Brett and Chelsea: Guatemala Day 6

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Guatemala Day 6

March 8, 2013 (Friday)

Well today was our free day. We all decided that we wanted to hike the Pacaya Volcanoe. It was on the backside of Agua and about an hours drive away. It was a very cool drive where we got to see a lot of the countryside. It is an amazing land where the people have adapted in incredible ways to utilize the fertile yet steep and rugged land. When we arrived at the trailhead we were accompanied by a group of vacaroes (cowboys). They hang out hoping to rent out their horses to those wanting to go on the trail. They have an interesting breed of horse, it is much smaller than the American and European breeds. It was fun to get to be around the caballos and talk to the people. We opted to hike instead of ride with the exception of Michelle Lusardi who is starting to advance in age. I am not exactly sure on the details, but I believe the hike was about five miles round trip and I would guess about 1500-2000 ft of elevation gain. The volcano is still active with its most recent eruption in May of 2010. The last half of the hike up we were hiking in the lava flows and I have to say that is an interesting hike. At the end of our hike we came to an area where there are some fissures that the heat from the volcano still escapes. They make a natural oven and we roasted some marshmellows and had some smores…what a cool and unique experience. Myself and Cri roasted our own mellows and accidentally touched them to the roof of the oven, when eating them there was definitely a distinct taste somewhat sulfuric; so we decided that we truly experienced the volcano by ingesting it. On the way back down myself and Clay decided to run down the we made good time at eleven minutes to descend. When we all got down it was apparent that none of us had taken proper precautions for the sun and were cooked to a crisp, myself included. We headed back to Antigua following the hike and headed over to the market. I was able to help support the local economy well! The items I ended up getting: carved wooden mask of a rooster (Mother Teresa), table runners (rest of family), little woven bracelets (friends and family), headbands (the ninas), and the stuff for Chels (skirt, jade earings and necklace pendant). Following the market we went back to Iglesia del Camino for our final dinner. Pastor Mike and his wife were our host for the dinner. At dinner, the big souvenirs arrived. There is a gentleman (Elio) that makes custom boots for people. I got myself a nice new pair of cowboy boots, and I got Chels (without her knowing) a pair of those long riding boots. Following dinner we got all of our luggage that we had used for transporting the shoes and headed back to the hotel. We then went over to the crepe place adjacent to our hotel and had a ‘little’ dessert…the crepe’s were huge. I had a strawberry banana with nutella and a strawberry banana smoothie, while most of the rest of the group had some adult beverages to finish off the day/week. Following the crepe’s a few of us joined some of the church folk for some futbol in the church. Every Friday night following their youth group they play some soccer, it was really fun to hang out with them, and very kind of them to allow us to really be a part of their lives. Following the soccer a few of us went to the roof and just hung out, chatted, and had some good laughs, then it was off to bed.