A new adventure: Guatemala

Guatemala
So it's been a while that I updated you guys on my travels. I've been home in The Netherlands from November till February. In those 4 months I really enjoyed being home with friends and family, but I also felt a little lost and still had the urge to travel more. After I took care of some stuff, I decided to travel Central-America for two months. I booked a ticket and left a week after that. The plan is to start in Guatemala, travel to Honduras and end my journey in Nicaragua with my awesome friend Andréanne from Canada. 
Sunday 28th of February I got on that plane and arrive the same day (incl. time difference) in Guatemala-city. It was a 19h flight with a 5h layover in Houston, Texas! The first part was the longest, but I had all three seats to myself, so I had the best and fastest flight of my life so far. It all went perfectly, even the US immigration went smoothly. I got picked up at Guatemala Airport and got to the hotel I booked for that night. The next day I headed for Antigua. I got on a chickenbus, this is an old US schoolbus, painted with graffity and with a big music system playing loud latino music! I was one of the first people that got on the bus, so I thought, this is nice and comfy. But after a few stops, the bus got sooo full and crowded. A joke that's been made about the chickenbus. Do you know how many people can fit in a chickenbus? Always one more! It's really true. Random people were sitting on each others lap and it was hilarious. No actual chickens on is bus though. After two hours cramped into this bus I arrived in Antigua. This is the former capital of Guatemala and it's gorgeous. It's got this cute colonial, spanish vibe. The streets are small and all the buildings are painted in different colors. The first thing I did, was just walk around and enjoy the beautiful city, people and scenery. The city is located between 3 different volcano's and it's amazing. That night I met Dutchie Rianne and we hung out the next day. We went to the viewpoint and chilled at Central Park. We were talking about doing a hiking trip up to one of the vulcano's and decided to do the overnight hiking tour up to Acatenango vulcano. Acatenango is a twin peaked vulcano and the highest point is 3975. The vulcano next to Acatenango is Fuego and this one is still active, so this gives a spectacular show of lava spewing out. Even from our hostel in Antigua you can see the lava coming out. The next morning we got up and our group got picked up from the hostel. We had to carry our own camping gear, so we had to bring our big backpacks. Unfortunately I'm only traveling with a 30L backpack. Haha I was so happy about it, until this point. I seriously thought my backpack wouldn't be able to carry the weight, but thank god it survived. We started the trekking with 8 people, but after 15 minutes we "lost" two girls. They didn't make it and went back to the hostel. It was a hard hike, for sure, so I really get it. We hiked, walked and climbed for hours and hours. It was absolutely amazing, the view got better every minute and the nature went from forrest, to jungle to dead forrest and after that there were pinetrees. We set our camp up at 3000m altitute with an amazing view of the Fuego Volcano. People were looking for wood while I made the bonfire, and I did it! I was so happy hhaha we had dinner while we were watching the volcano spew lava like fireworks. I didn't sleep much, but not because of the altitute or the cold, I just wasn't tired and it wasn't too comfortable on the rocks and pebbles. At 5am we woke up to climb the last part to the top of the Acatenango volcano. Unfortunately only 3 of 6 made it all the way to the top. It was a struggle, less air and no energy but I made it! It was so freaking amazing! Together with Rianne we did some celebration dances on top of a 4000m volcano!!!! Unbelievable! The view was impeccable and we were lucky we could see this far. I could even see my next destination; Lake Atitlan and the vulcano's around it. The way back down was so much better and a lot of fun. Because of the sand and small pebbles we could slide down the hill, a little bit like skiing, other parts of the trail we played around and it felt a bit like freerunning. Back at the hostel we had a nice shower and just chilled at the pool with some well deserved beers. We joined the quiznight and went to the lucky rabbit, where we danced all night until 2 am, because Rianne was taking the nightbus to Honduras. The next day I left for San Pedro at Lake Atitlan. It was a long ride and I was so tired from that whole week with 4h or less sleep a night, because of my jetlag. It didn't matter if I went to bed at 2am, I just woke up at 5am every day, no matter how tired I was. So that night in San Pedro I fell asleep at 9pm and slept until 7 the next morning!! I walked around the cute laketown and waited for Elsa and her friends to arrive at the dock from Panajachel. Elsa is here for her study and we decided to meet up. We were also in Australia at the same time last year, but Melbourn and Perth were just a bit too far apart. So it was great to see eachother on this side of the world. We walked around town when it started raining. We went to a restaurant, had lunch, played cards all afternoon and drank Cuba libres for €1,20! On Sunday I took a boat to San Marcos, on the other side of the lake. This was more like a hippie town, with meditation, reiki and a spiritual vibe. I walked around a bit and went up the hill for a nice view and walked straight into the local village. Their traditional clothing is beautiful, like all the other places here in Guatemala. This morning I took the chickenbus from San Pedro to Quetzaltenango (Xela) for my first day of Spanish lessons. It was awesome, we talked and I learned and practiced for 5 hours. Now I'm exhausted and in bed in the house of the family I'm staying with. This is to make the language course more authentic and it gives me the chance to speak and practice my Spanish. I'll stay here for 5 more days to learn Spanish and after that I'm traveling the rest of Guatemala! See ya guys! Hasta Luego adiosssss