Antigua had many mixed reviews and a lot of people had reported muggings, but I found the locals there to be very friendly and welcoming of tourists. Obviously there are the few undesirable folk but you get them everywhere! We stayed at the Jungle party hostel as recommended by some friends, cost 75 quetzals per night ($10), no air con but a comfortable sleep and great socialising. I'm beginning to get very fond of the swings in place of bar stools and have finally managed lying comfortably in a hammock!

The first day we arrived we had just finished our 12 hour journey from Flores to Antigua and it was 8 in the morning so we just got some breakfast and fell into bed for a nap. We ate in a lovely restaurant not far from the hostel and it only cost 30 quetzals for a full English breakfast and smoothie. We organised our activities to climb Pacaya volcano the following day and get the night bus to Nicaragua the following night. We apparently got a discount for booking though a travel agent in the town, but after speaking with others it appears we got ripped off - I would suggest checking with the hostels prices before shopping around, we paid $100 whereas others paid $80.

We were advised to buy cheap shoes from the market as the the heat could melt your shoes at the top! We managed to barter with a woman to buy 3 pairs of runners for 300 quetzals ($10 each) with a couple of trial and errors. The marker itself was huge, it was a maze to find your way around and everything looked the same! After all that we fell into bed exhausted and came back alive that evening.

We went for dinner in Café Viejo costing 65 quetzals each ($5) which had a beautiful outdoor dining area - but was very cold from the change in altitude! We were lucky enough to have landed on ladies night, so had a few drinks with others at the hostel then went out to the local bar and salsa club, which was such a good experience and drinks cost us 4-10 quetzals (less than $1) for ladies only :) At around 1am we got home ready for a good nights sleep in a bed! There was an option to take a 6am volcano tour but we opted for 2pm which cost 50 quetzals plus another 50 at the base for security. Apparently there was a horror story of a young lady being attacked on a tour 15 years ago which resulted in the perpetrator being executed by Guatemalan authorities. Since then they have added security to escort you up to the top.

The next morning we decided to have brunch in Reilly's Irish bar to make sure we would be full for the day. Most meals cost 60 quetzals ($4) and we're just what we needed to fill us up. The bus collected us from the hostel and took around an hour and a half to reach the base, the journey started off quite bumpy but eased off as we got on the motorway. We arrived at this village where little kids tried to sell you ponchos and sticks for the trek. It was quite steep at the beginning and we all worked up a sweat. My darling Dave carried my backpack for me after a while as I was just finishing my rounds of antibiotics for a cold so wasn't in the best shape! It got easier as the journey went on, unfortunately due to mass cloud coverage we couldn't see very much of the view but once at the top an hours climb later it was amazing.

Our tour guide said that the volcano had erupted 6 months ago and some of the solidified lava rocks were still hot with steam rising from the ground. It was at this glorious point that the tour guide offered us marshmallows to toast on the hot ground! The clouds cleared and we got a fab view of surrounding volcanos, but this lasted approx. 6 mins. Well worth it though all in all, a great day out, tiring but brilliant.

It was dark by the time we got back down to the base and our taxi shuttle was somewhat late leaving us all in the lurch. Finally arrived and got us back to the hostel for dinner at 8pm and a long wait in the lobby until 2 am when we would get our night bus to Nicaragua.