Global Village in Antigua and Pacaya Volcano

As promised I would post another blog soon, so here it is!

Global Village in Antigua
Last Saturday (August 1st) AIESEC organised an event called Global Village in Antigua, which is the former capital and very close to the current capital, it's probably the most famous place in Guatemala and a lot of foreigners go there to visit or to learn Spanish. It was the perfect scenery for an event such as Global Village. The idea of Global Village is to promote the awareness of other cultures and AIESEC is of course the perfect organisation to do that, it currently has members from 6 countries. So the organisation had arranged a stand for all of us (all the trainees) and arranged some embassies to represent their countries. I had gotten a lot of material from the Dutch embassy so I could make a nice stand with wooden shoes, tulips, a lot of orange and nice books with pictures. After already half an hour I had given away almost all of the 100 goodies (pens, paperclips, balloons and pins) that I had got from the embassy. I thought Dutch people were famous for taking advantage of free stuff, but the Guatemalans are 100 times worse! Anyway, fortunately I still had my books and I could practice my Spanish by trying to explain the function of wooden shoes and how beautiful Holland is. And to make it even more exciting I was interviewed by a national tv channel, in Spanish as well.. it was slightly embarrassing, but I think it went allright. Still I'm happy nobody I know has seen me on tv (although I'm not even sure if they broadcast the interview). Afterwards we watched some dance performances that were part of the event as well, then we had some dinner and we went out. A peculiar feature of the Guatemalan nightlife is that all bars are obliged by law to close at 1 o'clock, so usually people go to the bar around 8 or 9 o'clock. Fortunately there are (illegal) after parties, so if you know where they are, you can party a little longer. At night we stayed in a hostel with a leaking ceiling and the thinnest mattresses I've ever seen, but then what else could you expect for €3 per night..

Trip the Pacaya Volcano
The next day we left for Guatemala City and had breakfast at Pollo Campero (Guatemala's own fastfood chain). Then I had to hurry because I was going to climb the Pacaya volcano with some AIESEC guys (but not with the regular group, they were all too tired). I went again in the back of a pick up and we drove for about 40 minutes until we reached the highest point on the hill next to the volcano that could be reached by car and from we walked for about an hour before we got to the volcano. But before getting there we could enjoy the view over the valley, on the nearby volcanoes and on some clouds that were below us. The volcano is one of the most active ones of Central America and has erupted 23 times in the last five centuries. It is 2500 meters high, so even after having climbed quite a bit by car, it was quite a climb by foot. But for we climbed the volcano itself, we could run down a part of the hill next to the volcano. The hill was completely covered by sand/ash, so we could huge steps and run as fast as we could without really having to be afraid that we would hurt ourselves (although one of managed to get some cuts in his face and arm), that was already a fun part of the trip (see the video on Facebook). And then we really went up the volcano, which was covered by black sand, a very impressive sight. We could even see some of the glow of the lava already. After quite a walk we arrived at our destination, a place on the volcano where the lava comes out of the ground and forms a small river of molten stone. It was really incredible, of course I had never seen anything like it in my life. It is almost impossible to describe, but believe if I say it is indescribably impressive. As you can imagine the lava emits an enormous amount of heat, so although we could quite get close (1 meter with our hands and stretched arms), you couldn't have your face towards the lava for too long, otherwise it started to hurt (or at least feel very uncomfortable), it's like the fireplace in your house at 5cm distance. We could poke with the sticks we had bought in the lava and they burnt immediately, but as soon as you took them out, they stopped burning, very strange. I also threw some coins into the lava, expecting that we would melt, but nothing happened (strangely enough it sounded just like falling on the street when landing on the lava). One of the more experienced guys among us had brought gloves and a metal cup to prepare some kind of sangria by putting the cup with wine and oranges on the glowing rocks. Apparently it was quite nice. Maybe next time I'll try to fry an egg or so. In any case I'll bring marshmallows, we had some as well and it was quite nice to prepare them in 3 seconds and eat them. And then it got dark, really dark, and the view of the lava was even more beautiful. But of course it didn't make the way back much easier, but we managed and we got back to the cars around 8 o'clock and I was at home a while later. All in all I can say that I think the Pacaya is the most beautiful place of Guatemala (or at least the most beautiful place I have seen so far).

Of course you can check my pictures on Facebook again: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9377&id=226700492&l=5864901669