Travel-Trotter

by Mirabelle

We were staying in Antigua Guatemala, my parents thought it would be fun to climb a volcano.  I definitely did not want to, but then I learned that you could rent a horse to take you up the volcano and so I changed my mind.  We waited and waited finally the day came.  The van picked us up at 2:00pm for a long two hour car ride through Guatemala City by the time we got there I was so happy because I was car sick and bored.  We bought snacks for the climb and found a man who rented us some horses.  The horses were 200 Quetzales up and down the volcano which was about $30.00 USD.  We wore pants and sweatshirts then it was off to the volcano!  The horses knew their way up the mountain so we didn’t even need a guide.  On the way up it gets colder and colder but also more beautiful and more beautiful.  It was like an hour and a half so if you have cranky children, I advise to take a horse plus kids love animals.

When you get to the top you have about 10 minutes of just looking at the view, taking pictures, walking around or just whatever you want.

Then you can go down a trail where horses can’t go because it’s really rocky so I advise renting a walking stick at the start it will make going down easier.  Once you’re at the bottom you walk over to where people are roasting marshmallow, Oh and all the rocks are dried lava isn’t that so cool!  The guide hands you a stick and you grab a colorful marshmallow then you stick it in a hole with warm air coming out, my dad called it a fumarole.  There is no lava inside the hole but it is still warm, the further in the warmer it gets.  When you finally pull the marshmallow out it’s all puffy and then you stick it in your mouth and it’s all soft and has no hard middle.

After that you go up a different way to watch the sunset and it was beautiful!  Then you walk over to the other side of the mountain to get your horse it is so steep and scary going down in the dark but luckily I had a person to guide me down.  By the end we had chips for dinner and rode the van home.