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.

Antigua

Day 1

Well now that I've spent a day here and am about to go to dinner I thought I start of this blog with a description of my host families house but I'd rather wait with that till i have pictures and that will have to wait till I fill up my camera amd find a internet cafe that will let me install the needed software and upload the pictures so it will probably be a few days. But till then I thought i would fill up some space with my list of things want to see in the next few days as well as a few long term plans.

Tommorow's Plan

My first Spanish class

A tour of the Jade Museum which includes a replica Maya jade mine, processing facility, a Mayan culture exhibit and presumably a huge gift shop since the tour is suposedly free.

My first traditional local lunch and diner*

Buy a mobile phone

Find a place that sells toilet paper**

Chill with people from the spanish school

So know a few explanations

* I get 3 meals a day 6 days a week from my host family but on sunday I have to fend for my self. Since today was my first day I got a freebie for breakfast, pancakes and watermelon and papaya which was tasty by the way. And last night i got to watch everbody else eat frijoles and eat a chinese noodle soup from a pack because my Gringo stomach needs to settle in gently. But starting tommorow I eat what my host family eats.

** Sounds easy right, but in a town where people talk about THE Supermarket it's not so simple I looked out for it while I was exploring to day but didnt see any so tommorow I ask at the spanish school or go questing for it depending on my mood, and how much i have left. As for THE Supermarket that was another thing i couldnt find today but since i hace to go there for the cell phone anyway i hope it's got TP as well and is easy to find. Although an epic quest for toilet paper does sound rather entertaining as long as I find it in the end.

Well thats it from me for today I'll be posting again soon.

Arrival

Well yesterday I got to Antigua over Madrid and Guatemala Ciudad. So far so good I´m very happy with my host family.Aand the "house" is more like a small walled village but more on that next time that will be my first real post since after all the emails i just wrote I'm all typed out. Pay attention to this space though more will follow.