Had to take a break from song lyric blog titles to accommodate this one, courtesy of Julia!
But yep. Volcano schmolcano that's what I say to the sandy bits of ash that, with the rain, fell from the sky last night when Sofi and her friend Astrid picked me up from La Aurora airport in Guatemala City.
Directly from the airport, we drove to pick up more friends on the way to Sofi's house, as black bits of debris accumulated on the windshield and on the road such that you could no longer see the double yellow lines at all!
When we arrived Sofi's I was greeted by her lovely family- all 7 of her siblings (Diego, Daniel, Cris, Ceci, Irene, Mariana, and Nico) and her parents! We had a great night with Sofi's friends and sisters talking, scaring each other in the dark, and playing tea-pong :)
This morning, we woke up to a coating of black sandy ash over everything. Schools were closed and everyone was trying to clean up the mess that had been carried from Volcan Pacaya.
After breakfast, Sofi and two of her friends took me to a mercado and then to a barista for chai tea lattes. We finished our afternoon by watching Backup Plan and playing Left Right Center and Guess Who with Nico and Mariana- a perfect way to spend a rainy day! It was so great to be able to spend time with Sofi, meet her family and friends, and to know that I have such good friends around me event though I am not home :) Thanks again, Ibarra family and I’m looking forward to seeing more of you over the summer!
Around 6pm Sofi took me to the Eco Hotel Los Proceres to meet my group. When I met Erika, the program assistant, she updated me on the fact that only 6 of us had arrived in Guatemala- I had been one of the last flights last night before they completely closed the airport. Gracias a dios I was able to get in! The airport is still closed and no flights are coming in or going out, so we don’t know when the other 34 people will be arriving. Tomorrow, if the circumstances permit, we will be traveling to Panajachel where we will spend the night before going to our host families the next day. Things are still up in the air though, because although the volcano isn’t affecting the area to where we are traveling, there is a lot of rain and they are worried about mudslides.
