On Monday we didn’t get up to much, unfortunately Moctezuma’s revenge caught up with me and I suddenly wasn’t feeling up to much adventure or travelling far from a working toilet. I decided to try and starve it out which worked quite well at the time but ended up not so good in the long run.
In the evening but we ended up going out to a brewery with a rooftop bar and then onto a kind of square of bars where each bar specialised in a certain type of alcohol. I wasn’t planing on drinking but it was ladies night and I got 3 free drinks, it would have been rude to waste an opportunity like that, after the free drinks the price for ladies drinks were 5Q (50p). You can guess how well that ended, especially as it was done on an empty stomach. I ended up getting to sleep about 2 am and was up at 5:30 am for a volcano hike up Pacaya.
The hike up the volcano was 2 and a bit hours, it was an uphill struggle, especially hung over and having not eaten in about 20 hours! So near the end I gave up and got a horse and spent the last part of the ride up trying not to throw up and also debating if making a horse carry my fat arse up a bloody steep hike counted as animal abuse. It was a really cool ride though and I got to chat to the back up guide in my broken Spanish about the volcano and the plants on it. She told me how it had erupted 4 weeks ago with a small river of lava which had solidified but was still warm and she also showed me these really cold leaves that were dripping with water, apparently people on the mountains use them to drink from when it’s dry and to store cheese for weeks at a time as they keep it moist.
Luckily for my horse we reached the top quite quickly after that, and I would like to say the view was worth climbing hung over for, but unfortunately it was thick fog at the top! We did roast some marshmallows though after a steep decline down to the lava through this sand like ash, which actually resulted in near death experiences for a few people in the group! Getting back up from the lava was even more of a struggle and I emerged covered in ash. The way down was much more fun although more of a work out of the leg muscles holding us up from rolling down the steep path.
We got back and had a nap before heading out to the local party hostel where me and Grace discovered a hidden talent for beer pong, although we still got a last minute defeat, it was good fun there although we did feel like extras in an American frat movie.
The next morning we dragged everyone we knew in the hostel to watch the England game and covered them in red crosses made of lip liner. Which led to a funny sight for the locals when 19 minutes into the match we made a mad dash running 3 blocks to another bar after the TV signal dropped in the one we were in.
It’s still to soon to discuss the match, but afterwards we spent a while consoling lots of drunk English lads. We headed to someone we’d met’s hostel and got lots of free shots and abuse about it not coming home. We were given the chance to reclaim glory in many drinking games, beer pong, killer pool and donkey ping pong. All of which we lost, by bigger and bigger margins the more we drank.
We moved onto another hostel bar, this one had a roulette wheel on the wall where you could win free beers, shots and other cool stuff or have to jump naked into the pool, do chilli shots or body shots on the bar etc. It was good fun and the whole bar was joining in, we won some free drinks and also had to do some of the forfeits which I won’t disclose (Hi Mum). After 6 hours drinking we headed home and were asleep by 10 pm.
Just writing this on the shuttle to Lake Atitlan out last stop in Guatemala before we head back into Mexico. Hopefully it will be a lovely place to spend my birthday tomorrow!
Keep you updated.
Lots of love,
Alice x