It was nice to get back to Antigua, more things to do and a better selection of groceries. And we are glad to be not quite ‘under’ Volcan de Fuego. It started acting up while we were in San Marcos and forced the evacuation of about 4000 people (see the BBC report here ). Fortunately, the activity seems to be on the other side away from Antigua and even the ash blows out toward the ocean. But it’s pretty spectacular even so. It quieted down a little when we got back but the ash clouds during the day are massive and the lava at night sometimes looks like fireworks.
We are only here for a few more days and while in some ways it will be nice to get back to Canada, we will miss some things here, especially the weather. We would come back for that, maybe a month or so in December or January when it’s friggin’ cold and miserable further north. We won’t miss some of the issues here like the infrastructure problems, roads, banks, hydro, etc., but they’re manageable if you don’t expect Canadian/American service and quality. Getting from GC airport to Antigua is straight forward, about an hour or so on a shuttle bus, and Antigua is pretty nice once you’ve settled in, so this is a place we would come back to. On the other hand, we still want to check out Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Argentina, so it may be a while before we get back here. The weather in those other countries is nice too and some of them even have volcanoes.
