What's up y'all?
Thanks for joining the Travel Tales and Talk podcast with Derek and Makayla.
I'm Derek.
I'm Makayla.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
All right, we're back and we're still in Guatemala.
So this is episode nine.
We're going to leave to Cal and we're going to head to Antigua.
But first we have to fly back to Guatemala City because there's no direct flight from
Flores to Antigua because they don't have an airport.
So we leave to Cal and we go back to Guatemala City and you have scheduled private transportation
to Antigua.
Awesome, because I don't know if a cab would have took us.
The cab ride would have probably been like what, 5,000 cues.
It would have been very expensive.
Crazy, because this is a nice little ride from the airport to Antigua and we have a
three night stay in an amazing Airbnb and they named the Airbnb.
What's that name?
Real de Lemos.
Man, it's a nice Airbnb.
It's really nice.
They take the old style building and just retrofit it to inside to today's standards.
It was so, so, so sweet.
Upstairs had the spiral staircase.
Then you had two beds up there with a bathroom.
Then you had the master bedroom.
Then you had a shower, bathroom.
Had this little garden.
Yeah, had a little patio actually.
Little patio, yeah, give you some sunlight.
Yeah.
What I liked about it, besides the fact that the Airbnb was very beautiful, the owners
lived just a couple of doors down.
When we arrived, she actually came over and greeted us, helped us get in.
She was very involved.
Very involved.
Gave us places to visit.
Anytime we had any questions.
She picked right up.
Not only would she respond immediately, because we communicated through the app, but she would
come down.
She actually walked us to some of the places that we couldn't find.
It was directions.
Yeah, she escorted us, which was amazing.
She wanted our stay to be first class, and it was.
It was.
It really was.
Along with her property, it was a first class visit, first class property.
Then we have day one planned.
My wife, we hit the ground rolling.
We throw our bags into the Airbnb, and we're right back in the streets.
You know how I am.
You got to maximize that time.
We're only in these places for a short amount of time.
We were right back in these streets.
Antigua, it's a beautiful city.
It was a former capital of Guatemala.
I didn't know this until I did my research, until like 1773.
That place was demolished three times by natural disasters.
Crazy.
In 1524, it was destroyed by fire from the indigenous people.
They didn't want to be colonized by the Spaniards, so they destroyed the city.
Then again in 1541 by a series of earthquakes.
Then they had about 200 years of peace.
Then in 1773, it was destroyed again by a series of earthquakes that they call these
Santa Marita earthquakes.
Am I saying that correctly?
Santa Martha?
Hey.
Give me a minute.
Derek took notes, and I lost my place in the notes.
Yes, it's the first one.
Yes, Santa Martha.
Earthquakes.
It was a series of earthquakes.
Terrimotos.
It was a series of earthquakes.
About 7.5 on the Richter scale, demolished the city.
The Spanish said, you know what?
We're not going to rebuild this time.
The city pretty much stayed like it was from 1773 to today.
That's why it looked the way it looks.
It still have the cobblestone streets.
The buildings are still the same.
They actually have restrictions where you can't build anything new.
You have to maintain what you have.
It has to meet those anti-wind standards is what they called it.
Then it's surrounded by volcanoes on all sides.
Four volcanoes, which is nuts.
It's in a valley surrounded by four volcanoes.
That picture you wanted to take in the background, that volcano is Agua.
I thought it was Pacaya.
The picture that he's referring to, there's this yellow archway.
It's on a cobblestone street.
If you look through the archway, the archway frames one of the volcanoes, Agua, perfectly.
You can stand just right and you can get a picture of you inside of the archway next
to a volcano.
That's what he's referring to.
Just a little background on Antigua.
That's what makes it like a monument.
The city was declared a monument in 1944.
That's nuts.
What's the plan, babe?
What do you have planned for us day one?
We visit some local sites.
We have the Cathedral of San Jose, which was actually built in 1545 and was destroyed during
an earthquake in the late 1700s.
The ruins still stand.
I wanted to visit this cathedral because I had saw people posting about it on Instagram
and I thought it looked so amazing.
There's pieces of the cathedral that has missing roof, ceilings, floors torn up, but it's beautiful.
I just wanted to... You know how I am.
I want to touch history.
It's a historic site.
I wanted to see it in person.
We went and it was affordable.
It was like... It was like five cues.
Five dollars.
Something like that.
Seven quetzals, I think.
It was very inexpensive.
It's crazy that these large columns were on the ground, just how massive those columns
were.
