Antigua, the colonial city, and Pacaya, the active volcano

After our 20h layover in Florida we finally arrived to Ciudad de Guatemala. We took a shuttle from the airport to Antigua. During the drive we met Cecilia, a chilean girl who was travelling alone. She explained us the wonders of using couchsurfing. She was supposed to stay with a couchfriend in Antigua but she couldn't contact him. She decided to stay at the same hostel as us, Hostal Antigua.

We spent the whole day with her. We had lunch in a very cheap place (our lunch cost Q40 for both, $6!!!). We visited the Mercado de Artesanías and we had a hot cocoa at Cafe Condesa. The guatemalan chocolate is delicious!

Antigua is a colonial city with cobbled streets, colorful houses and lots of churches in ruins due to the earthquake in the 18th century. Most of the city has been restored and it is very well suited for tourism.

The day after we hiked the Pacaya volcano. Antigua is surounded by four volcanoes and Pacaya is the most active. Its last eruption was on May 27 2010! You can still see the smoking lava that is covering part of the fields in the valley. The holes were so hot that we were able to cook marshmellows!

While hiking we met Danny, who was an orthodontist from NY. He had a really interesting personal story as he had lived in Israel and Valencia for quite a long time. In fact he was translating what the guide was explaining in Spanish to Hebrew and English. Now we know where to go if we have a tooth problem in NY!

Next Stop: Lago Atitlán