Current mood:	awake
Entry tags:	life, travel

Up close and personal with molten lava
The mosquitoes have been awful these past couple of nights. You'd think that by now they would have evolved to bite without making us itch so we didn't hate them as much. I played Scrabble en Espanol yesterday, which is no small challenge when armed with the vocabulary of a 4-year-old.

There are two main travel agents competing with each other for the discount volcano tours. The incumbent agency has posted a sign disparaging the safety record of the other, which undercuts them by a couple of dollars. It's a testament to something that we went with the cheaper one anyway. [Some other students we know paid thrice what we did to go with a different agency entirely. When I asked them what made it worth the premium, they jokingly said that they would be fed peeled grapes while being carried up the slope and treated to a barbecue at the top.]

Others who'd been on this expedition fed me dire warnings of melted shoes and ankles twisted while stumbling back down the slope in pitch darkness so I procured a cheapo flashlight and sacrificial sneakers for the trip. I also borrowed a pair of good hiking boots as my initial footware. After a mad dash to arrive at the pickup spot, we learnt an annoying lesson about Guatemalan punctuality by waiting well over half an hour before the bus showed up. At least it wasn't a chicken-bus.

Once we arrived at the site, there were a throng of kids trying to sell us walking-sticks and flashlight. After inquiring as to the cost of a flashlight, I reveled in having saved 13 cents by buying one in Antigua. You laugh but that's worth three bananas. As we began our ascent up the mountain, some kids began following us with horses, asking if we would like a "taxi natural". I thought they'd give up on us after a while but evidently they have an abysmal opinion of tourist hardiness as we were never without equine backup until reaching the summit of the mountain.

As we hiked up, I was impressed by the rich volcanic soil, in which I counted at least a dozen distinct types of plant flourishing. I guess the chronic rain doesn't hurt either. Actually, the trails have large holes along the sides to catch runoff rainwater.

Upon reaching the summit, we found ourselves looking down on the clouds from above, which was pretty cool. Down below on the other side we could see tiny figures at the base of the volcano. That's where we headed next.

Walking on old lava is an interesting experience as the rocks are sharp but brittle. As we approached the base of the volcano, we could feel the heat emanating from the glowing red lava around us as it slowly melted and flowed. At times it felt like standing in front of a hot oven with the door open. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that the air was not heavy with the stench of sulphur. The only thing we did smell was caramel from the marshmellows being toasted by the "premium" tour group. I poured some water onto the molten lava and it vaporized on contact. While I thought that was pretty neat, I was outdone by some French (not Quebecois, apparently) guys who urinated on the molten lava.

Instead of hiking back down the mountain, our guide took us down the other side, which was covered in dry fluffy soil. He made a skiing motion that I thought was a joke until he took off down the mountain, effectively skiing his way down on the soil. The rest of us followed suit and it was much more fun than I could possibly have imagined, especially as my boots didn't get filled with soil. I found that I had a surprising amount of control while sliding down, making it more fun than snowboarding. We had to walk around the base to return to the bus, which involved stumbling through the foliage in the dark. It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd been lead to believe though, since I never actually had to turn on my flashlight.