It just has really tall ceilings and the ceiling is gone and then these columns are on the
ground.
That was a massive structure.
1545 is when it was built.
It's a massive structure.
The fact that they didn't rope it off so you can actually touch these.
Some ruins, they won't let you touch it because the oils, the natural oils from our hands
ruined the ruins.
It messes up if there's any carvings or anything like that, pictures painted on there.
You can't touch it, but here nothing was roped off.
You could touch.
You could sit on one of the fallen columns if you wanted or anything.
Take those amazing Instagram photographs.
There you go.
No, but it's a sight to see.
It's an amazing structure.
You know what?
Why you making jokes?
We have a picture of me in this cathedral on Instagram that you took.
I took it.
He took an amazing photo of me.
It's sitting on my Instagram, on my IG.
Yes.
I don't usually do a good job with those photos, but that time I did.
That one was nice.
It was really nice.
You can see the hole in the ceiling and everything.
I will applaud you on this visit because I thought, I was like, I don't want to go see
abandoned church ruins, but yeah, it's a must see.
It's a must do.
If you're going to go to Antigua, you got to do that.
Then from there, that's when we go to the Ark, which is a cool Ark.
I like the color of it.
I like the location.
It's beautiful.
It's the Artico de Santa Catalina.
This is the yellow archway that we mentioned previously.
Yeah.
It was built so nuns can walk from one school to the other without being seen crossing the
road because it's Antigua.
Really, Guatemala is pretty Catholic, right?
Yeah, strong Catholic.
The nuns can't walk across the street, so they built the archway so they can go across
without being seen.
Yeah.
Let me explain it.
Where the nuns live was on one side of the street and they taught at the school that
was on the other side of the street.
The nuns could not be out on the street, so they built this archway to connect these two
buildings and the nuns would pass through the archway, so they were not seen out on
the street.
It was built in the 17th century.
It's amazing.
I can't believe it stood up to three earthquakes.
Yeah, it is still up and I actually have a picture of that on our Instagram as well.
It's that beautiful archway that has the volcano in the background.
If you see any photograph of Antigua, even Guatemala, that picture is going to be in
that photo array.
It's probably one of the most photographed spots in Guatemala in general.
In Central America probably.
Yeah, it's very popular.
Then we visit the Jade Museum.
I didn't know this much about Jade until I went to Guatemala.
How the Guatemala is... Not Guatemala, but Jade is considered to be a symbol of status
and wealth and a passport to the next life, to the Mayans back in the day.
That's why they hold Jade in such regard in Guatemala.
Actually, the museum is a store as well.
They have a store and because of the store, they created a museum.
Didn't know that either.
That's awesome as well.
I didn't realize there were different colors of Jade.
I always thought it was just green.
Me too.
Then they used it for when they buried their kings or whatever.
They would bury them in Jade because it's passport to the next life.
I thought it was just for decorations.
I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool.
But no, it has some significance behind it.
Then also while we were there, this is where we can learn about our narwhals at the Jade
Museum.
Your spirit animal.
The Mayans believed that at birth you're connected to an animal, a spirit animal.
The narwhals, we actually first heard about it in Tikal.
Our tour guide was telling us about the narwhals.
At the time, we didn't quite understand what he was talking about.
I remember writing it down, but then when we arrived at the Jade Museum, they actually
had the book.
There's this book, you can look up your birth date along with the year you were born.
I don't remember if the time was in there.
No, the time was the date of birth.
Date of birth.
They have all these birth dates.
You match it up and it tells you what your spirit animal is.
At the Jade Museum, you could buy a little card with your spirit animal information,
which is what we did.
Derrick is a, what you call it?
He was an alligator, right?
I'm a crocodile.
Crocodile.
What were you?
I was a dog.
You were a dog.
Wolf dog.
The hundred rose was a bat.
I thought that was funny.
I'm a crocodile.
Yeah, I guess we should share what was on our narwhal cards.
I don't remember what my item says.
We'll have to find our cards and share that with you all.
I do recall being a crocodile.
Yeah.
And you're a dog and London Rose a bat.
That is bananas.
That is banana, she's a bat.
We also visited the Fuente de las Sirenas, which is located in the Central Park.
That's basically this fountain, this beautiful fountain with mermaids that the mermaids are
spitting water out.
That's another must see place if you're walking in Antigua, because this fountain was built
in 1737 and it is still up.
So it is made up of four mermaids holding their breasts in their hands.
Derek has a big smile on his face.
You little naughty thing.
