We got up relatively early and got ready to go for a run, well Luke and I did, Christine who was starving after sleeping through last nights dinner was heading down to the Baja California Grill for breakfast. Luke and I jogged the loop that I jogged yesterday, this time we did it in reverse so that we jogged up the mountain first rather than leaving it until last, I had learnt my lesson after leaving it until last yesterday, it had damn near killed me. We once again stopped at the lookout so that we could take a couple of spectacular photographs and then jogged back through the town. As we were jogging through the town we said hello to everyone we passed, I can assure you they were thoroughly surprised to see a couple of foreigners jogging through their town. We finished our run and met up with Christine at the restaurant.

Our first drone footage

We ate our breakfast, said our goodbyes to the staff and then caught a tuk-tuk down to the public dock so we could take a drone shot of the village. Alas having only recently purchased the drone and not having had a great deal of opportunity to play with it, we only got some of the footage, as I failed to check that it was actually recording. We started with a drony shot, one of the pre-programmed shots, and then I had flown it right out into the lake, chased one of the boats and then brought it back in. We captured the drony shot and the last few minuets of the flight where we were landing the drone as I had actually hit record, when I thought I had hit the stop recording button. Thankfully we became better with the drone as we continued with the trip.

Journey to Antigua Guatemala

We trouped back to the Pescador Hotel collected our gear, said our goodbyes and then started our journey to Antigua Guatemala. We back tracked out of Lake Atitlan via the same path we had come in on. This time we filmed as we drove through the causeway at the bottom of the windy road. I was still struggling a little with the concept of driving consistently on the right hand side of the road, having said that I only made one error on a u turn bay where I took the one ment for the people coming from the left to the right rather than than right to left, thankfully the bay was wide and I was able to rectify this situation rapidly with only one person honking and yelling at me out of the window of their car. 

We arrived in Antigua at about lunch time, we scoped the joint out and found a carpark. I was slowly getting used to giving way to my left and turning right onto a roundabout, I still hesitated slightly at intersections, this would come to save our lives, but that is a story for the next blog. We parked and walked back to a group of restaurants that Luke had discovered using his phone. We selected a beetles themed place that was selling curries. The food was absolutely sensational. 

The fresh food markets

Once we had eaten our food we decided to go in search of a food market so that we could pick up some fresh food for the next couple of days. We asked a number of people for directions and navigated our way to one of the biggest markets I have ever seen, it was about a hectare undercover and I am pretty sure they had everything there you could ever want. We set about tracking down various ingredients to cook up for dinner. We picked up some steaks and a stack of vegetables. We used all of the Spanish that we had chatting to the vendors, asking for directions and navigating our way around the market. 

The Air BnB

Once we had our supplies we made our way back to the accomodation to cook it all up. The accomodation was a cosy little two bedroom place with a small kitchen dining area, a lounge area and a small bathroom. The place also had hot water which was a winner after taking cold showers over the last couple of days. We cooked dinner, wrote in our journals, edited videos, did our Duolingo and chatted about our adventures so far.

Guatemala Day 7

The Santa Catalina Arch

We got up really early with the plan to go into Antigua and take a drone shot at the famous Santa Catalina Arch with it’s stunning volcano backdrop. We had no trouble finding a carpark as there were not a lot of people out early. We quickly located the Santa Catalina Arch and found that there was already a drone operating there. It belonged to a Brazilian Lady named Deborah who asked us a stack of questions about our drone and its features when she found out that we had the same variety. A few minutes later an English couple came along and it had turned into a drone convention. We all had a play with our drones and took some really cool video of the arch and it’s inhabitants at that hour of the day. Once we had taken our drone shots and swapped our details we then scouted out the next famous site on our hit list, this was the Cathedral de Guatemala and was only a short walk from the Santa Catalina Arch. We wandered over and asked if we would be able to use the drone in the Cathedral, the ticketing office said that was no problem, we paid our admission and proceeded to get some cracking good footage from inside the ruins of the cathedral. We took a drony shot inside the building and then flew the drone out through the roof so that we could capture the building in context. 

By this time it was mid morning and we were absolutely famished from our adventures so far. We tracked down some eggs and then went in search of our car. We made our way back to the accomodation and cooked up some breakfast. We used the rice and vegetables left over from last night, we cooked eggs to go over the top and added avocado on the side. 

Hobbitenango and the Hand of Gold

We cleaned up, showered off and then made our way up the mountain to Hobbitenango where we were going to take some photos and video on the Hand of Gold. The journey to the top traversed some of the most hair raising roads that we had come across so far. The roads were so steep that the vehicle would periodically loose traction, every bend was a hairpin one, most of the road was only one car width wide and there was a high chance that you would encounter a yellow bus coming the other way. When we finally reached the car park at Hobbitenango we found that the park was going to be closed from 2pm to prepare for the New Years Eve Celebrations. Having said that the Hand was still open so that we could take photographs, but the clouds had rolled in and completely obscured the view. We decided that since we had come all this way, we should get a photograph on the hand anyway and that is exactly what we did, I now have a photograph of myself standing on the Hand of Gold surrounded by the thickest fog you have ever seen. 

Once we were done admiring the clouds from up close, we found a cafe and drank a couple of hot chocolates to keep us energised for our descent down the mountain. I used the gearbox to slow our descent down the mountain so in the end it actually wasn’t as bad as the ascent. 

When we got back to Antigua we went in search of a gym but found that just like Hobbitenango everything was closed in preparation for the New Years Eve celebrations. So we made our way back to the accomodation and cooked up some dinner. 

New Year’s Eve In Antigua Guatemala

In the evening Luke and I decided to go into the Antigua to see what festivities they had going on for New Years Eve. The main square had been decked out with a huge stage where they were going to have live performances. We had walked most of the way to Antigua before we finally managed to get an Uber to collect us, we chatted with the Uber driver on the way in to the square. We made the right decision in not taking the car as the place was packed there were huge queues of traffic trying to get in. 

When we arrived the main square was absolutely pumping with a DJ, lights and sporadic fireworks going off. We listened to the DJ for a bit and then went in search of a bar. We found one bar where they wanted G100 each just to get in, another one had a huge line that didn’t seem to be moving. It was at this point that Luke remembered that you can just buy a beer from most of the corner stores. We asked if we could drink our beer in the main square and the store attendant said that that was no problem. We picked up our beers and wandered back to the square where we met up with Deborah, the Brazilian lady from this morning, and a huge crew of tourists from all corners of the globe that she had managed to cobble together during the day. We chatted with these guys until the music stopped so that people could go and eat. We had a second beer and waited for the music to restart. A singer came at around 10:30pm or so and started singing some good easy listening music. We listened to a couple of songs and then caught an Uber back to the accomodation. 

On the ride home Luke and I discussed the rising costs of housing in Australia and compared it to the opportunities that we had seen in places like Mexico and Guatemala. I can assure you that there is a lot of opportunity in Latin America the whole place is moving ahead rapidly. Places like Guatemala have a ways to go but there are plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurial types. It would be very interesting to see what Guatemala looks like on the coast where they are just starting to promote themselves as a surfing destination.