Monkey Day

The first part of our day was spent at the nature reserve just outside of Pana. After a sleep in, we gathered our stuff and arrived at the gate just as it opened. This ended up being a great idea as we had the whole place to ourseleves. This meant that when we found the monkeys, we could take our time and enjoy it. We first spotted Coaties, which are adorable little dog/ant eater hybrid-looking animals. After spending some time watching them, we saw our first spider-monkey swinging from the trees toward us. I was so glad we saw one as I think they are the goofiest, yet cutest animals around. We got some hilarious photos that show exactly this. After some time admiring them, we moved on to the rest of the nature walk. Although not seeing any more animals, the forest was beautiful, and we enjoyed it thoroughly still. At the end of the walk, you arrive at the butterfly sanctuary. This was also quite amazing due to the colours and patterns that the butterflies reflect throughout the whole room. Although hard to capture in a picture, seeing them flutter and buzz around with all their colours was amazing. Sadly, though, this was the end of the nature reserve, and we then began to walk back to Pana. We had organised to see Corrie and Kaz before we parted ways, and although we were very early, we figured we would go and sit down at the cafe and wait. Luckily, we did as not long after, they arrived too. This gave us an extra couple hours to chat before saying our goodbyes. Yet, once again, we decided that we would manage to catch up briefly while in Antigua. After our extended coffee break, we then both had to head off to catch our respective buses, ours to antigua, and there's to El Paradon. We then boarded our shuttle for the 4 hour journey. Although painful, we arrived with enough time to explore briefly after dropping off our bags. Though we wanted to explore more, we had a lot of preparation to do in anticipation of our big acatenango hike. As such, we got some snacks, toiletries, and little cesaers pizza. We wanted to load up on calories before our big walk, but we grossly underestimated the size of the pizza. We could both barely eat half before being sickly full. Luckily, we could store it at the hostel and enjoy the rest when we finish the hike. Perhaps the greatest idea we have ever had. We then got ourselves to bed to enjoy a good sleep before the big day.Read more