Bigger than the first, much bigger. We did it at night, the moon was full and there was no need for L.E.D.s. The air was thin and combined with exhaustion to create a dangerous euphoria on icy rocks and mud. After 4 hours we reached the top and slept despite the wind and freezing cold. The brilliant rising sun woke us like a bully with a flashlight. Shivering we looked down on volcanos and clouds and felt like gods.
Was that pretentious enough?
I had a big thing planned for this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya but now all I can muster is: we went up, there was some lava, it was hot, we used it to cook chorizo, we ate the chorizo, we came back down.
The money is being spent on a wide range of things including the clinic, new toilets, christmas presents and providing a much needed variety in the children´s diets. Due to the exchange rate and the low cost of living here every cent will make a valuable difference.
The clinic is particularly important as not only does it look after the children and workers in the oprhanage it is also the only medical centre for a wide area.
Here is the clinic and the volunteer nurse Alicia Ridge buying medicines at the local pharmacy (as you can see my photogenic skills have travelled with me). In my first week a family walked four hours to get some medical assistance at the clinic. This is not an usual event.
You know you are not in Cavan anymore when…
a) howling monkies wake you at 6 a.m. every morning.
b) the only milk you buy is a powder.
c) the bus station security guards carry pump action shotguns.
d) all of the above.
Don´t worry, subsequent entries will not be as long winded or moany. They may even boarder on entertaining.
Wednesday 28th of October, Houston, Texas, 18.55 (local time).
Flight attendant 1 - Passposrt and boarding card please.
I hand her both.
FA1 - When are you coming back?
Me - I´m not sure, June at the latest.
FA1 - You need to be sure, do you have a Visa until June?
Me - I know that I can stay 90 days and then I have to leave to renew it.
FA1 - Ok, but I need to see that.
Me - What? I´m just going to travel to the neighbouring countries and then renew it when I re-enter.
FA1 - I can´t let you on, (to her co-worker) this one is not going.
Me - What? I´ve been told that it´s fine to just renew it once I´m there.
FA1 - I don´t know who told you that but you can´t go. You need to have a return flight within 90 days.
Me - What can I do?
FA1 - You need to go to the embassy to get a Visa until June. Here is the address (this is the wrong address) I can maybe put you on tomorrow´s flight.
She books me on the flight and assures me that it will be no problem getting a Visa until June. I leave with the incorrect address and the knowledge that at least me rucksack will be in Guatemala.
I get the bus into Houston. As this is public transport in the USA I´m the only passenger. The driver, like all Houstonions I meet, is extremely friendly. She talks about many things, about how her neighbourhood has their own private police force, about her grand mammy, about how it´s impossible to poison a pig as they have no veins. And most worringly for me talks about how she has never heard of an internet cafe. When we reach downtown Houston, an empty rainsoaked ghostown of well-lit skyscrapers, the bus driver invites me into their office to search the internet.
After half an hour of very good natured but really ineffective internet searching on behalf I leave with a map of downtown Houston. I wander around in the drizzle for an hour and find a Holiday Inn. The room is $150 dollars but on the bright side I get two complimentary cookies.
Next morning.
Luckily the hotel has computers and I find the correct address of the embassy. Houston is not a compact city. The embassy is 12 miles away.
Guatemalan Embassy (It´s actually a consulate)
Man 1 - Hello Sir (I´m at least 30 years his junior). How can I help you?
I give him a rambling and rapid account of what´s happened and show him my documents.
M1 - No, no it´s fine. No problem.
Me - But they wouldn´t let me board.
M1 - One moment please.
He leaves and returns a minute later.
M1 - It is fine, no problem.
Me - But I cannot get on the plane, they told me that I needed a Visa.
M1 - One moment please.
He leaves again. A minute later he appears behind me and beckons me in a different door, through to an office with another man.
Man 2 - What is the problem?
I explain again, this time in more detail.
M2 - This is strange, it´s the first time I´ve heard of this. There is no problem. You can have a visa for 90 days and then make it 180. And if you leave you can renew it. No problem. But I can´t give you a visa until June.
Me - So what should I do?
M2 - Change your flights.
He then prints me out a letter which states thatI can stay up to 180 days without leaving. I leave to get the bus, train and bus back to the airport. At this point my mp3 player breaks.
I change my flights for $190.
Exactly 24 hours after I first approached a flight to Guatemala I do so again.
Flight attendant 2 - Passport and boarding card.
I give them to him, he checks them and hands them back with a smile.
FA2 - Thank you sir.
Me - Thanks. Do you want to know when I´m returning?
FA2 - No. Why? I can look it up if you want?
Me - No, it´s fine.
When I do arrive nobody in Guatemala wants to know either.
