Day 96 (04-23-09)

Last Day of ‘A’ Class today. People are starting to realize that the end is coming. While it’s nice to be done with classes, it’s not so nice to know that our voyage is almost over. I spent some time watching the Voyage Video from a past SAS semester. Even though their trip went to several different ports of call, it was very easy to relate to the things that they’ve done. The people they met. The experiences that changed their lives. I don’t know how I’ll be able to be sedentary for the next three months. Trapped in Hatfield. In Allentown. In my little niche. People keep talking about going back to the Real World. Well guess what. I’m in the Real World. I’m seeing it right now. My world at home is a little bubble. An insignificant chunk of the whole. I’m going back to a daily routine. Wake up. Work. Home. Sleep. Repeat. Where’s the adventure? Where’s the spontaneity? The culture shock. Why don’t all of my friends live 100 feet away? I’m not really giving myself very high expectations for the summer, in case you couldn’t tell. But after the past three months… how can I?

Day 97 (04-24-09)

Last Day of ‘B’ Classes. We did some more of the presentations in Shakespeare class today. Learned some more about monkeys and their evolution into people in Biological Anthropology. I took a nap. Sat out on the top deck for a little while watching the water. We all have a final exam tomorrow in Global Studies, so people have been pretty low-key. Studying is over-rated, I think I’ll avoid it at all costs. Oh! The Simpsons Movie is playing on TV. And Pan’s Labyrinth! They put the good movies on when no one wants to spend time watching them. But I think I’ll watch anyway.

Day 98 (04-25-09)

Happy Birthday Valerie!

The Global Studies exam was supposed to be during class time, but they pushed it back to 4pm to give us extra study time. Yes! We can sleep in! OH WAIT. No. Muster Drill. 9:30am. Thanks SAS. At 9:25am, I’m awakened by the most God-awful noise (the seven short blasts of the ship’s horn, followed by a long, sustained high-pitched noise) that doesn’t make me look forward to the day. After standing outside wearing a life jacket for a half hour, they send us back inside. Time for bed again.

Four Hours Later.

Oh right, we have a Global Exam today. Maybe I’ll look over some of that material now. After lunch. So I eat lunch and study for a little while. Take the exam. Not a big deal. Some questions were obvious; some were related to concepts that I’d never heard of in my life. Typical test. But I’m okay with it. And since my only ‘A’ day class doesn’t have a final exam, I’m done with tests until May 2nd. Time to relax. What’s happening tonight? Suits and Settlers. That’s right. We’re nerds. Four of us decided that we would play Settlers of Catan in the suits that we had custom-made for us in Vietnam. And so “Suits and Settlers” was born. People gave us some funny looks tonight. But I also got a lot of compliments on my suit. So that’s good. Time for bed. Another day to sleep in tomorrow. I’m excited.

Day 99 (04-26-09)

Study Day today. In other words, another day off. We had a meeting about our fake pre-port presentation for Ft. Lauderdale today. Four of us are doing a little sketch comedy routine before Florida poking fun at our logistical and cultural pre-ports. I’m excited.

I have two or three (or four?) papers due before the end of the semester, so I’m finishing them all up now. All of my professors decided to make their assignments due by the concrete date of “sometime before the end of the voyage,” so I clearly haven’t done any of it yet. But I’ll be done after tonight. And then, I only have one final on ‘B’ day to worry about. But that’s after Guatemala. Dude, we’re in Guatemala soon. And that’s like… our last port. Whoa.

Day 100 (04-27-09)

‘A’ Day Exams Happened today. But I didn’t have any, so I slept until 1pm. Hallelujah. My Media class did meet though. So I showed up at 4:15pm like usual, and I got an unexpected little treat. Apparently, anyone who did a multimedia project instead of a paper for the last assignment had to present their project to the class. Uh oh. There were only five people who chose to do so. Of course, I happened to be one of them. It wasn’t the presentation aspect that bothered me. I can make up a presentation on the fly, no problem. But I wasn’t expecting anyone in the class to see this. I recorded a couple videos of me singing a song in English and also in the Shona tribal language of Zimbabwe and included them in the project I was doing on a song and how it related to my time in South Africa. So now, I had to stand up in front of my peers and show them these videos of me sitting in my cabin singing a tribal song a capella style. But I made some self-deprecating jokes before I started, and everyone seemed to like the presentation. Hooray.

