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Published: December 7th 2008
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Man on the moon
Volcano scaling akin to moon walking Hola Peeps! ok its only been a week or so but it seems you can do alot in week. ok... The 7am rises are beginning to take their toll and are not to my fancy, so if your ever gonna come and do this Antigua schooling seriously think about 7 days of 7am (Supposed to be six but seems someone in my house is up and making noise at 7 on sundays!). Anyhoo what have I done since last I wrote? well last weekend I climbed Volcan De Pacaya or Pacaya Volcano. I will reiterate the word CLIMB as I for one wasn´t aware that I would be trekking up a 2650m high mountain - probably because I´m a london geezer with little knowledge of living on fault lines. I dont know whether I just thought the shuttle bus there would be akin to getting a cab dropping you off at a club, but climb it you must if you want to see lava. For those of you who havent done this type of thing, its not for the faint hearted - not only did one or two (older and larger) members of our little party not make it to the
lava (whilst also slowing us all down), when we got to the lava some people got ¨the fear¨ as we had to walk over newly hardened lava with some fiery lava still flowing underneath us. The heat it gives off could toast marshmellows nicely (a tip for those of you so inclined), but one has to wear decent footwear. Some Lemon went up wearing a pair of crocs - not only a complete fashion faux pas but a rather daft idea to wear soft rubber on a hot surface. Lets just say some folks left parts of their foot wear on the volcano.
Because we were held up by the slower members in the climbing party we didnt reach the lava till nightfall which led to quite a treacherous descent. It wasnt too bad really, but at the peak or the area closest to the lava the terrain got quite dangerous as the climb got steep and you are walking on nothing but large lumps of porous dried lava. I decked quite a few times and drew blood on my hands trying to save myself - I actually had a light and a large stick (recommended - buy off the
Hot as hell!
yes I am, thank you ladies kids at the bottom of the mountain - I paid 5q, one bloke paid only 2q) which was more than some of my fellow volcano crew, all in all a good day and quite a laugh was had by Tam, Kym, the good Doctor Sarah and of course myself.
So that was the weekend (well aside from the brothels and back street card games) so school was on. At school this week I have been trying to learn irregular verbs with little or no luck - I am praying it will just click, but even my pronunciation seems odd. You spend your life learning to pronounce things one way it just doesnt come easy changing the sound of a letter or not pronouncing at all.
Anyway school took me to another coffee plantation this week - I must say although it is intriguing to find out the hard work which goes into it, once youve seen one coffee finca you have seen them all. I suppose my award for favourite school outing this week goes to the trip we had to San Antonio. I got married. Well I think I did, I hope its not official - although my wife
is lovely (I met her the very same day! Hi Miranda!), lets just say it was bit quick for me. Its quite an interesting ceromony with gifts being swapped, a bit of dancing and 12 hours of fiesta (thats party for you who dont know - not a clapped out ford). I love dressing up so it was good crack (thats not I love taking crack and dressing up).
Oh yeah I also managed to watch Arsenal beat Chelsea, buy a sheet for future hostel stays, meet loads new people, check out live music and really upset important people back in London. All in all it was a good week, right I¨m off to buy a shuttle bus ticket to spend the weekend in Lago Atitlan. Lago Atitlan you ask? well Aldous Huxley famously wrote of it: "Lake Como, it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing", on that note I bid you farewell....
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