http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Guatemala , Quetzaltenango , Volcan Santa Maria en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:10:20 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:10:20 +0000 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 InstantBruehe gegeben. Schon komisch im Land wo der Kaffee waechst trinkt man InstantCoffee weil der mei http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-439221.html Yes its true I finally figured out how to get to and from school from my family in two different ways and then on Saturday morning I moved The other place was OK but I was hoping for a place near Zona Tres 3 where San Marcos is and with kids. Well I have found it and its only about two blocks from the school. A young couple moved into this house Helen and Olger and they have a bab http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-388289.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-380331.html Xela shela is at around 2200m and gets very chilly at night. The big draw that brought us to Xela was to hike up the dormant volcano Santa Maria which stands at just over 3700m and peer down upon the active volcano Santiaguito 2500m to watch its hourly eruptions. Eduardo was our man to lead this compelling adventure. Apparently hersquos a famous character as he was proudly telling us of the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-377606.html 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. Its 4.30am in Quetzaltenango Xela to the locals deep in the Guatemalan highlands hence the cold conditions.Today we climb a volcanoWe fumble about as we dress in a semistate of sleep made even more difficult http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-353962.html Quetzaltenango 07021990. A taxi got us to the foot hills of the Santa Maria Volcan. We had a quick look at The pueblecito called Almolonga which was inhabited by indigenous people their women still wearing colorful indian clothing their men the more tradional cowboy stuff with huge sombreros. The hike up to the Santa Maria Volcan top was great but tiresome and took us most of the day. Some lo http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-311290.html 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 hereso 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-248987.html The third week of language school was at the Mountain School in and area where people struggling with the very basics. At the Mountain School the students stayed together in a home and then eat with local families. By the end of the week I was done with corn tortillas and after three weeks I was looking forward to preparing my own food. The Mountain School was also close to an active volcano an http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-246686.html so on friday i leave for Colomba where i will have probably limited internet access so the next time i'll be able to post won't be until i'm in el salvador. It's crazy to think i'm 13 done with my semester abroad.My group and I took part in a Mayan Ceremony on tuesday which was fairly interesting. Later we found out what our Mayan symbols were. I'm not entirely sure what to make out of all of it http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-246353.html well let's see i believe the last time i posted i hadn't done the followingWe all woke up at around 530 in the morning last saturday to hike up Chicobal which is a volcano in Xela with a lake in the crater. the hike wasn't that bad. it started off being freezing the mornings here are actually really cold but once we were about half way up it started to warm up. There were some pretty great http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-240830.html Okay letrsquos see what has happened so far. We left Guatemala City at around 830 on Wednesday and got in to Xela around 130 or so. We had lunch here and had a little bit of class with our country coordinator. We went out to the markets and split into groups to buy food clothes school supplies and medical supplies with 25 quetzales each. Apparently 25 quetzales is the average daily income http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-239392.html okay so mom maria olga and her husband jaime dropped me off at the location where i was meeting up with the rest of the students. Before dropping me off we had lunch at Richards beautiful house with his sisters my aunt olga elaine stephanie and margarites husband thomas.everybody has been getting along really well and we seem to be meshing. so yesterday was really the first day of the pro http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-238831.html Xela for short pronounced SHAYla We took the night bus from Flores at 22.00. During the night the air conditioning system above our heads poured water drenching our bags and us. Stupidly this bus went all the way down country to Guatemala city then back up too the western highlands and arrived in Xela at 14.00 the following blurred day. We had climbed up and up and uphellipwhere the air got p http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-175682.html Donc me voila la deuxieme partie de cette journee au hot spring une journee de 28h je l'ai comptDonc 3700m ca fait du bien lorsque l'on arrive en haut Mais bon on ne se ventera pas plus car l'on commence la mont a 2400 m d'altitude. Mais ca a reste une sacr monter car c'etait de nuit ouai nous avons commence vers 2h du mat sous la lumiere de la pleine lune. Je vous dis pas comment http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-116588.html Donc me voila la deuxieme partie de cette journee au source une journee de 28h je l'ai compeDonc 3700m ca fait du bien lorsque l'on arrive en haut Mais bon on ne se ventera pas plus car l'on commence la monte a 2400 m d'altitude. Mais ca a reste une sacre monter car c'etait de nuit ouai nous avons commence vers 2h du mat sous la lumiere de la pleine lune. Je vous dis pas comment c'eta http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-116587.html A lot of the other activities have been climbing the local mountains and volcanoes. The hardest of these was the full moon hike up Santa Maria to collect any rubbish and bring it back down which I mentioned about before. The climb started at 1am and was not too bad a bit slippery as it was raining and it got a bit steep in places. The worst was the top. We arrived about 45 mins before sun ris http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-107849.html I know I know this is really really late in coming out blame the publisher.... But here it is better late than never I say. Tikal Okay so to get to Tikal one of the largest Mayan sites I used a small town called Flores as a base.... this was a pretty small town about 200km from the GCBelize border and arriving with only about 20 USD hoping for a bank was a bad call it was Sunday an http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-87031.html Jamies first three adventures on Santa Maria http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-68303.html At 430am the alarm starting ringing. I jumped out of bed more enthuastically than normal while my brother rolled over and tried to ignore my attempts at early morning conversation. We put a few things together and prepared to leave the room. I didn't feel as fresh I was making out but I was looking forward to the day ahead Rich still looked asleep although his eyes were open and he was standing http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Quetzaltenango/Volcan-Santa-Maria/blog-50928.html