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Published: November 6th 2005
Buenos Tardes!
Well I just got back from climbing Pacaya, an active volcano about 1 and half hours or so out of Antigua. It was quite the journey! It took about two hours to get up, and all though that does´t seem like a long time, when you are climbing straight up it's quite the workout. It was especially hard hiking it in my jean skirt! I took all my dirty laundry to the laundromat yesterday and forgot to take my jeans out of the bag so I could wear them today. It was something like 7 km up or may be that was in total, I don't remember. It wasn't actually too bad for the first while but once you got to the final part towards the hole up top, it was very steep. I fell many of times just sliding around in the dried up lava rock and ashes. Once we reached the top we could actually look down into the top, but you couldn't see any lava or anything because there was so much smoke coming out, and the alot of sulfur being blown around so you had to cover your face, it was horrible. It was
really foggy this morning and rained on and off so the pictures really suck, but I tried my best. The reason they let you climb this volcano is because it hasn't actually erupted for a very long time, there is one near here that erupts all the time and is not open for tours. All in all it was a great experience, hell I get to say I climbed a volcano, that's a pretty crazy thing to get to do in your life!
So spanish school, well I started classes last Wednesday at a great school here called the Ixchel Spanish School (they have a website if you are really interested). I have enrolled for classes for one week and attend them from 8-12am. I have learned so much so far, and still have two more classes to go. I was thinking about doing a second week, but have decided not to and instead head north towards the carribean coastline here. Anyways, everyday after school there is an activity that you can do. So far I have got to try weaving, which is very hard, I have no idea how those women have the patience to do such a thing!
I also took a class where we got to sample a whole bunch of traditional foods that they make here on Nov. 1 (All Saint's Day). They also explained what each dish was called and what it consisted of, but it was all in Spanish and I only caught half of it or so. There were a couple of other activities last week, but those are the ones that I chose to do. I have met so many people through the school! It's nice to finally have some friends to go out and do stuff with. I am also living here with a family while I am in school. The house is nothing special of course, but my room is really clean and actually quite big, and my madre (mom) is quite nice. She always sits down with us at meal times and tries to talk with us. I am really starting to understand the language, the hard part is trying to speak back to them. I have learned enough now though that I feel more comfortable when I am trying to communicate with the people here. My mother has one son that also lives in the house, his name
is Francesco and her husband works out of town so I have yet to meet him. She is so good to us, and is an amazing cook! Although she feeds me way too much! I am scared I am going to start putting on the pounds if I don't watch it! There is also one other student at the house who is taking classes at my school. Her name is Christine and she is from Boston. She is nice to have around, as no one else there speaks english. We also have this amazing view from our rooftop at the house. There is a ladder going up there, and some chairs and a table. It's a great place to watch the sunset. Well I leave my homestay on Wednesday morning off to Rio Dulce and then up to Livingston. That will probably be the next time you hear from me...
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nix
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Hi! Your doing so many cool things. It looks like your having an awesome time. I cant wait untill you can teach me some spanish. Everything there is so colourful. It looks beautiful. Vancouver is good. It misses you. But it can wait untill you are a little bit richer (with experiences and all of that good stuff). I was offered a job at Hatch, so that should be fun. Other then that its school, work, chill....and its raining alot more now. However, today is fresh and blue. Well I'll check in soon. Love you. Bye.