No, I'm just saying it's a nice fountain.
I like the way the fountain looks.
I bet.
And then the location too, that park, the Central Park, everything that happens in that
Central Park, it was lively the whole time we were there.
I think one night, didn't they have like a party or something?
It's the Central, was it Parque de Central?
And then around there they have all the shops.
The Jay Museum is like right across the street.
The coffee shop we went to was right there.
So everything is there in that Central Park.
You'll even see some of the indigenous people there selling things, making things, just
hanging out, which is pretty awesome.
And those blankets, right?
Those made by hand.
Yes.
Like every stitch is by hand.
Like the indigenous clothes.
Like don't get it twisted, the dress that the Guatemalan women wear, we're talking about
easy.
You can pay about a grand, $500 and up, easy for these handmade dress.
Cause I always, I say, Ooh, I'm going to get one, babe.
And Derek was like, think again, you see the price on that?
And that's a, you better use your converter.
And I was like, man, I'm thinking I'm about to come down here and get a deal.
Cause you know, the Guatemalan Quetzal is only about what?
It was last night, what 13 to one?
Something.
No, it wasn't that much.
It's like seven to one, $1 equals, Oh, 13 of theirs.
It was something like that.
Yeah.
So we're thinking, you know, Ooh, we about to make it rain.
No, not on that.
You not, you going to pay.
You going to pay full price.
You are going to pay.
But it's beautiful.
It's worth it.
It's handmade.
It's stunning.
It's nothing that you wear every day.
I'm going to tell you that even though the Guatemalan people, they will wear theirs,
you know, out and about.
It's for special occasions.
Yeah.
Cause it's made by hand, quality materials.
It's not polyester, none of that stuff.
It's authentic Guatemalan.
Yeah.
From the old world.
And I think that's it for day one.
That's a lot for day one because we have to get prepared for day two where we're going
to scale a volcano.
Yes.
Whose idea was that?
Hey, don't, don't knock it.
Don't knock it.
I had an idea, you know, actually how I saw this tour was I was looking, you know, researching
things to do, you know, in Antigua or near Antigua and I went on, you know, getyourguy.com
via tour.com and there was this tour that kept popping up where you can roast marshmallows
on an active volcano.
And I was like, gosh darn it.
Sign me up.
That's what I need to be doing in Guatemala.
I need to climb a volcano with my bag of marshmallows and stick it on a stick and roast it.
Yes, yes, yes.
So that's what we did.
That's a great idea.
If I wasn't coming off Achilles tendon surgery.
Well, yeah, because Derek playing football towards Achilles tendon.
She's like, we're going to walk, we're going to scale a volcano.
I'm like, who?
I just started walking again.
So we ended up renting a horse.
So okay.
So when you arrive, well, first of all, we booked our tickets online.
Okay.
We booked the transport online.
They came and picked us up before sunrise.
I think it was like five, six o'clock in the morning.
It was early.
Because where we had to drive now, Guatemala has an interstate, but it ain't really an
interstate.
It's not like what we have here.
The on and off ramp, I swear we got on from a dirt road.
It was very interesting.
So it was not a really direct shot to this volcano.
Although it looks like it, because you're in Antigua and you can see the volcano, that
should be a straight line.
It should be.
It's not.
But it's not.
So if you're ever going to rent a car and do this.
Don't do it.
Don't rent a car.
Don't do it.
Because we had to drive through little towns.
And when we're talking about little towns, I mean, their roads were the size of horse
and buggy like in Ronda.
And we saw that horse and buggy on the road.
You literally see people in like our little van was driving around horse and buggy and
people herding sheep and goats.
Herds of goats.
On the streets.
And we're talking about, you know, houses like regular neighborhoods.
And it was bananas.
We saw, we passed a truck that had three little boys holding on to the back.
I guess they hitched a ride.
It was just the most amazing thing.
It was dangerous as heck.
But we were like amazed.
It was an exciting ride.
These kids right here are living the life.
Man.
At like 10 years old.
Yeah.
Child labor laws don't exist.
Just hanging on, getting them a ride to wherever they need to go.
It was amazing.
So for one, you're not going to want to drive because you're going to see a whole bunch
of nonsense.
You're going to be amazed.
And you can't enjoy it if you're driving.
But there's also points where you're going up.
Like cliffs.
And when I say cliffs, it's like the cliff you see on the scary movies.
You ain't got no guard rail.
Yeah.
You look over the side and you see the rocks going down the side of the mountain.
Yeah.
