Onwards! Eventually after a day of travelling we arrived into Guatemala City around 7pm. The hostel we were staying at had free airport pickup before 8pm and as luck had it it took us about half an hour to get through immigration and customs, grab our luggage and get out. The shuttle wasn't there but there were a s***load of taxi and other shuttle drivers offering to take us either into Guatemala City or to Antigua about 45km away. As we were juuuuussst about to give up and just head to Antigua, our guy turned up. We stayed at the Casa Santorini, a few minutes from the airport- comfy, cleanish and (all things relative), hot showers. We booked a shuttle to take us to Antigua at 10 the next morning, watched an episode of 'Castle' on tv and hit the hay.

Glory be, the shuttle that took us the next morning-- the driver took about 2.5hours to get to Antigua, most of which was spent wandering around Guatemala City and quite weirdly, one of it's shopping mall carparks. We eventually got to our hostel, Base Camp (turns out there are no signs for the hostel, so just look for O.X Adventures as the travel agency is the hostel also. As we were checking in Jose, the manager, was asking if we were interested in doing any volcano climbing- we said we'd been planning to do Pacaya which was close by and got you up to see the lava and toast marshmallows. Jose said it was ok but not so fabulous but as luck had it they were doing an overnight trek the next morning to Acatenango where you trekked up the mountain and watched the volcano Fuego erupting at night time, before heading up to a dormant crater the next morning to watch the sun come up. It sounded pretty awesome so after a coffee or three we decided what the hell, and signed up.

The rest of Friday was spent wandering the streets of Antigua exploring the streets. Such a lovely, wonderful town and I can recommend anyone visiting Guatemala (as you do), go to Antigua. At 5 was the info session for the trek the next morning and after that, more food.

So it came to be that 10 of us intrepid travellers were in the office at 6am Saturday morning, busy dividing up and packing the camping and cooking equipment. Aside from me and Nick there were 4 Scandinavian guys, 3 British and an American girl. Matt, our American guide had decided not to bring his dog as we were a full group and he thought space might be scarce. There was a light drizzle as our driver Carlos loaded up all the bags, but we piled into the van and made a breakfast run to a local café a bit before 7.

Finally we got going, rumbling over the cobblestones of Antigua for a while before hitting the main road out. The drop point for Acatenango was a bit over an hour away so we all settled down for the ride. Maybe half an hour from Antigua there was still a light rain but nothing serious as we headed down the highway.

I was in the back seat closest to the middle of the road, Nick beside me. I had been staring out the window at the road as we headed into a left turn corner and saw a black car coming towards us. I was watching it and thought that it didn't look to be turning at all when I realised there was no time left and the car was going to hit us. You know when you have, not exactly a conscious thought, but still sort of something pass through your mind? I remember thinking that at least we were in a van and not travelling especially fast so it shouldn't be too bad. Wrong. Most of us had seen the car and there was a group "Arrrggghhhhh" right as the car hit us. I don't know why the driver hadn't turned but maybe he hadn't realised there was a corner, and he went straight into Carlos's door. There was just a humungous CRASH and the van stopped dead in the road. We had all been thrown forward with the impact then sat for a second stunned before one of the guys heaved the door open and jumped out. One of them ran to the back and opened the boot where Nick, me and anyone near gapped it outside. There was blood all over one of the van seats, one of the Scandinavian guys was lying on the ground, another was sitting on the ground absolutely shaking, and one of the English guys had a blood nose (hence the bloody seats thankfully). Nick had hit his neck on the seat in front of us but was fine apart from that, and I had a grazed shoulder and barked shins. Me and the American girl ran to the black car to see how they were. There had been a man driving and a woman (turned out is his wife) in the passenger seat, and another man in the back. None of them had been wearing seatbelts- hell, damn near no one in Central or South America wear seatbelts. They're installed in cars but don't seem to be for use.

The woman had gone straight into the windscreen which had shattered, and was pouring blood from her head and screaming in pain. The driver was in shock, sitting incredibly still except for a small amount of blood trickling from his head. We were asking if he was ok and could he get out, he just sat there and shook his head. The other passenger had been sitting in the back seat but was now in the front, facing backwards- somehow he must have just shot through the gap between the two front seats and stopped.

The woman was not in a good way, so even though there was petrol leaking from the car we didn't know how badly any of them were hurt so thought it safer to wait for the ambulance. Back on our side of the road Matt, who'd been in the front seat, had a cut on his eyebrow which was bleeding but it was Erland from Norway who was hurt worse out of us. He was the guy who was sitting shaking on the ground. Matt was trying to hold tissues to Erland's head but was shaking too much so I took over that part. The two of our guys on the ground we'd covered with the bed rolls we'd been planning to use for camping. Everyone had also packed fleeces etc as the night time was meant to be cold due to altitude so we had the ones who were able to, to just get into the backpacks and pull out as many jerseys and jackets they could find. That was easier done than said, as the luggage rack which had been on roof of the van was now maybe 5 or 6 metres ahead of the van on the ground, upsidedown.

