“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

I woke up early Sunday morning, my last day in Antigua and in Guatemala itself, to a wonderful gift.  It was sunny.  I laid in bed rubbing my eyes as they slowly adjusted to a beam of light shining through the small, stained glass window above my door.  Other than that beam of light, the room was pitch black.

I slowly rose my tired body out of bed, gently pulled back the heavy, dark drapes and lone behold, there it was….the sun, at last!  I was overjoyed.  It was only half past six in the morning.  I could have slept another hour or so.  I certainly was tired.  My entire week in Guatemala was so intense that I was in desperate need of sleep.  Yet that beam of sun was calling my name.  It was like a beam of hope.  A sign that I would finally get to see the peaks of the three dominant volcanoes that dominate Antigua.

Finally, the clouds had lifted and gave me a gift: An entire, unobstructed view of Volcan de Agua or “Volcano of Water” the most commanding volcano, to the south of Antigua at 3766 meters/12,356 feet which dominants the colorful city of Antigua like an omnipresent God.