Within a few hours of arriving in Guatemala we had been the targets of an attempted robbery - but we are rushing ahead. .....
BA transported us from London to Miami in a ‘business-like’ manner and our first night of this round of adventures at La Quinta Inn – imagine a motel in Hounslow but where the lingua franca is espanol, but good practice for what was to come, we thought. A casual snack and some Argie wine for dinner in a neighbourhood restaurant before an early night.
Our first new experience was Gill opening an account at a local self storage depot – I hope our sightseeing gets better than this as it was in a parking lot off the airport boundary road. A major issue was the receptionist trying to find Kent in his list of American states!! Even after Gill explained that Kent was in England, it still didn’t register. Gill’s idea of travelling light was to have two light bags rather than one heavy one. Ant is travelling with 13 kilos – and a dearth of clothes (see pic for Ant’s total seven week wardrobe…). Gill to be fair is travelling to Guatemala with a small backpack with only 14 kilos. She has left all but bare essentials in Miami, ready to be picked up for the rest of her trip. This is definitely they lightest we have ever travelled.
Miami airport has little going for it, so we were glad when we took off at 1pm for Guatemala City. It was a journey into the unknown, we had read such bad press, reinforced in Miami by a stranger in the bar telling us not to trust anyone when we got here, but what is life if not for adventure? From above, the urban sprawl and shanty towns of GC was not promising, however, we were taken aback by the shiny new airport and after the usual third world bureaucracy (which was more pleasant than Miami by the way) we were off. Both gaining a new pin!!
We had arranged transfers, and when we walked into the milling crowds looking for our names we found that we towered over everyone. We were giants in a land of midgets!! Consequently we spotted our names straight away!!! The city didn’t appear that bad, reminded Ant of a cleaner Kampala, with its rolling volcanic topography, low rise houses and tropical plants. 40 minutes later we pulled into Antigua, a Spanish colonial town from the 18th century, in a spectacular setting surrounded by steep sided mountains and three magnificent volcanoes – Agua, Fuego and Artanengo. The good news, two of the three are inactive – the bad news, yes you guessed it, Fuego is almost constantly spewing plumes of gas and ash high into the sky….
Home for the next week or so is to be Case Cristina, a modest pensione with charming and very clean rooms decorated in a less than minimalist style – probably best described as “high Central American Kitch”. We did however, have the best rooms – those on the third floor with a view of the volcanoes. This was the good news, the bad news was that this is one of the only three story buildings in town as they only build low-rise to help with the frequent earthquakes. So here we were towering above everything else (for the second time today). But bearing in mind the frequent earth tremors, the hotel could always rebrand itself as a place to stay where the saying “did the earth move for you darling?” has a whole new meaning……
One of the benefits of travelling at this time of year is that we get to ignore Christmas. Imagine our surprise that our first evening here in Antigua was a big Christmas festival. Streets full of locals singing carols, choirs, jolly Santa’s, nativity plays with horses, sheep and cows, even poinsettias everywhere – the works.
It was the crowds that gave us our first scare. Gill suddenly found herself surrounded by a bunch of well dressed women, who pretended not to hear her ask to pass. Then Gill discovered a hand in her bag. The Queen took over –Gill grabbed her hand and in her grandest voice demanded to know what she had taken!! Fortunately it was nothing, as Gill had got there first. A good lesson for us to be super careful. A Margarita replaced a sweet tea to help us with the shock!! This has taught both of us something – Gill to do without a handbag, and Ant not to be so relaxed and bloody invincible about security.
But on the surface it is a peaceful town (just ignore the guns….) so we fully expected a peaceful first night in our little haven after our long journey. What we got was a night punctuated with firecrackers, dogs barking, cockerels crowing and the best at 4 am and 5 am was the loudest church bells we have ever heard. They were the farthest from a tuneful bell ringing session on earth and so bad that Gill was convinced it was an early warning of the Fuego Volcano blowing its top that she spent the rest of the night anxiously checking it out through the window!
