Semana Santa went very well. My family came to visit, namely my mom, Kate and my cousin, Jennifer. Jennifer arrived a few days before my mom and she arranged to be picked up by the Earth Lodge in Antigua where she stayed the first few days. I picked my mom up on Saturday, March 27 at the airport in Guatemala City. Whoa, what an adventure that was! There did not seem to be any driving rules enforced the whole trip from Coban to the city, and on top of that, Guatemala City is hard to navigate. I probably stopped at 10 gas stations asking for directions to the airport – the google maps I printed did not help a great deal.
It worked out though. We met Jennifer in Antigua at the hotel (I reserved at least a month in advance) Santa Lucia Numero 3. I was glad that they had a garage in which to park Fr. Bernie’s truck. We found a traditional dinner that was very good. The next day we climbed the volcano, Pacaya, with a friend of Fr. Bernie’s we met at the wedding of Carlos Estrada’s son. Carlos is a very close friend of Fr. Bernie. Alejandro de la Riva is the friend of Fr. Bernie we met at the wedding, where he was showing us on a cell phone youtube videos he had taken of himself on the volcano. There was one scene where there was a wide river of lava, into which he threw a large rock, and then used the rock as a stepping stone to cross the river of lava. We agreed that we would not do anything that daring when my mom and cousin went on the trip. We had a great time, we got to see the lava flowing well, and we even cooked chorizos over a hot spot up there.
After seeing the lava close enough and hearing volcanic gases blowing out of the mountain like air out of a whale, we had to head back so we could make it to the Biotopo de Quetzal in Purulha, Baja Verapaz that same night. Alejandro and his daughter, Mariale, were hoping we could stay until dusk so we could see more of the contrast in the lava’s glow versus the evening, but it was glowing pretty brightly even during the day time.
Near Purulha, we stayed at the Ram Tzul hotel, which was pretty much all made of bamboo, so that was cool. We left fairly early the next morning in search of Quetzales, Guatemala’s national bird. The 4 km hike was beautiful. We wanted to see the waterfall Chilasco, but did not have enough time. However, there was a waterfall in the Biotopo as well, so it worked out. We did not end up seeing a Quetzal, which made me appreciate even more seeing one in Costa Rica some years back. I did now realize how rare it is to see a Quetzal.
