The Land of Fuego: Adventures in Guatemala: Day 1

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Hello and welcome back!

Today we'll recap my first full day in Antigua, getting the feel for the city and area.

My first night was a bit rough. I was still a bit off balance, as it being my first time in central America and the area I was staying in was a bit of a favela feeling area. Most of the night I heard stray animals fighting and cats jumping on tin roofs. Beyond the noise, it was tough listening to animals fighting and potentially hurting. But I managed to get some sleep and wake up fairly early.

The first thing I did when I got up was head to the roof of the home to look at the volcanos, as being at an elevated area compared to the main area of Antigua, this one of the few areas you can see them well. 

This was my first time seeing an active and erupting volcano. It was an incredible moment, as I stood in awe watching the plumes of smoke shoot up into the sky. After watching a couple of eruptions, I got ready to head out and get my first daytime feel for the city.

As I mentioned, I was staying just out of the main city, so I had to cross this main street everyday which usually had a constant traffic flow, no stop signs or traffic lights, so a bit tedious. After crossing, I made my way to the main square, getting a feel for the area.

After a short walk, I was in the main square.

It was still fairly early, and the morning light was beautiful. And it really shined as I approached the park.

The park, especially in this light, was magical. After spending a little time here, I started to feel a lot more comfortable.

After spending some time here, I began to explore some more to get my bearings. At the bar the night before I was told about the main market and started to make my way there.

Just about every street was picturesque. And after a little walking I made it to the market. The market consisted of an outer walking ring, and a dense inner market that was mostly sheltered. I got lost inside more than a few times.

I'm still fairly new to street style photography, and still not very comfortable taking photos of strangers, especially in foreign places (and especially when I don't speak the language), but this place was such a beautiful place, and the opportunity to capture this slice of life here was too tempting. 

After spending some time making a couple laps on the outer market, I headed into the narrow paths of the inner sheltered market and followed whatever paths caught my eye till I was lost.

After getting lost for a bit, I eventually found my way out. There's also the main bus station behind the market, which I checked out briefly, but we'll come back and talk more about that later. But here's a quick peak of a "chicken bus".

After exploring there, I headed towards the center of the city and walked around that area for a bit.

After walking around for quite a few hours I had a pretty good understanding of most of the city layout, but it was getting late and I was getting hungry. As I've probably mentioned, I'm not much of a food person and I knew there was a very cool McDonalds here, so I headed that way. On the way, I ran into a few more cool buses.

I got to McDonalds and the prices were pretty cheap, so I got a few McFlurries and other snacks as I killed some time and too in the views. And the view was pretty amazing in the outside court yard of Vulcan Agua, but it was still pretty socked in the clouds as it had been the whole day.

And pretty much across the street from McDonalds was Little Caesars, and I saw that a whole pizza was only about 4$. I feel Little Caesars is super underrated, and I know, I'm in Antigua eating all this American fast food, judge me. So I decided I'd head over to see how it was later. Since it was getting dark out, I wanted to make sure I got some bottled water back to the house first, as the tap water isn't drinkable.

So I headed back North towards where I was staying and just went into the first little shop I saw. I didn't have local currency yet, and the girl told me she'd take dollars, so I grabbed a couple bottles of water and a snack. It came out to 8$. I handed her the money, and she began to inspect it carefully. She then handed it back and told me it was too damaged to accept. Apparently the banks there won't accept bills that are too worn or damaged. Luckily I had a fresh 20$ bill and she accepted that. I dropped off the supplies and headed back out to see the town at night. And it was beautiful.

I went back to the main park area, and there was a guy playing beautiful saxophone music. The weather and temperature was perfect, the lighting was perfect, the ambience and music was perfect; everything was perfect. I sat there for a bit and just took it all in. Then I started worrying again about my big upcoming hike and if I'm actually ready for it..

It was about time to call it a night so I could get up even earlier tomorrow, but first, I had to make one last stop.

Yeah. I got the Hot N Ready at Little Caesars. I used my credit card, and strangely they asked for my ID to check for my 4$ pizza, but I guess that's just protocol. I walked out with my pizza and headed home to eat and head to bed.

So that was a quick recap of my first day in Antigua. I hope you enjoyed it and the photos. Let me know, what did you think? What did you find interesting? Did you have any favorite photos?

Look forward to hearing from you, and stay tuned for the next instalment!

Til next time,

Sean

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