Blogs from Volcán Santa María, Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean

Hola erstmal. Sprachschule ist kurz gesagt cool aber anstrengen. Muss noch viel lernen aber es ist schon eine kleine Verbesserung erkennbar. Xela wird von Tag zu Tag cooler. Hat viele Parks, kleine Restaurantes und Bars und vor allem gibts hier richtigen Kaffee....sonst hats bisher immer nur Instant-Bruehe gegeben. Schon komisch, im Land wo der Kaffee waechst trinkt man Instant-Coffee weil der meiste Kaffee nach Europa verkauft wird....bei den Fruechten ebenfalls, waehrend es hier gerade Probleme wegen einer schwachen Ernte und dadurch entstehnde Hungersnot gibt werden Obst und Gemuese exportiert.....gibt einen ein bisschen zu denken. Naja zu was anderen Am Freitag ist Edguardo wieder nach Xela gekommen und wir haben auch gleich einen mords "ziaga" gemacht. Waren alle voll wie die Russen und Edguardo hat auch bei unserer Familie gepennt weil er nicht mehr nach Hause gefunden ... read more

Holaaaaaa amigos :) YES! Now I admit it! I'm a bit crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that some of u already know that but still...now it's official. For those who are still wondering why...keep reading... We decided to go to Quetzaltenango, or for short, "Xela" cause we met two funny australian guys in Mexico...they told us for Santa Maria volcano which is 3772m high and can be climbed year round! Its eruption in 1902 was one of the three largest eruptions of the 20th century! And why did we wanted to hike it? Cause it is possible to climb to the top of Santa María and look down on the ongoing eruptions at the Santiaguito volcano, which is located 1200 metres below - a situation which may be unique in the world. So far soooo good... We started ... read more

Beep, beep. Beep, beep. I raise my hand from beneath the sheets and into the freezing cold air of our room. In a quick flash the silence returns, but the damage is done. We are awake. It´s 4.30am in Quetzaltenango (Xela to the locals), deep in the Guatemalan highlands - hence the cold conditions. Today we climb a volcano! We fumble about as we dress in a semi-state of sleep, made even more difficult by the dim bulb no brighter than candle light. We pull on the layers - vest, long sleeve top, jumper, t-shirt, hoody, combats, woolly hat, the obligatory two pairs of socks and our trusty boots. We don´t have gloves but improvised by wearing socks on our hands instead. 5am standing on the dark street with only packs of wild dogs for company, ... read more

now, i'm convinced that i'm not going to remember everything that happened in the past week, but i'm going to do my best here: so wrapped up my studies at the language school here in Xela which was great. There was a graduation ceremony and all the other students and teachers showed up. The students were in charge of bringing the food while the staff would bring the drinks. Well, since I don't know how to cook anything, and luckily another friend of mine doesn't either, we went in on a massive pizza together which was a huge hit. After that i said goodbye to Boris and Guisela, my "parents" here along with the abuela, Yumpy, and Balto. After that we went to a finca called Santa Anita were we spent the night there. it was ... read more