No lava con lava!

I just washed all of the little lava rocks off my feet.  What an incredible day!  Andrew and I took one of the tourist trips up to the Volcan Pacaya and it was amazing.  I have never been that close to an active volcano and it was simply awesome.
We paid 10 USD to get a ride up to the volcano and then another 5 to get into the park.  We went through the usual tourist sketchyness of picking up people all over Antiqua and not really sure if it was really going to happen.  But when we finally got to the park we were invited into the store (which of course was someone's home) to use the bathroom.  The trick was to avoid stepping on the baby chicks and children selling you walking sticks.  Once we managed to do that our group was introduced to Irvin a 30ish guide who was the shit!  He lead us up the volcano and told us about the local plants.  We tasted this plant stem that was like a lime that was good for digestion, and another one called cheese leaf that locals wraped cheese in to keep it fresh (it was also noted that its good to wipe your bum with).  We saw the tree thats called egg yoke, because the inside is as yellow as an egg yoke.  Another tree that smells like skunk, a flower that smells like jasmine and some lovely bay leaves!  I really enjoyed how much Irvin liked his job.  You could tell that even though this guy climbs the volcano at least once a day every day, he still enjoyed showing off his community and knowledge of the environment.  The other mentionable people in our group were a couple guys from Argentina/Mexico.  They were really funny chefs who shared incredible cheeses once we reached the magma!  Pedro had brought a French brie, swiss and some gorganzola.  Not to mention smoked salmon.  He told us to always travel with a chef.
Irvin lead us to the top of the lava flow where the "sand" had settled.  He asked us if we liked to ski, and of course I said yes.  We jumped our way down the safe cold old lava and it was so fun.  Yes, dangerous, but no more than anything else in life.  See the photos of us jumping down the hill.  From the top we could see the other volcano, Agua, which is not active.
We spent about an hour hanging out by the active flow while some folks roasted marshmellows, and the handful of dogs begged for food.  I was impressed when Pedro rescued a plastic marshmellow bag that was about to be melted by the lava.  We took a lot of photos which are posted on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisa22/
They speak a lot louder than anything I can write.
I am always moved by nature and how the environment is ever changing.  I continue to think that people have to change their ways because we are no longer in the flow.  Seeing the lava and how litterally the earth is continuing to be shaped was very real.  The volcano is very much the real burn.
I am facinated by this community that is living next to the volcano.  They seemed to be doing well because of the tourists.  And the people are happy, at least outwardly.  There has been a community living next to the volcano for thousands of years and it interests me how their lifestyles change along with society, culture and more importantly the ever changing earth.
Tomorrow we're off to San Lorenzo with Carolina to finally get down to some work!