Antigua is utterly out of place in Guatemala. The city looks like a pretty European town that has Bern picked up and airlifted to Central America. The dirty, cracked streets I'd grown accustomed to were replaced with cobblestones and the dodgy fly-infested cafes were replaced with swanky bagel joints. The best thing about Antigua though was the fact that it was surrounded by 3 very impressive volcanoes which were visible from anywhere in the city.

After the novelty of understanding a menu instead of pointing and hoping had finally worn off, we joined a tour to climb Pacaya, the most active of the nearby volcanoes. The climb started easily enough but it seemed just as they informed it was now too late to opt for a 'donkey taxi' that things started getting a little tougher. The guide seemed to skirt past the sign that warned about toxic gases that may be in the air and start leading us up the dried lava from an eruption a few years back. The guide also failed to warn one unfortunate American man that his trainers were a tad insufficient for volcano climbing and it was only when he was toasting marshmallows at a small lave stream that he realised his shoes were melting and had to run back down. It was only when the rest of us were tucking into the american's marshmallows 3/4's of the way up the volcano that the guide decided to tell us that the week before there had been a landslide which killed a tourist as well as his colleague but luckily our hike was far less eventful.

Antigua was such a fun place to hang out, with a lot of travellers but wasn't over-run. After a few days of wandering the streets and eating sandwiches and a few nights at the Irish pub though I was already missing the chaotic streets of the rest of Guatemala. Mark on the other hand was really enjoying his creature comforts and had found his home from home in the pastry shops of Antigua so we finally went our separate ways as I headed off on a chicken bus to Lake Atitlan. I was heading to find something a bit more exciting ...though I wasn't counting on it being quite as exciting as it ended up.