A mere 5-hour flight away, with beautiful weather, vistas aplenty, and fascinating culture, Guatemala is a no brainer for great winter getaway.
On Wednesday evening, we took a United direct flight, which was very smooth and comfortable, especially since the plane was very empty.
If flying international, be aware to give yourself an extra 40 minutes or so these days. There is a line where they are checking that you have the proper COVID paperwork in order, and it takes a while.
We landed in Guatemala City and proceeded immediately to Antigua, which is about an hour drive away.
We chose to stay at Casa Santa Domingo, which is a beautiful old hotel. It’s a converted monastery and ended up having a lot more religious items and decor than anticipated, which made me slightly uncomfortable. But it is a beautiful, inexpensive hotel, and has hard keys and only 1 floor which makes it great for Shabbos.
It is a 20-minute walk from Chabad, but it’s a nice easy walk and a great opportunity to get a nice feel of the city.
Chabad of Antigua is a fabulous, all inclusive, warm and welcoming Chabad center. They have hotel suites, beautiful gardens, and a restaurant with delicious food. They also arrange tours of all kinds and can really be a one stop shop for your trip to Guatemala.
Random point: upon just reviewing my credit card bill, I am noticing how incredibly cheap Uber (and everything!) is there.
View from our hotel balcony:
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The streets in Antigua are cobblestone, so be aware if you are the sort of person that gets sick in the car.
Thursday /Friday:We woke up at the crack of dawn on Thursday after just a couple of hours of sleep and headed to Chabad. We were doing the day and a half Acatenango hike, which had been planned through Chabad. We met up with our fellow Jewish travelers, gathered our food that they had prepared for us, and were soon on our way. We weren’t quite sure what we were in for but were excited for what lay ahead.
Acatenango is a beautiful volcano with an elevation of about 13,000 feet. Acatenango is dormant, and the goal of hiking it, aside from the spectacular views, is the crystal-clear view of neighboring, very active, Volcano Fuego.
We drove for about an hour to the base, where we met up with the rest of our group and gathered our gear.
Due to Acatenango’s elevation, it’s extremely cold in the upper parts of the volcano. For this reason, we bought many layers and warm clothing, in addition to our food. We hired porters to carry our packs and were also able to rent walking sticks and windbreakers, which were quite helpful. Some people also rented horses to help with the climb. The tour company took care of tents and sleeping bags and set it up at camp prior to our arrival.
We travel like proper Jews. See our porter below carrying our Kosher pot.
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We started off hiking and immediately decided that this was a terrible idea. You feel the altitude almost instantly, and the volcano is INCREDIBLY steep, which amounts to a lot of huffing and puffing.
The altitude, the steep incline, and loose rock make this an extremely physically challenging hike (I consider myself pretty fit). We had rented horses, though I did do most of the hike on foot, I was able to hop on the horse every once in a while to catch my breath, which definitely helped.
Even the most fit find themselves stopping to catch their breaths every few minutes and the horses were panting. (Of course we had the ubiquitous Israel ex-chayal in our group who was running up the mountain in his shorts).
It’s beautiful and sunny, so we started off in thin layers and slowly added layers as we got higher and the wind picked up. It took us over 5 grueling hours to reach the summit, which included a couple of short stops.
As we neared the summit, we felt the increasingly cold temperatures, wind, and heavy fog, to the point where it was difficult to see around you. We finally reached our camp site, where the guides set up a fire, which was a sight for sore eyes.
We all kind of collapsed on the ground around the fire and stayed put for a while. We ate, had some tea, and rested up. Our little Jewish group enjoyed a Tu B’Shvat party of dried fruits and nuts around the fire (and noted how apropos it was to be one with nature, quite literally, on this holiday 😊).
When we mustered up the energy to get up again, we headed to our tents, which were all pitched on a small ledge at the summit. In the distance we heard the rumble of Fuego but could see not a whit through the dense fog. Our guides said this weather was very unusual and seemed very pessimistic that we would actually see anything, which was about the most disheartening news I’ve heard in quite a while.
After the requisite grumbling and sulking at the weather, we settled into our thermal sleeping bags to get some sleep, as the temperature dropped, and the winds picked up. At around 10:30 PM, we heard the guides exclaiming and hurriedly climbed out (sweatshirts and shoes flying about in our excitement). The fog was clearing slightly and behold! There was Feugo before our eyes, in all its glory.
Seeing a volcano erupt was definitely a bucket list, once in a lifetime, am I really seeing this, kind of experience. It was surreal to hear the rumbling (and feel the ground vibrating beneath me!) and the ensuing boom, and then see lava spewing forth and flowing down the mountain. We all stood around for a while, shivering in the cold, and gasping each time the fog cleared and the volcano was in sight. We were able to make a bracha on it as well, which was nice (you learn new things every day!). At one point, it got so windy that I had to hold onto a nearby tree, but we stayed out until the fog got too dense again and visibility was down to nil.
We settled back into our tents for the night. This was quite a brutal experience, and not one I am keen to repeat. My whole body was shaking from cold, the wind was deafening, ripping through the tent and flapping furiously and noisily around. The thermal sleeping bag did do its job after some time, so the bottom half of our bodies were warm, but we were wearing layers, gloves, and hats on top. Between the cold, the hard ground, and the roaring, deafening wind, sleep was not really an option.
At about 5 AM, the guides woke everyone up for an optional hike to the peak to see sunrise. We chose not to partake, being that we hadn’t slept a wink and the weather was so bad. It turned out that the group couldn’t make it to the top either way because the wind was so strong that it became too dangerous.
We got up and out either way since the sky was completely clear at this point (Thank G-d!) and we wanted more views of the volcano while it was still dark. We were treated to some amazing eruptions, and then watched the magnificent sunrise from camp. After some time, we had a bit to eat and packed up our stuff to begin the trek down.
Hiking down the volcano is, in a sense, even harder than hiking up. It’s so incredibly steep and full of loose rock, that you have to hold yourself back at all times. We all took a couple of spills but eventually made our way down, shedding layers as we descended. After about 3 hours we reached the bottom, sweaty, blistered, filthy and exhausted. We proceeded to then drive back to Antigua after dropping off our coats, sticks and packs.
We arrived back at our hotel at about 1:00 PM. We showered, ate, and rested in bed for a couple of hours, until it was time to get ready for Shabbos.
Views from the hike:
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Fog started rolling in:
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on Flickr
We made it!
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Home for the night:
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Volcán de Fuego:
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As it gets lighter, the view changes from red lava to smoke:
Shabbos:We had a really nice and fun Shabbos with Chabad.
We only decided to do the hike a few days before. I probably would not have booked this hotel had I known, since it’s a 20-minute walk and every bone in our bodies were aching, but it ended up turning out fine.
We had beautiful weather and since we didn’t have much time in Antigua, this was a nice way of seeing the city.
On Motzei Shabbos, we packed up and drove to Lake Atitlán, which is about 2.5 hour drive from Antigua.
To be continued.