The first police jeep arrived incredibly quickly and didn't really know what they were doing, it seemed. Nick said later that the policemen didn't have credit on their phone so needed to borrow Matt's (what the hell!!??? The frigging police force had to borrow a phone as none of them had their own credit?!). An ambulance arrived soon after and went immediately to the black car as it was obvious they were in a bad way. Soon they came to us, Erland had two deep cuts on his head which were still bleeding quite badly so they put him in the ambulance with the driver and his wife (driver on stretcher, now groaning and whimpering in pain, and his wife still bleeding from the head and with what looked like a very broken right arm and/or shoulder. They needed someone to go with Erland to the hospital to act as translator if needed; as Matt needed to stay with everyone and I spoke Spanish, I was the logical one. I didn't want to leave Nick as I just wanted him to hug me and stay close but knew both of us were fine and that I could be more useful at the hospital than standing round a crash site, so told Matt I would go, and jumped in the ambulance.

There was the one ambulance medic, the husband (Joel) and wife (Elizabeth), Erlend, and me, and the crate we were in was cramped. With siren screaming and going hell for leather- for a while I wondered if we would even make it to the hospital- we raced back towards Antigua. Half way there another ambulance passed us, which our driver flagged down. It turned around and we changed people, the driver of the black car Joel going into that one, and one of their medics coming to us.

We got to Antigua general hospital and went straight into A&E. Erlend got to ride in a wheelchair though he said he was shaky but fine. He had an examination and was sent for x-rays, before coming back to the waiting room. I kept him talking, not sure if concussion was an issue but figuring that it was best to just keep us both going. Joel and Elizabeth were also with us, she looked like she'd been given painkillers as was no longer screaming, though they didn't give him anything as they still needed to check things. Neither me nor Erlend had Matt's phone number, or OX Adventures' so were trying to work out how it would be possible to call them and let them know where we were. During this time Joel and Elizabeth's family were arriving and with the exception of one elderly woman who was very shaken, every single one of them came over to us to see how we were and to apologise. Even Joel himself, in agony, apologised whenever he looked at us.

One lighter moment did happen though- while we were all sitting round waiting for things to happen a senior doctor had a group of interns and they were doing the rounds. Just like the tv program 'Scrubs'. The doctor went to each person waiting (maybe 5 of us), said a little bit about why the patient was there, then moved on. We were 'This man is a tourist who was in a front on vehicle collision. He has two deep cuts on his head and has had x-rays taken". Short and to the point. The girl next to us was "This girl is here because.." (pause to look at the girl in question) "Why are you here?" (girl answers) "Ah, she's here because she has asthma." And moved on.

We'd been at the hospital nearly 2 hours by then, when one of the staff came up to say Erlend was to come with her for stitches. Joel, the other driver, was on the stretcher just next to our cubicle and looked terrible. I went to see him and check how he was, and just to let him know that all of us knew it was an accident and didn't blame him, and he just kept apologising.

While the doc was stitching up the first of Erlend's cuts (deep. Very deep. Took about 8 internal stitches) a man came over to see us-- didn't recognise him, but it was Carlos, our driver! He was walking and looked fine, said he had seen the car and had managed to twist his legs out of the way so thankfully had got away with just a tiny scratch on his shin. His daughter was also there seeing how things were and helping any way possible.

The stitches finally done, we were able to escape. Carlos's son in law offered to take us back to OX where the others had recently arrived so we jumped in the car and headed 'home'.

Walking into OX was very minor chaos. Scott, who'd been there maybe a couple of weeks' had been left in charge of the travel side of things while Jose had disappeared to look after the crash side of things. One of the other Scandinavian guys had realised that now the adrenalin was wearing off his ribs hurt and he wanted to get them checked out, also the English guy with the blood nose was having vision problems. All of us survivors congregated in the back, the hostel part around the kitchen table and broke out the snacks which had been for the trek- go chocolate! Coke, gummy bears, peanuts and chocolate got opened up and spread over the table while we all just sat round in mild shock. Soon after Jose, Matt and the others returned- health wise everyone was fine, with Erlend being the most serious of us. 'Other stuff' wise, Jose broke the news to us that Carlos, our driver had been arrested and was currently in jail. We all got our backs up over that, swearing black and blue that he'd been in no way at fault and what the devil were the police about? Jose said it was in some ways, standard practice as it was kind of the done thing to arrest the most healthy of the drivers until things were sorted out. He said it wasn't fair and they were working on trying to get him out but for the duration he'd be in the cells.

About this stage I emailed mum to say we were fine, and ok, so if she happened to look at Nick's facebook to not freak out. Skype called her later to see how she was doing (long story but she'd been quite ill for a while) and had a chat, all was well.

Over the afternoon the group went their separate ways, some off in shuttles to other towns, others to their hotels to relax. Me and Nick went to the supermarket and bought a bottle of rum, some coke, and called in to a fast food place on the way back to get some fried chicken. Comfort food. The 3 English people were also staying at the hostel and got the ice cream. We spent the evening just relaxing and thanking all gods possible that it hadn't been too bad.

Sunday was also an easy day, with the good sight of Carlos arriving in the office in the afternoon- he'd been released! He asked me if I would mind writing up a statement for his lawyer which would hopefully help him get his van back (which had been impounded). Nick and I had decided we'd probably just try and get up Pacaya volcano, a lot easier, possibly not as good, but who cared. We were also planning to head to Lake Atitlan later that week, reputably one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. In the evening, Scott- remember the dude who'd only been there a couple weeks?- said there was another Acatenango trip leaving Tuesday, with two people already signed up. We'd been hoping to do the trip if possible, so immediately said we'd go too, making numbers up to the required minimum of 4. By Monday evening there were 10 signed up for a Tuesday departure-- turned out we were going to try going up the volcano again.