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Published: October 5th 2007
Hola everybody, hope alls good and well wherever you are :o) I am determined to get up to date with this blogging lark as we have just arrived in Lima, Peru today 1st October, and am currently writing this whilst waiting for the connecting flight to take us to Cuzco. We have spent the last 2 weeks in El Salvador (blog to follow shortly) and so here I am here trying to get you up to speed on what's been going down. Leaving Lake Atitlan was a hard thing to do, we had planned on cruising through Antigua in a few days and heading into El Salvador then Costa Rica, Panama etc.. Best laid plans eh; sometimes things just don't pan out the way you figured....
Antigua is a very pretty city in much the same vein as Oaxaca in Mexico (minus the political unrest), beautiful cobbled streets, multi-coloured Spanish styled haciendas and architecture throughout and lots of churches although a good few are just ruins due this cities earthquake troubled past. There are plenty of boutiques, shops and markets catering for all your handcrafted trinkets and treasures and plenty of decent cafes and restaurants - all things I have
now become quite familiar with in this part of the world (seen one quaint Mayan town seen them all kind of thinking) the main reason we were drawn here was to get up close and personal to the nearby Pacaya volcano that we had heard many tales about from other folk - it's known to be a temperamental beast that has the occasional dramatic lava explosion and is constantly spewing its red hot magma from its summit - Woo hoo! - Show me the way!
So after settling into Antigua for a day or so we booked up and set out at 6am in the grey mists of dawn. Unlike our previous adventure up a volcano this time we were 1. In the daylight hours, 2. Taken by shuttle nearly to the top and 3. Looked after all the way by the guides - this is nothing to be sniffed at because this is a real live volcano and to have a few local experts on walkie talkies conversing to each other, watching and making sure everyone is accounted for and doing ok, made you feel you were in good hands all the way up and finally down. We
later find out that this was once the HOT spot - no pun intended - to get held up at gunpoint and robbed by the local bandits - tired white folk + enveloping mists = easy prey, so big cheer to the guides this time :o) As mentioned before in the Atitlan blog, the rainy season is now upon us and unfortunately the day never really got out of its early grey start - which meant the entire hour and a half climb to the summit afforded us no fabulous lofty vistas this time but instead we were treated to a few moody wind swept ones instead!
I'm no expert climber, but if you were gonna be climbing a live volcano you would think to put some sensible clothes on - wouldn't you? At least a decent pair of sturdy footwear to traverse the treacherous old lava flows leading upto the summit, ankle-protecting footwear to stop the razor sharp crystalline rocks from gauging your flesh and protecting your plates of meat from the searing surface temperatures from the inferno below? Well, we can all be wrong. Behold the young fools! We stood and stared a chilled sort of amazement
at the young uns in their flip flops, him in shorts and t-shirt, her in summer dress and skimpy bra-top - god bless them, 'I wouldn't want to be in your shoes' I thought as we started the hike up Pacaya's slopes. Certainly got me thinking - is it just me gettin older, thinking ahead of the consequences and possibilities that may or might not happen, have I always been of a cautious sensibility.... hmmm maybe, maybe not. I was bought up on the adage 'fools rush in where angels fear to tread' so I tend to look things up, know what I'm gettin myself into before taking the plunge, where as other people just seem to hold their nuts, close their eyes and jump in head first hoping for the best - in my experience these same people are the first ones to cry foul play, point the finger at someone else for their plight, 'they' should have warned us not to, sue the bastards for negligence, we can't think for ourselves.... Reminds me of a line from Nathan Barley - 'The Idiots Are Winning'.
Anyway, time I got off my soapbox and back up a volcano -
I have always had a fascination with fire, I am an Aries after all and can claim more than a few fires to my name, in fact I actually pride myself on being able to start fires in the most challenging situations, I think its something that’s in most kids, this fascination with the flame. From a young age I remember pawing my way through encyclopaedias wanting to know how it all began - you know the big bang, our nearest star being formed from super heated gas, gravity forcing debris and particles together to create a molten 3rd rock from the sun, eventually it cooling down, the volcanoes and fire storms subside enough to let life take a tentative hold - our very lives were forged from this furnace... I met my first volcano as a nipper during a school trip to Italy - we visited the Pompei and I witnessed first hand what a volcano can unleash upon an unsuspecting city, we journeyed up Mount Vesuvius, I remember it being a huge crater with not alot really happening at the bottom except an inverted cone of dust - none of the molten magic that I was about to
Pacaya - Run For The Hills!
Detail of safety poster - made me laughwitness.
After the hike up the mountain side you begin to descend a scrunchy path of charcoal grey volcanic pumice descending to the twenty year old lava plains that had spread and oozed and eventually set in many contorted liquid designs. Closer still and the temperature begins to rise dramatically and you begin to see beneath your feet cracks in the lava layer you are clambering over and the distinct red glow of the beast below, literally a meter or so under your boots… We venture over more old lava flows to the current area of activity and it’s a most amazing sight to be sure, lava flowing down uninhibited in a slow trickle and sudden splurges, mesmerising and intoxicating to watch. The guides carefully monitoring the lava flows and guiding people to safe areas - only feet away from the molten stuff. I was awed by this display of mother earths primal fire, its something you just have to see, and I came away knowing this wasn’t gonna be the last time I’m up a volcano.
So with Pacaya crossed off the list of things to-do whilst in Guatemala, we were thinking about moving down to El
Salvador as previously mentioned at the start of this entry… Best laid plans… Claire was waiting to try meet up with a Mayan Elder she had been in contact with for some time, this guy is like a statesmen and is jetting off around the world delivering his spiritual wisdom to many countries and their leaders, unfortunately the meeting never took place due to his hectic schedule, so to compensate Claire hooked up with a local Shaman in Antigua. My beautiful lady is on her own spiritual quest and after her meeting with the Shaman she was offered a unique opportunity to study with them and become herself a Mayan Shaman - yep you read it right! I am 100%!b(MISSING)ehind anyone who wants to do what they believe is good for them and for their soul and so my lady enrolled for 21 continuous days on her Mayan Water Path - if you want to read about her stint at Hogwarts check out
The Soul Cultivator So with Claire busy studying I was left to my own devices and to be honest I didn’t really get up to a great deal for the rest of our stay at Antigua, reading,
playing online, eating, drinking, wandering around town. Chilled to the bone :o) During our stay in Antigua, the country held its inconclusive general elections and the city erupted with noise on the 15th Sept as they partied hard during independence day with brass bands of local youth competing throughout the city and children running around with lit torches blowing whistles - all very good entertainment to be true. That’s just about it, I was invited along to see Claire get her Shamanic Wings during a very intimate ceremony whereupon she was crowned with a floral tiara amid prayer and chanting - Magic it certainly was.
Next stop El Salvador, until then Adios Amigos
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