Within a few hours of arriving in Guatemala we had been the targets of an attempted robbery - but we are rushing ahead.
BA transported us from London to Miami in a ‘business-like’ manner and our first night of this round of adventures at La Quinta Inn – imagine a motel in Hounslow but where the lingua franca is espanol, but good practice for what was to come, we thought. A casual snack and some Argie wine for dinner in a neighbourhood restaurant before an early night.
Our first new experience was Gill opening an account at a local self storage depot – I hope our sightseeing gets better than this as it was in a parking lot off the airport boundary road. A major issue was the receptionist trying to find Kent in his list of American states!! Even after Gill explained that Kent was in England, it still didn’t register. Gill’s idea of travelling light was to have two light bags rather than one heavy one. Ant is travelling with 13 kilos – and a dearth of clothes (see pic for Ant’s total seven week wardrobe…). Gill to be fair is travelling to Guatemala with a small backpack with only 14 kilos. She has left all but bare essentials in Miami, ready to be picked up for the rest of her trip. This is definitely they lightest we have ever travelled.
Miami airport has little going for it, so we were glad when we took off at 1pm for Guatemala City. It was a journey into the unknown, we had read such bad press, reinforced in Miami by a stranger in the bar telling us not to trust anyone when we got here, but what is life if not for adventure? From above, the urban sprawl and shanty towns of GC was not promising, however, we were taken aback by the shiny new airport and after the usual third world bureaucracy (which was more pleasant than Miami by the way) we were off. Both gaining a new pin!!
We had arranged transfers, and when we walked into the milling crowds looking for our names we found that we towered over everyone. We were giants in a land of midgets!! Consequently we spotted our names straight away!!! The city didn’t appear that bad, reminded Ant of a cleaner Kampala, with its rolling volcanic topography, low rise houses and tropical plants. 40 minutes later we pulled into Antigua, a Spanish colonial town from the 18th century, in a spectacular setting surrounded by steep sided mountains and three magnificent volcanoes – Agua, Fuego and Artanengo. The good news, two of the three are inactive – the bad news, yes you guessed it, Fuego is almost constantly spewing plumes of gas and ash high into the sky….
Home for the next week or so is to be Case Cristina, a modest pensione with charming and very clean rooms decorated in a less than minimalist style – probably best described as “high Central American Kitch”. We did however, have the best rooms – those on the third floor with a view of the volcanoes. This was the good news, the bad news was that this is one of the only three story buildings in town as they only build low-rise to help with the frequent earthquakes. So here we were towering above everything else (for the second time today). But bearing in mind the frequent earth tremors, the hotel could always rebrand itself as a place to stay where the saying “did the earth move for you darling?” has a whole new meaning……
One of the benefits of travelling at this time of year is that we get to ignore Christmas. Imagine our surprise that our first evening here in Antigua was a big Christmas festival. Streets full of locals singing carols, choirs, jolly Santa’s, nativity plays with horses, sheep and cows, even poinsettias everywhere – the works.
It was the crowds that gave us our first scare. Gill suddenly found herself surrounded by a bunch of well dressed women, who pretended not to hear her ask to pass. Then Gill discovered a hand in her bag. The Queen took over –Gill grabbed her hand and in her grandest voice demanded to know what she had taken!! Fortunately it was nothing, as Gill had got there first. A good lesson for us to be super careful. A Margarita replaced a sweet tea to help us with the shock!! This has taught both of us something – Gill to do without a handbag, and Ant not to be so relaxed and bloody invincible about security.
But on the surface it is a peaceful town (just ignore the guns….) so we fully expected a peaceful first night in our little haven after our long journey. What we got was a night punctuated with firecrackers, dogs barking, cockerels crowing and the best at 4 am and 5 am was the loudest church bells we have ever heard. They were the farthest from a tuneful bell ringing session on earth and so bad that Gill was convinced it was an early warning of the Fuego Volcano blowing its top that she spent the rest of the night anxiously checking it out through the window!
