Everyday MRM

Belice trip details to come. Am tuckered out. Cheers! m

(photos by Eddie Thornton ) Morning dawned on our little crew and I was awake and hopeful. Lex and I’s early jaunt allowed a brief glimpse of the valley below and the sunrise over the hills. The clouds lifted just enough for a gorgeous view and I was stunned to see how high we were. I looked down onto the tops of fluffy clouds. The rain the night before, and I think many of our crew’s elevation issues, had decided the fate of our summit. Sadly, we were not going to make the second day’s 3-4 hour trek up to the crater, but David mentioned that if anyone wanted to do a cone summit, we would leave in five minutes. I brushed my teeth, grabbed my raincoat and was off. This smaller crew was David and Jeremy, Eddie, Lee, Alicia, Ashley and myself. The going was slow, although not as bad as the day before. This time the elevation was a problem, but so was the incline. No longer 45 degrees, I think we were probably at a 60 degree angle. Many times I thought I would slip, or maybe just fall over...

(continued from Part 1 - more photos added) Meanwhile, David and Ricardo had been preparing lunch. There was a small thatched hut on our campsite, and I arrived just in time to fix myself a hoagie, Guatemala style. Deli ham, cheese, lots of tomatoes and onions and peppers, guacamole, frijoles and hot sauce. We ate standing up because the ground was covered in mud and wet grass. As we ate, the skies started to open more and the soft drizzle turned into an actual rain. Suddenly everyone was assembling their tents. Lexie and I were terrible tent assemblers, and David and Ricardo ended up doing it for us. It almost didn’t matter who put up the tents though, since they were so old and leaky nearly everyone had some problems with water. So, tents up, food eaten, mountain almost summitted, now, what to do. Our group of volcano climbers was not the only group to try the Acatenango summit that day. We had already been passed by the group of children and their blankets, and soon after we all rea...

I’m not sure where to start. Maybe with Eddie’s omniscient phrase, “Don’t worry, the higher up we are, the less mud there is to fall on us.” (photos by Eddie Thornton - but w/o any editing) So, the short story is that I hiked a dormant volcano over the weekend. It was an overnight hike of Acatenango, a 13,040 ft (3976 m) summit, a mere 45 minute drive from my home here in Antigua. With Pacaya blown to hell, the next best thing was the Aca hike. It was a bit more daunting, but since not as many people had hiked it, I didn’t have as much information about the actual climb. Plus, I’d done Pacaya a handful of times and if you’ve climbed one volcano, how hard can the next one be, right? Starting as early as last week, I’d heard people talking about the Aca hike. Lance and Will had already done a day summit and admitted it was “the hardest thing they’d ever done,” but I was thinking about doing it over a two day stretch. Eddie was considering the same thing, so we decided to do a weekend hi...

So, inexplicably, there are three Nashvillians who are studying at CSA in Antigua. Lance and Alicia are my two compatriots, and we’ve made a nice little friendship over Tennessee pride and volunteer work. Lance, I believe I’ve spoken of before, is a fantastic person to have around. Always bringing up the mood, making people smile and sending out exciting and positive energy. So it was with a heavy heart that I learned his five months in Guatemala was at an end and he was headed back to Nashville. There was a goodbye party planned at the home of Mark, and we met up at the park to trek over to his house. The house, I think I’ve explained a bit, is fairly large. Three bedrooms, a large master suite on the top floor with a nice terrace overlooking Santo Domingo, a patio with hammocks and a huge kitchen with tons of counter space. On this counter, when we arrived, were two large dishes of kebobs, chicken, beef, and veggie. I was astounded. Fresh ceviche and some mango salsa for appetizers ...

(photos by Eddie Thornton ) After yesterday’s Pastores visit, I think I was excited to be on the road again. That’s the only way I can explain what happened today. Eddie, Alicia and I had been talking about going to Chichicastenango for a visit on market day. Supposedly it was the best market around, with anything you wanted and lots of beautiful stalls. Since the big market days were on Thursdays and Sundays, we decided to use one of our weekends. We went today. Alicia had a big test on Monday, so she decided not to come. It was probably a smart move since our morning trip, what I thought would just be a 9 - 2 jaunt, turned out to last all day. E and I met up around 8:30 and found a chicken bus to Chimaltenango. I wasn’t entirely sure why were going to Chimal since we really wanted to go to Chichi, but that’s where all the bus drivers directed us. Neither of us had a map, and neither had looked at a map to see where Chichi was. When we got on the first bus and forked over 10Q I knew w...

After yesterday’s suck fest, I decided to take a day off. Robin left this morning at nine to go back to the U.S. and then on to Honduras for her missionary work. I woke up later than usual (8am) but still in time to eat breakfast with her and say goodbye. It was sad having her leave. I’m not sure how things will be now that she’s gone, but she was a funny little bird and I’m glad to have known her. Today was mostly a day of wandering. I spent most of it with Eddie, my new amable from Yorkshire by way of London. His homestay had become unacceptably boring recently and he was in search of a new family. Alicia’s home had room and so we went to visit. I had been contemplating leaving the Panederia, mostly because of some missing money, but decided to stick it out. I’m comfortable here, minus the two hundred, and while it would be supremely cool to live with some friends, the new homestay is a twin bed. Maybe that sounds obnoxious, but I dare anyone to move down to a twin after twenty years...

Our little group of volunteers continued on today back in San Miguel. After some quick organizing this morning at school, Lance, Lexi, E and I all headed up to the town for some more digging in the mud. Armed with less this time (no shovels, no duct tape, no 18 vols) we still trudged our way up the hill and were put to work on a giant mud pit. The goal was less clear today however, as it seemed like the purpose of digging was to move one pile of mud down to another, in a long stream of mud piles until the mud finally reached the street where it could be picked up by the CAT. I shoveled for awhile, calmly digging my shovel deep into the muck and throwing it four feet into another muck bit. Lance was a bit better at the throwing, taking a tip from the locals who flung the mud over their shoulders in a nice long 20 foot arch. The result was some quick moved mud, but also a large splattering of goo over anyone nearby. In about ten minutes I was covered in mud, in my hair, in my eyes, on th...

The town of Pastores had been overrun by the flooding rivers, and much like everything around here, people’s houses drowned. After yesterday’s town digging, many of us were eager to continuar a luta (as André would say), however the school could not loan us the van to take us up to San Miguel. Ashley had been in touch with a man named Forrest who ran a clean water purification mission who was in need of help to clean out his workshop and put together the filtration systems to be installation ready. We had no idea what that entailed, but four of us decided to see of what use we might be. Ashley had hurt her foot during the San Miguel dig, so we narrowed our group down to the bone. From 18 to 4, Lance from Nashville, Eddie from Yorkshire, Lexi from Switzerland via Indiana and Ohio, and Miriam from Nashville, all piled into Forrest’s pickup and drove up the hill. Pastores was nowhere near as bad as San Miguel. While San Miguel was under 8 feet of mud, waste and water, Pastores looked as t...