You on the edge.
It was like that.
And now that I'm saying this, I don't think I would do it no more.
It wasn't that scary because a guy, he made me feel comfortable because he knew what he
was doing.
But I was like, we're pretty close to the edge.
Yes.
And there's no room.
It could have went left real fast.
And there's always somebody on a moped zipping around through it.
I don't like...
Yep.
And the guy driving the van, he was okay.
He was all right.
It's like he knew it.
Any minute now I'm going to have a moped or a motorcycle come through here.
Yep.
Always.
Somebody on the moped or motorcycle zooming by.
Yes.
So when we finally got to Pacaya, Pacaya was the volcano that we arrived to.
And there was like 20 men out front, even little boys.
And they're all trying to either A, sell you a tour.
They want to be your tour guide.
You pay them to get you up the mountain.
B, they want to let you rent their horse.
Or C, they're trying to sell you walking sticks.
Walking sticks, yep.
So we ended up renting a horse.
Normally...
We rented three horses.
Yeah, we rented three horses because we couldn't just have Derek trying to walk up the volcano.
And normally I don't like labor of animals like that, but...
Wait a minute.
You didn't ride the horse up.
You did ride them down.
I rode the horse up because I did try...
Okay, so the horse saddle was really hurting my bottom.
Okay?
It was uncomfortable for me.
So I was hopping off my horse and said, I'm going to walk a little bit.
Boy, I'm going to walk a little bit.
And they were like, you sure?
Yes, I'm sure.
And I got off and I walked that dog on horse for about 15 steps.
And I was like, okay.
Let me get back on this horse.
Because it's an incline.
It is a legit incline from the beginning to the end, from the bottom to the top.
And it's rough terrain.
And it's very steep.
So if you're going to walk it, definitely get a walking stick.
At the time, they didn't have little four-wheelers.
I think now they offer four-wheelers.
Yeah.
We were looking that up.
You can get an ACV or something and ride up.
But I think it's best either to walk or ride the horse.
You get the better experience in my opinion.
Yeah.
But you know, and I just, hindsight 2020, I kind of feel bad because the horse, you
know, these are like private horses.
So the gentleman that I rented the horse from, that was his horse.
So his son was there working and that was their-
That's their job.
Yeah.
And that was their pet horse.
That's their business, yeah.
Yeah.
And that was his one horse.
He owned that one horse, right?
It was just the one, right?
No, I had a horse.
You had a horse?
That was his horse too?
London Rose had a horse.
All those were his?
I assume so.
Because I think that was his one horse.
Okay.
And they kind of hung with me.
And you know, and I felt bad.
I was like, ooh, his horse looks hot.
And I ain't no lightweight.
Your horse was trained for this, baby.
He do this every day.
I feel bad.
Probably three or four times.
I feel bad.
I know.
And so we finally get to the top.
It took us about 30, 45 minutes maybe?
I would say it took at least an hour.
To get to the top?
Because we had to stop a couple of times because I don't know, recall the lady from Canada.
She kept getting tired.
Oh yeah.
So yeah.
But even so, the horse doesn't even go up to the top.
There's like a lookout spot for all of the horse to sit.
And you have to by foot continue up the volcano.
So to get to the part where you have the open, the vents where you, you know, the steam is
coming up where you can roast your marshmallows.
So on the way to this spot that our tour guide was taking us, we passed through a little
shop.
Yeah.
And that shop built onto the side of this volcano, sold.
There was two shops there, wasn't it?
It was just the one.
Just the one?
And they sold jewelry like made out of lava.
Didn't I buy you some of that jewelry?
You bought it.
Okay.
Some earrings, right?
It was a necklace.
Necklace.
I wear it.
Don't try me.
I'm not, no one's trying you.
I just remember, I recall buying you something from this shop.
Yeah.
You bought me a necklace made out of lava rock.
Yeah.
Which is- Isn't it called obsidian?
Yeah.
Isn't obsidian lava?
Yeah.
And it's extremely sharp.
Yes.
Yeah.
And you're gonna have snacks in there because it's hot.
There's no shade.
No trees.
And be very careful.
I almost twisted my ankle quite a few times because the lava rock, like the side of the
volcano, it's sharp.
It's uneven.
It's a clumsy person's nightmare.
So if you're clumsy, don't do this tour.
Be careful.
And then there's also the option to eat pizza on the volcano.
So they were cooking pizza.
Oh, yes.
Derek didn't want to go down there and get none.
So you know, pizza's my favorite food.
