Mountain and belly

My belly slightly hurts, but I took good measure just incase the cause is an icky creature inside. Grapefruit seed extract, tumeric, papaya enzyme, B12 just for added pleasure as well as calcium, Spuralina and chamomile tea. Master blaster this thing out.

This morning at 6am, well actually waking at 4 because another shuttle man came rapping at our hostel door, we got confused, thought it was ours to Pacaya, got dressed in 10 seconds and then realized we were able to sleep 2 more hours. Grand!

I rode a motorcycle in my dream.

We got up at 6, rode a bus two hours to a volcano town called Pacaya and then walked up steep cinder-like beads of cooled lava through drizzling rainforest green. Luckily I was convinced to buy a rain coat -bright yellow- from Goodwill before going. Thanks J, Bon and Kit.

At the top of one mountain the tree line stopped and short legged dogs and short haired grass started. This was also the transitional place where lazy American teenagers got off their ill fed horses. As that ended a new a new mountain of lava boulders started. In the fog we entered the domain of another world with everything sepia toned, except for my yellow jacket and colorfull marshmellows some U.S. people took to roast over the lava. Good idea? Perhaps, but after hearing and watching these people, we believed they were a classic example of why Americans are thought of so poorly in other countries.

Anywho, back to the lovely fog. As we neared the next increase of mountain and ravines of endless depth to the right we saw fresh, red-hot lava seeping and creeping right in front of us. Steam vents to the right and left we sat and ate our lunch of nuts and Cliff bars infront of the dry sauna called volcano. The heat was so amazing after being wet and cold, two women took their tops off and hung them over the heat with their walking sticks they bought for 5 quetzales, roughly equaling 75 cents.

Imagine the heat of this thing, like the portable heater I would fall asleep infront of while living with Bonnie and Jalima. Red splotches formed over my chest, I loved it and made an offering of a salted cashew to the volcano goddesses.

After our guide blew his hurding whistle to leave and walking carefully over the lava boulders, Carlee Ann and I ran all the way down to the bottom of the mountain to get to a bathroom that didn´t work, which Carlee Ann already took care of at the top with the aid of a few leaves.

We took pictures in front of a stunning blue wall and just as I was to put away my camera a boy asked me, ¨Una foto de mio?¨ A smile on his face, covered with two bright eyes, I stared snapping away at my new model se llamas Desjuardo.

Back in town, we ate quickly at an outdoor stand of tortilla, cheese and cabbage, a jaunt into el mercado for dry pants and then caught a shuttle to Panajachel, on lake Atitlan.

So, here I am, went out to dinner with the girls, wasn´t able to eat anything but mis vitaminas and tea, even though I ordered a salad.

In bed, girls are out on the town dancing with sweat and boys. On the way back here I saw plenty of shops with loads of goodies that I do not want to weigh down my pack for the rest of the trip, but I just may.

Tomorrow we start the language program for five days and live with a family only speaking spanish to us for one week. On Thursday we may go to the largest market-an hour away-in all of Guatemala in a small town called Chichicastenango.