From volcanoes to the beach

Last week, the step team finished their project and went on holiday before returning to the UK and Ireland. I spent a few days with them, and took the trip from their project in Alotenango and travelled down to the coast. This is a journey of only a couple of hours, but the landscape completely changes.

This was their view of the volcanoes around Alotenango. On the right is Volcan Acatenango, and on the left is Volcan Fuego, which erupted last June, with devastating effect on towns and villages further down the slopes.

We past a couple of ´towns´ on the edge of the road. The lava flow filled towns and left houses and other buildings in ruins. Many families have never found the bodies of their family members who had not evacuated and were buried in their own homes.

As we drove away and downhill, we saw much of the road and various bridges that were washed away and destroyed by the lava and pyroclastic flow. Bridges have mostly been replaced now, but there is still work going on, to improve roads and river banks. 

As we dropped over 1000metres the landscape changes, and the surrounding fields grow sugar cane, rather than coffee that we´d left behind.

 This rocky outcrop is famous for being the face of an indigenous woman.

 In less than 2 hours we got to the coast. Here there are 2 large ports with huge container parks.

But we turned left to find the beach! In Monterrico, as with all of Guatemala´s pacific coast, the sand is black from all the volcanic activity over thousands of years. (Guatemala has 36 volcanoes altogether).

 Because of the colour and the heat (33C and upwards), the sand itself gets very hot and after about 9am, it´s too hot to walk on in bare feet. Luckily there were some hammocks and shades and a swimming pool to keep us slightly cooler!