I've been studying some more Spanish for a week in the Guatemalan town of Antigua. The town is smack bang in the middle of no less than three volcanoes, one of them very active (it showered some tourists with hot rocks a couple of weeks ago). I should be bored of volcanoes by now, but every time I looked at the horizon I was blown away.
The town is a lovely Colonial affair, with cobbled streets and beautiful buildings.
It is also a good place to learn Salsa so we thought we'd go to a free class. There were fewer girls than we'd expected. My salsa skills improved 2%.
My teacher, a fiery old lady called Julia, was quite strict! She also doesn't like anyone outside Guatemala. In fact, she doesn't really like anyone outside Antigua. All foreigners are either thieves, or come to Guatemala to take all the jobs from the local people... Anyway, her methods seem to work - by the end of the week I've noticed a big improvement. I can actually use the past tense properly now. This is me and Neal playing scrabble in Spanish. Julia absolutely destroyed us.
Next up was the beach, Monterrico to be exact, for some more turtle watching. You can never get enough turtle watching. The journey was ridiculous - chicken buses to Escuintla, Taxisco, Agua Dulce and a boat to Monterico. We arrived just in time to adopt a baby turtle and set it free into the sea!
They all looked slightly evil so I named mine Syrius.
As he flopped his way along the sand towards the beach, I had a tear in my eye. It's hard when the kids grow up and leave home to make their way in the world.
That night we went searching for turtles laying their eggs. We finally found one and watched in amazement as it popped out about 100 eggs in the space of five minutes. After covering up its nest and stamping the sand down, it headed back to sea. Well, it tried to. It actually got confused and had to be picked up and turned around by a volunteer - no small job when the thing weighs about 80kg!
We headed off the next day to Lago Atitlan, where I am writing from now. This required taking buses to Iztapa, San Jose, Escuintla, Patulul, Santiago de Atitlan and a boat to San Pedro de Atitlan! That makes it eight buses and two boats in 48 hours, not a bad effort. The lake is stunning though, and I'm planning to take in more of the scenery from above with a paragliding flight! I'll let you know how it goes...
The large church La Merced in Antigua.
Not really sure what's going on here...
Volcanoes everywhere you look!
Some pimped up chicken buses.
The sun sets as we release baby turtles into the sea - I don't get to do that very often in London.
Me and the boys in turtle releasing mode.
Flapping back after a tiring journey.
I'll leave you with another image of Syrius.
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