straight trippin'
this week was defined by trips. first the trip to the zoo, then a trip to antigua, another to a glass making factory and finally a hike up a really big volcano.
the trip to antigua actually began as a trip to a volcano that was supposed to have been spewing lava and being generally awesome. it wasn’t. it just kinda farted out a couple puffs of smoke and its lava flow had stopped a couple days before we went on the trip, as we later found out. the trip itself wasn’t for the volcano either. it was for ivan, who took a day-long seminar at some technical institute to get certified as a diesel engine mechanic. the plan was for alejandro and myself to drop off ivan an go on to this volcano, fuego, to take in the sights.
at about 2 am thursday, i slept through a small earthquake, we got up at 4:30 am and were on the road by 5:15. i slept. that is, until we came upon and accident involving a tractor trailer and a bus and deemed traffic flow impossible (in-passable), so we had to backtrack and take another, longer, route. as it turned out, this was a blessing in disguise because the alternate route provided some nice views of another giant inactive volcano, santa maria, and a smaller active volcano growing on its side, el santiaguito. while i was looking back at it, el santiaguito erupted. the ash was highlighted by the reddish early morning light and after a few attempts, i snapped a fairly decent picture. very, very cool.
we dropped ivan off at his school place at about 8:15 and headed toward el volcan fuego. along the way, alejandro (despite seeing signs) stopped to ask for directions from about 4 or 5 people. one of them, however, informed us that the show was over and the volcano was pretty boring all over again. and it would be for the next 8 to 15 years. and so it was decided to go on to antigua to check the sites. instead of paying to see them, alejandro and i looked at them as best we could from the outside through closed gates and whatnot. fortunately, most everything in antigua that’s worth paying money to enter and look at is a ruin from a volcano eruption some 200 years ago. so it wasn’t that hard to see what had fallen from the outside, for free. after visiting a really beautiful cathedral, we headed to mcdonalds for some big macs.
on friday, the second session of class was defined by a trip to a nearby glass-making factory, where guests can go
out on the floor and watch craftsmen make wine glasses, lamps, shot glasses, ashtrays, fake candy and a slew of other things. they use only recycled glass from drink bottles, beer bottles and broken glass things and on any given day turn piles of broken glass into crate loads of anywhere from 4 to 8 different items per day. on the floor, i watched a wineglass go through about 15 different steps and through the hands of about 8 people before becoming a tradable commodity. also, i bought a one-of-a-kind ashtray.
saturday was the make-up day for last sunday, when i was supposed to have gone hiking up santa maria. i got up at 5:30 and left at 6:00 with marvin to the house of the ‘guide,’ a friend of marvin’s who sometimes likes to hike and has summated santa maria but once in three tries. marvin then drove sergio, the guide, and myself to the trailhead, as it were, and the two of us began our accent at about 6:30 under a blanket of fog that obscured everything over 40 feet above us. i had no idea how far away the actual volcano was, but it took us about an hour to get to its base, whereupon we started to climb up into the mist. there were various paths that led into trees at different places and sergio, without much
thought, decided upon one of them and into the trees we went. it was beyond me how sergio knew which paths to take and which not to take, but after about 15 minutes it became apparent that he, in fact, didn't. he explained that really, what we needed to do was just go up. straight up. fuck the paths, right? needless to say, that was a bad idea, as at this time of year--the rainy season--there's a whole shit ton of plants, and not taking a path is a rather poor choice to make. eventually, we came upon one and (wisely) chose to follow it. thing is, we followed it the wrong way. so we turned around and retraced our steps and then some until we came across a tree that, according to sergio, meant we were going the right way.
all was going splendidly until the path abruptly came to an end and we were forced, again, to retrace our steps. eventually we came to a trail that we had earlier decided not to follow. this time we followed it. it was at this point that, when i wanted to go left, sergio told me about some bullshit notion that if we were to get lost, search parties always took the path that went right and we would thusly never be found. in not so many words, i pressed that that was a stupid thing to think or follow, and made it clear that the left route was the better of the two. it was, but it involved some considerable bushwhacking. i, leading the two of us, decided at one point that it was impassable, so we turned around and decided that we would look once more for a good route, though our hopes were dwindling. at this point, the fog had lifted and we found ourselves about half way up the volcano. after some time, we stopped to consider our options and it being my only
chance to climb a volcano in who-knows-how-long, we decided to give it a go again and get through those tough parts. this we did, and as it turned out, after we passed the 'impassable' spot, we were following a freshly cut path blazed by someone using a machete. we had found the path, and though it was anything but easy, we were making ground like never before. the problem was, however, that we had only so much time before clouds would come in and open up, deeming our trip utterly miserable. we decided that if we didn't reach the top by 11:00, we would stop and turn around.
we ate lunch at about 10:15 and sergio spent about 10 minutes afterwards explaining to marvin (whom he called) what our situation was. why it took so long, and why it needed to be done, i'll never know. i just know that i was, as pleasantly as possible, become intensely irate. i really just wanted to see el santiaguito on the other side of the peak. finally after some more hiking/crawling/climbing, at 11:15 or so, i reluctantly decided to turn around. we were probably 15 minutes from the top, and really, i just didn't want to hear sergio stop to try to explain, for the umpteenth time, that there were lots of plants. yeah, got it, man. lots of plants. nevermind this freshly-blazed trailed we're on, though. lets go home.
so down we went. we reached the bottom and after taking a short break, we turned around to see about 8 other people following us, one with a machete, the others with backpacking packs and sleeping bags.
they had spent the night at the summit, obviously not too concerned with what the weather might have been. if only i had gone with them. que lastima. exhausted, i bought a liter of pepsi, which i promptly drank while waiting for marvin to pick us up. as an added bonus, a small fist fight broke out between a few members of a little bicycle gang. the loser, who was a loser long before drunkenly picking the fight, walked away with blood running from both nostrils and with his tail between his legs. so to speak. i mean, he was still a human...sadly.
i tried to spend sunday as lazily as possible. my legs hurt from the hike and i had homework and reading to do. i rented the alchemist from an english bookstore and once i finish it, i’ll attempt to read the original spanish version. my grandpa brought the family and myself some coconut popsicles. mighty tasty. it's monday now, and on my way to the internet cafe, a group of girls just out from school whistled and hollered at me. i smiled and shook my ass for them. is that conceited?