My first hike!

“Oh dear Lord” and “Ya Allah” is all i was saying on this hike...We got up at 5 to go up this volcano called Santa Maria – the 4^th hardest climb here in Xela but super cool cos u can see the Pacific, Mexico and the other volcanoes too. It’s 4hrs up and 3hrs down...Luckily Allah was looking out for me cos it was so misty and cloudy that had we hiked all the way to the top we wouldn’t have seen anything anyway. Soooo we decided to do a smaller hike (6.5miles only) at a place called Chicabal. Piece of cake, NOT!!! 

It was just me, Jessica and our tour guide Franklin.  He’s a gynecologist who does tour guiding on the side (weird i know...) but he knows a ton about alot of random things which was super cool.  I just wish i could remember anything he said tho...i’m just too exhausted and in agony!!  I was like the fatty at band camp who ate all the chocolate, was crap at all games and that no one wanted in their team!J They were v nice about it though and even gave me an excuse: i’m not used to the altitude in Xela yet (it’s 2335m above sea level) so that gets me out of breath apparently.  Dunno what my excuse will be next time but i’ll play along for now.  Separate from this, i’m thinking that i should sue my gym for my lack of fitness.  I mean seriously, i have spent so much money and time there –now is my time to shine and what do i do?? I failed!!!J

 CONTINUED...I struggled so so much going up - we must’ve stopped about 50 times

There were some interesting moments in this trip:  Franklin offered to take us to hospital with him to watch him deliver a baby so i’m super excited about that, he’s gonna tell me what my Mayan name is (apparently it depends on my bday) and last but not least I rode a chicken bus! 

“What is a chicken bus?” I hear you ask.  Well, a chicken bus is basically public transportation but it’s kind of like that game we used to play in England of “how many people can we stuff into a telephone box” except that it’s how many people can we stuff in a bus.  On the ride to Chicabal we actually got seats – the only problem was when trying to get off the bus, Jessica’s trousers got stuck on the seat and the bus drove off so she just sort of did a James bond trick and leapt out with her pants still intact.  On the way back home,  though, is when i got the giggles so so bad cos all the seats were taken – with 5 people per seat and the aisle completely stuffed with people and unfortunately we were one of the folks standing up. I was SO squashed up against the back of a young guy that i’m pretty sure he could feel my pelvic bone and i could feel his kidneys. I mean you could not even slide a piece of paper between us!  As for the little kid behind me, he used my ass as a pillow for his mid-afternoon nap.  No matter how i tried to move, it just didn’t work.  I was fine with the 3 year old using me as a cushion but not so fine with the dude in front of me.  He was so uncomfortable too which made me laugh all the moreJ All i can say is that i’m glad I was behind him instead of him behind me!!!:-) There was a fatty sitting very comfortably peeling her grapefruit, having an afternoon snack and all i could think of was “yup senora, hurry, eat up. If you were skinnier then maybe i wouldn’t be feeling this guy’s internal organs ”

I say we vote for buses that run every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes and nobody needs to be violated – problem solved!  Ok more laters - adios folks!!