After 5 (ish) years of saving and a year of planning we've finally landed in Guatemala for the start of our 9-10 month trip through Central and South America. We landed on Wednesday night (14th May) and there is not much to say about the 21 hour jorney via Miami - apart from a big thank you to Ben for dropping us off at Heathrow.

We started exploring Antigua on the Thursday morning but both had colds brought over from England and Katy was struggling more than me. Despite this Antigua is the perfect place to start our journey as it is relaxed and is beautiful. We took our time and spent much of it sitting in the leafy squares and in cafes. After a massive burrito lunch we headed back to the hostel and Katy went to bed while I sat on the terrace.

Friday was more eventful - in the morning we explored the town with more purpose and many of the churches and in the afternoon we climbed the Pacaya active volacano. After an uncomfortable one and a half hour mini bus ride passing through the suburbs of Guatemala City we arrived at the protected area. (Both protected against development by the government and protected by the police for our safety.) Our group was given a guide (who only spoke Spanish; so I'm glad Katy did more homework than me) and we set off. We started up the black volcanic dusty park with an entourage of horses and locals following us in the hope that we would get tired and hire a horse from them. The climb was only an hour and a half each way and when we got near the top the trees thinned and we found steam vents and an amazing view of the other volcanoes around us. Unfortunately there was no lava flowing - there had been 2 months before but it was still really fun to be on an active volcano and to feel the steam from the vents.

On Saturday (the day I'm writing this) we climbed the hill next to Antigua in the morning and watched Arsenal only just beat Hull City in the FA Cup final :-) We met an Aussie and Irish guy while watching the football and agreed to meet for drinks this evening. Tomorrow we head to Quetzaltenango (Xela - pronounced Shayla - for short) for our intensive Spanish language classes.

Simon