volcanos and tippy boats

I spent yesterday morning lazing around and then shopping at one of Antigua's weekly markets. At two I set out on a trip to Pacaya, and active volcano about two hours from Antigua. The deal was to climb into the sunset and see the lava at night. The bus was rather lame, but once we arrived at the start of the hike things began to pick up. We were greeted by a mob of kids yelling 'stick!'. I snapped a photo of someone snapping a photo of other touristas with the stick-kids. I decided against the sticks but was happy to have brought an head lamp. Things weren't totally dark until we were up the volcano (about two hours), but the ground was jagged dried lava so having some sort f light was really nice. On the way up I made the acquaintance of four cool Americans who had been working at QuetzalTrekking, a volunteer trekking outfit based in Xela. They were all qite clever and fun to banter with. One fellow brought a baguette he summarily toasted in a lava pit and shared with the rest of us. A group of Israelis started a makeshift minora, and the atmosphere at the top of the volcano was eerily comfortable. There was a heavy cloud cover so we couldn't see the sunset or the city lights below, but we were warmed and dried (it ahd been drizzling on the way up) by the volcanic drafts and warm air around the lava cracks. Basically, we were warmed by the depths of hell. Hell heats some mean baguette.

The bus ride back was a legend tellign circle about television shows. We covered the Twilight Zone and Arrested Development and Ali G, and caught each other up on what was cool and why. When we got back to Antigua I brought the American group to the cool restaurant I had gone the night before and we had a satisfying meal. I unfortunately fuond out that I got taken by the guy who sold me my tour ticket. He was, well, the guy who ...um....came up to me at the bus terminal. Okay, so I am idiot. But though I thought I might be being overcharged, I wanted to go on the trip first before learning THE TRUTH. Truth was that the others paid $7-10 and I paid $20. It was very much worth it experience-wise, but I have to remind myself to be more wary. The hotel he introduced me to was a little on the high sdie, but it was quite nice and I had my own room. It would have been more fun at a hostel. The others were at the Black Cat and seemed to like it. I was at the Santa Lucia, and fairly isolated. The owber was very nice though, and the big spider under my bed protected me from mosquitos.

This morning I took a mini-bus to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. My intial bus mate was a cool Israeli girl named Osnat. We soon discovered that we had been on the same hike the day before AND had taken pictures of each other. We didn´t figure that out until about an hour into our trip, but hey, it was dark and rainy. She was off to a small town across the lake (San Pedro) to rendezvous with a travel partner she'd parted ways with a few days prior. We took a little boat across and had lunch, then I cruised back to Pana. Now I am ten minutes away from a minibus back to Antigua, then a bus to Guatemala City, then a transfer to a first class overnighter to Flores. That is just south east of Tikal. I will get in at six or seven a.m., and hopefully I can get some Mayan ruins in before the day is through!

Friday afternoon/evening I hope to make it to Belize City and be set there for a night before meeting the family on Saturday. So.....here´s to the iwenttherethentherethenthere narrative. When I get more tiem I will fill this in with some better stories and pictures!