Also, the grades are in! B on the Global Studies exam. And a B for the year. Wahoo.

Pre-port for Guatemala was tonight. Here’s the summary. Don’t go to Guatemala City. Don’t ride on a chicken bus. Don’t camp on volcanoes. Swine Flu hasn’t been introduced into Guatemala yet, but in case you get it, here are the symptoms. Don’t drink the water. Don’t eat the food. Don’t go home with locals. Don’t wear flashy jewelry. Don’t go to isolated areas. You might get mugged. Don’t take the taxis. Don’t go to the airport. Don’t go anywhere at night. Mandatory curfew of 11pm if you are on an SAS trip. Take anti-malarial medication. Stay hydrated. Avoid the beach. Never be alone. Remember, you might get mugged. But, most importantly… Have fun!

Sheesh.

Day 101 (04-28-09)

One hundred days down, eight to go. Welcome to Guatemala. Our last country. We had a Diplomatic Briefing this morning with one of the consular officers. He said basically the same things that we heard last night at pre-port. Right after the meeting, it was time to go. My group went outside, hopped on a bus, and our adventure began…

There are 35 of us on this trip. We’re all packed into a touring bus, and our tour guide, Emanuel, let’s us know what we’ll be doing for the rest of the day: Transferring to a chicken bus, driving up an isolated dirt road, and then hiking up a volcano and sleeping on top. Flashback to last night: No chicken bus. No isolated areas. No sleeping on a volcano. This trip is going to be awesome.

Those guidelines were set out for people that were doing independent travel. Since our group is on a trip that’s sponsored by SAS, it isn’t a problem. But it was funny either way.

After driving for an hour in the touring bus, we stopped at a gas station and got our first glimpse of Esmeralda. Esmeralda is the chicken bus that would be our transportation for the next hour or so up the volcano. I’ve mentioned them several times now, and you might be wondering, Chris, what on Earth is a chicken bus? It’s an old-fashioned Blue Bird school bus from the ‘70s with rock hard seats and an aisle that’s eight inches wide. But it’s been retrofitted with modern stereo equipment and it’s (as our guide told us) “pimped out.” It’s painted all sorts of crazy colors. It was an experience, for sure. Apparently, these things just roam around the city here and pick up people at random, then drop them off whenever it’s convenient. But many of them are operated by drug cartels, and so they purposely drive through certain checkpoints where the driver has to pay a fee. When the driver comes up short of the required amount, armed “transportation officers” come onto the bus and politely request that the passengers pay the remainder of the due funds. Yikes. But the adventure company owns our bus, and it was chartered for us. So there was no problem. Plus, we had a police escort as soon as we transferred onto the bus. They followed us up the dirt road, and actually stayed with us for the duration of our trip. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We drove this chicken bus through a little town and up the makeshift gravel road that led to a farm on the volcano. This was where our journey began. Here, at about 5,000 feet, is where our guides set out the plan for today. It was about 10am, and we had a couple hours of climbing before lunch. After that break, it’s another few hours up before we make it to camp. Then it’s dinner, relaxation time, and sleep. Awesome. Plus, there’s a pickup truck here that’s taking all of our bags for us. So we only need to carry our water bottles and cameras. Yes. Easiest hike ever. Ha… wrong.

