Dia 8 (7/17/07): Antigua

What started off as a seemingly innocuous day took a quick change for the worse. About an hour before we were to leave for Pacaya, Mana came storming into the room screaming my name. Bewildered, I hadn't noticed that she had tears streaming down her face. Apparently, while getting up from a chair, she had lodged a splinter about half a centimeter wide under the entire length of her nail. To spare the details, I pulled the splinter out and after rummaging through my first aid kit along with a few trips to the farmacia, Wilson and I managed to patch her up fairly well. To ease the pain, Mana took a vicodin which left her in a state of euphoria for a bit. Once we reached Pacaya, we trekked to the top of the volcano dodging heaps of horse dung on the steep narrow trail. Wilson did this in his flip flops. The majority of our entourage and strangers alike had dubbed him with the moniker "flip flop man" by the time we had reached the top. (I think his flip flops were even melting at one point from the heat of the volcano.) Anyway, the treacherous trek to the top had paid of with an absolutely exhilarating view of luscious green mountains and hills below as well as bright red lava flow (pictures to come soon). I couldn´t help but complement the view with some of Keebler´s Pecan Sandies which I toted along a few hundred miles and 2km uphill. :P We also ran into James and Katie - friends from Los Amigos in Flores - at the top. The locals completely got a kick out of one "gringo" who climbed to the top of the lava flow and lit his hiking stick on fire. They were shouting "vas a morir" and were yelling at him to come down. (He didn't die seeing as how I idiotically exclaimed "you're alive!" when I saw him walk past my room back at the hostel.) Btw, the hike back down was near pitch black which didn't go too well with the haphazardously abandoned heaps of horse crap, rocks, and steps. We got back to the hostel at about 10 pm when I patched Mana´s volcano booboos and took out Wilson´s volcanic splinter. Having missed lunch and dinner, I wandered over to one of the few placed open at midnight for some Antiguan (French?) onion soup and papas fritas. Back at the hostel, I went to the roof level to soak in the view and the soothing patter of rain.

I´ll try to keep you all posted more frequently. All my previous entries are in my journal - and some in spanish - so we´ll see what I can do. I miss you all and I miss my not-so-paper-thin mattress, double-ply toilet tissue, and my fish.....has someone been feeding them??? ¡Ciao!