..being in the flow..

wow.. that was quite an experience :D

..to finish Lago Atitlan.. I met quite a lot of really awesome people!! :) ..had good games of chess and let my enemies tremble in fear ;) was on a funny horseback ride (taking every chance to make the horse running! :D ..missed then finally that long awaited BBQ (being starved to death, because of saving the "hunger" and arriving too late because of bad advices :P) but all in all, it was a really cool experience at Lago Atitlan (even if a lot of drinking and partying and having fun! :D haha ;) a place you have to go, if you're in Guatemala!
I spent the last night at some Swiss peoples place and we had a wonderful night, laughing a lot and even paying "Maria" a visit (only Lago Atitlan people may get that ;). Was adventurous!!
I finished one of my necklaces and I'm wearing it now.. holds part of the necklace that the indian man gave to Liz and me, when we were in Oregon.
wanted to climb the volcano San Pedro, but didn't happen then in the end.. I changed my plan various times because of people that crossed my way, but ended up finally on the mine (what's surely the best ;)

my next goal was the active volcano Paquaia. On the way ("on the fly" ;) I found even some new tires for my bike.. wasn't too hard and was done in a few hours. Asked A along the way, that sent me to B, telling me, if somebody has them, then C and C told me, he just sold his last one seven days ago, but D and E could have.. and yes.. D had one and E and one and D could even put them on :) ..was 150USD all in all (2 dollars for changing a tyre and 1.5USD to clean and lube the chain.. luckily they've seen that the chainlock is missing and I got a new one :) *phew*
here I didn't get a lot of choice for tyres, but anyway.. I think the ones I have will do ;) hehe :)
got even some fancy dragon stickers on the sides and on my helmet.. Dragonrider rulez!! Weehaa! :D

I still got some reduced breaking capacity on the rear brake.. will check closer tomorrow. might be, because tyres new and have to be driven for a while.. otherwise I'm happy to have some more profile, I used it A LOT in the last 3 days here in Guatemala :) not all the roads are paved here ;) haha :)
so I got a bit off the way and ended up in Santa Maria, Volcano de Agua (instead of Paquaia) and took a dusty dirtroad to San Vincente.. got there late, but got a nice room for cheap with hot shower and TV and prepared my things for the next day. Got up early, eating breakfast, buying food for the day and night and starting to walk. For my backpack was quite heavy I turned around after 300m and got the bike :P could drive up almost to the top.. the guides and guards were super easy :) no problem to get up and camp ANYWHERE you want! :D (I was afraid, they wouldn't let me). Well, about 5 years ago, they had some problems, so now they have guards there (with pump-guns ;) and the place is quiet.. so I had a good timing, as it seems :)
left my stuff at the center cone, where there were some antennas and small houses with measuring devices and went for a walk with water and food. The guy who was in charge there helped me to get to the hot part of the closer side of the volcano and showed me the natural hot ovens.. we talked there for a while about god and the world and I drunk my two beers and started and awesome daytrip! :D
you'll have to see pictures from the scene!! (saves me the description ;) hehe :) there are green hills around (actually the tops of some mountains) and you see far over the country.. beautiful hike!! almost no people! :) (I think the tourists come from the other side ;) and I walked all the way around the volcano to a hot flowing lava stream!! (dude, that's the shit! :D
in the evening I had a wonderful sunset over a sea of clouds and pitched my tent a bit further down. Had to recover from the day, so the night was pretty chill (and chilly, on that mountain ;)
haven't seen a sky like that! it was changing all the time, all kind of clouds (still a sunny day) and sitting on the crest, you could see the clouds passing by from one side to the other.. was just INCREDIBLE!! :D

this morning I got up with sunrise, packed my things, placed the food I had left at my friends place and drove down to the hotel, where I left most of my belongings. Had an hour to get all set and drove then to Guatemala city (trying to drive around) and getting stuck for a while, asking dozens of people for the way to get out of it ;) finally got on that road to Granada and further up to Coban.. the last 3 days gave me quite some skills :D ..today wouldn't have had to put it back on the road, if I wouldn't have hit accidentally "neutral" by trying to start driving :P then the bike stops and you fall.. :-/ but on the road, I was safe.. (better be with that steep boarders!) but with a skillfull trayectory, you get a stunning view of the volcanic landscape and mountains of Guatemala! (this country is a bikers paradise!! :D
climbing the volcano with my bike and also todays road were quite challenging.. can't go very fast, but still faster than buses and cars :) (they are sometimes really slow because of less efficent suspension). and produce a lot of dust!!! I got a black face of all that dust and diesel particles.. I wonder if there's a single car that would pass our standards for minimal-environment-pollution.. :-/

I'm having a slight headache and will take some Vitamine C and having a good rest. Last time this prevented falling sick, so I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow :)

P.S. added after editing: I actually was fine this morning, only still having these nasty bugbites (probably bedbugs from Lago Atitlan? :-/ well, put a lot of bandaids all over my body to not scratch them further up.. will see what more I can do, hope they are gone within 2-3 days.. really nasty and so damn itchy!! :(