Survivor! But lost again!

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Well, I'm still dragging my behind, but I did manage to walk all the way to the top of Volcan Pacaya. It is one of only two places in the world that our guide knows of that you can walk right onto the lava bed, the other being in Hawaii. The red hot lava is visible peaking through the cold to warm hardened lava you can sit and walk on. And yes, we toasted marshmallows over the lava (with LONG sticks!) My tongue was hanging out so far I nearly tripped on it, and I had a pain in my side such as I've not had since I was a kid, but with the encouragement and patience of our guide (a young American) I made it. My daughter and I also hired a boy each to carry our packs to base camp, about 45 minutes below the summit. The boys were 12 and 13 years old and full of fun, often jostling with our guide. Mine was Fernando. There was a lot of ehavy fog by the tiem we reached base camp so we could not see anywhere until after midnight. It gets dark around 6:30, and so our return trip from the summit to the camp was in the dark in thick fog with flashlights. Thanks goodness our guide knew where he was going - though he did stop us once to check his position with a short excursion alone.

Saturday, as you can imagine, I was dead beat, but we had about 3 hours between our return and our shuttle trip back to Panajachel. We decided to stop over there instead of going to Xela because we had not seen the narure reserve or done the zip lines there. We stayed in a different hostel in the center of the town, across the street from our bus office, and ther was a fiesta happening on that street Sat evening so it was lined with venders and open until around 9PM or so. The beds were terrible but ´the price was right! Sunday morning we did ride a "tuk tuk" to the nature reserve on the edge of town, and walked the path through it. While the kids did the 8 zip lines criss crossing the reserve (fiormerly a coffee plantation) I had a nap on a very comfortable leather sofa in the central area (roofed but only partly walled and quite new). I awoke to find a two eyar old boy chatting away to me and standing between my legs as I sprawled there. He eventually climbed up beside me, once I assured his mother or aunt it was OK (she took a picture). I don't know what eh was telling me, but he called me "papa"! Later he crawled up on my lap, but an older brother or uncle or cousin quickly rescued him.

The butterfly enclosure had only one small butterfly in it that we could see, but there were many cocoons on plants in a room there. The beach we never did get to, as we had a tuk tuk coming to take us back into town. The shuttle left a bit late to Xela but it was comfortable and the trip uneventful. The company had phoned our hostel to say we were coming so they were expecting us. I sat beside a woman about my age (who knows really?) who has just finished being one of 2500 international observers in El Salvador for the election there. She said they were fine and had no problems but advised me not to go there alone. I think her trip was organzied through a Lutheran church.

Monday morning a las ocho we were on the shuttle again, this time to visit some pueblos close to here. First was a glass blowing cooperative, where about a dozen or 15 workers use broken recycled glass (including pop bottles, which are often glass here) and using gas fired ovens and four foot long pipes shape the glass into drinking glasses, candle holders, light fixtures, bowls, pitchers, ornaments, etc. The products are apparently shipped all over the world. Next came Zunil, a pueblo well known for its vegetables. Monday is a large market day, indoors in a space the size of a hockey arena and absultely crammed with people and stuff for sale. A short walk from there is the Maya centre where an effigy of San Simon very neatly dressed in western clothing is accompanied by a priest (also in western clothing) and where people come to say prayers and invoke his help. They often pour liquer down his throat (the priest or assistant tip him back for this) which flows into a container below and is later recovered by the priest. San Simon is very well known and very popular.

Then we travelled 8 km through a great vegetable growing area on the mountain side, ending at Fuentes Georginas (the hot springs), named long ago by a president after his wife. When I was there three eyars ago they were only warm, I was told due to an electricity generation operation enarby, but now they are again hot, I'm told as an after effect of Hurricane Stan in November of 2005 (just prior to my previous trip). The largest pool is hottest, with two smaller ones including the last and least warm, mainly for small children. I met a boy about 9 who seemed alone, and later his uncle and other family who were in a hotter pool. We chatted some and he let me take his picture and some video (his father gave me the green light to do so). His uncle and family take in Students for a Spànish School not far from the one I am attending.

Yesterday morning at 7AM my family left, and I hiked (somewhat against my better judgement) to my school. It is high on a hill about 20 blocks from where I was, but I found it without too much trouble. The fun began in the later afternoon, when I was returning from a two hour walk to Zona tres and back, having wantered through the market there (La Democracia) and bought some clean socks and some glue (no, not for my shoes), and with some difficulty locating the church where I attended and where the Scout group is located that I know. I had been escorted to my house from the school by the mother at 1 PM. But there are many cresents in that area and also dead ends, and the streets are often now well marked, and the map I had was quite useless. After asking my way many tiems (I had the address), a customer at oen tienda (a travel agency I believe) offered to lead me there. But it took her about 6 stops to ask directions before we finally found it! The mother led me to the school last night, and two students led me home (one had lived there the week before), and they also picked my up this morning as they live jsut a bit further on. My teacher walked me there and back this morning and drew me a better map. He also took me to the laundry which is near the school and on the way.

Now its time to go to the school for a presentation on Maya religion and history. Can I find my way from here to the school and back to the house? We shall see, we shall see!

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Comments

[drcc]

hey Scout Al
Hi ya Scouter I hope you're having a great time there. Don't worry about missing beautiful weather here ( not that nice yet). We are all reading you're adventure and wish all of you the best. Derrick ( partner in crime)

[Fryor Duck]

Gautemala and Xela
Definitely be careful where you go in the capital. My hostel (Hermano Pedro) is enear the airport and thsi area is quit safe, but not downtown alone. Antigua on the other hand is crawling with students and tourists andd is very safe I think. I studied in Xela, which is also very safe and recommended for elarning Spanish because there aren´t as many English speaking people there. This time I was at La Paz, a very small school but very supportative and fun to be with.