In fact, we ate a pizza on our way here to record today.
And it's my, he's like, we just had marshmallows.
Pizza Friday.
We're good, okay?
We ain't gotta do all that.
I didn't want pizza.
But, okay.
I did not want pizza.
Better believe the next time we come, I'm gonna get some pizza.
Yeah.
Off the side of a volcano.
From Pachaya, you can look across and see Fuego.
You can.
You can see the other volcano.
So Fuego's a volcano that be shooting out lava.
Yeah.
Pachaya be shooting up smoke.
And while we were there, it was emitting smoke.
Yep.
Or ash.
Both were.
Ash, yeah.
Both were actually.
And actually a couple of days before we arrived, they said there was an eruption of Fuego,
a small eruption.
Yes.
So we got lucky and missed out on the eruption.
Lucky my eye.
So you can actually, because I wanted to be, because Fuego has the tours where you can
sleep.
You can camp.
Camp on it.
Yep.
And in the middle of the night, they'll get up and try to take pictures of lava kind of
just popping up a little bit.
I wanted to do that.
I saw that one too.
I saw that one too, but I don't know if I wanna do that one.
And the only reason why I didn't do it is because we had London Rose.
And it's at night.
And it sounds like, ooh, anything could happen then.
As if walking in a jungle with a wild.
Right, with a volcano.
Jaguar ain't nothing but.
Surrounded by jaguars and pumas.
What else could go wrong?
Yeah.
So walking up that volcano, you're about 8,500 feet above sea level.
And just a little cost.
We had $35 for the transport.
They picked us up right in front.
Yep.
At our front door of our Airbnb.
And they dropped us off at the same location for.
The horse.
Was it.
28 bucks.
$28 per person.
Per person.
Up and down.
So it was a round trip.
Up and down.
And I ended up walking my horse down.
And I still paid the fee because I knew it was a private owned.
I wanted to support the locals.
And just to get into.
It's considered a national park to go on the volcano.
It was 50 quetzals.
And that was about $7 US dollars per person.
So we spent.
From the time we woke up to the time we got back to the Airbnb.
It was about 5 to 6 hours a day.
Yep.
So.
And that was our entire day.
Yeah because we were beat.
I know I was.
Yeah because the transport that we got.
It wasn't a private transport.
There were other people.
And we had stops like a bus stop.
You know like we were in school.
And when everyone got onto the van.
He stopped at a restaurant.
I'm like bro when we get into.
He was like.
He got breakfast.
He went and got breakfast at the plaza.
At the central park.
Yeah where the mermaids were.
So it was like.
And then next thing I know everybody hopped off.
You know it was a ton of people had to go get their coffee.
I ain't gonna lie now I'm not a coffee drinker.
But it was me neither.
But the breakfast.
It was good.
The day side you know.
It was delicious.
Breakfast was good.
It was delicious.
And they had restaurants that opened up early.
Like the sun was just rising.
Just for that.
Just for that because they know tourists are there to do it.
Yep.
So they take advantage of it.
They sure do.
Don't blame them.
Can't blame them.
So that was day two.
And we were spent.
After we did that it was time to just.
I don't even think we ate dinner that night.
I don't.
I don't recall eating dinner.
I recall just going to bed.
That's it.
It was an amazing day.
And in day three we just walked around town.
Took pictures.
And we visited the library there.
Which was.
That library was beautiful.
It looked.
It looked like a world UNESCO site.
They had a whole garden in the library.
And I took this.
I don't know where the books were.
I asked my husband.
I was like is this the library?
I said where the books?
We ain't passed no books.
I thought it was a hotel.
I'm like what is this?
And it had bibliotheca on there plain as day.
But it looked like it was in the art museum somewhere.
It was so beautiful.
Now in our defense we didn't walk all up and through there.
So the books was in there somewhere.
But we got caught up by the architecture on the outside.
It was just amazing.
Yes.
It's a beautiful building.
And the courtyard in the middle was stunning as well.
Yeah.
And that's day three.
We just relaxed at the library.
Because we got a rest that we're checking out because we're going on an amazing adventure
to Hobbit Town the next morning.
Yes.
Because I'm obsessed with Lord of the Rings and I just had to stay in the Hobhouse.
Don't look like that.
You know good will.
When I showed you them pictures.
We had a great time.
I enjoyed it.
Look when I showed Derrick the site he was like yeah that looked like something I want
to do.
Yeah.
I've never seen Lord of the Rings.
I've never seen Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit.
