This Saturday I went with a group from school to hike the volcano and lake Chicabal. No sleeping in for me unfortunately as we had to meet in front of the school at 7am. This time we caught a mini-bus. Like the bigger buses, there is always what I call a "runner" on the bus besides the driver. The runner's job is to get the passengers on board quickly, to help loading lugguage on top of the bus, to collect fares and also to divert traffic if necessary. They will stand inside the bus beside the door which is open a lot of the times as they shout to try to lure in passengers. Sometimes the bus driver wouldn't stop the vehicle while the runner is still mounting the lugguage on the roof and so he will have to chase the bus to get back on. These are some hard working guys. Anyways, going back to Lake Chicabal. It is a crater lake at this volcano which is somehow sacred to the indigenous people who will go there and hold these ceremonies. The dirt trail to the top "midora" where you can look down to the crate lake took about 2 hours and man it was steep! The loose dirt on the trail makes it so dusty. As we hiked, we saw little kids about 8 or 10 years old carrying on their backs machetes and chopped wood probably used as firewood. It's quite sad to see them doing this kinda of work while they are still so young! Our group of about 10 people was grateful when we finally reached the lake after coming down these steep steps. Swimming is not permitted in the lake since it's sacred but it's too cold to swim in anyways. We had our snacks by the lake and kept our distance to these groups of indigenous people who were performing their ceremonies. With the clouds slowly rolling in, this place becomes quite mysterious with the channting coming from the these people. On our way down, we were chatting with these 2 little boys with firewood on their back. It looked very heavy. One of them kept asking me and Mya for money. I didn't have small change to give him but I gave him my leftover bread roll and some gums. He was quite persistent though in asking for $$ and we just kept saying no. It's sad but as we talked to them, we learn that they do go to school during weekdays which is good. Melissa, who speaks better Spanish, was questioning the elder boy the multiplication table and he did quite well! We finally got back down and caught another mini bus to return to Xela. We got back at around 2pm, and I was glad to be able to shower and take a nap in the afternoon. Later that evening I studied with Melissa and Jen at a cafe near Central Park. It was actually quite fun having a study group like this and it brought me back to my college days. It has been a pretty good Saturday for me.
