Ok, so its been a while, I can´t be blamed however. I have tried. This is actually my thrid attempt at an email. I wrote twice about the events between here and now (long emails at least 2 pages each, but power in most of Guatemala tends to blackout alot. So I will fill in those of you who are interested when I get back.

As for the present I am thorouhly enjoying my last week. For the past three days we hae been staying in different villages around the lago Atitlan. A gigantic lake surrounded by five volcanoes. The water is a surreal deep blue, the sky is the brightest blue ive seen, and the voncanoes and mountains are covered in green crops and rain forrest. Today we decided to ascend the nearest volcano, San Pedro. It took us 4 hours to ascend the 500 feet from the lake to the summit, and 1 and a half to come down. The trail was almost straight up and now we are exhausted. We hiked with an English girl studying literature at oxford and we had good conversations between our gasps for air. We planned to meet up with her tonigh again but due to the unreliability of central American banks we had to return to the main Lake city.

Life around the lake is a bit strange. Tourists spending wads of money on cheesysouvenirs and food and of course alcohol, all sold by local inhabitants that range from tired old women to 5 year old kids. All carry bundles of handicrafts on their heads and do their best to convince tourists to buy. THe lakside life is some of the most beuatiful sceneryi have yet seenm and at the same time less than a block way form this internet cafe more injustice than you´d see in a year in America. Its still really hard to process and I don´t know if I ever will be able to.

as for tommorow on to the old Colonial capital of guatemala, anitgua. And in two days we will climb Central Americas largest climbable active volcano. With luck we will avoi the rivers of molten lava and poisonous sulfer clouds and return safely on wednesday, five days from now.

love you all
Hasta Luego,
Matt