I am a lucky man. I lucked out and the perfect ending to my LONGGG trip. I hoped that my last two weekends would be as good as my first two. I didn't know what to expect as my trip was closing down.
The first weekend i was in Antigua, Guatemala. Antigua literally means "ancient" or old. The city is a stunning small colonial town. It sits in good elevation so the climate is very mild. It is located outside guatemala city, the capital, about an hour and a half away. I arrived thursday and spent the whole day just wondering around this lovely place. There are old colonial churches, public laundry pools, cobblestone streets, and numerous delightful open-courtyard cafes all over the town.
Now onto friday night! So we all, some guys i met at the hostel and myself sat out to start the night at the party hostel in Antigua, Black Cat. There i met an amazing irish girl named Ciara that i traveled for a bit in nicaragua. We had a couple of drinks and then went out for a club. The club was absolutely packed. They played the usual music: reggaeton, electronic, slow music, all intermixed and random. Sooo after loads of drinks we were all geared up for a long and memorable night!!!
ONE PROBLEM!! Antigua clubs shut down at 2am. Now maybe in the states that is normal, but everywhere else this is absurd. No clubs ever shut down before 4am! Sooo we didn't know exactly what to do. So me and a couple guys talked to some locals and they said there are "illegal" clubs that open after 2am. Sooo we were keen on finding one. Some girls helped us, so we jumped in their ride and they were constantly on the phone calling people. I am in the front seat trying to comprehend where we are headed. Eventually we find a place and start lining up. I am almost ready to pay and enter when the cops roll up. So there goes that plan. Some of the guys i was with were done with the night now and they went home. Not me! I wasn't going to let this night go down this way. The girls too called it a night and went home. So me and my friend are standing outside this illegal club talking to locals and seeing where there is more party. Luckily for us we again met some local girls and they said there is an underground trance party in guetamala city, an hour and a half away, in an abandoned parking lot. We looked at eachother and said "why not". So we jumped into these girls cars and were off to the party.
The trance party was absolutely sick!! Good music and atmosphere, and cheap drinks as well!! We eventually left at 5 from the party and had an afterhours party at one of the girls apartment. I didnt get to bed until 7am. Incredible! I then realized i had a tour in the afternoon, to climb a live volcano outside Antigua. OK!! So we lifted rides to where the "chicken buses" take off for antigua in guetmala city and by the time we knew it we were back in Antigua.
I caught a quick bite to eat, took some aspirin for my trashed ankle, and went on the hike. I have never seen live lava before. It took about 90 mins. to climb the volcano and we got some really good lava flows. Lava was literally everywhere, underneath you in some small channels and you could get about 10 feet from the lava rivers, any closer and the heat was too intense.
Soo that was an amazing weekend in Guetamala. Now onto Mexico!!
I took a quick stop in San Christobal de Casas, another small colonial town. I have something for small colonial cities. I think i am going to retire in one. The easy-going life style along with the colonial atmposphere is very appealing to me.
Anyways off to mexico city where i stayed with an amazing couchsurfer and person, ROBERTA!!! She made my stay in mexico city absolutely amazing!! I arrived thursday and met Agnis, a rad swedish girl i met on my yacht trip from colombia to panama and an aussie Nick. The three of us would eventually would have one of the best weekends i had on my entire trip!
Friday the news of the swine flu was kindof trinkling down thru the news. Masks were getting handed out in the metro (which is the nicest i have ever seen, except Tokyo), but everyting was still open. Friday night we would go to a salsa club, where agnis was the center of attention for nearly all of the old men in the club. Then we left to a club. We got there and totally killed the place. All 3 of us were dancing on the stage, drinking loads of cheap drinks, and having a bitchin time! Once again we were standing outside of the club around 4 and got invited to an afterhours place. We were all keen on it and soo we took off. I was in the cab without nick and agnis, but with 4 girls (lucky me)! Anyways we got to this apartment in central mexico city and the apartment belonged to a young doctor. Anyways he saw that my ankle was F'd and he freaked out that i needed to take pills, and get a shot. I was drunk, pure and simple. Coherent surely but still drunk. I asked him if he was drunk. In which he replied yes also. I then asked if it was ok to recieve a shot while drunk, and he said it is not a problem. So i pulled down my jeans a little and took the shot right in the ass. Just as i was getting the shot my mates agnis, nick, and all the others in the party open the door and see me getting a shot in the ass. OMG! This all became too much for them! They were like.."what is going on here??" and ya it would b a pretty wierd sight to see ur mate gettin a shot in the ass at an afterhours party but thankfully the shot really helped my ankle. It felt loads better the next morning. Ok that night was defintely memorable. So what would saturday have in store for us?
Saturday we 3 went to the pyramids outside the city, they were amazing and then everything was closed by 6. EVEN MCDONALDS!! So when it was around 10 we looked for somewhere to dance and party. The trouble was everything was closed. All venues without open air access was forced to close. So that meant that no clubs in mexico city would be open. Sooo no nightlife on my last night of my trip??? WRONG!! AGAIN i lucked out. We bumped into a guy in the nice but overtly gay club and restaurant district of Mexico city. And he said there is loads of parties and clubs outside the city, about 30mins away by taxi. Soooo we all agreed to take the chance, by now it was 1am and we were desperate.
When we arrived at the place we instantly knew we hit the jackpot. Agnis, nick, and I agreed to wear our new 10 peso (.75 cents) sun glasses in the club. This would pay off as we were treated like lords in this place!! 16 coronas for 10 dollars, good music, and an unspoiled, ungringoed normal mexican club!! We partied like GODS in there!! Danced like fools, bought buckets and buckets and buckets of coronas, smoked cigarrettes like they were candy, i could not have asked for better travel mates or a better place to spend my last weekend partying like a lord in Mexico City!!
VIVA LA MEXICO!!!