We started upwards and it was great. Acatenango is one of fourteen volcanoes in Guatemala. It’s presently dormant, but others in the area are very active. Pacaya, a volcano that several SAS kids climbed on day trips, is one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world. Lava flows down its sides every day. Our volcano was basically just like a mountain. No lava. No big plumes of smoke and ash. Just rocks and lots of foliage. So we made it up to the lunch spot sometime around noon and sat down. That was a solid hike. Not too hard, but certainly rough enough to make us winded. This is going to turn out to be a fun little trip. The description said it would be strenuous, and I think we’ll all be sufficiently tired after a few more hours of this. Well guess what, kids. We aren’t getting a few more hours of this. We’re getting a few hours of Hell. The next leg of the hike caught us completely off guard. The trail started to get steep. And then steeper. And steeper. And then there were switchbacks. And it got steeper. And the hills became longer. And the gravel became looser. We’d fall one step lower for every three that we took upwards. There were only a few people on the trip who had done anything like this before. I’ve done some hiking, but nothing this intense. It was essentially a three-hour long marathon session of complaining. And I loved it. Oh man. One of the guides acted as a pace-car for us, and I don’t think this guy ever even broke a sweat. His name is Axel. He just blazed the trail with his machete and sat down every fifteen minutes to let the gringos catch up. My buddy Keith and I were able to keep up with him the whole time, but it wasn’t easy by any means. For the last leg of the journey, the guides all stayed in the back to give encouragement to those that were falling behind, and Keith and I were the first to make it to camp. A group of blue tents has never looked so beautiful. At 10,500 feet, we sat down by the fire pit and watched as our fellow adventurers made it into campsite over the next hour. I suppose it was about 4:30 or 5pm when the last of the stragglers filed in. The remainder of the evening was spent by the fire. We just ate our burgers and talked about what we had just done. Even now, with a week left on the voyage, I made some great friends that I had never even met before. It still blows my mind how that happens. By 7:30pm, we were all in our tents and ready to sleep for days. Unfortunately, our wake up call is at 4am. So we’ll just sleep as much as we can…

Day 102 (04-29-09)

…It won’t be very much, though. 1am. I’m awake. I have to go to the bathroom. But I’m thinking it’s probably near enough to 4am that I can just wait until the guides wake us up. 45 minutes pass, and there’s nothing. I check the clock on my iPod and see that it’s only 1:45am. Oh jeez. I wonder why I feel so awake and ready to go. I didn’t fall asleep right away, so I’ve only been asleep for four or five hours. This is nuts. I walk out of the tent to utilize a bush and I happen to look up. Oh man. Last night, the sky air was so filled with our campfire smoke that we couldn’t see the campsite twenty feet in front of us, much less the sky. But since the fire went out, the sky cleared. And what a view it is. The stars are everywhere. That white stripe of the Milky Way is visible. A satellite is passing overhead. A shooting star. And another. The lights of Antigua are glistening thousands of feet below us. I take a deep breath…

Holy crap it’s cold out here, what the hell am I thinking standing on a volcano and night in shorts and a t-shirt? Jesus, get me back to my sleeping bag.

After two more sleepless hours in my tent, the guides come around and tell us to wake up. 4am. Fireside. Breakfast. Chats. Groans. I didn’t sleep. Did you? No. Figures. What are we thinking? If we were dying yesterday, how are we going to finish this thing? 5am. Go time. Only three people stay behind. Altitude sickness. Bad knees. Unfortunate, but understandable. We start the hike. And it’s even tougher this time around.

Acatenango Volcano is the third highest peak in all of Central America and the Caribbean (they’re grouped together because they’re both on the same tectonic plate). Its highest elevation is approximate 13,040 feet above sea level. And that’s where we’re going. Are you kidding? They somehow conned 31 students and a professor into climbing to the summit of a 13,000-foot volcano? You need to be in shape to do this sort of thing. And the only warning that SAS gave us? “This may be a strenuous hike that could take up to six hours. Comfortable shoes are recommended.” Give me a break.

As we blazed the trail upwards and into the sky, the views couldn’t have been better. We were above the clouds. And the clouds were blanketing the mountains below us. From afar, it looked like there was a lake off in the distance, but it was the cloud cover lying flawlessly over a valley. Unbelievable.

