Hola,
Another few days have passed and while I know I have only been gone just over a week now, it already feels as though entire world have changed since I left. Its so hard to believe that this time 2 weeks ago I had no idea that these streets existed, and it makes me alive with excitement for what other adventures are still to come.
Quick update of my world – spent all last week in Spanish lessons and I am doing very well, ifIdosaysomyself. I’m managing to muddle may through most circumstances and seem to be following the gist of what people are saying around me. Antigua is a huge language center so everyone in the restaurants and toursity services are used to dealing with people learning Spanish and they are all amazingly patient – they´ll wait while you fish for a word, kindly correct you when you are wrong and laugh when you finally give up and hope that if you say the word in English but with what you think is a Spanish accent it will be right. Learned an important lesson this week in class. Spanish has two different verbs for ´to be´, and if you use the wrong one when attempting to say you are hot you are actually saying you are sexually aroused. Note to self – study that particular verb verrrrry closely!!
My biggest adventure this week was climbing the active volcano Pacaya. Guatemala is dotted with a chain of volcanoes which occasionally erupt. The original Antigua was washed away when Agua (the big one in my first round of photos) exploded 200 years ago but that one has been dormant ever since. Pacaya is about an hour away from Antigua and is in a constant low boil. The trek only took an hour or so and when we came out of the clearing and saw the last 15 minutes to the top and the steam rolling across the landscape I nearly started to jump up and down screaming with excitement.
When we came up over the crest it was like we were looking out across an alien landscape. Black and glittering with glowing red spots peaking out from beneath the strange hills and ropey surface of the lava as it cooled. We were with a local guide so he took us out on the lava itself and I will admit to being totally terrified but determined to do it all – when will I be standing in the mouth of a volcano again? Some of the lava had formed into thick interwoven ropes, while other areas were large smooth pillows. I picked up a small piece of the blackened lava as a souvenir and it was still hot to the touch. I think it is now officially my new favourite possession. As you know, I am a big fan of rocks so to be there witnessing the birth and rebirth of our earth was astounding to say the least.
I had a moment as I was carefully inching my way down the edge onto the lava bed where I contemplated how sanitized and pre-packaged life in North America can be. There, on the lava flow, there were no fence to catch me if I fell and no backstage making this “experience” happen for the paying public. It was as real as it gets and for a moment through my fear I was saddened at the thought of the plastic that so often dominates our North American world. Its not to say that our emotions and experiences back home are not real, clearly they are as achingly true as experiences anywhere else in the world, but they are all too often surrounded by this veneer of artificiality that I think more oft than not distorts the honesty held within. Yes, the lava was dangerous and yes, I was terrified. I should be terrified. And humbled. And awe struck. And and and all those emotions that one should feel when standing face to face with a force so massive none of us can even begin to fully comprehend it. If we had been kept safely on the edge or led along a carefully fenced in, pre-approved path I’m not sure it would have been as significant a moment. Sometimes we need to feel our fragility in order to let our bones know how blessed we are to be alive and how formidable the earth is.
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