“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.