Guatemala Part 2: Volcanoes and Beyond

The day that Michelle and I booked our tickets to Guatemala in May, we were SO excited about our upcoming trip!  Little did we know that a volcano was erupting that very day not far from the very touristy Antigua! And that's not all, then the country was hit by Hurricane Agatha, which made cleaning up all the ash that had come raining down very difficult (and as we later learned when trying to reach Lake Atitlan, it also caused lots of landslides that closed many roads).  Its good we didn't know about these catastrophes before we booked the flight, because that way we didn't have to reconsider--we just went and I'm glad we did!

Here we are on 21-day old lava that not long before then was flowing out of the Pacaya volcano!  It was cool enough to walk on, and felt a little like a pumice stone.  It was a little hot in some spots; behind us in this photo is a lot of steamy, stinky sulfur.  In other spots our guide dug into the lava a little and found the glowing red you think of...and it started his walking stick on fire!

The river of volcano charged right through a pineapple field, destroying the crop, except for some plants that were left untouched.  Our guide chopped off the outside so we could enjoy some freshly picked fruit! YUM. 

 

After a few days in Antigua, we left for the Atlantic Coastal town of Livingston, which has a more Caribbean feel. 

 

This amazing hammock hut was on the dock at our hotel; pretty sweet!

 And I was always happy waking up in the morning to a breakfast of fresh fruit, panqueqeus, and Guatemalan coffee all served with the gorgeous colorful traditional fabric for napkins.  What a life.