volcan

I would like to add a disclosure to the beggnning of this blog.
One the internet cafe is closing in 10 minutes so I realize I won't be able to write all that I´d like to. Which is a lot. Two the picture above is a hint about some of the adventuras de la loquita llamada Rena.
Mom, Grandma, Dad, and all those worriers, I am writing this from inside where I am currently safe unscathed.
Read at your own risk.... with that:





So I just had the most amazing weekend. ever. hands down.






I'll go backwards in time to describe it though.



Today I climbed to a place called la alta cruz. It overlooks antigua and is he top.Alta cruz is about a 20 minute climb from where i live. It is gorgeous.... however in the picture you can't see the volcano due to clouds.... thats alright though because it just gives me an excuse to go up again.






This is some more ruins that are on the way. Its so neat how all the ruins are just in the middle of everything in Guatemala. There is a boy skateboarding on a basketball court right beside these ruins with a volcano and lush forest in the background. Its all just so much at once.

Hereyou can ACTUALLY see the volcano. This is a group of volunteers (Mike from Texas, Kharmika from North Carolina, and Alex from Germany) in front of the volcan de agua.

You can see it from anywhere in the city. It helps me navegate a lot of the time.. that is when it is not covered by clouds.

This morning following regular mass the church right near my homestay, San Francisco, had a procession celebrating Corpus Cristi. They laid down beds of flowers and petals to lead to the different stops along the way. At each sight prayes were recited and songs sung.While the official celebration according to the calander has already passed amd many places have already celebrated with processions in the past weeks, the churches each took a turn hosting a procession. There was music, a bunch of schools and people, priests and lots of firecracker/fireworks/bombs going off. Loud. Many times. The procession went to the different schools, and even a half hour after it was done you could still smell incense lingering in the streets. Almost all the houses have had yellow ribbons, cloths or bands decorating them, including my home stay. Other safe passage volunteers told me that all this celebration, music, procession and decoration was nothing in comparison to la semana santa or holy week.

The natural beauty of Guatemala is

overwhelming.
As you can see from this breathtaking view which was taken during a volcano hike.

I climbed one of Guatemala's active volcanoes Pacaya this past weekend. We left getting ready at 5 to depart at six. We got to the travel company at 6 am and asked when the bus was coming, as we had made reservations the night before. They told us it would be coming soon. We waited.

and waited.

and waited.

When it got to be about 7 and we began to realize that this was more than just the usual ¨Guatemala time¨tardiness. Finally they said that there MIGHT have been some confusion. hmmm.

So after a couple phonecalls and discussion it turned out that the bus had already left. They said we could go on the afternoon trip instead. Originally a group of four of us was planning to go. However, after all the drama of the morning two opted out so it was just me and a german volunteer Alex. That afternoon we headed up the mountain with long pants, flashlights, sun block, raingear, snacks and water, and of course our cameras.

On the advertisements for the travel company they advertised an armed guard would accompany our group as robberies and holdups have happened not infrequently on the mountain. However, when a climber asked where our guide was we were informed that it was just the police guards stationed throughout the park and along the path. A stray dog accompanied us along the journey and we joked that he was our guard dog.


Each tour group had a different name, jaguar, panthar, our group was the tigers.

The hike up was beautiful. The soil at the bottom is so rich and dark, and the plant life grows so fast. We had great weather on the way up luckily. We met other tourists making the climb along the way, from the states, holland, Hong Kong, Japan, and an Australian who actually knew one of my friends through distant connections funny enough. While traveling you always learn what a small world it is.

As we were climbing it was fun to think about all that was going on in the earth benieth us, and the different levels leading up to the top. I got to witness some acts of nature that I studied in eighth grade science.

Below is a picture of the power plant on the hill side. If you look there are lots of blue pipes leading up to that site. It relies on a process of steam, and geothermic energy but is powerful enough to provide energy to about 4million people, or all of Guatemala city.