But that sure looks fun.
It does.
It did look fun.
Because okay so day what day is that?
Day three?
It's day four.
Day four.
We went to Hobbitanongo.
Hobbit Town.
It was built in 2015.
But here's the thing.
The ride up.
Oh.
So this ride is more dangerous than the ride to the volcano.
Okay so you know me.
Of course you know I did my little research and I went on TikTok and Instagram and looking
at pictures.
They leave all that stuff out.
People done took.
I was like ooh we can really get some amazing photos you know for our travel wall in our
house.
And I hired this photographer and she met us at the pick up point in Antigua and we
when I tell y'all the weather was gorgeous okay.
Perfect.
And we're in the van, the transport going up to Hobbitanongo.
Another death cliff.
I'm like man is everything on a cliff?
And we were in a larger vehicle.
We were in a larger vehicle.
And the roads were smaller.
And they were so small.
They were practically one way roads.
It was one way.
And cars would have to bag into driveways or nooks so other cars could pass.
It was scary.
It was very very scary nonetheless.
But we got there safe and sound.
We had our luggage and everything.
And I be gosh darn it that the moment the moment we parked at the Hobbitanongo entrance
is like the clouds rolled in.
It fogged.
It was like something out of a scary movie.
It was like ha ha ha.
The joke's on you.
No photos today folks.
That's what it was like.
And the fog just came in.
It was like the movie The Fog where the fog comes in and kills everybody.
I was like god dang it where the sun at?
And the lady looked at me like.
This happens all the time.
Sister you done paid and there ain't no refund so what we gonna do?
And I was so defeated.
So when I tell y'all.
It's crazy.
I bought a dress for this moment.
We had everything planned to a T.
We had the photoshoot planned.
Because we had the largest Hobbit house.
We're gonna talk about the Hobbit house in a minute.
We had the most.
We had the largest one.
It was beautiful in there.
But I didn't want pictures inside the house.
I wanted pictures.
In Hobbitanongo there is this hand where there's this giant hand that's like carved into the
side of the one of the mountains and there's this hand that juts out over the side of the
cliff.
It's basically a cliff.
It's very dangerous.
But if you're standing on this hand you can see all the.
Like you're up in the sky literally.
And off in the distance you have Fuego.
The volcano right behind you.
It is picturesque.
It is beautiful.
It is amazing.
We got nothing.
And I paid that woman money literally for that one.
I just wanted that one picture.
I didn't care what else she did.
Just give me that one shot of me and my family on this darn hand with this white.
It was so cloudy.
Can you see the hand?
It was so cloudy that you literally.
And it started raining.
And I had on heels.
I had on a gold, a copper lame jumpsuit.
You looked really nice that day.
Hair all done.
Thank you baby.
I tell you the hand was slippery.
We could have slipped.
We could have felt tired.
We were in danger.
And the lady was like insisting no we can do it.
And I just.
I smiled but I really wanted to cry because.
The whole time we've been in Guatemala we hadn't dealt with weather.
It was beautiful weather until that moment.
I'm telling y'all it was like the jokes on you.
Sellers.
You know.
To the moment we pulled up we had perfect weather.
No photos for you.
That's what it felt like.
And let me tell y'all.
This lady was insisting she was going to take these dog on pictures.
Oh yeah.
Through hell or high water.
She got to get that money.
And she took the pictures and we literally.
It looked like the background was just all white.
Because the fog covered.
It was thick fog.
It was thick.
We saw nothing but a hand and us on it.
Yep.
And then.
We really just saw our silhouettes in the fog.
Yeah.
It was scary.
But then she you know we went inside of our hobbit house and she took pictures.
And you know our our hobbit house had a terrace on top.
So we were literally on the roof and taking pictures.
And I smiled.
I tried to be a good sport.
But and the lady did a phenomenal job.
If we ever go back I will absolutely book her again because they were not her fault.
The weather was not her fault.
She's a great photographer.
The pictures that she took were beautiful.
They just weren't the pictures I wanted.
Right.
And we had a bad weather.
We had terrible.
You couldn't see anything.
We couldn't see anything.
Nothing.
And.
But yeah.
She's amazing.
So if you want her information.
I can definitely give it to you.
She's a phenomenal photographer.
I just.
I just wasn't happy because I really wanted that one picture.
So what I ended up doing with that one picture.
I ended up blowing it up.
The one with the hand.
And I put it in black and white.
And it hangs over our bed at home.
Did they have a name for that hand.
It can't just be the hand.
