Ola! Bikes, hikes, and red hot lava...

This past week, we had spanish lessons for six hours every day. As you can see from the picture, Troy was a very eager student... The spanish school consisted of small desks pulled out into a courtyard and a student and teacher at each desk. Yes, one on one spanish lessons for six hours. There was a lot of smiling and nodding but we actually surprised ourselves by how much we had learned. Enough to buy our pineapple!

The last two afternoons Troy convinced our teachers to take us to the market on one day and on a hike up a hill that overlooks Antigua on the second afternoon, on the premise of learning spanish ofcourse. We pointed at stuff, they told us what it was, and we repeated.

This weekend was action packed. On Saturday morning, we took out some mountain bikes and explored the nearby mountains and villages. It was great to get out of the City and to get a taste of what Guatemala is truly like. We chatted with some local bean farmers and kids no older than 6 working in fields and hauling loads of corn and beans on their backs. It was beautiful and sobering all at the same time.

Saturday afternoon, a group of us climbed Pacaya Volcana. That´s right, a volcano. This place is crawling with them. Pacaya happens to be one that is actually active. Notice the ´liquid hot magma´in the top right of the picture below. It was hard and made more difficult because we did it in the dark to take in the sunset. We couldn´t complain though because our quide was 73 and does it twice a day! We were actually close enough to poke at the lava with our hiking sticks, which immediately caught fire. It was both exhilirating and freaky but you haven´t tasted a marshmallow until you´ve tasted one roasted over hot lava! Too bad we forgot the graham wafers and chocolate....

We are looking forward to getting out to Itzapa tomorrow to start teaching. The adventure will really begin tomorrow....

Adios