Liquid Hot Magma and Mayan Shaman

We attempted to summit Volcan Pacaya last week, but the volcano had other plans. The usually mildly active volcano has been making up for lost time over the past few months and we had a pretty gnarly up-close-and-personal encounter with the angry beast.

This being Guatemala, when you hear about an erupting volcano, you go towards it instead of away from it, and no one will try to stop you. The landscape surrounding the cone of the volcano, which you can usually climb to the top of and look over into the crater, was completely changed from when I was last here two years ago. We got as close as we could to the top, but encountered a few live rivers of lava meandering down the cone that put a stop to our progress. I got about 10 meters from one of the rivers before having to turn back for fear that the soles of my shoes would melt right off my feet. Check out the video, kind of trippy. (Kids, do not try this at home...oh go ahead, just make sure your parents aren't looking.)

A sadistic highlight would have to be when Johnny was hot-shoting it and getting a little too close to the approaching river of lava, not noticing the glowing lava just underneath some of the recently cooled stuff, tripped, and literally burned his foot on molten hot lava. Hurt like hell, but for crying out loud, how many people can claim they burned themselves on liquid hot magma? Johnny agrees, it was well worth the pain for story rights.

We passed through my old home turf of Antigua for a few days last week, which is always fun. Semana Santa (Holy Week/Easter) is upon us and we were lucky to be in one of the world's biggest hot spots for part of the holiday.

You can find these alfombras (carpets) all over the streets of Antigua during Semana Santa. They're hand-made of all-natural materials, are veritable works of art, and only exist for a few hours before being trampled by the Semana Santa processions as they go by.

My Mayan scholar friend Ed arranged for us to have a private ceremony with a Mayan shaman while we were there. We burned incense and candles and sent prayers to Maximon, a Mayan saint who is memorialized as a wooden box draped in a robe and wearing a Stetson hat. He particularly enjoys his rum and cigarettes, you therefore pay homage to him by gifting aforementioned products...a highly suspect practice designed to feed someone else's bad habits, you might be thinking? Hey, you gotta have an open mind... :)


One of the highlights of being back in Antigua was getting to visit my friends, The Dubons. Some of you may remember hearing about this extraordinary family from when I worked as a computer teacher in Antigua in 2003 and got to work with their kids and became close with the whole family. They're part of an experimental project by an NGO, a very at-risk family that was pulled out of one of the poorest areas in Guatemala City called the dump (literally a dump where people live and make their livelihood off of forging through the trash for items of value). They are getting a leg up to attempt to start a new life, they live in a decent place, the kids are getting a good education, the single mother of five, Miriam, now has a sustainable career as a nurse. All of the kids now speak pretty good English and have a chance at sustaining a decent quality of life on their own in the future. Yonatan (my favorite :), who I met when he was just a boy of 13 is now a man of 17, is as tall as me, and has a deep voice and a girlfriend, so strange for me. He's working as a waiter at one of the best hotels in Guatemala City, which is a big deal. He actually waited on the King and Queen of Spain who were in town last week, so he's officially met more famous people than I have.

Erik's abrazo de oso (bear hug)

We're now in Xela doing another couple of weeks of Spanish school. The whole town has virtually shut down for Semana Santa and the streets are alive with Catholic tradition...incense, bobbling Jesus statues on procession floats followed by somber band music that sometimes makes me want to slit my wrists. Look for pix next time.

Jessica put my hair in pigtails yesterday. Perhaps "nubs" would be a more accurate term. It's my latest attempt to stave off the mullet that is quickly becoming my hairdo. I did just get mistaken for being one of the high school students by someone, that was great fun.

Armen, Johnny, Jessica, and Amanda's future album cover