Cabaña

Last weekend I was treated to another wonderful experience. Some friends rent a cabin high up in the hills just outside of Antigua, which is their country retreat. Not that Antigua is much of a bustling city, but this cabin is special. It has no electricity, receives water from a local spring which is delicious and welcome after endless bottled water and has a breathtaking view over the three volcanoes. In fact, it is so close that it appears possible to walk to Agua (if you imagine there are no steep valleys in between) and explosions of lava from the ever-active Fuego have been easily discernible from the cabin.

We got there in time to watch the sun setting behind the volcanoes and then had fun cooking with the aid of a torch and candles. We sat out under the brilliantly star-studded sky; grand silhouettes of landscape and trees black against the night. In the morning we rose before dawn and made our bed on the grass in front of the cabin to watch the sky fill with pink light and the mist slowly dissolve from the furrows in the landscape beyond, creating a incredibly subtle range of blue grey tones in the mid-distance. Early birds, raucous and clammering, filled the air with delectable song. I love the sound of birdsong, especially in the morning, and here you are never far from a racket of scandalous, squawking avian gossip, at dawn and at dusk. A troupe of bright blue birds, which I had heard about but until now had never seen, because they only show themselves in the early morning, descended on the path in front of us and allowed us to admire their startling blue coats through binoculars.

In the afternoon we went for a walk up through the forest, climbing trees (for the more intrepid), analysing the flora and watching the clouds drift across the tree-tops against a celestial sky. When we weren`t being active, we lay in hammocks admiring the view from the cabin and passing quality time doing not a great deal! This is the life!