We stopped a few times along the way, but it was mainly just uphill hiking for hours on end. 5am. Let’s walk. 6am. Keep going. 7am. Almost there. 7:30am. We can see the peak. There it is. We’re standing in the “saddle.” It’s the valley between the false peak and the actual one that rests on the upper edge of the crater. From here, it’s only a few hundred feet up. But those feet have never looked more daunting. After hours of climbing. And hiking. And slipping. And falling. The last part of the climb is the most challenging and technically difficult of all. Great. The trees and dirt are gone. All we have to step on are very loose volcanic rocks. They slide out from underneath you with each step, sometimes sending you closer to the edge of the rocky cliffs on either side. Imminent doom is upon me. If I don’t slip and fall, I’ll probably pass out and go with gravity anyway. My water ran out a half hour ago. My heart is beating in my throat. The sun’s UV rays are piercing the ozone layer with obnoxious force. It’s cold, but I’m sweating. I’m dirty. I hurt. Fifty feet. Forty. I can see the crater. Thirty. Fuego Volcano is erupting in the background. Twenty. Five people are at the top. If they can make it, so can I. Ten. The trail of SAS students looks a mile long as it snakes down the trail. Five feet. The slope decreases. The Earth levels out. 13,040 feet. It’s 8:15am on a Wednesday and I’m standing on top of the world. What have you done today?

We spend a solid hour at the top of the volcano, walking around the rim of the crater and enjoying the view around us. At least ten of Guatemala’s fourteen volcanoes are in sight. The nearest one, Fuego, shoots up plumes of ash and smoke from its mouth every few minutes. Periodically, Fuego spits up lava and chunks of rock the size of Volkswagens, but we didn’t get such a show. Not that I’m complaining. How many people can say that they’ve seen a smoking volcano before? It was great. Oh, and inside the crater, there were a bunch of white rocks that were arranged into a German message. I think it said, “Marry me, ____.” I don’t remember the name. But this gave me what will probably be my last great idea on this voyage. I was just kind of thinking out loud and I said, “Hey, we should rearrange those to say SAS or something.” Well, apparently, people liked the idea. While I was taking pictures of Fuego, people were down in the crater moving rocks. I didn’t even realize they were doing it until it was almost time to leave, so I didn’t even help very much. But we left our mark. SAS ’09 was spelled out in giant letters on the inside of the volcano. While there wasn’t much time to admire it and photograph it properly, I figured it would make a nice surprise for the next group. Another thirty students are doing the same hike today and tomorrow. Hopefully, when they get to the top of the volcano and feel that overwhelming sense of accomplishment, they’ll look over and see our sign. I mean, as long as no one moves it, it’ll be pretty hard to miss. I’m excited.

Anyway. That was up. Down… different story. Down is a completely different animal. Yes, it’s easier. Yes, it’s faster. But it’s more dangerous. Much more dangerous. We started climbing down around the crater, and things were going pretty well. For about ten minutes. Then… we went skiing. There was a slope on the side of the volcano that had loose pebbles on it. Apparently, the best way to make it to the bottom of the slope is by running down in a skiing motion. Your feet slide in and under the pebbles, and you can keep your balance more easily than if you hesitate and try to walk down the fragile terrain slowly. After watching a few of my friends run like kamikazes down the hill, I decided to give it a go. And if it weren’t such a chore to climb, I would’ve hiked up and done it again. Man, that was cool. I got into such a groove going down; it just felt so natural. When I got to the bottom I just slid my feet in sideways and sprayed rocks up on everyone. People just assumed I was a skier since I go to Boulder, but I’ve never skied in my life. Maybe this is a sign or something.

After emptying 947 rocks from my shoes, I made my way back to camp with the others. We stopped for some pancakes, and packed our bags. I made sure to put my camera back into my bag; after this morning, there’s no way I want that thing around my neck when I’m coming down the hills we walked up yesterday. By 10 or 10:30am, we were walking down the path. And then the walking turned into jogging. Jogging to running. With the steepness of these paths, it’s very difficult to take them at a walking pace. You kind of just have to run and let gravity and momentum do the rest. But then, when each hill bottoms out, you have to dig in really hard with you feet to stop yourself from going to fast and tumbling face-first down the slope. It’s a delicate balance. And it’s murder on your legs. All the sprinting and immediate stopping really puts a strain on your toes, ankles, knees, quads, and hamstrings. It’s really tiring now, but I can’t imagine how sore I’m going to be tomorrow.

