Back at home
Antigua was nice: low colourful buildings, cobblestone streets, a very nice green plaza in the city center, two big markets where you can find just about anything, loads of gringos who spend their time in spanish and salsa schools, the famous arch, and surrounded by volcanoes.
I met some nice people on the road from San Pedro to Antigua, with whom I climbed volcano Pacaya on my last day. That’s an absolutely amazing thing to do by the way. About a two hour walk, of which the last part -climbing the actual crater- is the hardest. Once at the top you have a view on Guatemala City, the other volcanoes, sulphur minerals and fumes, amazing volcanic rock formations, and not to forget the crater of the volcano itself. Volcano Pacaya is quite active, and out of the crater the volcano constantly spews hot pieces of red/orange lava high into the air - obviously we couldn’t get too close to this spectacle. It’s an amazing thing to see and hear. It was the first active volcano I ever saw or climbed, and it was very very impressive.
And the day after that I flew back. After 26 hours of buses, airplanes, trains, and a lot of waiting, I found myself back in Amsterdam again. It’s so surrealistic to be in The Netherlands again. Everything is so familiar, too familiar perhaps. Heaps of mail awaited my arrival, and since the day I came back I’ve been taking care of a lot of administrative stuff regarding university and so on. Tomorrow my lectures start again. From the easy life of a traveller back to the life of the uni student. They are two different worlds. I can’t say I would mind if I would still be in Central America right now. There’s just so much to see, one could easily spend an entire year making one’s way from Mexico down to Argentina.
But then again, I can’t complain. I’ve had two absolutely brilliant months in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, and have seen and done so many things, met so many people… If anything, my trip really has made me appreciate nature: the roaring ocean on the pacific coast with its virgin beaches, the underwater life in the Carribean reefs, the jungle with all its inhabitants and secrets, mountains, lakes, rivers, volcanoes… Wow, it was all very amazing and I can recommend anyone to visit the region if you haven´t yet. I know I will definitely go back one day..!!
James
