Mas Sexi! Mas Sexi!

Well I'm still in Antigua, still in language school (for a few more days at least) and very much enjoying the local culture, and being laughed at as I try to participate. So far I have tried my hand at making some local food, most notably the small round tortillas that are a feature of every lunch here (at least one of mine was round... ish...). I tried my hand at merengue and salsa dancing, finding the latter much easier than the former - our instructor rotating her hips during merengue (whilst chanting "Mas sexi! Mas sexi!) in a way that simply makes the British mind boggle and the North Americans take out their neighbours whilst attempting to copy the moves. All I can say is that people born in Guatemala must have some sort of extra joint somewhere that allows them to do the move now known among language school students as "Mas sexi!".

Last week I learnt about a burger eating, porno moustache wearing sort of symbol for a deity or "saint" who takes offerings of cigars and alcohol - somewhere a cross between Catholic mythology and Mayan ritual. And at the weekend I did the tourist essential trip, somewhere between naive and idiotic, of visiting the lava flows of the VERY active Pacaya volcano (one that last erupted approximately 1 month ago). We took photos of the lava flows blocking tracks and roads, and clambered over the steaming rocks, finding that despite the continuing rain and rumbling thunder (at least we hoped it was thunder!) our clothes were drying from the heat emanating from under us. We found a hole where we could see red glowing rock and toasted marshmallows over it. Until our stick spontaneously caught fire that was. Gotta love the freedom that lack of health and safety rules give you!

A few more days of conjugating verbs and I'll be off to pastures new, but for now? Well I'm enjoying some other Central American traditions of spontaneous power outages when it rains, lack of running water after 10pm and random militia swarming the streets for no apparent reason. Think I might stay home tonight...