Alright i;ll try to jam as much info into this entry as possible with the little time i have.
I met up with Patrick, my friend from Red Deer, last tuesday and we;ve gotten quite a bit done since. The first day we took it pretty easy, i showed him around the city and allowed him to stay in the "safari suite" in my host family;s house. Its not really a suite though, it has a bed, wooden table, and a couple pages from a safari magazin up on the concrete walls. The next morning, we set off to hike the Santa Maria volcano.
We decided to take an alternative route to climbing the volcano compared to most other people... to do it without a guide. Overall the Trail was pretty easy to follow, and we only managed to get lost twice. The only thing I was concerned about was getting robbed on the hike, which has happened to many travelers before.
The first part of the hike was pretty easy with a nice and open trail. But the second half proved to be quite the demoralizing experience. Every single turn leads you to a trail which appears to be the top, only to turn that corner and see another trail. So for the last hour of hiking, we thought that we had reached the top only to see another tree line further up. The trails weren't anything crazy but the altitude proved to be one of the more difficult aspects of the climb. Patrick noticed it alot more then i did, where he found breathing to be a little difficult coming from a very low city in alberta to nearly 4000m ontop of a mountain in around 24 hours. Nevertheless, we did reach the top, which was clear of most vegetation and just one big rocky plato. We layed down and had some snacks then got ready for the descent. We were in the middle of the clouds up there, and it took us a little time to find the trail we came up on. With the weather, altitude and lack of food and water, our patience was running a little thin for finding this little trail. We ran down most of the mountain, and ended up cutting an almost two hours off the expected descent time. We got home, had breakfeast with the host family, then headed straight to a pizza place to fill the restr f our stomachs.
That night, i introduced patrick to the wonderful world of Cantenas= a hole in the wall with plastic chairs/tables and cheapest booze available. The gautemalateca we met there that night had a particular disliking towards mexicains... lets say my slang vocabulary expanded once again.
We decided to head towards the coast right away, and take a break before anymore hiking, so we went to the black sand beaches of Monterrico. We stayed in a dorm room in one of the nicest hostels on the beach for around 5 bucks a night. This place reminided me of an all inclusive resort without the drinsk and food. It was a nice change from my recent lifestyle. Those four days consisted of lots of seafood, nice weather whihc caused the black sand to becom boiling hot and relaxing on the beach. The waves there were huge! they also crashed very close to the shore. It was fun playig around in but you had to be really careful andn we received many warnings about the power of the undertow and the waves, whcih really would knock you around, filling your nose ears and what ekse with sand. But on our final sday there, 4 people passed away about a km away in the waves. I also managed to give myself a nice cut over my left eyebrow which probably couldve used a couple sticthes. Alcohol was not a factor in the injury, although it was used a mild painkiller later on. A little polysporn and alot of bandaids/tape and my head was good as new. Most our days consisted of walking into the town to find places to eat with some people we meet there and sitting on the beach just watching how powerful the waves were. Jus by playing in the surf, they would knock you over, and flip you around. Our last nght, there was a big party on the beach in front of our place, where we got to observe the drunks staggering and the kids playing dodgeball with everythign from coconuts, glass bottles and live crabs. This was one of the most enjoyable places ive been in Guate.
We got a shuttle to Antigua with some other people we meet there, which was a little adventure i itslef. We managed to get passed by some sort of porsche touring group, with over ten of them flying by us at well over 200km/h. We switched drivers half way through, and our second driver insisted on doing no more then 30km/h on all the roads, no matter what the speed lmimt was. I think Pat was angry enough for all us passengers.
We got into Antigua yesterday were we clebrated my birthday. As i got to pick our restaurant, we found a place that sold all types of fast food eats, like burgers or hot dogs for a little under a dollar each... we ate our hearts out... and i thinkg the man who was serving us was quite disgusted. The large amounts of alcohol in our systems may have saved us from food poising, because the food ooked a little sketchy, but i dont' think much would be able to survive in the alchohol rich envirmoents of our stomachs.
I don't have muhc time left, as Pat and I are heading off the climb a volcano where wel get to roast marshmellows over flowing lava. Ill try to add some more stories and maybe pictuyres later.