What goes up....must come down.

Haven´t blogged, emailed, or chatted with folks at home for some time now and was getting an itch to do so. I had a busy weekend, keeping myself with some ¨typical¨ Xela activities.

Friday: Let me backtrack....on Wednesday I inquired about a hike up the Santa Maria Volcano, the 2nd highest peak in Central America. The guides told me I needed at least 2 people and I only had myself as most of my friends have returned to the States or are otherwise occupied with ¨fish-like¨ activities in Utila, Honduras....and Corinne has climbed it 4 weeks before with Ben. I checked back later that day and found that 2 other girls from another school were intersted and thus a group to go on Friday was born. Thursday I paid and went to the nearest grocery store and outside market for water, fruit and granola-ish type things to eat on my way up the volcano.

Back to Friday: I was told to report to the tour site at 5 a.m. at which point it is still pitch black out and surprisingly people in the street. I was completely freaked out, not to mention hung over. I forgot to mention that Corinne and I went to the Quetzaltrekkers event party at a club in Xela. All the proceeds go the school we work at and it had an ¨under the sea¨ theme. The drinks were cheap and we met some really great people. We left the party and headed for tecun were we had more rum and drinks and headed for much needed sleep around 11 (that´s late for here!). I woke up almost every hour thinking I had missed my alarm and the trip. Left my bed at 4:45 and headed to the site. NO ONE WAS THERE and so I curled up on the step trying not to be the only blonde, white girl in the middle of the street at 5 a.m. A car slowly stopped in front around 5:20, where a guy rolled down his window and asked if I wanted to get in his car cause it was warmer...I freaked and walked away...only to have the guy yell at me that the other girls going up Santa Maria were in the car...in Spanish. I asked for the girls to say something and they replied that they did exist and were in the car. I abliged seeing as how it was 50 degrees out and dark. The girls were both from Ireland and had only been in Xela for a week. Both are primary teachers and learning Spanish.

A shortwhile later another car carrying 2 more hikers came and we all piled in the jeep, this time to the volcano. One was from New York and the other from Scotland, and also the 2 girls who signed up with me on Wednesday to go. We got to the trailhead around 5:30-40ish and began pretty quickly. The pace was nice and the conversation was awesome. Fiona (the Scottish girl) was a social worker and Carol (from New York) was a med. student in NY and was leaving on Saturday to work in an AIDS clinic in the capital city. What are the odds?? All people that have professions that are somehow connected deeply to my own interests...and we were all hiking the volcano together.

After 30 or 40 minutes we took a short break, but the weather was cold and windy and it was better to keep moving. The higher we went the slower I went as I got altitude sickness pretty quickly. I took some Advil and it got rid of the altitude sickness pretty quickly, but I found that keeping a slow pace was better for me. Fiona and I stuck together most of the way and later Cora (teacher from Ireland), stayed with us. The beginning, the hike is beautiful, with corn farms and trees and amazing landscape. The further up we go, the steeper it is and literally my face is flush with the ground and I´m grabbing tree roots to keep from falling back!? Enter: HELL. Much further, about 3 hours later, Fiona, Cora and I are left without a guide as he is with the other 2. We´re sort of making our own trails on the volcano, but am having a really difficult time even seeing 10 ft above because we´re in a rainstorm in the clouds. The wind is blowing 30 mph and the weather is at least 30 degrees...and I have a small jacket on, with not much else to help. When we finally reach them, I´m literally almost in tears for feeling lost for an hour and asked the guide to go slowly with us up to the top. He abliged and we made it to the top after 3.5 hours. Thinking that once we were at the top we would of course have wind, but maybe not the cold....nope. Still 30 degrees and miserable. We couldn´t see ANYTHING, much less 10 ft. in front of us. Took a group picture, tried to thaw out my hands with toilet paper that the guide gave me (didn´t work...who would´ve guessed) and we split.

Down the mountain: Surprisingly 10 times as hard as going UP the mountain. Our bodies were dominoes, in which one of us would slide on loose gravel taking out 2 or 3 others. Insanity...and I paid to do it. It actually took us LONGER to come down that it had going up. Every time we would round a corner, we would see the town at the same height level we had seen only an hour before. It seemed we were not descending, just walking in circles and sliding on our asses. When we finally did make it down, we hopped in the jeep and headed for home. I saw beautiful sights, spent most of my day ABOVE the cloud line, but am not sure I would actually recommend the experience to ...anyone. I can say, now that I´m safely on the ground and only sore after 3 days, that the experience was one you ¨have to have¨ when you come to Guatemala, but actually, I think I would have been just as happy with Xela had I stayed on the ground. It was cold, windy as hell and I spent most of the time with my face in the dirt, but the incline was so steep. Yay.

