We’ve been in Guatemala two weeks today and seem to be making pretty good time. We’re doing a loop of the main attractions in Guatemala in just under a month. This is our third day in Livingston, having spent three days in Antigua, three days in Copan and three days in Rio Dulce.
Getting started
Once dropped off at LA airport, we encountered our first roadblock. We were told that our kitesurfing equipment was oversized (despite their website saying the equipment was okay) and it would have to go on standby – potentially delaying its arrival in Guatemala by 8 days. Not a good option as were were due to be in Rio Dulce, 7 hours from Guatemala by then. Thankfully no one messes with Matt when it comes to online content, and he stood his ground. Eventually the airline admitted their mistake and we, along with all our bags, flew through the night to Guatemala. 
We were picked up by private shuttle (our only luxury spend so far) and were driven to Antigua. The one hour trip was our first glimpse of the country and what now, two weeks on, seems normal was then very surreal. Pick up trucks whizzed past us on the motorway with over ten people in the back just hanging on. Women in traditional clothes carrying heavy baskets on their head walked side by side with people wearing all the latest clothes. Brightly coloured chicken buses stopped and packed more and more people on to them and every now and again McDonalds or Dominos would come into view.
Guatemala city itself is a haphazard place with buildings built one on top of another, hanging perilously to the edge of a cliff. It’s easy to see how destructive an earthquake can be here, where badly built shanty towns can just crumble down the many gorges the city is built on and around.
Antigua 
Antigua (full name Antigua Guatemala) is a town an hour west of the capital. Its name literally means old Guatemala, and was the original capital before numerous earthquakes and an uprising in the 1500s forced the administration to move Guatemala city to its present site. Antigua, with all its pretty colonial buildings, has remained very much unchanged. The streets are cobbled and its squares and churches all remain in the same traditional style. It is very touristy, which was a relief to us having just arrived in the country, but it doesn’t provide a very authentic experience despite all the beautiful surroundings. With the number of tourists come the usually trappings, with peddlers on every corner trying to sell you everything from wooden flutes to traditional scarfs and jewelry. They are quite persistent and will follow you down the road pushing more and more things at you. At night time, we were not encouraged to walk around as the streets become really quiet and dangerous. Antigua is also the place where my debit card was skimmed and $2000 USD was taken out in two separate $1000 amounts. I noticed it straight away and reported it to Kiwibank who immediately recognised it as fraud. Annoyingly they had to let the authorisation go through before they could follow it up but have reassured me that I’ll be fully refunded. They also had to cancel my card to ensure nothing was tried again and are sending the new one to the address we will be at in Venezuela. It did teach us to keep the balances our our cards down and only transfer money over as its needed. It also showed us that while a touristy place may feel familiar and therefore safer, that is often not the case. 
Pacaya volcano 
While in Antigua we took a shuttle Pacaya National Park to hike up the Pacaya Volcano. The pictures in the tourist offices showed people walking beside lava flows (and they conveniently haven’t changed the pictures) but since the 2010 eruption it is no longer safe, even by Guatemala standards, to get so close to the summit. As with everywhere in Guatemala people seem to scrape together a living from everything and anything. Locals offered horses to taxi you to the top and children rented you a walking stick for a dollar. The hike through natural bush was nice and we got to see some interesting native bush including wild coffee plants, but it is the view from the top that people really go for.
We arrived just before sunset and could see Pacaya Volcano smoking away above us. Across to the north was Volcan de Agua and Volcan de Acatenango. The terrain was not unlike the Tongariro Crossing, but without the Emerald Lakes. We also got to roast marshmallows and climb into some old lava caves. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves but can say it was a great introduction to the beautiful Guatemalan landscape.