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Well, what a week...Dont really know where to start this time, but think we´ll start at the end...! this morning... and the craziest morning of our lives.. Albert wants to tell you about this one...

Before arriving to Antigua, we were told by other travellers and guidebooks to visit a near by volcano called Pacaya. In recent years, it has become more active and draws many tourists. It sounded pretty interesting, especially since it was relatively cheap, so we got our tickets and and set out for the tour this morning at 6:15 (we woke up at 6am - an hour late since i set the time wrong...oops!). An hour drive up the mountain and we were there. As we pulled up, a group of kids crowded around the car trying to sell us walking sticks (which they collected once we finished the tour!). We bought one (for Amy - no assistance needed on my end ;) ) and we began our 1 hour and 45 min treck to the top. Apart from our very narrow trails and paths, everthing was completely covered in green. It was like a nature hike through the forest, exactly what we expected. Eventually, our surroundings turned into something out of a sci-fi film. The forest came to an abrubt hault along with the comfortable paths we had been following all along. Now, we were in ¨2001 A Space Odyssey¨ (see photos). Not quite what I expected but great, I felt like now we were getting our money´s worth. We continued across for another 20 minutes until our two guides (and I use that term loosly - more like random local Guatemalens) told us to hold on for a few minutes. In the mean time, the clouds, fog, mist - and all the other types of moisture found near the top of a volcano - broke for about ten minutes or so allowing us to get some great photos that overlooked Antigua and the hillsides of Guatemala. After a few photos, I could see our guide had hiked further up, and at this point was yelling to the other guide ¨mucho lava!¨aqui!, mucho lava aqui!¨. From our (safe) position, you could actually see the glowing lava and heat rising from the mountain side. We took some more photos, and at this point, i was content with turning back and going home, that fantasy was interupted by the other guide screaming ¨vamanos!¨. Some hesitation, and the line started to move closer to the smoking rocks and glowing lava. Amy was ahead of me marching along. I, on the other hand was examining how the hell this was safe. We continued to hike up a very steep channel that ran parallel with another channel where the Lava was flowing. Occasionally, the lava would collect at a higher point, and since there was a slight dip in its path, it caused pieces of glowing volcanic rock to roll down the channel parallel to us. Mostly small pieces, but occasionally, larger ones would break off. About every 3 or 4 steps, I voiced my concern to Amy (obviously much more brave) who basically told me to relax. Once we hiked past the lava and eventually away and off to the side, we had a clear view if the rest of the group making their way up. I was more relaxed at this point until some one screamed, ¨move to the side!¨. We watched a large piece of glowing rock break off and start to tumble down its channel, it collided with another static rock and launched it across and onto the path where the rest of our tour group was hiking up. It missed a few people who had heard the warning but one panicked girl hesitated and froze. We watched in shock as the rock (the size of a basketball) bounced and hit her dead center in the chest causing her to fall backward into a reverse summersault causing her to hit the back of her head on another rock. The poor girl was in shock, bleeding, but concious and was quickly escorted down the mountain.I looked at Amy in disbelief, since we had been in that exact spot about 10 minutes earlier...

Me again...(Amy).. maybe not brave, but stupid.. so that was this morning. Moral of the story - listen to Berti (poor Berti!) ;)

Other than lava, this week has been event-filled. We left off last time when we arrived in Antigua, and we both love it here - it has been our base for a week, and is a gorgeous town where lots of Brits and Americans come to learn Spanish - therefore, it is much more developed and comfortable. We took a two-day trip to Chichicastenango and Panajachel (try saying that after a few Gallo´s - Guatemalan Beer..) Chichi was a cute market town in the middle of the mountains, and the three hour bus trip on Guatemalan ´roads´ was an experience in itself.. I was expecting a little tourist market, but I was mistaken (Alcalali girls, this was no Altea!!) Vast and overwhelming, filled with stalls after stalls of multi-coloured embroidered goods - beautiful but sad, as the children lined the streets and cafe´s begging. We left this town and moved onto Panajachel - a town on the edge of Lake Atitlan, where we were greeted with a similar juxtaposition of tourism and poverty. More market stalls and rows and rows of cafes and restaurants eerily empty apart from the children begging. The views were outstanding - as you can see from the photos, we were not disappointed, but i think after one night we were ready to return to Antigua , which now felt a little like home.

It has been raining for 48 hour straight here, and i´m truly hoping the English weather hasn´t followed us.. It has made us feel a little less guilty about spending time in our favourite little place... Cafe 2000. Every day they show 4 different movies on a massive screen and you can just sit, drink, eat nachos and watch! They do seem to weirdly have an obsession with Kevin Costner though, which is not so fun, but we´re off there now to shelter from the impending storm.

In other news, you´ll be pleased to hear that the ants have gone. We found two massive spiders though in our hotel room, so Berti had the headlamp out again inspecting the area before I would move.. our Spanish has improved, although Albert´s "tienes Toothpick?" was not a highlight..we both still have a lot to learn. We´re off to meet our group for our first organised excursion tomorrow so will upate you on our travels to Honduras and Nicaragua in our next blog. I sense we´ve been babbling now, so all that´s left to say is we miss you all, hope you like the photos and videos and keep your messages coming!

Big love
A and A xxxx

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