Antiqua - Part II

Day 1 – Volcanos – Indians Nose - Geology Lesson!

It was a very early start today as we had booked a trip with an English geologist that takes you up the mountains and explains the volcanic history of this area,  we had been recommended this trip by a couple in the Snug Bar.  So, it was a 4am wake up alarm and once ready we had to wake the night watchman in reception to let us out of the building.

We walked to the top of the path and waited for Matt to pick us up, he turned up in his 4x4 just after 4.30am and he introduced himself and his dog, spike, who liked to come along on these tours.  Getting into his jeep we then drove for around 20 minutes along bumpy roads and passing small villages, where Matt gave us information about them and the trades they traditionally did there.

When we entered one of the villages Matt parked up and we got out whilst he got prepared for the hike, this included putting on a very large machete which was slightly worrying.  Although he said it was for protection he said he has never had any problems or been involved in a machete fight!! (there are reports of being attacked on some of the hike trails around Guatemala)

Leaving the village, we started off on a dark path and started to climb to The Indians Nose, which was a large mountain overlooking the lake and when viewed from a distance it had the profile of a face. Walking along with torches to illuminate the way we gradually started to climb with Spike chasing back and forwards past us, Matt was very informative along the way.

Climbing for about 45 minutes we reached a point known as the Indians Moustache where we stopped for a breather.  Matt told us this is where most of the organised tours stopped but you didn’t get a full view of the lake and we were going to the top.

After a small rest, we then headed up for about another 20 minutes until we reached the peak, The Indians Nose, it’s odd that the tour parties don’t come this little bit further (there were only three other people here).  Once at the top Matt produced a flask of coffee and then he let us settle down to watch the sunrise over the lake and volcano’s, of which there were several.

 

As we sat there enjoying the view we suddenly saw the nearest active volcano’s blowing out a few puffs of ash, although it wasn’t quite the eruption we were hoping for, but nice to see none the less.  We sat and watched the volcano and sunrise for about 30 minutes until Matt said it was time for our lesson.

Matt then started to tell us all about how volcanoes are formed and the different types.  Using a stick, he drew various diagrams and timeline in the dirt and gave us a very passionate and informative lecture on volcano’s and geology.

One of the most interesting things was how Lake Atilan was formed.  Million’s of years ago the volcano’s in the area formed and eventually a massive lava chamber under the ground exploded (this is called a mega-volcano), which created a huge hole in the ground, the earth sank (huge crater) and was filled by water forming the lake.  However, over time this occurred a further two times and he pointed out two other mountain/cliff faces surrounding the lake where these explosions took place.

With a lot of mathematics including cubic mile of ash he explained that when Mount St Helen’s went off it spewed out ¼ mile of cubic ash (if compressed).  When these mega-volcano’s went off it would have produced 20 cubic miles of ash, the evidence being that the whole of Guatemala and surrounding countries would have been buried in ash and all rock faces and land are made up of this layer of ash.

Still with me?  He said that one of the biggest threats to humanity is if another mega-volcano exploded it would wipe out half the world. Unfortunately for us the most likely place for this to happen is just near Italy, which would theoretically wipe out the whole of Europe.  When I probed him for his thoughts of which would happen first, a meteor strike or mega-volcano, he went for the volcano!

Once he had completed his spiel he said it would be good if we could return quite quickly as one of the roads was under repair and closed for ½ at a time.  We went back down the hill at double pace whist Matt was still talking to us about geology and Spike was belting up and down past us.

Despite getting down quickly, when we got to the road,  it was shut. After a quarter of an hour he said it may be quicker if we walked the rest of the way, we waited 5 minutes more and the traffic started moving so Matt took us back to our hostel at waited for us to collect our bags.  Matt then drove us back to the main quay so we could catch the boat back…just in time!

We waited for a while until our boat turned up, but we were unlucky as it was quite full which meant we were quite close to the front when we took our seats.  The lake was quite choppy which meant a very bumpy crossing with the people at the front taking the brunt of it.  Despite the choppy conditions and getting a bit wet, Shell who was behind me struck up a broken conversation with a sweet old local lady named, Maria-Isabelle.

After 45 minutes of banging up and down and Shel trying to speak Spanish, we got off the boat, but we had about an hour’s wait until our mini-bus was due to pick us up.  As we had already been up a number of hours and were quite peckish we found a nearby café overlooking the lake to get some breakfast.  Well I say breakfast, it  was more of a brunch with tortilla, fried beans, guacamole, eggs and bacon, delicious!

Around midday our mini-bus picked up to take us back to Antiqua, there were no direct buses to take us to our next destination.  It was another 2 ½ hour cramped ride whilst we passed the time reading.

Back in Antiqua we checked back into our original hostel and then went back to the travel agency to pick up our bus tickets for our final leg of our Guatemala trip.  What to do next??  Well we thought there was no better answer to return to our new local, The Snug, for a couple of refreshments.

When we got there, there was a bit of a charity event going on with a band playing in the corner and shots of peanut tequila being the main source of charity donations. We were enjoying the atmosphere and the beers were flowing and I was consuming a lot of free peanuts that were on the bar.  So afternoon turned into night!!

During the proceedings some local guy said he would shave his beard off for the charity (Nino’s de Guatemala/Children of Guatelmala) if a certain amount was raised, it quickly was and soon he was shaving it off.  Ed’s (barman) girlfriend then declared she would shave her head if a certain amount was raised, which we donated to, once again this was quickly raised. 

As the scissors came out Shell went into project manager mode and oversaw the shaving process, making sure the girl wasn’t in any  pain and also helping out with the cutting.

Well the evening went on with plenty of beers, we vaguely remember chatting to a Northern Couple from Leeds that were just starting their travels.  So we most probably bored them with plenty of advice and recommended they contacted the Geologist guy, Matt, if they were going to the lake.

It was a really fun night and the barmaid told us the computer had gone down so didn’t know what our tab was (which was a good thing), so we guessed at it, paid her the money and wobbled back to our hostel.