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I spent my last week in Central America in the colonial Guatemalan town of Antigua, a city that centuries ago served as the early capital of the country and remains a link to the past. Cobblestoned streets, horsedrawn carriages, and a central park featuring a classic fountain all contribute to a charm that attracts travelers from all over the world. The opportunity to study Spanish and stay with a Guatemalan family for around $100/week lures hordes of students to the more than seventy schools that densely populate this city which can be walked in twenty minutes. Day trips to four nearby volcanoes, salsa and merengue lessons, and a nearby experimental macadamia farm can easily fill your afternoons for a week or more. Undoubtedly, Antigua has much to offer.

My Guatemalan family served me food, gave me keys to the house, and turned over a fairly large room to me. When first introduced to my family, I noticed that my new home was also a restaurant, which gave me some hope that the bland “typical” meals of recent weeks would become more exciting. However, meals, even including breakfasts, typically consisted of beans, rice, and potatoes, with little variation, and I wondered how they could subsist on such unimaginative fare. Mealtimes though were quite lively from the chirping caged bird in the corner, the biting parrot that couldn’t talk, and the adorable one-year-old who made it plainly known when she liked or disliked some aspect of the meal. At times, I was tempted to act in a similar manner.

Although I had vaguely remembered promising myself that I would never again summit a volcano after doing so in Chile, I apparently forgot the reason for that sentiment. While hiking up toward the top of the Pecaya Volcano, my guide casually related stories of the more recent eruptions (in the last three months) and how he laughed as his tourists madly dashed downhill. I chuckled nervously with him while no longer breathing through my nose as the smell of sulfur intensified. Finally reaching the top, I was rewarded with rewarding views of both the surrounding landscape of volcanoes that were somewhat visible when not blocked by substantial cloud cover, and the interior of the volcano, in which I could see the bright orange glow of lava. Again, galloping down the volcano turned out to be one of the highlights just before witnessing one of the finer sunsets in all of Central America.

A more laid back activity took me to an “experimental” macadamia farm on the outskirts of Antigua. After listening to the spiel about how this farm promoted the aims of tree huggers and watching the locals de-shell the nuts using a patented technology that included a lawnmower motor and a tractor tire, I was treated to an all macadamia breakfast with macadamia pancakes on which I poured macadamia syrup and spread macadamia butter. Quite tasty. Let’s plant more trees.

The final leg of my trip brought me to northern Guatemala, a jungle region inhabited by few people but containing some history of the Mayans, most accessible at their city named Tikal. Along with two other Americans, I hurried toward the tallest Mayan temple to watch the sunrise. After making a substantial climb to reach the top of Temple IV (the first of many such exercises of the day as this was necessary to explore most of the ruins), I could look out over most of the other significant sites and tried to envision what it must have been like in the height of Mayan existence over 1,500 years ago. The temples were impressive however the wildlife was more captivating. From the moment I entered the park, I could hear the forest coming to life to start a new day. Howler monkeys were leaving no doubt that they were appropriately named. Dozens of species of birds could be seen whizzing by and could be heard calling their mates a few trees away. These elements combined to make Tikal a mystical place in which you can spend quite a lot of time just absorbing the surrounding energies and contemplating the meaning and usage of each structure that has endured a far longer time than you can comprehend.

This concludes my travels in Latin America for the time being. I hope you enjoyed living through me once again, and I expect to do the same through you someday soon.

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