I got closer to the slowly moving stream of lava until I was a couple of metres away

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This next installment is coming in three bits, mainly because I want to add an entry from Honduras, a new country that I popped into briefly t´other day.

I´m sure Pakaya is an Indian food of some kind, perhaps those little fried pastry like packages with veg or meat inside - Tom, Lucy do you remember what Pakaya was? It is also the name of the Volcano I climbed. Talking of food, I had a Burger King for lunch before I went. Inside, a small colonial courtyard had been retained and from the outside you could hardly tell what it was, probably due to the laws put in place after Antigua was named a UNESCO World Heritige Site. I had an ecocombo español. Americano and Canadiente were also available. It was a poor Rodeo burger, the delicious delight that Mr Garwell and I used to make special trips to Camberley for - a burger with onion rings and BBQ sauce inside. There was not enough of wither vital ingredient. I had Hawian Chicken Tacos from a taco shop for dinner and these were much better.ç

When our bus arrived at Volcano Pakaya, we were mobbed by swarms of kids trying to sell us sticks - I bought one. The climb up through the black volcanic soil was quite hard and we moed quickly. I didn´t really enjoy the walk, I just kept thinking ´I don´t want to be here, I want to be at home´. I was sick of being alone, lonely, unproductive, bored and ill.

When I saw the peak I cheered up. It was all black and you could see where waves had come down and created layers of rock. Half way up this black slope in glowed red and sulphurous smoke was billowing from the very top. We continued over the crumbly, light and holey black rock, it could be broken with a jab from my walkingstick, and came to the hot bit. In certain places there were holes under which red hot rock could be seen a foot or so below the surface. Around these areas the heat made the rocks white, which our guide said was calcium. There were various other colous perceptible as well but mainly it was just black. I got closer to the slowly moving stream of lava until I was a couple of metres away but I couldn´t stay long because it was so hot. When we withdrew my trainer soles were slightly melted in places.

At the top of the grassy peak again, an Israeli who lived in Engelfield Green for ten month made Turkish coffee from a mobile kit. My stomach was still too bad for me to have any myself but it was a nice scene. We watched half the sunset and raced the other half down the hill again.

I got up the next day at 3.20 for a 4am bus to... Honduras!

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