I don't remember.
I don't recall.
Because everything was named.
The Hobbit House is our name.
The restaurant is name.
Was it Toro Negro?
I don't know.
Is it the restaurant?
I'm sure it was.
We need to look that up.
I'm sure it was.
But what we did end up doing because where we slept.
Where our house was.
The Hobbit House.
We were right.
The hand was literally in our.
Right.
People had to walk past our house to get to.
It was not in our backyard.
But like it was right next to our house.
So we were able to wake up and have sunrise pictures on the hand.
And let me tell y'all after the photographer left and what not.
It cleared up.
It was like this woman brought the fog with her.
But the next morning we were able to wake up and take the most amazing photos.
On this hand.
The view was spectacular.
I ended up getting some amazing pictures of Derek and London Rose.
And the one of Derek actually hangs on our gallery wall at home because it's so beautiful.
But just a little bit.
A little bit about Hobbitonongo or Hobbitonongo.
There are 26 attractions to enjoy or places.
Also places around in there.
But in the park there's the restaurant Toro Negro.
There are fairground rides.
There's axe throwing.
There's actually indigenous people that have stands that you can buy authentic artifacts
and items.
The truck ride up there is about 20 minutes.
Not truck ride.
But the car ride.
We took a truck.
We did.
We took a truck.
We were in like a bag of a.
Pick up truck.
Pick up truck with seats in it.
The cliffside view I'm telling you.
Have your phone out.
I don't know because we had that big room.
We had the personal butler.
Oh yeah.
I don't know if that's for every room.
But I know our room has it.
I'm not sure.
Because we stayed.
Our house was called Cala Esmeralda.
It's the big one with the red door.
If you go to their site it's Hobbitonongo.com.
And we did.
We had a personal butler.
And our room we had a private bedroom.
And in the living room there was a day bed in there.
There was a couch that pulled out.
So I think six people can stay there.
And then what I liked about our house was the wall.
Like the side of the house that was on the cliff was just glass.
It was windows.
And it was like wall to wall windows.
And we ended up opening the windows and we had the view of the volcano from our bed,
from the couch, from everywhere.
It was beautiful.
And that night there was a thunderstorm.
That night it was thunderstorm yes.
And we could see the lightning strikes behind the volcano.
That was really really special.
It was.
I kind of got some of that, I recorded some of it and I wish I could like screenshot it
real quick and make it like a screen saver.
But that was really cool.
Just seeing the lightning strikes behind the volcano.
It was like a, what was that movie like?
War of the Worlds.
War of the Worlds?
It did.
Now the one thing that of course you know with it, you know how I am about the dark
and Derek let's leave the curtains open.
Sleep with the window.
You bananas.
Yeah.
That would be a no.
Yeah.
Because that means anything he could come walk in pass and see us.
Big foot would be looking at us.
So we had to rig them curtains closed, London Rose build a fort.
Yeah.
And we had a good time.
No TVs.
Oh no TVs.
No TVs.
It's designed to disconnect.
Yeah.
It was, yeah.
And our house did not have a fireplace but.
Sure didn't.
There's some of the other ones did and there was another couple out there taking sunrise
pictures.
Yeah.
And their house had a fireplace.
We should have had a fireplace.
And they lit theirs there and I was like oh man.
Man I wish we had a fireplace.
That would have been nice.
I know so romantic.
So romantic.
Yeah.
That would have been cool.
Mmhmm.
But our house was the only one with a terrace.
We had the best house.
We did.
The biggest house.
It was the only house of, like you know I was just trying to be up in the park and it
was, we had to end up getting the most expensive one.
It wasn't that expensive.
It was like 115 USD.
Yeah.
So that's not that much.
No.
But you know.
I was expecting it to be more than that.
Yeah.
You know I was just, I don't know.
I don't know what I was thinking but I was like oh I'm gonna get one of the smaller ones
cause you know.
But you don't have to stay in one of the houses to go to the park.
Most people actually just do a day trip there.
Day trip.
Yeah.
Go and hang out for a little bit.
Yeah.
Or go to the next door or whatever you want to do and just head out.
And then they leave.
But you know me I want, I had this vision.
I hired a photographer to take some pictures.
So that's why, and that's why I wanted to get the most, you know least expensive house
cause I wanted a place to put our clothes and change.
But yeah.
That was a good call.
Good call by you.
Gracias.
Good call by you.
And then after that it was, it's time to head home.
And so we decided to put Abatangan Go at the end of our trip so that we could just catch
our private transport from the Hobbit house straight to the airport.
