So yesterday when they were asking who was gonna go on the volcano hike (that took place today) I totally was gonna bail out. It was going to involve another 5:30am wake up time and another 2 hour bus ride. On top of that, I was having another bout with the BU. This time, the BU was hitting me with a vengeance, and I think I blasted myself into the air a couple of times while on the porcelain crown (I am claiming artistic license on that one). However, with the promise of lava combined with the promise of it being a much easier hike than Maderas (see day 7's blog) I decided to take the plunge. I set the alarm and loaded up on the Biaxin XL (strong antibiotic).
5:45am did come pretty early (okay, I snoozed the 5:30). As I walked out the door, I longingly looked at Haley, still sleeping so comfortably in the bed. I couldn't believe I was doing another volcano hike. The bus ride did suck, as promised. After getting to the park and loading up on local bananas (which, by the way, are much better than in the states) and some cornnuts, we were off.
This hike was a walk in the park compared to Maderas. It was 3 kilometers instead of 5, and the we only went up in elevation about 500 meters instead of 1400. The weather was incredible. As we hiked through the clouds, we could see our breath the whole time and there was a nice wind keeping us cool. Then after a mere 1.5 hour hike, we reached this huge black lava rock field speckled with rivers of lava (see pictures). It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen today. We had the chance to go down and get mere feet away from the lava rivers and were able to snap a couple pictures. The rock that we were standing on actually had hot red lava underneath it that we could see. At one point, I even slipped off the rock and my foot got really close to the lava (it kinda freaked me out, but I am now laughing at it). The rock was so hot that when we dribbled water, it instantly vaporized and sizzled.
We took a bunch of great pictures, which I have already posted to my album (see link to right).
After some ice cream for lunch, a short nap, a shower, and some lunch, I got a chance to finally use the internet. It cost me 40 quetzales for an hour and 15 minutes, but my brain is too drained right now to figure out how much that is in US dollars. After interneting, we headed to yet another local artisan market and bought some really big items. I will not reveal one of them as it is a gift for one of you, but we did buy this really big wool rug (no, I am not kidding, it is huge). Our tour leader is gonna hate us when she sees how much crap we have bought and now have to carry.
About the market…I am so fed up with haggling, that today I was not going to play any games. Our giant rug was gonna cost us 550 quetzales, but I told the guy I had 200 to pay him and he could take it or leave it. He countered at 350, and I started to walk away. I ended up paying 220 for it which is I think about 28US. We were going to pay 100 buckaroos at Ikea for a similar one (I think the one we got is bigger). Then for the other item, I just ran around the market making an offer and walking off when it wasn't accepted. Finally, I found a taker and got a steal of a deal on it.
Tonight we are off to learn some salsa dancing. My hips don't really shake, so it should be good times. Hopefully somebody will get some embarrassing pictures to share with you all (I'm opting not to take my gigantic camera dancing).
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