While i anticipated that the end of the plant life would be gradual, as you can see it is sudden. Here I am standing at the edge of the point of no return. The grassy plateau just drops to black moulton rock. While the volcano is covered in clouds (hey, I knew I would be coming during the rainy season) it is right behind me.

You can see our guide groupstepping off the lush land, and into some dangerous territory. Now anyone who does not want to continue reading from here does not have to. Below is our group trekking onto the unpredictable side of the mountain.





It was so strange navegating the uneaven rocks, some were loose but this type of rock i have never seen before, some are sooo hard, while others crumble if you breath on them the wrong way. The wierdest sensation was just how warm it was. They warned us that our shoes could melt. You could feel the heat rising out of the crevices. Here Is a picture of the glowing beneith us.

It began to rain just as we hit the summit, here´s me with my umbrella on top of the black rocks,









However, it was so strange as I dried off as soon as the rain hit me because of the heat rising from below the surface. At some points I used my umbrella to sheild myself from the heat radiating from out of the earth and let the rain cool me.

So we just followed the guide, and I stuck with my fellow tigers. I figured as long as I stepped where the person in front of me stepped I should be resonably safe.

I walked over one area that was particularly hot and was headed toward another group that was ahead of us looking at a river of lava flowing down the side of the volcano. Then all the sudden we heared some shouting from above. All the guides were saying ¨Sube rapido Jaguars¨¨cougers aqui!¨¨Gather quickly tigers¨ ¨Climb quick.¨¨come¨I looked up at the path where I had just climbed and a new stream of lava was emerging from the surface.

Where that lava is coming out of I had steped on moments earlier. My heart was racing. Especially as the exit from the mountain was on the other side of that emerging lava. The australian who I had met that day has climbed volcanoes before, lived in Morrocco been traveling central and south america, been on many adventures including diving with sharks earlier that week without a cage (and sighted a bull shark) earlier in the week, but he said that this topped all of that.
yeah.



While the lava moved slowly, it was still difficult navegating the rocks to get back, and it moved steadily. At an increasing pace it flowed out both sides. By the time I reached the other side it had spread to about 15 or 20 feet.



I took the earlier photo from where the guy in the white t'shirt is, and it was just that little bubble of lava that had pushed a rock out to emerge.. It continued spreading. And it was flowing down both sides. I was terrified that the people on the other side wouldn´t make it around it in time and it would cut them off from the exit path. Fortunatly everyone made it out okay, including me and my German friend. You can see Alex´s hair standing on end. (Actually most peoples hair was standing up not from fear, but static. The earth is so charged there.).
Actually it turned out to be a double feature that day, as the rain turned into a thunderstorm. We started back down the mountain path. It was pouring and getting late. The path we had climbed turned to a river of mud, which presented another danger of slipping and sliding, but our group finally made it down safely. We were lucky though because it had been so sunny, beautiful and clear going up that we had gotten to witness the beautiful views.
On our (very wet) ride home it was downpouring still. As we were driving we saw police cars and hazard light notices. There were a bunch of orange cones and caution markers. While it was supposed to be a double lane road everyone had to move to the right hand side, as there had been a huge landslide on to the road. Talk about a full day.

Here is another picture of me in front of the lava. After a long, rainy, and challenging week it felt like this trip charged my batteries right up.


So to end on a different note entirely....
and much cooler... I had to share this Heladeria, or Ice Cream store





As a former cold stone employee and aficionada I couldn´t help but notice the striking similarities between them and this company. I hope that I won´t be charged with some sort of copyright infringement by posting these pictures but all I can say is WHAT?? Like the red and white theme they had going on in the store, and logos are not even pretending to be different.

Man.

I am excited to see the kids again, and hope that we can make some real progress this week. They are probably more unpredictable than the volcanoe, some times the sweetest hardworking dears, and other times.... impossible. I´m still learning with them:)