Saturday: I went to Fuentes Georginas (natural hotsprings) in Zunil, which is a small town outside of Xela. Corinne and I took the chicken bus and it was a pretty day. One of the best parts is getting to ride in the back of the ¨pick-up¨ and see the views of the town on the way up. It becomes like a rainforest pretty quickly and is green and lush. The springs are naturally heated (by another volcano I think??) and open to anyone who pays the admission fee. For Q20, there are 3 different naturally heated pools for people to enjoy. Awesome. However, I must note, that these are natural, therefore there are no systems by which to filter the springs...which was something I was constantly thinking about while swimming. Lots o´people, who, from what it looked like, taking the opportunity to bathe for the first time that week, while others, looked like they come most days during the week. We met an incredibly nice person, a teacher from a nearby pueblo that help Corinne and I with our Spanish. I enjoyed our conversations with him immensely, and then we met an incredibly annoying person from the States (new york...another teacher), who spoke Spanish very quickly and I couldn´t understand a word he was say, and not for my lack of abilities as the teacher later told me he couldn´t understand him as well. He shouted when he talked and he had very little social abilities, like chewing and drinking with his mouth closed. He, however, was the key to Corinne and I getting a cheaper ride down. With just the 2 of us, the pick-up would have been more expensive, but with the annoying guy, it was to be cheaper...until the incredibly nice teacher offered us a ride...all the way to Xela!! Save for the annoying guy in the back seat, I had a good time talking with the teacher (he helped with my grammar). We gave him a donation for the ride and said our good-byes...to both.

We hung out, completely relaxed from the hot springs, in the park, until creepy Bible man came and disrupted the events. He claimed to be spreading the word, but what he was spreading was his hands and it was not so appreciated. After he asked for my address, Corinne thankfully, said we had to go...thankfully. We walked some more and agreed to meet up later for drinks, which we did at Tecun.

Sunday: Corinne and I went to Xela Community Church and both agreed that the sermon (most of it) had a good message and it was filled with interesting people from around the world. The service was in Spanish and English, but the pastors all from the States. We are definitely returning next weekend.

The final South American Soccer Cup was supposed to be on at 3 p.m. I made plans to watch solo at Tecun, while Corinne made plans to watch Harry Potter at the super mall (which I hate). I got awesome food at Tecun and read before the game came on. I chatted with the servers about who would win and the place filled up pretty quickly. Because I sat at a table for 4 by myself, that welcomed all types of people, but only Wilco, from Holland to note. He was nice and friendly and we discussed where we come from, where we´re going and watched the game. He was once the U.N. reprepsentative for the Netherlands in the U.S. for 6 months and he had many opinions about our country, most of which I agreed with. After Argentina suffered a huge loss against Brazil (damn!!), we went for coffee to further discuss the Latin American trade systems and relations with the U.S. Corinne joined us shortly after and we had an awesome discussion ranging from women´s rights to 2-party systems in the U.S. vs. Socialist government systems in Holland. Because Corinne and I were starving we went to the taco place..had 3 tacos for Q10 and headed back to Tecun for some chocolate pura. There, we met a woman and her husband (she was Guatemalteca and he was German...and they both lived in South Beach, FL), who asked us to take a picture and from there launched a 4 hour discussion about EVERYTHING. I now have a permanat place to stay (for free) in South Beach, and ¨get trashed¨ as she put it. Corinne and Andreas (the German) were having a heated discussion about immigration in Germany, while Claudia (the Guatemalan) and I were talking about her funding my AIDS non-profit....seriously a great weekend for meeting new people.

Today was uneventful as I seriously have done nothing but work with the kids in the afternoon. There were not many after the extra classes (16 total) and many (10) adults, therefore, I left after their break time! Now, I´m here, but am leaving to call home to folks and make plans for my return, in 6 days. I am starting to look forward, more and more, to my trip and home and to see everyone I miss so dearly. There are 2 more students that have joined the house and I anticipate it being busy at dinner. Also, my host brother has bought a brand-new beagle puppy that is only 2 months old. Essentially, the thing is so cute I want to squeeze it until it´s head pops off.

Also, I haven´t been very diligent about returning emails and to those of you who have sent one, and read this, please accept my apologies and be looking for your responses tomorrow! Much love and peace...and see you soon.