Drowning Day

We left Antigua on Wednesday which was a holiday, and it feels as though it has not stopped raining since then. We signed out of our homestay at 10am and the first shuttle wasnt until 1 so we sat in the park for 2 hours in ponchos waiting for our shuttle to panahajel, Lago Atitlan. Once we got to Pana, it started pouring on our walk to the ferry. By the time we found the ferry we had to wait another hour for a boat however, the walk to the boat we finally caught was through a raging rapid of raing water in which I completely soaked my sneakers. The hour ride across the Lake to San Pedro, where we are staying was terribly soppy and wet. By the time we made it across, my clothes were all soaked as well.

We hung up all our wet clothes before we went to bed and awoke to find nothing had dried and it still raining. This sucks however we were forewarned that this is the rainy season here. Now I like rain....however I completely DISLIKE water in other forms when it involves damage to things that do not belong in water. Like my camera. One morning we got up and packed up our important stuff for the day...money, water, camera, passport, etc. I sling my bag on and a few seconds later yell bc my back is all wet. Apparently the lid was not all the way on my water bottle and it drowned the contents of my bag...camera included. NOT happy. Esp bc a few months before I left I just paid 100 bucks to get the thing fixed after I dropped it. Now post drowning I immediately bought a bag of rice and have had the camera in there for 2 days but so far no luck. So, in conclusion I have officially broken my first camera on this trip.

So onto further water related dilemmas. If you know me at all you know I get blisters like a son of a bitch so doing anything in wet sneakers is just entirely inappropriate on every level. Having drowned my sneakers the day before and having made plans to hike a volcano, you begin to see my problem. So yesterday we went, sopping sneakers in hand, in search of a place with a dryer that would let me pay to use it. No luck. They all took one look at my sneakers, the 2 places that actually used machines and not just the sun, laughed and then said no. Maybe they would break the dryer, I dunno. Well I ended up giving in, buying some baby powder and filling my shoes with that and newspaper to suck up the moisture. Luckily it was a success and I had almost dry sneakers for today....

Onto the volcano story. This was the 2nd one I hiked. I hiked Vocan Villarica in Chile a couple years ago and hated every moment of that one too. Seriously it is like the most physically demanding thing you can put your body through. I do not know why people enjoy it. Ok thats a lie, I do. You get to see some of the most beautiful scenery in all the world and it is so fulfilling to know you got yourself there on your own two legs. So after 4 hours we made it to the top and it took us about 2 hours to walk down. Our guide was laughing at us the whole way bc we were so slow. Thank god there were no other people in our group! Unfortunately bc it is so cloudy here, we had an amazing view until we got up above the clouds and then we saw nothing..but clouds. Bummer. Its pretty absurd that this is the second time that has happened (we met the same fate in Chile). How many volcanoes do I need to climb to get a clear view!

So in the end, today was fun...and horrible. Next on my list is buying a new camera so I can show all you wonderful people at home the world. Until then...