Birthday and Acatenango climb

My birthday turned out to be great! After dinner I was finishing a beer and thinking of heading out when I was mysteriously told to go outside and was greeted by Jaun Carlos (the father of the Family) grinning mischieviously whilst lighting a big row of fire crackers (they were LOUD!!)


They were thrown in front of the neighbours house!



Next came a cake with candles and then the traditional cake biting ritual with a face smushing as well

Thanks Betty!


And a couple of rounds of Mezcal to finish


Headed out on the town afterwards for some drinks with and to see some live guatemalan music with the guys from school.

Here are some more pics of various things around Antigua:

At school with my teacher Delia

At the reptile park with a cool but really stinky snake

The family (I´m the one up the back with the tiny head)

The day before I left Antigua I went on a hike with Liam and Andrea (two other students from the school) up Acatenango, one of the volcanoes overlooking town.

The one on the right side, Fuego is the one nextdoor with smoke billowing out

We started the drive out there at five in the morning (ouch) stopping for a quick sunrise pic on the way

And began the ascent through farmlandRainforestopen pine forestand finally misty moonscape

With some impressive views on the way up

As you can see the views weren´t great at the very top so after sitting around on the summit freezing our arses off for half an hour we attempted to descend. That is the guide attempted to seem like he knew where he was going. He didn´t. We wandered around in the fog getting more and more lost until eventually we suggested that we turn around, go back to the start and try again. This time our guide decided to leave us on the summit along with all of his gear in the blasting icy wind and try to find the path himself. After half an hour Andrea was starting to shiver uncontrollably and in a thin, wet hoodie at 3800 metres that is not such a good thing. We were just about to head down without the guide when he came trotting back in just his singlet, having taken off his jacket and fleece to mark the path?!?! and then creeping around in the fog until he found us again. For his sake I´m glad he did, this was no place to get around in a singlet!

The descent was fine after that and we actually made great time back to the trailhead, taking 3 1/2 hours to climb and less than two to get back down. Absolutely bucketted down though which was not a problem for me but the others didn´t have raincoats for some reason so they were not exactly having the time of their lives.

Pretty shattered after the tough climb at altitude we were looking forward to a nice meal and a snooze back at town when we were informed that despite being expressly told we would have a shuttle van to pick us up we actually had to wait nearly an hour for the local chicken bus. This turned into a two and a half hour journey of indescribable torture however there was a nice interlude of a lady falling asleep next to me with her breast exposed.

It was a day to remember that´s for sure...........