Molten hot magma....

G´day all,

Well Lyds and I are still in Antigua furiously learning a ridiculous amount of preterit, imperfect, future, conditional, subjunctive, present imperfect, feminine, masculine and past present future injunctive past participle opposite multiplication forms of Spanish verbs. Fun, fun, fun !!!

Anitgua continues to treat us well. Maria and Salva are feeding us like Kings and Queens and we´ve continued to explore the local cafe´s, bookshops and bars around town. We have a few favourties already and have been enjoying our Sunday visits to Cafe 2000 to watch the odd English speaking movie to break the Spanish up.

Last weekend we got out of town and visited the nearby Volcano - Pacaya. Anigua is surrounded by 3 volcanos (Agua, Fuego and Acatenango), none of which are active. Volcano Pacaya, just a short drive away however is actually a rip roaring active one. Last Saturday afternoon we decided to cram into a tiny minivan with 13 other people and take it on.

The drive to the Volcano was a bumpy 1 hour trip to the little hamlet of San Francisco where numerous local children greeted our bus to try and sell us plastic ponchos and walking sticks. They of course assured us that they were ¨nessicito¨ (not so). The hike up to the top was a good 2 hours. It turned out to be quite a workout given that we have basically done no exercise for the past 2 months. It was definately worth it though. We got lucky with the weather (very variable at this time of the year) as the views heading up to peak were magnificent.

The higher up we went, the trees started to be replaced with the jagged rocks of former and solidified lava flows. This is where the hike got dicey and the footing became quite tricky. We opted for the afternoon hike as the darker times of day make the sight of the lava that much more dramatic. It wasn´t long before we caught sight of our target. A nice bit of flowing molten hot magma.

Of course once you get there everyone (yes including us) gets as close as possible to the fire to take their photos... We probably got about 10 feet away before we wisely decided that the burning sensation coming from our shoes meant we were a little too close. It was quite sureal, and our group was able to stay for about 30 minutes, watching the slow flowing lava river moving just a few feet away from us.

As darkness set in we hot footed it back down the volcano to avoid having to try and negotiate the jagged rocks in the dark, and believe me, the scrapes on my arm are testement to that.

All up a fantastic trip.

Here is a little gallery of our recent time here, including the volcano tour.



As always, if you can´t see this slideshow, please check out the link here - Week 1 Antigua Pics