fruit, and am looking forward to the trip (apart from the 4.30am start!).