BA transported us from London to Miami in a ‘business-like’ manner and our first night of this round of adventures at La Quinta Inn – imagine a motel in Hounslow but where the lingua franca is espanol, but good practice for what was to come, we thought. A casual snack and some Argie wine for dinner in a neighbourhood restaurant before an early night.
Our first new experience was Gill opening an account at a local self storage depot – I hope our sightseeing gets better than this as it was in a parking lot off the airport boundary road. A major issue was the receptionist trying to find Kent in his list of American states!! Even after Gill explained that Kent was in England, it still didn’t register. Gill’s idea of travelling light was to have two light bags rather than one heavy one. Ant is travelling with 13 kilos – and a dearth of clothes (see pic for Ant’s total seven week wardrobe…). Gill to be fair is travelling to Guatemala with a small backpack with only 14 kilos. She has left all but bare essentials in Miami, ready to be picked up for the rest of her trip. This is definitely they lightest we have ever travelled.
Miami airport has little going for it, so we were glad when we took off at 1pm for Guatemala City. It was a journey into the unknown, we had read such bad press, reinforced in Miami by a stranger in the bar telling us not to trust anyone when we got here, but what is life if not for adventure? From above, the urban sprawl and shanty towns of GC was not promising, however, we were taken aback by the shiny new airport and after the usual third world bureaucracy (which was more pleasant than Miami by the way) we were off. Both gaining a new pin!!
We had arranged transfers, and when we walked into the milling crowds looking for our names we found that we towered over everyone. We were giants in a land of midgets!! Consequently we spotted our names straight away!!! The city didn’t appear that bad, reminded Ant of a cleaner Kampala, with its rolling volcanic topography, low rise houses and tropical plants. 40 minutes later we pulled into Antigua, a Spanish colonial town from the 18th century, in a spectacular setting surrounded by steep sided mountains and three magnificent volcanoes – Agua, Fuego and Artanengo. The good news, two of the three are inactive – the bad news, yes you guessed it, Fuego is almost constantly spewing plumes of gas and ash high into the sky….
Home for the next week or so is to be Case Cristina, a modest pensione with charming and very clean rooms decorated in a less than minimalist style – probably best described as “high Central American Kitch”. We did however, have the best rooms – those on the third floor with a view of the volcanoes. This was the good news, the bad news was that this is one of the only three story buildings in town as they only build low-rise to help with the frequent earthquakes. So here we were towering above everything else (for the second time today). But bearing in mind the frequent earth tremors, the hotel could always rebrand itself as a place to stay where the saying “did the earth move for you darling?” has a whole new meaning……
One of the benefits of travelling at this time of year is that we get to ignore Christmas. Imagine our surprise that our first evening here in Antigua was a big Christmas festival. Streets full of locals singing carols, choirs, jolly Santa’s, nativity plays with horses, sheep and cows, even poinsettias everywhere – the works.
It was the crowds that gave us our first scare. Gill suddenly found herself surrounded by a bunch of well dressed women, who pretended not to hear her ask to pass. Then Gill discovered a hand in her bag. The Queen took over –Gill grabbed her hand and in her grandest voice demanded to know what she had taken!! Fortunately it was nothing, as Gill had got there first. A good lesson for us to be super careful. A Margarita replaced a sweet tea to help us with the shock!! This has taught both of us something – Gill to do without a handbag, and Ant not to be so relaxed and bloody invincible about security.
But on the surface it is a peaceful town (just ignore the guns….) so we fully expected a peaceful first night in our little haven after our long journey. What we got was a night punctuated with firecrackers, dogs barking, cockerels crowing and the best at 4 am and 5 am was the loudest church bells we have ever heard. They were the farthest from a tuneful bell ringing session on earth and so bad that Gill was convinced it was an early warning of the Fuego Volcano blowing its top that she spent the rest of the night anxiously checking it out through the window!
