Antigua

Volcan Acatenango

Last week my friend James Ray and his family came down to visit us and lucky for me he wanted to hike a volcano. We checked online a little and found a trail that goes to the top of the third tallest volcano in Guatemala at 12,946 feet. The trailhead is about 1 1/2 hours from my house if you leave at 4 am when there is no traffic. The trail starts at the base of the volcano at about 7,900 feet and they said it only takes 4 to 6 hours to climb to the top. We started hiking at sunrise and sure enough we made it to the top in 5 hours. At about 8,500 feet we started to see frost, and we saw patches of frost the rest of the way to the top. We had a very clear and cool mourning but by the time we got to the top it was very windy and the clouds were forming and blowing in. The volcano last erupted in 1927 and now there is just a big crater up top and the lava rock turned into sand.                                                                                                                                                  Looking down on Volcan Agua

On a Sunday drive.

You have to love this country. As we drove around on this beautiful Sunday, we found this bridge that had half fallen into the river. The one bank had washed away and that side of the bridge sank. So being the smart people they are, they only fixed what was necessary ( THE ONE HALF )! Of course I had to drive over it even though they had some kind of weight limit signs up.

A day with the little kites in the town of Sumpango

Every year they have contests for the nicest kite and also for the best flying kite. They spend the day eating in the graveyard with the dead, flying kites, listening to loud music, and relaxing. The whole town is one big festival with all kinds of venders with crafts and more food then you can shake a stick at (which is good). They do not fly the great big kites but they fly kites that are about 24 feet across. It takes a lot of work to get the kites high enough so that they stay up for a long time. This time only one stayed up and all the others only went up to about 100 to 200 feet and then fell down ( ON THE PEOPLE ).