So We Roasted Marshmellows......

Using the heat from the lava of the active volcano, Pacaya, while the volcano two volcanos over was erupting violently into the sky.
We met up with our friend from college, Denesse, who is also travelling through Central America. The marshmellows roasted deliciously and we had brought some chocolate cookies as our best approximation of s'mores given the available ingredients. The hike up volcan Pacaya was significantly easier than the hike up Cerro Quemado, and the trail is much wider. That said it appears to be popular amongst out of shape tourists and there were locals offering a "taxi natural" also known as a horse, for a small fee if you couldn't make it to the top on your own. Oddly enough the cost of the horse was greater than what we had paid for park entrance, guide, and transportation there and back, combined! We had done the evening hike and on the way back it started to get very cold and windy. After arriving home we decided to eat some oranges we had picked up when getting the marshmellows in the market and got some hot chocolate.
This morning we took a tour of a coffee plantation and a Mayan music museum. Apparently there's a way to book tours of the coffee plantation in advance, but we just flagged down their bus and hopped on. For 50 quetzales we got a guided tour through the process of growing and harvesting the beans, drying, husking, roasting, and then drinking the coffee. This is a "fair trade" plantation where the workers make about $7.50 per day, in "free trade" plantations the workers make about $5.00. That said, each coffee plant makes about one pound of coffee beans each year and it's quite a lengthy process. We learned that the best coffee beans from this area are a little bigger than normal and generally get exported to Japan. The second class goes to Europe and Starbucks, and the straggler beans stay behind for instant coffee or cheap coffee shops here. The Mayan music museum was also very informative. It's amazing how a lot of the Mayan culture has been integrated into their Catholic-Mayan religion, wih rituals and sacrifices going on in churches, etc. We also got to see a variety of Mayan instruments as well as watch a video of some of their performances. Now we are tired and will probably catch up on some sleeping and reading in a hammock.

Cocinamos marshmellows por el calor de la lava de volcan Pacaya mientras Volcan Fuego hizo erupcion. Nos reunimos con nuestro amigo de la universidad, Denesse, que tambien está viajando por Centroamerica. Los marshmellows se cocinaron ricamentes y habíamos comprado unas galletas similares al estilo de "smores" que son una merienda de camping Estadounidense. El camino para subir Pacaya es más facil que el de Cerro Quemado, y el sendero es más ancho. Sin embargo, parace que sea popular con los turistas en mal forma porque había gente ofreciendo "taxis naturales" conocidos como caballos, por un precio pequeño. ¡Extrañamente, el precio del caballo fue más del precio de la entrada al parque, el guía, y transporte de ida y vuelta en total! Habíamos hecho el camino de la tarde y cuando estabamos bajando, empezó a ponerse frío y ventoso. Despues de llegar al hostal decidimos comer unas mandarinas que compramos antes en el mercado y tomar chocolate caliente.
Esta mañana fuimos en un tour de una plantación de cafe y un museo de la musica Maya. Es posible reservar espacio en el tour, pero nosotros apenas gritamos al piloto del bus y subimos. Por 50 quetzales a cada uno tuvimos un tour con guía del proceso de sembrar, cosechar, secar, rostizar y finalmente beber el cafe. Esta plantación es de "fair trade" entonces paga sus trabajadores 60 quetzales diario, en las plantaciones de "free trade" los trabajadores solo ganan 40 quetzales diario. Cada arbol de cafe produce una libra de cafe cada año y es un proceso largo. Aprendimos que los granos mejores de cafe son un poco más grande y generalmente son exportados a Japón. La segunda clase va a Europe y Starbucks y los demás son para cafe instantaneo o cafes locales baratos. El museo de musica Maya tambien fue muy informativo. Es asombroso como muchos aspetos de la cultura Maya se ha integrado a la religion Catolico/Maya, con rituales y sacrificios en las iglesias. Tambien vimos muchos instrumentos Maya y vimos un video de sus actuaciones. Ahorita estamos cansados y probablemente vamos a leer y descansar en unas hamacas.