Within a few hours of arriving in Guatemala we had been the targets of an attempted robbery - but we are rushing ahead.
BA transported us from London to Miami in a ‘business-like’ manner and our first night of this round of adventures at La Quinta Inn – imagine a motel in Hounslow but where the lingua franca is espanol, but good practice for what was to come, we thought. A casual snack and some Argie wine for dinner in a neighbourhood restaurant before an early night.
Our first new experience was Gill opening an account at a local self storage depot – I hope our sightseeing gets better than this as it was in a parking lot off the airport boundary road. A major issue was the receptionist trying to find Kent in his list of American states!! Even after Gill explained that Kent was in England, it still didn’t register. Gill’s idea of travelling light was to have two light bags rather than one heavy one. Ant is travelling with 13 kilos – and a dearth of clothes (see pic for Ant’s total seven week wardrobe…). Gill to be fair is travelling to Guatemala with a small backpack with only 14 kilos. She has left all but bare essentials in Miami, ready to be picked up for the rest of her trip. This is definitely they lightest we have ever travelled.
Miami airport has little going for it, so we were glad when we took off at 1pm for Guatemala City. It was a journey into the unknown, we had read such bad press, reinforced in Miami by a stranger in the bar telling us not to trust anyone when we got here, but what is life if not for adventure? From above, the urban sprawl and shanty towns of GC was not promising, however, we were taken aback by the shiny new airport and after the usual third world bureaucracy (which was more pleasant than Miami by the way) we were off. Both gaining a new pin!!
We had arranged transfers, and when we walked into the milling crowds looking for our names we found that we towered over everyone. We were giants in a land of midgets!! Consequently we spotted our names straight away!!! The city didn’t appear that bad, reminded Ant of a cleaner Kampala, with its rolling volcanic topography, low rise houses and tropical plants. 40 minutes later we pulled into Antigua, a Spanish colonial town from the 18th century, in a spectacular setting surrounded by steep sided mountains and three magnificent volcanoes – Agua, Fuego and Artanengo. The good news, two of the three are inactive – the bad news, yes you guessed it, Fuego is almost constantly spewing plumes of gas and ash high into the sky….
Home for the next week or so is to be Case Cristina, a modest pensione with charming and very clean rooms decorated in a less than minimalist style – probably best described as “high Central American Kitch”. We did however, have the best rooms – those on the third floor with a view of the volcanoes. This was the good news, the bad news was that this is one of the only three story buildings in town as they only build low-rise to help with the frequent earthquakes. So here we were towering above everything else (for the second time today). But bearing in mind the frequent earth tremors, the hotel could always rebrand itself as a place to stay where the saying “did the earth move for you darling?” has a whole new meaning……
One of the benefits of travelling at this time of year is that we get to ignore Christmas. Imagine our surprise that our first evening here in Antigua was a big Christmas festival. Streets full of locals singing carols, choirs, jolly Santa’s, nativity plays with horses, sheep and cows, even poinsettias everywhere – the works.
It was the crowds that gave us our first scare. Gill suddenly found herself surrounded by a bunch of well dressed women, who pretended not to hear her ask to pass. Then Gill discovered a hand in her bag. The Queen took over –Gill grabbed her hand and in her grandest voice demanded to know what she had taken!! Fortunately it was nothing, as Gill had got there first. A good lesson for us to be super careful. A Margarita replaced a sweet tea to help us with the shock!! This has taught both of us something – Gill to do without a handbag, and Ant not to be so relaxed and bloody invincible about security.
But on the surface it is a peaceful town (just ignore the guns….) so we fully expected a peaceful first night in our little haven after our long journey. What we got was a night punctuated with firecrackers, dogs barking, cockerels crowing and the best at 4 am and 5 am was the loudest church bells we have ever heard. They were the farthest from a tuneful bell ringing session on earth and so bad that Gill was convinced it was an early warning of the Fuego Volcano blowing its top that she spent the rest of the night anxiously checking it out through the window!
