Let the Strangeness Commence!
All images & text by Willow Coyle. All rights restricted.
We have officially survived our first week in the mystical land of Guatemala...well, "survived" is a bit of an exaggeration, I suppose, since we're actually feeling quite pampered. We're comfortably established in a lovely Airbnb of which Indiana Jones would likely approve. The birds sing happy tunes, butterflies lazily flutter around the fountain in our courtyard and you can mostly tune out the sounds of the incessant jackhammering on the building beside ours.
This is my second time in this wildly gorgeous country and it's Phil's first go-around. I discovered this amazing place while backpacking through 7 countries of Central America back in 2019. I had fantastic adventures throughout several regions and was so eager to share some of them with my favorite adventure partner (and our readers).
We spent the first few days exploring our city that we've chosen for the month: Antigua. There are many unique things about this city-- firstly, it's a UNESCO World Heritage CITY. Yes, the entire city is regulated by their strict standards so all dwellings must closely resemble the original ones of the 16th Century Spanish Colonial architects. The streets (and many sidewalks) are cobblestone, which is quaint yet a perpetual hazard. Strolling through town (albeit flat terrain) is more of a hike than a walk... constantly watching out for large holes, slopes, or poles to smack into. Phil got to experience his first spine-jittering tuk-tuk ride... it was pretty wild! We'll probably try to avoid those from now on... the roads are really not designed for vehicles or even bikes. Walking around is very entertaining though... there are many ancient ruins scattered throughout and often it feels like you're experiencing a time slip!
Secondly, the quaint city is nestled in a valley surrounded by three giant volcanoes: Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango. In total, Guatemala is the home to 37 official volcanoes, three of them being in constant activity–Pacaya, Fuego and Santiaguito. Yes... our nearby Fuego definitely still very active. Maya call it Chi’gag, which could be translated as “where the fire is.” This stratovolcano spews gas & ash throughout the day & has erupted multiple times throughout history... even as recently as 2018, when, "a catastrophic eruption of Guatemala’s Volcán de Fuego on June 3 affected more than 1.7 million people in three central departments, or states. As of Aug. 9, the death toll stood at 165 people, with 260 still missing. This was Guatemala’s most severe volcanic eruption in 45 years." (source link) We'll investigate more about Guatemala's volcanoes, their mythology and unique peculiarities in a future article.
Antigua makes for a great soft landing since it's a haven for expats from every corner of the world. There are top-notch hostels and hotels... often with luxurious courtyards, exciting day trips, outstanding cuisine from some of Guatemala's top chefs, shops that showcase the immense talent of the local artisans... all quite affordable.
While we are certainly here to enjoy ourselves, being that it is an ancient city with many local stories and legends that surround it, we are also hoping to encounter locals with ghost stories or other tales of strangeness.
I personally already have had a peculiar experience. The first or second night I was falling to sleep in our loft, I heard clearly a man exclaim, "Hey!" It was out of the blue and sounded like it was right next to me. This was actually the second time I've experienced what seemed like an auditory hallucination. One night last year when we were living on the big island of Hawaii in the middle of a very noisy downpour that seemed to want to pulverize our tin roof, I was wide awake and holding a very sick rescued kitten that I was afraid wouldn't make it through the night. Phil was sound asleep beside me and all of a sudden I heard "HEY!" right above me. I saw nothing and heard nothing else. Phil is more well-versed in all things strange and said this was actually a quite commonly-reported occurrence! (Phil also had a peculiar visual hallucination in our new bed the other night, but I'll leave it up to him to tell that tale)
We met the talented Greco-German artist Susanne Riedl at her exhibition at the charming Y Tu Piña También cafe, where she did a live demonstration of utilizing clay and earth as pigment for her paintings. She utilizes a lot of symbolism and draws inspiration from ancient cave art. She's been an expat in the Lake Atitlan area for over a decade, and we hope to interview her soon in regards to unique art techniques, the mythos of the area and her artistic perspective on Guatemala. Check out her work here!: https://artetierrapainting.blogspot.com/
The supermoon eclipse was this past Sunday evening... we were married last May on the blood moon supermoon eclipse, so we have a special connection to this strange event! We got a few peeks of the surreal orange hue as the clouds danced around, but by the height of the actual eclipse, the clouds had completely obsured it. Oh well... the supermoon energy helped fuel our motivation to get started writing and researching the following day and we're chugging right along!
We are both tremendously happy and excited to finally be here, and we have so many adventures planned that we can hardly contain ourselves. This first week has been wonderful and we're bursting with ideas for articles, interviews and investigations. I must get back to wrapping up the website design, so adios for now, you Weird Wanderers! Cheers-W
