We spent 10 days studying Spanish in Antigua, a picturesque colonial town just outside of Guatemala City. It was the original capital of Guatemala until a series of big earthquakes knocked most of it down.

The day we arrived a tropical storm rolled in and decided to stay for the duration of our time in Antigua, and everyday we were impressed with Antigua’s sewer systems capacity to hold water, lesser cities would have sunk!

On our first Sunday in Antigua we decided to visit the famous Chichicastenango market which is a must see on any Central American trip. Originally a hot trading spot for Mayans back in the day, it has continued every Sunday to set up stalls and take over the city. In order to get to Chichi from Antigua you have two options, pay $20 and take a mini bus, or pay $3 and take a two chicken buses… we opted for option B. We started at 5 am and anxiously climbed aboard the decked out school bus. We booked it through the narrow windy streets as dogs and early risers leaped out of the way.

The bus ride to Chichi was fairly tame in comparison to the bus ride back in the afternoon. On the way back they packed 80 plus people into a school bus designed for 40! At breakneck speeds with only flimsy PVC piping to keep us standing upright (we weren’t lucky enough to get seats) did we mention that it was a 3 hour bus ride on a mountainous highway that was under serious construction at the time on a road where solid lines and speed limits seemed to be merely suggestions?

It seemed to us that the name chicken bus must have derived its name, not for the number of people that it packs on, or the numerous animals that share the ride, but rather the game of chicken the bus drivers seem to enjoy playing with every possible vehicle and pedestrian they can! This wasn’t our first chicken bus and it won’t be our last, but so far it has been THE most terrifying thing we have done so far… all for cost of $3!

The main reason for visiting Antigua is that it is famous for its Spanish schools, so we both had 4 hour private Spanish lessons with Pedro switching up mornings and afternoon lessons. With only half the day taken up with lessons we were left with ample time to explore the city, read, nap, develop a caffeine addiction to the most glorious coffee this side of paradise, watch the rain, get a fungal infection in the intestine… etc

During our time in Antigua we stayed with a Guatemalan family. We were pretty nervous at first, but it ended up being one of the best decisions we have made thus far. The family was amazing, they only spoke Spanish but they welcomed us immediately and made us feel part of the family. Patty the mom took us under her wing, made us special Guatemalan delicacies and chat with us after dinner.

At first Claire and I did a lot of smiling and nodding, understanding one out of every 10 words, by the end of our stay however we were making jokes and holding up conversations. The kids were pretty awesome too, we helped them with their English homework, invented snoopy soccer, and teased them about their new haircuts.

In the last week of our stay in Antigua Patty joked that the house was more of a hospital than a homestay. Four of the five students were bedridden (nothing to do with the family, all injuries were self inflicted) Mike the Brit had to have an emergency root canal that put him out for a couple of days. The two girls from the States Summer and Diane went away to the Pacific coast for the weekend to get away from the rain for awhile and came back with food poisoning for Summer and second and third degree burns for Diane from sun exposure. Claire had to top them all and ended up with a fungal infection in her intestine that left her OUT for 5 days unable to keep down even crackers! 300Q poorer, 4 different types of antibiotics, anti nausea etc for 10 days and Claire is now right as rain!

Antigua was beautiful, the family was amazing and Pedro taught us a lot , but after 10 days of rain we were both jonesing for some sun. Before we could leave Antigua we had to visit one of the many active volcanos.

The chance to hike up an active volcano and poke lava was too much to resist. So we managed another early morning rise and long bus ride to the volcano. The hike up was more strenuous than we had anticipated, and halfway up we regretted not opting for the horseback option. The hike took about an hour and half to reach the lava, the summit of the volcano was too active to go all the way up that day so we missed out on the last 200 meters. However, it was hot enough where we were that we didn’t mind too much!

The lava bursting out of the top of the volcano sounded like a 747 passing overhead, combined with the lava oozing only a few feet from us, made us feel like we were on a different planet. Our fellow hikers had anticipated the heat and brought marshmallows to roast on the lava (delicious earth crust taste)

The Moltan rock that we were walking on was only 20 days old and maybe a meter and a half from the active lava below (we could feel the heat through our shoes) As we scrambled over the sharp uneven rock we could see only a few feet away red hot lava oozing down the black crusted rock. It was incredible to be that close, and so hot that we could only spend a few minutes close to the free flowing lava.

Before our climb we bought some hiking sticks from the local kids and when we got the lava field we proceeded to poke the exposed lava, at which point our sticks would burst into flame! SO COOL. The whole experience was pretty damn cool, though on reflection probably not something we would do again…

Once we had seen the volcano and drunk as much coffee as we could handle we jetted off to sunny San Pedro a few hours away to get some sun and lake fun before skipping over to Honduras.