Topic: Guatemala
This weekend was very busy. I put as much as I could into the weekend that I could. It was a long weekend with a holiday on Friday followed by the weekend. The holiday was not for the 4th of July...my teaching didn't even realize today was our Independance Day. She had forgot that today was the 4th.
On Friday, I climbed Pacaya, which is a volcano near Guatemala City. Well actually I climbed the mountain on horseback. The thin air was the downfall of this sea-level kid. Once at the top and dismounted from the horse I still had about 30 minutes of walking up to get to the flowing lava. Once there the spectacle was something to see. Before us ran a river of lava that was moving directly toward us, but at so slow a rate that many pictures could be taken with little danger as you can see below. Standing that close to molten rock reminded me alot of Aggie Bonfire...it was super hot.
The guide cautiously walked up to the river and stuck his walking stick in the lava, which immediately brought on flames until he yanked it out. When he did it again the stick was too far in the lava to pull out and he had to abandon it else reach into the lava to free it. Needless to say, he chose the former and let the stick become forever part of the mountain.
There was an unusual sight that once you think about it, it makes sense. When we reach the top and were walking on cooled lava rocks, I noticed two dogs lounging around up there. The sight of them made me laugh, but once I thought about it their choice of beds made perfect sense. Where else are you going to have a bed that is warm 24-7-365? When the lava moved too close they merely got up and moved to a different spot.
After returning home, and resting all afternoon and night, I got up for a 4:00am bus to take us to the airport so I could fly, with some buddies to Tikal--a Mayan Ruin. Below is a picture of me atop the biggest pyramid there. The green you see is the tree canopy, which gives you an idea of how high up I am. In the background you can see two other pyramids sticking their heads above the canopy. The view was absolutely awesome. I was rather disappointed that it was raining cats and dogs the next morning, because I was going to go on a moring tour to watch the sunrise and snap a few shots. But I will have to settle for this view and the thought of what the sunrise looks like. The funny thing on this trip was that the who area had electricy only from 6:00am-7:00am, 12:30pm-3:00pm, and 6:00pm-10:00pm...resturaunts and hotel included. Though this conserved electricity, it raised the cleaning bill for the hotel. My bed was like a lake when I woke up Sunday morning from the hot night. It was so hot that a married couple I know may have slept in the same bed, but there was no cuddling going on.
The trees in among the pyramids (or better said that the pyramids were among the trees)...anyway the trees and the rain made the area like a rainforrest. The wild life included a large rodent animal, spider monkeys, many different types of birds including Tucans and turkey looking birds, crickets (3 inches long x 1/4 inch body width), crockodiles and a brown puma. I saw all but the Tucan and the puma of which I am sad only to have missed seeing a Tucan.
