More volcano, Xela

This is the view of the fog about 15 minutes into our climb. It was so pretty, defining the ridges.
Adolfo has seen this eruption hundreds of time, and wasn't really paying attention to the volcano. He is studying tourism and commerce in college and is an expert on Mayan history. He tells us much about the development of the Mayan civilization, the differences in different cities and a little of the end of their time. I'm trying to translate what I understand for Stuart...my grasp of the language is so small.  The smoke from the volcano changed while he was talking, changed to dark grey and was suddenly more voluminous and the ground rumbled and shook. I pointed, he turned to look and just about jumped off the mountain in excitement! He told us that he'd only seen this kind of eruption about 4 times, and we were delighted with the volcano's performance. Just for us, of course, on New Year's Day.







more Santiaguito. The suffix, '-ito' means small, in this case son of Sta. Maria.
The lava river, around the west side of Santiaguito. It was huge, much larger than this photo can show. By now, the sun is up, we've worked up a sweat from our hike, and we peel off a couple of layers of clothes, including the wool hat I thankfully wore.

Stuart and I had been told to bring water, sunscreen and food. We broke out some fruit we'd bought the day before, raisins and tortillas saved from dinner last night. Adolfo, of course, had brought nothing, and we shared with him. It was more than enough for the three of us, and while we ate, he told us more about the Mayans, the local people, and his family. There are 27 different Mayan dialects spoken in Guatemala (I think I remember that number correctly...). Many older people don't speak Spanish, but the younger people are beginning to speak only Spanish. In Xela, a cultural cross-roads of sorts, a little English is beginning to catch on, too. So many tourists arrive here from Europe, particularly Germany, and South America, many to study Spanish at one of the many schools here.

The owner of the tour company, Altoplanos, is a local man with a surprise. We met William Paxtor yesterday, and he speaks very good English. When he asked de donde, Where are you from, and we said North Carolina, he asked if we lived in Wilmington. Imagine our surprise! He had lived in Pender County for 10 years! It gets better...he was picking blueberries and working on a blueberry farm all those years! I told him my family's farm is very close to a large blueberry farm, and we concluded that we might have passed at some point. He was very proud of his work there, and was pleased with the money he made, much of that money was sent back to help support his family. He saved enough to buy a couple of vans to transport tourists hired some knowledgable young people, and is now not only making a living but providing employment for several people. It was been a very good beginning for the New Year.

We hiked back down the mountain, talking about music, history, other countries, Adolfo's young son, his family and the big test that he must pass when he finishes college in order to be a certified tour guide. By the time we get back to the bottom, we're hot. We arrive at a tiny tienda, a store, and pretty quickly the van arrives to pick us up. We can see now that the fog is burned off. We drive through a tiny village of small concrete houses, fields and donkey's all around. It's the dry season, and we kick up much dust on the dirt streets.

After a hot shower, and we search for late lunch. New Year's Day, and most every restaurant is closed. We finally find a little place, where I order garnachas because I don't know what they are. (my personal rule when it comes to food: I try anything I don't know about, just for curiosity. I usually like it!) Little, fried tortillas not much larger than a cracker, topped with a delicious chicken and crumbled cheese, with pickled veggies on the side. Afterwards, Stuart buys an ice cream cone from the Guate version of Kentucky Fried Chicken (the only other restaurant we find open today), and I order a hot chocolate, with extra chocolate syrup and cream! We sit in the parque, enjoy the sun, and marvel at the First Day of the Year adventure.