Lava, Tents & Tarantulas.

Last weekend I embarked on a camping trip like never before. On a live Volcano. Pacaya isn't the largest Volcano in Guatemala, but it's definitely pretty active and history indicates that it's about 4 years overdue for a major eruption, so it was spitting and blasting all night long. We hiked up with all our kit on Friday afternoon, set up camp before sunset on a stunning ridge just below the main crater, then we carried on up the mountain over hardened lava for another hour or so. This is where we came to a couple of amazing lava rivers, pumping out 2000 degree molten lava at quite a speed. A really amazing sight at dusk through to darkness, where the sky had an amazing eerie orange glow when the clouds came in. To spare you the long version, highlights included, roasting marshmallows on the lava, hiking the amazing landscape, the Tarantula that crawled out from under our groundsheet and joined us for breakfast and sunrise at 5.30am. More pics here .

Earthquake Update.

We had a little beauty of an Earthquake at around 11am this morning. It happened whilst at school studying. I thought someone was behind me shaking my chair, such a weird feeling, but amazing at the same time as it was only a little tremor/wobble so it was kinda exciting. You could hear the whole town go 'wooooaaaahhhhh!'.

The Daily Grind.

I'm now pretty settled in Antigua Guatemala. Some people say it's not the best place to learn Spanish in Guatemala, but i'm really pleased so far. I've positioned myself on the edge of town with a local family and tried to limit the ease of opportunies to speak English - but at the same time, those opportunities are close enough if I want a break.

My daily routine consists of Breakfast with my host family at 7am, School starts at 8am and ends at 1pm, then lunch with the family, then usually the Gym, chill in a Cafe in the sun for a bit, then back to the grindstone for an evening of homework/study. It's pretty intense at times, but at such an early stage the difference in my ability with the language is amazing and a great incentive to keep my head down and not get sucked into the party scene - yet.

The pictures above are of my School, with the owner Vinicio (right), my teacher (mi maestro) Claudia (Centre) and Rafael, another teacher on the left. Other pics are of my room which is part of a small block of three student rooms at the rear of the host family´s house and the roof terrace where i'm spending a lot of time repeating verb after verb...

Volcanos

Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by three Volcanos in close vicinity and more within a slightly longer drive. The three around Antigua are, Agua, Fuego and Pacaya. The pictures above are shots I took from the town centre of these Volcanos. Next weekend I`ll be hitting Pacaya on a camping trip where we`ll be based roughly 250 metres below the 2552 metre high peak for the night and surrounded by molten lava. Should be alright... sorry Mum.

1 Week, 2 Earthquakes.

Had another early morning earthquake this moring. Chill out.

Antigua Guatemala

If you hadn't noticed on my posts yet, when the text is blue, you can click it to link to a story/image elsewhere. So, i'll let Wikipedia do the talking about Antigua Guatemala.
I arrived two days ago in this stunning old colonial town and am staying in a nice little Hostel filled with others in a similar position to me. If you didn't know, this place is well known for being the place to learn Spanish, so that's what i'm doing. Tomorrow, I start a 3 week course at a local school and I move in with a local family too. 5 hours of lessons a day, for 5 days a week - can't wait.

Adios Miami. Hola Guatemala.

My time in the sunshine state is over, time to venture onwards to Central America. First stop, Guatemala. For a bargain price of $250 I got a flight from Miami to Guatemala City via San Salvador in El Salvador, which was booked for 5.30pm. I got to the airport after being kindly dropped off by Ilysa at 2.45pm to be told their were seats on an early flight, direct to Guatemala. So, by 3.30pm I was in the air and en route. Shortly after departing Miami International the views were amazing as we passed over what I assume were the Florida Keys in the Mexican Gulf, it was like a giant piece of work by Richard Wright. The picture above does the sight no justice, i've never seen a landscape like it from the air, it was beautiful.

Naples, Florida.

I had the pleasure of a week with my friends Jay & Jackie in Naples, Florida last week. A sleepy town on the Mexican Gulf populated with stacks of Golf courses, gated communities and beautiful beaches. Thanks to some good timing, Jay was available to hang out and show me around for the week, which involved a lot of moving slowly, gym sessions, tennis, bocce ball, golf, a spin class courtesy of Jackie, lunch, dinner, beers, Marqueritas, Naples Beach Club, driving golf buggies around Hideaway Beach Club and avoiding rich kids on Spring Break.

Those of you that know Jay will also know that the week involved many debates about global political, economic, business and cultural affairs - and Jay wearing small, tight shorts. It was also a crash course for me in American politics and media, which was both interesting and pretty shocking.

All in all a great week that was the perfect solution to shrugging off the doom & gloom of winter in London.

Soundtrack: Efterklang - Magic Chairs

Rollin' around Florida in a 1979 MG B

Miami. Coral Gables.

Hanging with my buddies Dave & Ilysa (and their dog/son, Winslow), a Londoner and New Yorker who met and fell in love in Miami, moved to London for a while, then wondered why the heck they weren't living in Miami, so now they're back and living in the beautiful Coral Gables part of town. I had the pleasure of their spare room for a few nights. Days were filled with tours by Ilysa of local sites including the amazing Versailles Cuban Restaurant in Little Havana which served Croquetas & Coffee that's so good and potent it should be illegal. Nights mainly involved food and alcohol, especially Saturday on South Beach...

Soundtrack: Autotune filled Hip Pop for the Spring Break crowd.

Miami. South Beach.

Dropped into the warm Florida air (even though the locals say it's cold) and experienced a culture shock far beyond what I was expecting. Thinking back, i've only been to LA 12 yrs ago and New York 6 Years ago, so I guess i'm not very Americanized. Checked into a cool little Hostel on South Beach with a view of getting straight into the backpacker scene. Great decision, met tons of people and eased myself into life on the road nicely.

Soundtrack: Greg Wilson, Essential Mix.

And so it begins...

Sat at Heathrow on a cold, wet Sunday morning contemplating the past decade in London and wondering what the hell I was getting myself into with a one way ticket to Miami. Probably the beginning of a great adventure...

Soundtrack: Explosions In the Sky - How Strange Innocence