on top of the world

here are those pics i promised...

climbing santa maria, a volcano that overlooks a (very) active volcano, santiaguito, that we hiked up with the group the day before. without more than an hour´s rest, tom made his way from guate city to quetzaltenango and the two of us left at 11 pm for some hearty soup and at 12 midnight to start the 5-something hour hike to the top. up, up, up -- and undoubtedly worth every effort. we went with quetzaltrekkers, and i forgot how many meters high it is. but it seems to be pretty darn high

tom looking down onto volcano santiaguito, which nearly destroyed us the day before with one of its lahars (read an entry below), it erupts smoke every thirty minutes

here we are with host mom, jovita, a jehova´s witness who taught me everything i know about the bible and blew me away by how open-minded, educated and dedicated she was to teaching the original doctrines of the good book. a wonderful person

here we are leaving san pedro, sick as can be from eating some sort of curry but otherwise content from a nightly outing dining with a giant buddha.