Antigua

There was one reason and one reason only for going to Antigua – to climb the volcano.   The plan was to climb the dormant Volcán Acatenago, which is right next door to Volcán Fuego, an active volcano.  From Acatenago you can often see eruptions and lava flows on Fuego from a safe distance.  But Acatenago is no joke – you climb for 6-8 hours then camp at 11,000 feet and wake up at 4am the next morning to summit to 13,000 feet.

I’d called ahead to OX Adventures, an outfitter who runs more tours on Acatenago than anyone else, and got the go-ahead to bring along the kid and the dog and also hire a porter to help schlep all of our stuff since we’d be trading off carrying Nina.   So we booked a tour on December 30th and also booked a room in Antigua for 4 nights.  Once we arrived we started paying close attention to the weather forecast and got really nervous about the prognosis for the 30th – it was “mostly cloudy” with dropping temps and a solid chance of rain.  If it’s cloudy, you don’t see anything at all, including the ground in front of you and much less the neighboring volcano.  If it’s cold and rainy, you have a 100% chance of aggressive whining, the worst of which might not even be from the 3-year-old.

We stopped into the OX Adventures office where the gal at the front desk informed us that her manager was getting nervous too…..not about the weather, but about bringing along a kid and a dog on what had become a fully booked tour of 40 people.   Supposedly the manager was worried that in a low-oxygen environment some people might be allergic to Ted and have troubles.  The supply chain professional in me peeked out long enough to not buy any of that crap.  We later learned there are dogs all over that mountain, just like literally everywhere in Guatemala.  But because we were already concerned about the weather we let ourselves get pushed instead into a half-day hike on Volcán Pacaya, an active volcano with easier access and lower altitude.  That’s the one you can roast marshmallows over a lava tube on.  Nina was in.

 

We did the Pacaya hike the next day, on Day 2.   I was pretty annoyed because I don’t love tourist centers or cities or spending top dollar on lodging and food – Antigua is all of those things – and we were stuck there for another couple days because we pre-booked the hotel.  It’s not like it’s terrible, it’s a gorgeous city that was once the Spanish colonial capital of Central America.  It’s just teeming with tourists.  We made the most of our extra time there and on Day 3 went rock climbing back near Volcán Pacaya at a spot called Lake Amatitlan (not to be confused with Lake Atitlan).

 

On a light note, Nina totally bonded with the parrot named Paco at our hotel.  The same parrot awoke the whole damn place at 7:00am sharp every day and personally, I had murder on the mind.  But Nina and Paco were two peas in a pod.

 

On Day 4 we checked out and drove back to Panajachel at Lake Atitlan.  Why, you may ask?  To pay our second “idiot tax” of the trip.  On our first day at Villa Eggedel when we left the room we hid our valuables and Dmitri stashed my wallet on top of the kitchen cabinets.  He showed me that he’d done that.  Then we both forgot completely about it until we arrived in Antigua.  So.  Back to Lake Atitlan we went to pick up the wallet before moving on.  It’s worth noting that we really enjoyed being back there, even for just one day to run an errand.  There’s just a lovely energy.

The only negative part came from the fact that our day in Panajachel marked the second day Ted was throwing up, having diarrhea, and refusing food.  We found canned pumpkin, a known natural remedy for tummy problems in dogs, and which he loved and ate well last time he had a stomach bug back at home.  He barely touched it.  We decided to get to our next major stop, Cobán, and if he still didn’t feel better we’d take him to the vet.  It was tough seeing our big baby feeling under the weather.