On The Road Again

The fiesta in Flores continued all night with processions of trumpets, drums, firecrackers and dancers going past the hotel at regular intervals and we had to be up and away for a day on the (Guatemalan) minibus to Antigua Guatemala. As we drove we gradually left the rainforest behind us and travelled along the lush gorge of Rio Dulce where there was an abundance of pineapples, oranges, bananas and guanabanas; however what amazed us most was the crops of maize (sweetcorn) which were just ripening. Gradually the Guatemalan highlands came into view and the minibus laboured up the hillsides and down the other side until we reached the spectacular Sierra de Las Minas Mountains, their tops shrouded in cloud and then the volcanoes surrounding Guatemala City came into view. Guatemala City was one huge traffic jam and it took us a long time to chug through the streets surrounded by a huge variety of buses, some of which were so crowded that people were hanging on the outside. The outskirts of the city were a mixture of slums and American style shopping (and eating) malls. The influence (and control) of the USA is far more noticeable her than it is in Mexico. All in all a very uninviting city. So we carried on through the city and the road climbed inexorably up one side of one of the volcanoes and partly down the other side to arrive, at long last, in Antigua Guatemala.