Antigua - Villages and Volcanos

We visited a women's collective this morning for a demonstration of weaving (cloth and reeds), coffee and corn grinding, tortilla making, and were served a traditional meal for lunch - gallo en chicha!

It was interesting to learn the story of their village and how they have been in debt to the same coffee plantation owner for more than 200 year. Because of the interest, they will never be able to pay it back, so the men have been working for him 2 months a year for the last 200 years for free. The money that the women raise selling their handicrafts they use to buy books and supplies so they can send the village children to school.

After returning to Antigua, most of us met up with another guide (who spoke no English, unfortunately) and group of tourists to climb Pacaya Volcano. The climb up was hot, dusty and tiring - and every time someone stops for a break, a guy with a scrawny, sad looking horse would appear beside them saying "Taxi? Taxi?"

The "taxi" guys only went part way up the volcano, quitting when we got to the hardened lava (from an eruption in 2004 or 2006, I can't remember which). It was a different experience walking on the lava - it had the same rolls as a pile of cow manure, with lots of loose and jagged rocks. Walking over the lava tubes, I could hear the hollowness as my walking stick knocked the rock, and feel the heat rising out of the cracks I had to step over.

I had heard and scene pictures of the top of the volcano where we could stand right beside flowing rivers of lava, but for some reason the day we were there, there wasn't any lava! There were a few glowing red vent, so were were able to roast some marshmallows which got a nasty sulpher flavour.

It had rained on us a bit as we hiked up, but we dried within seconds from the heat, but hiking down the hill a massive thunderstorm rolled in. The hike down was not fun at all - it was pitch black, pouring rain, the dusty trail had turned to mud, and the horse manure had turned a lot of it into a river of poo. Yuck!

We got back to our hotel late, only having time to quickly change before meeting up for our final group dinner.

(That evening D told us that a few days before we did our hike, a tourist fell through one of the lava tubes and lost their leg, and less than 2 months after our hike, the volcano erupted, killing at least 3 people)