Walking one of the many coble stoned streets of beautiful gringofied Antigua listening to my iPod i was wondering when my old pal of about 2 wks nelson was gonna show up at the black cat hostel but knowing we were in Guatemala i knew that the intail arrival time of about 10am could mean I would be happy if he rocked up that day at all. upon returning to the hostel and having a quick look around i found Nello who was just booking himself in. Afterwards he asked "so what do u wanna do?" to which i replied "i don´t know maybe climb a volcano and cook some marshmallows or something" the next thing u know we were getting off a bus part way up a volcano and a guide was telling us a couple of things such as how long it will take to get up and the name of our group, no safety instructions or anything "safe".
The first 50metres was the hardest and the guatemalan guys riding horses yelling "taxi" seemed almost like a grand idea but we pushed on and the climb past some amazing views was not so bad for the next while until we arrived to what looked what i could only imagine the luna surface would be like only with more gravity. The clouds were whirling past just above our heads but soon after some more trecherous climbing, they were whirling around and below us; wind chill factor much. The last couple of hundred metres was climbing a step incline of volcanic rock which is actually quite sharp to grab hold of and twisted into all sorts of wikkid formations. Almost to the top nelson taps me on the shoulder, points and says "look" and not far off, flowing down the slope was a substance we all know and love as lava, freakin yew!!!! not everyday i see that.
When reaching the top not only were we greated by one of the most spectacular sunsets ever but also an awesome amount of lava just kinda doing its thing and we were practically walking around on top of it. Was slightly worrying that underneath the already cooled surface lava was flowing 2000 degree rock anyways we found a decent hole to poke our marshmellows in and started participating in possibly the most epic feast of marshmellows in my life...after awhile our guide started yelling out our group name and it was time to head down the not so sturdy slope of volcanic rock, turns out in watching the sun go down whilst at the top it was now night time and there was a distintic lack of light which made things much more interesting on the way down, tranquilo was the aim of the game but was quite difficult cause the rocks were loose and sliding could not be helped, my shoes quickly filled with small rocks which i just kinda ignored cause there were greater concerns at hand such as not joining one of the many rocks hurtling down the slope.
After what seemed for ever our group amongst others joined each other in emptying our shoes at the end of the rock trekking and the start of the rest of the trek back through the forest to the bus. The guide calls us back together and counts to see if we were all there he counted 11 we had 12 but he just kinda said close enough and off we went the dark forest back past the not so visible vistas that we enjoyed so much on the way up and trying to take in the unbelievable experience we had just had. Arriving back at the hostel incredibly tired and hungry the kitchen was closed, i was slightly distraut but we were told of a taco place 2blocks that way and 3blocks that way. Biggest and most satisfying taco i've ever consumed it was called the supergringa, an excellent ending to an excellent day!!!!
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