A hectic start to my 36th bday at 7.30am, the ripoff bus ticket I’d bought back in Flores for my Lanquin to Antigua leg was looking a bit dodgy and involved getting a Tuktuk across the village to show my ticket to four different operators, one of them showed some sign of acknowledgement and bundled me into his minibus..all though that one was going to Flores, two minutes later he stopped and pointed at another minibus and I got on that one without my ticket…I was still waiting for things to go wrong! This minibus was moderately more comfortable then the previous journey and not packed full. However we had to stop and get off after an hour for the bus to drive off with all our bags to pick up the rest of the passengers whilst we waited at McDonald’s! I have to confess that one of the first things I ate on my bday, and the first one since Buenos Aires was a cheeseburger…. Also on my a bus were two Irish men, and three English girls…all of whom stank of booze and were more hungover then me. That didn’t stop them buying a crate of beer and two bottles of rum for the journey. I strongly refused the luke warm beer! When the bus got back I called shot gun, and everyone else squished into the back. iPod plugged in, other then the extra five loo stops we had to make for the boozers I managed to ignore my passengers…I know very BORING of me and we arrived about two hours later then we should in the beautiful city of Antigua at 5.30pm.

Antigua is the hotspot of Santa Semana in Guatemala, and I’d booked my accommodation a week before. That night my bed in a ten bed dorm was £13.50, the following two nights it was half price (normal price) at £6.25. Processions go on throughout the week leading up to Easter, and as we arrived quite a few street were closed off and I had to walk a little further to my hostel, only to get to the street as one of main processions was going past…I squeezed through the crowd with my backpack and checked in quickly before watching the rest of the procession. It was quite eerie with a lot people cloaked in black swinging incense, and thirty women carrying a huge wooden float with a statue of Mary. They move forward, then stop and rock back and forth in a slow dance, at any moment it looks like someone might trip or fall. I was fortunate to catch this particular procession as it was one of the last and biggest.

So far I was having a very rock and roll bday….seven pm and not touched a drop! Luckily two Swedish girls I’d met in Flores were also in town, so after a shower and a quick tequila in a bar I headed over to meet them at their hostel. Bless them they had a present…..all the way from Sweden a mini bottle Akvavit, a spirit made from Dill and Caraway. Actually more palatable than it sounded, and helped wake me up after the bus journey. As did the next ten shots of tequila, stupid dancing and yet another Irish bar and a general silly behaviour beneath my years. If I can’t let my hair down on my birthday when can I…..not that I ever really need an excuse. But I was very appreciative to Karin and Chatrin for celebrating with me!

Easter Sunday was understandably a quieter day, and the first day in about six weeks I didn’t do something or catch a bus. I was glad of day spent watching Madmen on Netflix and chilling. I did have an afternoon wander and caught the back end of another procession in the setting sun.

Monday I headed out to see a bit more of the city, and it was so much quieter after the end if Santa Semana. It is a very beautiful place, but with the beauty brings the tourists and it was nearly impossible to speak Spanish…which is ironic as its the Spanish language school capital of Central America. I met up with the two girls in the market and went rummaging for second hand clothes. I got a couple of shirts for less then a £1, and they both found Levi jeans for 50pence! Some more photos of churches (some standing, some damaged by earthquakes), my touring of the city was done. We intended on having a few quiet glasses of wine to say bye, which ended back at the Irish bar again. I adamantly refused to head back to another hostal to drink rum at 1am as had another 8am minibus. That and the fact that a particular tragic version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody sung in the street by some US language students sobered me up quick sharp! I think the girls stayed out till the early hours with an 8am bus to El Salvador to catch themselves. That extra year older has made me a real bore……