Edwin and I wanted to head down to the beach to a town called Monterrico, there were shuttle services from Antigua to get there but they were quite expensive, we decided to take a series of chicken buses to save a little bit of money and to experience more foul smells from local Guatemalans sitting next to us.
In the long run it only saved us $4 taking public transport but the duration of doing this was 5 hours as opposed to 2 on the shuttle.
We did however get a go on a cruise on a small boat through a mangrove swamp where many people go bird watching, so this was a nice touch to the trip.
Arriving in the very small town of Monterrico we went in search of the only hotel in town with dorm rooms called Johnnys.
Johnnys is a nice place right on the black sand beach with several swimming pools, beach volleyball, bar and a restaurant, it was packed with people when we arrived but most of them were leaving and going back to work as the new years holidays were over.
Shortly after arriving at dusk we were told the leatherback turtle babies were getting released into the ocean at sunset, we went to go check it out; you can see by the photos below.
In the dorm there were a few people; two Swedish girls (Torra and Emmylou) and a weird young English guy (Raza). Edwin, Raza and I wanted to grab some food in town where I found some cheap burnt pizza and some fried chicken, we then grabbed some Rum and coke and went back to the hotel to get drunk to celebrate my birthday at the stroke of midnight.
The rum hit me hard and I was doing well by midnight, this is where Edwin handed me a packaged chocolate finger with a candle shoved in it and a gift; it was a fantastic gesture, one that I didn’t expect and the gift was a t-shirt. Thanks man.
This evening was a new moon and we all wanted to go swimming in the ocean, perhaps not the smartest or safest thing to do because the waves were big and they crashed hard but in the water we did get to see Phosphorescence. There were a lot of these little green sparkles of algae and as the waves crashed under the star light the waves were eluminated as much as the night sky… amazing.
After a few more drinks we all hit the hay.
On the Boat and Bird watching
The Sunset, a dog on the beach enjoying himself a little too much and the bucket of turtles they let go into the ocean
Turtles, turtles and more turtles
Releasing the turtles into the ocean
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