Jaguar!

Everyone has a "hit list" right?

Not the kind of hit list where you name the people you want killed off (bad form to put that sort of thing in writing); rather, a list of travel stories you can tell to just about any crowd.

My audience is typically my 7th and 8th grade band students (yep, as in, 'this one time at band camp'), and they love the story of the time I hiked a live volcano in Guatemala.

"There I was, a little gringa (my Hispanic students die laughing when I refer to myself as a gringa), and I thought it would be a GREAT idea to climb a mountain that incidentally had burning lava flowing down its side...

I arrived at the site and I was immediately surrounded by children trying to sell me a walking stick. They were very persuasive, mostly owing to the fact that they were a.) children b.) telling me the walking sticks was ¨necesario¨and c.) following me around and tugging on me until I bought one.

So I bought one.

Half way up the volcano my new found hiking comrades and I realized that we would likely give the walking sticks back to the children once we descended.

Thus, I rented a PIECE OF WOOD FROM A CHILD FOR 5 QUETZALES!!! If you think about it, it´s actually a great business plan on the part of these kids.

I had this tour guide who announced that whenever he blew this little plastic whistle it meant that he was ¨moving on.¨ He also told me that the name of our group was ¨Jaguar.¨

At the top of the volcano I asked him why he had a machete. He told me that it was because it is what all the cool men carry with them. ¨And also to kill the snakes!¨ Awesome.

Anyways, as we hiked up the volcano and I realized that there were several groups and that all the guides had the same darn whistle. Then I realized that EVERY group was named Jaguar. Thus, whenever I heard a whistle and a man yelling "Jaguar!" I would frantically look around to see if I was supposed to be someplace. I wonder what they do if there is an actual Jaguar...

I did get to see lava. Imagine standing in front of a 350 degree oven. Now imagine opening the oven door and standing there. That´s what it was like. You could even feel the heat through your shoes! People roasted marshmellows!"

My students remember two parts of this story: one, me renting a stick from a kid and two, "Jaguar!" As in, my students now randomly yell "Jaguar" whenever they see me in the hallway at school.

Sharing traveling stories with my students helps them see me as a real person.