Another volcano and some bears...

Sunday, May 05, 2019
Pacaya, Escuintla, Guatemala
After helping paint the classroom on Sunday 5th May in the morning I rushed home for a trip to another Guatemalan volcano. I went with Freya and Adam, 2 of the other volunteers. 
This time the hike wasn't so intense. The longest part was the journey to get to the start of the trail as there was a lot of traffic. The walk up was under 2 hours and shady. It worked out quite well as the clouds cleared when we got to the top and we were welcomed with the sight of lava rolling down the sides of the volcano we were stood on. 
It was amazing and you could feel the heat, we even roasted marshmallows on the lava! 
The way down was difficult as the sun had gone down so we were walking in pitch dark apart from our phone torchlight, which was not worth a lot. 
Now the bears..they were in the main square in Antigua for a few weeks. The United Buddy Bears promote living together in harmony. There are around 140 bears, each 2m tall, and they represent countries recognised by the UN. Since the first exhibition in Berlin in 2002, more than 40 million visitors world-wide have admired them. They were an impressive sight and really cool to see. 
The students who presented the best business idea for their english projects were taken to see the bears too last weekend which I thought was a really cool prize and when I spoke to them they were really enthusiastic. It's important they see how big the world is. 
Also: random note, but my host family has a tortoise who appears now and again in the house!
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Comments

Carynm
2019-05-21

You had me going there with the title of this entry....I was waiting to read about brown bears on the volcano!! What an amazing thing to do - toast marshmallows on a volcano! Be careful when getting so close to hot volcanoes.... The bears look great. Nice to read that some of the students at the school were also able to appreciate them. Tortoise looks cute! xxx

2025-02-13

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