Around 11:45am, we’re almost to the spot where we ate lunch yesterday. And the second group of SAS students is there right now, eating. I had just cut up my leg sliding in the dirt because I ended up running too fast. I compensated for the speed by sliding in the gravel on my own terms rather than trying to stop and hurting myself some other way. But I’m the first person in our group, and I can see people sitting on the clearing, at the base of this last big hill. So I decide to mess with them. They’ve only done an hour or two of hiking. And it was the easy part. They have no idea what lies ahead of them. I’m tired. I’m sweaty. I’m dirty. I’m burned. So I run down the hill, full tilt. A few people hear me coming, so they look up, see me, and tell their friends. When I get to the base of the hill, most of them are staring at this idiot running towards them, and they start cheering and clapping. They know I’m coming back from the same trip that they’re starting, and they want some feedback. When I finally stop myself, a few feet away from them, they get a good look at my appearance. It’s pretty horrendous. Someone asks me how it was. I look at him, and then just look away into the distance. Then I look around at everyone, fall to my knees, roll over onto my back, and shut my eyes. At this point, a few other people are coming down the hill, but I think my entrance was still pretty decent. We talked for about twenty minutes before our group started heading back down the path again. Another hour later, and Esmeralda was waiting for us once again. I hugged her. What a trip. I thought climbing Table Mountain was an accomplishment, and that was, what, 5,000 feet tall? Oh man. I think it’s a toss up between today and the second day of my Thailand jungle trek for the “dirtiest I’ve ever been in my life” award. And it feels great.

We take the chicken bus back to the touring bus, and hit the road for Antigua. When we arrive, lunch is waiting for us in a nice little local restaurant, where they served us a giant plate of meat. Sausage, steak, and chicken, with black bean soup, potatoes, and tortillas. Oh, and cheesecake with raspberry sauce for dessert. Delicious. We wandered around Antigua for an hour afterwards and then made it back to the bus. Here, I immediately fell into a coma-like napping state, and I didn’t wake until we were back in Puerto Quetzal at the MV Explorer. What a successful trip. Back onboard, I wasted no time before getting into the shower. I got myself clean, and also found every single cut, burn, bruise, and scrape on my body. Funny how hot water makes those things easy to seek out, even when you aren’t looking for them. Ouchies. Dinner on the ship was decent. I sat with fellow hikers who looked as dazed and exhausted as I felt. Others around us were shooting us weird looks, but it’s okay. There’s no way for them to understand. They didn’t just hike two miles upwards to the top of a volcano. Plus, I’m too delirious to make a coherent enough statement to anyone that doesn’t speak hiker. Some people went out to check out Puerto Quetzal tonight, but it was pouring rain with loads of lightning. Not that I had the energy to go anywhere, but the weather gave me a good enough excuse not to. I put on a movie in bed and fell asleep. I think I’ll just take it easy tomorrow. There’s a mountain biking trip in Antigua that I was thinking about joining tomorrow, but my legs will probably be stiff. Plus, there’s no way I’d ever be able to wake up in time to catch the bus in the morning. Right now, I’m just excited for sleep. Goodnight all.

Day 103 (04-30-09)

Wake up. 3:50. Wait a minute. It’s pitch black in my room. I’m incredibly tired. Is it 3:50am or pm? I get up, limp across the room, and open my computer. Ugh. Pm. I slept the day away. I hate it when this happens. Last day in port. Ever. And I missed it. Now, by the time I’m ready to do anything it won’t even be worth leaving the ship. Especially since the port (Puerto Quetzal) has nothing to do within a 30 minute drive. Oh well. I had my Guatemalan adventure. Definitely got my money’s worth from this country.

Speaking of which, I can honestly say that, at least in recent memory, I have never been this exhausted. That hike was ludicrous. My toes hurt. My feet. My calves. Hamstrings. Quads. Shoulders. Neck. Back. Arms. Glutes. And I have a headache to top it off. But would I do it again? I’d leave today if given the choice. The pain was worth the reward. By a long shot.

Barbeque night tonight on the ship. Ribs. Baked Beans. Grilled chicken. I’m pleased. At 8pm, as the tugboats pulled us sideways from the dock, I watched as our last foreign country faded from view. My evening was spent on the top deck with friends watching the lights of Guatemala disappear into the distance. Today’s the last day of April, so we’ve only got five full days left. And on that sixth day… let’s not talk about it.