First we went to Antigua.
That's where they picked us up.
Oh that's right.
I'm so sorry.
Yes.
So Abatangan Go would drop us back off at, they had an office in Antigua.
So if you're going to Abatangan Go you would just meet at the office in Antigua and then
they'll send their car down to pick you up.
And so that's what we did.
We planned it just right so that our ride from the Hobbit house would took us straight
to Antigua and then our private transport picked us up from Antigua and took us to the
airport.
And then the driver made me feel kind of uncomfortable and uneasy.
Why?
He seemed like he didn't know where he was going.
We had a lot of recalculations on that GPS.
I'm like where are we going?
I didn't notice that.
You didn't notice that?
No.
You don't remember going down like these back roads and then they were doing construction
and he had to change course.
I remember.
And he was like who?
I don't know this part of town.
I'm like what?
And I thought we were going to miss our flight.
I'm like oh my God.
I remember that now.
Yeah.
He took us all over G.C. Guatemala City and he finally got us back to the airport.
I was a little nervous.
I'm not going to lie.
I thought we were trying to get taken.
You know why I forgot about that part of the trip?
Why?
Because I was thinking about all the drama we had with the passports trying to get out
of Guatemala City.
Yeah.
Because.
This time you almost got left behind.
Yeah.
Because not too long before we took this trip.
One of our Beagles, Scout.
It was probably Scout.
You know it was Scout.
It was Scout.
Chewed.
He just chewed up.
He chewed up London Roses too.
But you always had more damage.
Yeah.
I don't know how this dog.
I had our passports sitting in a pouch on the nightstand because we were getting ready
to take a trip to Puerto Rico even though you don't need the passport for Puerto Rico.
I wanted to have blah blah blah.
Anyway, this dog on dog found my dog on passport pouch, pulled out both passports and chewed
both of our passports.
The corners.
And the way that mine was chewed was going over the little barcode at the bottom.
And the person in Guatemala.
She started swiping that thing.
Looked back at me.
I don't know why she was looking at me.
It was your passport.
And she kept swiping and kept looking me in my eyes like, somebody's not going back to
the US today.
She just kept on swiping.
And then it finally beeped or whatever.
She's like, okay.
I was so nervous.
I'm like, I'm going to leave my wife and child in Guatemala.
We always have drama with our... Derek, when we left Canada.
Oh, don't talk about that.
Derek lost our passports.
Scout ate the passports.
I'm going to blame Scout.
Whatever.
I'm going to blame Scout for that.
That's coming soon.
We'll have to tell you all about that.
I don't know.
About how Derek got to be in control and took everybody's passports and lost all three.
Well, you needed passports anyway.
You and London Rose needed new passports anyway.
Yeah, I did.
I did.
And I believe I lost some passports.
I wasn't ready to get them just yet.
But anyway, we made it through customs and we're back on the plane.
We're back in the States.
What?
Go ahead.
I was just going to talk about some of the regrets I had about Antigua.
I regret that we didn't do a guided walking tour of the city because the city is so historic.
It's a monument.
So we should have, instead of resting on that third day, we should have went out and did
a guided tour.
Yes.
Because I feel like the more and more I do research on Antigua, I'm disappointed that
we didn't do more.
So what about you?
I regret that and I regret that we didn't go to Lake Atiklan.
I want to do that too.
That was made out of a volcanic crater, right?
Yeah.
That's a good one too.
It's a beautiful lake, yeah.
How far is that from Antigua?
It was only like an hour.
Yeah, we should have made that drive.
I know y'all are probably thinking an hour.
That's a long way.
But when we travel for us, if anything is within a two hour drive, we're willing to
take it.
We're willing to do it.
But the thing is in Guatemala, they don't have the infrastructure.
So an hour drive is probably actually like three or four hours.
No, it's an actual hour.
Really?
Yes.
So if they had the infrastructure, maybe it would have been like 30 minutes.
And so that's the thing with us.
So two hours is our max because the drive in a foreign country is an adventure.
It's a lot to see and experience.
So we don't mind driving up to two hours to a location.
Easy work.
So that's it.
That's all the regrets I have.
So we made it back to the States.
Then we go to Canada and I lose the passports.
Next time.
That's it.
Later.
If you made it this far, you are the true champion.
You could have been anywhere doing anything, but you instead chose to spend your time with
us.
And for that, we say thank you.
I'm Derek.
I'm Makayla.
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Do good, be good.
Until next time.