ben and cori vs. the AGGROCRAG

ok. quick update, because corinne and i are going to meet our family soon.

the busride down, the bus decided to show scary movie 4. terrible movie. once it was over, they switched to boleros. nice.

the cavern walls and mountain villages were littered with political graffiti, mostly for FRG, who i've heard ain't so great. i'll find out more later.

not too much else to report. i wish i had a window seat. pictures later.

the first person i met in xela was oscar, my cabdriver. his taxi smelled awful. we hold an awkward conversation in spanish. its pouring rain outside, and he offers me toilet paper to dry off. i like being wet. his favorite food in xela is from the chinese restaurant. he says xela is the best city in the world. my verdict is still out, but i think there is already a strong case. after we dropped off another girl at the school, oscar and me had hard time finding the hostel cori reserved for us, driving around and around, eventually stopping back at the school to telephone the hostel.

once we got there, the rain had died down a bit. i met cori and we took to the city streets, first a bakery (more on both the bakery and the streets when i have more time). after we got a quick dinner, we went back to the hostel, just in time avoid another downpour, giving us a good reason to stay inside and talk for hours.

we ventured out later. bought tamales from a mayan woman on a streetcorner. sipped tea in a cafe where a guy was playing amazing music.

today, we just got back from hiking a volcano. for those of you who missed the volcano episode of reading rainbow, levar burton told us all that after a volcano covers the ground in lava and ash, the ground becomes very fertile. it was one of the most beautiful hikes i've been on, and without a doubt the most intense - about 4 kilometers vertically, and the last half was intensely steep.

about 30 minutes past the halfway point, a beautiful hill, my weak knee was starting to buckle. another member of our hiking party named scott was already waiting at the halfway point due to fatigue. i ran back down the side of the volcano to join him, and we lounged in the shade and talked tillich, buber, music, and food - 3 of which are my favorite subjects. scott is a seventh day adventist pastor, and i learned a lot about their church.

the silence on the side of a volcano is different than the silence in the city. silence in the city makes me nervous. on the side of a mountain, as miguel asturias put it, the noises of the bugs, the birds, and the leaves rustling in the breeze intensify the silence even more by providing a subtle contrast. i watched bees pollinate flowers, we watched kids walking horses packed with firewood (with a friendly buenas tardes) and we napped.

three and a half hours later, we met back up with the rest of the group - corinne, julio (our guide from the school), deidre, and rayna, two sisters who also plan on becoming seventh day adventist ministers. we hiked all the way back down.

i had ice cream from the back of a truck. it was delicious.

love
ben