Pacaya

Pacaya not to be confused with Papaya is an active volcanoon the slopes of which sits the small village of San Fransisco de la Salle which unlike the american city houses about 300 very poor inhabitabitants and has a police station a restuarant/bar/toursit center/cafe/public shower and bathroom al rtolled into one and a small shop for tourists which is really just the front room of someone house. The only industries are tourism to the volcano and farmin corn, avocados, beans and coffee. Going there from Antigua takes about 2 hours and walking up it from the village takes nearly as long, in good weather when i got there it was raining, warm rain though so it was alright but it made the already steap hike a slippery pain in ass, so myself and a few others eventually wussed out and did the rest of the way by horse. However when we got up the top it was raining like crazy and the mixture of rain, sulfur fumes, fog and steam from the raining hittin the lava reduced visibility to a about a meter. It was hard to see your own feet much less where you where going, there were more than a few near misses and a handfull of melted shoes. They way down was no less rainy and with the added bonus of it being completly dark, it would have been impossible without a sturdy walking stick and a flashlight as it was it really blew anyway and fell on my ass at least 4 times. On the way down i tried to wuss out and take a horse again but i was to heavy for the poor thing and had to walk anyway. After the stuffy uncomforatble and wet 2 hour return trip by overcrowded mini bus lady luck had one final twist in store for me. I get to mu host families house and get undresses ready to take a nice hot shower shower only to discover that there was no water. Eventually i was told that the water purifiy facility between antigua and the town it´s water somes from had broken down and ther was 12 hours with out a drop of water as they fixed it. Thats Guatemala for you, next time i will be righting about my weeken trip to livingston

Day 2

Day 2

Well its going to be a short post today im so tired i could drop right here. Got my first taste of culture shock today and it was a double too. First after I got home from spanish school for lunch(yep it already feels like my new home) my room had been cleaned my books aranged properly on the shelves and my bed made and a man i hadnt seen was changing all the lightbulbs and fixing my shower , turns out my host family has a maid and a handyman that pretty much spend all day at the house axcept on weekends. Im not totally comfortable with that exspecialy since my host family is ladino and the maid and handyman are Maya´s. But more on the whole race issue her in Guatemala later. Part too was when i noticed just how heavy the police presence is here i will try to get some pictures but i dont want to piss anyone with an m-16 or a double barelled 12 guage off.

More tommorow and there is a lot to say about today i just need to sleep.