Email No. 3

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Hey- just wanted to send another quick email... Trying to set up a travel blog- but might take a few days to get it up and running, i don´t have much time on Internet with all this Spanish and the volcano to climb tomorrow! will send you all the url when i get it set up. This way, i can post the pictures and not have to send out the emails.

things here going well. i feel GREAT! it is amazing what some detox and a lot of water can do for the body (not to mention the mind and soul!). it is the second day of spanish and i am feeling so incompetent, but i am trying not to get too down on myself... i mean, it is day 2, right? i am just doing reviews, realizing how bad my memory is- i might as well smoke tons of marijuana the way it is going. i´m not even a stoner, but the words i learned just last semester are escaping me and making it a little frustrating, but then other things are coming easily. for sure, the toughest part is having the courage to talk to complete strangers in spanish. it is all spanish, all the time, except with the students at the school (how ironic)... but a nice rest in some ways.

i can only improve.

was just in a cafe for past hour reviewing my lessons from today and yesterday... (4 hours yesterday and 7 hours today!)... anyways, the music was great, the espresso superb, but the whole while it was just reminding me of buenos aires- it had that VERY cosmopolitan feel that all of BA has and very unlike Guatemala which is quite Mayan and very poor, but still nice.

so now, off to dinner with olga and the rest of the family. i am so glad that i am doing the homestay rather than hotel, hostel, or even staying at school as an option. i am still super super shy- can you believe it? but trying to talk more and more at every meal.


hasta luego!

besos!

*lisalisa

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Photos

Volcan Pacaya 1
View on the way to Volcan Pacaya from Antigua

El perro se llama "Viejito"
The dog followed us the whole way up the volcano

Hike up to Volcan Pacaya
Contrast between the grass and where the lava has flowed down...spooky!

Rock hard lava
that you can walk on

Red hot molten lava
that you can´t touch

Volcan Pacaya
Climbed nearly to top of Volcan Pacaya about 1.5 hours drive from Antigua. Even though there weren´t any rios de lava it was amazing and quite surreal to be on top of a volcano that was active earlier that day.

Group
walking across hard lava. We were filming for a North Face commmercial.

Ronie on the phone
Our guide calling his peeps to find out where the rivers of lava are? I mean, doesn´t everyone make cell phone calls while hanging out on an active volcano?

Michele with wind
or Gone with the Wind