¨What a wonderfull new smell you've discovered¨... Han Solo once said this and it would apply perfectly to this pile of what I believe are part of the coffee plant! The long black thing comes from a building where something is done to the beans and this is produced...as you walk in the town you see fields with large dark plastic tarps with coffee bens drying on them. But this pile and some others like it emit an odor so foul and intimidating to one's olfactory system that nostrils pack their bags and go on vacation, some never to be smelled from again.
The day I arrived at San Pedro we were ontop of something called the nose....when seen from the town it looks like the nose of a giant head in the mountains. From there we saw San Pedro Volcano and made plans to climb it... It became evident after a week that it would never happen...Well, never happened....Charlie of Massachusets (if you can spell it better ill be impressed) came to me one day as I was perched resting in my hammock and he said: Mike, let us go forth as we discussed and climb to the very summit of that volcano yonder. And he continued: We shall not begin our descent at first light, but rather we will begin halfway between the setting and rising of the sun so that we can be atop the volcano for the rising of that which brings life to the planet. And I said unto Charlie: That plan is a good plan. (after a little nudging)
And so it came to pass that the very next evening we lay to rest before the sun and awoke to depart at the early hour of 2 in the morning.
The climb was all in the dark and lots of fun! We were joined by Chen, who harlie has been travelling with and Near, an Israeli we met by the lake. Our guide was Cheo (pronounced Chay-o) who is working at the campground where I'm staying.... It took us a while to walk up to the trailhead, and then a while longer to get up the mountain. Charlie and I ran ahead to catch the sunrise and made it with minutes to spare! The lake looked incredible and the mountains in the distance were all surrounded by clouds with their heads poking out to taste the day.
Geology InterludeThe area the lake occupies used to be a giant holding tank for lava. When this erupted and emptied there was a giant hollow in the ground, we're talking a couple hundred meters deep and you can see how wide from some of these pics and from the post when I first arrived.... So this empty chamber collapsed and two main rivers and Im sure tons of streams filled up the hole, making the lake. This happened about 140 000 years ago. If you say that the earth is not so old, there is an interesting video caled ¨the young age of the earth¨ which tries to show 'scientifically' how the earth is roughly 7000 yrs old... Although it contradicted 3 years of university studies, I found it amusing! One can reverse engineer anything to make it seem to have happened in a certain way... Back to the lake... So once this lake was formed there was still lava that wanted to get out of the ground (not lying at the bottom of the lake but under the lake bed or beside it) , and this created San Pedro volcano, the oldest currently around the lake. From what I understand, as lava kept pouring out it solidified, slowly building up into a mountain... When it stopped, lava still needed to come out and made 2 more volcanos, the last one still active!
On saturday night there was party at an ecological reserve that lasted past sunrise! The music was in the main building, and you could follow a condle lit path uphill for a few minutes and come to asmall fire with some benches and drums and happy people. The area is sacred to the mayans and it was interestign to be there.... It is also the site of the longest zipline in central america, form one mountian to another across a chasm.... and was supposed ot be included with the ticket but due to some miscommunication it never happend.... But the music was good, some one had made very good friends with a dentist as they brought a tank of N2O... lots of people seem to have found this FUNNNNNYYYY! Come morning there was a very colorful sunrise and a good view of San Pedro volcano..... (the one the other pictures are from)
Coming back form the party was another exciting adventure! It was an hour drive almost all uphill through insane swithcbacks with hairpin turns...so naturally the only way to come back down is in the back of a pickup truck! But to make it more interesting the truck was first loaded with the whole soundsystem forem the party. In the piuc of the other truck (the one our driver thought it bes to pass) you can see how there are bars to hold onto....most of the trucks have these as it is a common form of transportation.... the fact that our balance was high sitting on meter tall pseakers added to the fun....to top it off we had beer...although it was sometimes sketchy to let go of the railing with one hand to grab the beer with the other.... nothing like flying down a mountain in the back of a truck and drinking at 8am after a night of dancing!
Its great to be living right on the lake, so when we got back (safely) I hopped in to relax and swim about.... I have my tent pitched at an up and cming place that is still being built....A guy form Hungary who grew up in Quebec is building giant teepees and he and his wife are taking care of things. There are only a few people there and it is the sweetest spot in town... I opted for my tent over a teepee....which I only regretted for a few minutes when I had my very first infestations of ants! Good times..... Here is the cutest girl in Guatemala.... the third helper in the teepee project...with her mom....
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