Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Port Quetzal - Guatemala - Port 10 Day 25



As we were nearing the end of the cruise, we had started to pick more adventurous tours so that got to experience more places and also challenge ourselves, so Guatemala was where we choose to do Zip Lining to break up the types of excursions we had been doing.  The port itself is quite nice and has a good array of souvenir shops, so if you are the type who doesn't like adventure the port caters for you.


There were only 6 of us doing the Zip Lining here as a number had done it at Costa Rica so we were added to another tour group, but lucky for us a couple we had made friends with throughout the cruise had also booked this excursion, so it was nice to finally share the experience with someone you knew.

Guatemala is not dissimilar to the previous few ports in its landscape however there are 3 main volcanoes in this area that are still active, the picture at the top shows the Myan Lady Mountain and one of the Volcanoes about to smoke, which was quite cool to see and made the drive very interesting as you watched for these along the journey and  below without the Myan Lady and more smoke coming out, I literally have about 100 photos of this throughout the day as we traveled along.

.


We headed towards our destination at the area's oldest coffee plantation at Finca Filadelfia which was beautiful in itself and we boarded our new bus to take us on our mountain journey to over 2000 meters above sea level or 6,430 pies which I can only assume means miles, not quite Machu Picchu, but high nevertheless, and exciting on the little truck we road on up more winding roads with shear drops.  Someone however should have told us it was going to be freezing up there.


So not only were we hyped with adrenaline as we got kitted up for our 7 Zip Lines back down through the valleys of the volcanoes, we were also freezing from the high winds and high altitude. It took a little while to get suited up and instructions, but soon we were whizzing through the trees, valleys, volcanoes and it was an incredible experience.  The first one was a little hairy, but after that your confidence built more and more and you could then enjoy it.  The views where to die for Check out the video Derek took on one of the legs.  Overall it was a great few hours as headed back to the plantation for lunch and rest prior to the Antigua tour. 
.

  
I don't know why, but I knew I wanted to go to Antigua and I am sure glad I did.  It was a beautiful little town and quite up market, although the street vendors here are pushy and follow you around, it has a beautiful architecture as you walk along the narrow cobblestone roads - it was quaint and I would have like a little more time here to shop as there were some lovely clothes shops here, but also some upmarket restaurants, and obviously the usual town square items like the city hall, churches etc.


Derek, Paula and Bill checking out that great architecture below LOL.  We were all getting quite tired by now after 4 ports in 5 days so we were looking forward to a few at sea days as we finished our time in Guatemala and said goodbye to Antigua.






No comments:

Post a Comment