Clear cloudless day, perfect for a volcano mantrek. But one of the young men didn’t want to postpone his skype date with his girlfriend. By his own admission, they skype 3-4 hours daily and he’ll see her Thursday. Just one person’s opinion, but if anyone needs a mantrek…
Now one of the Madi’s classmates is going on the hike. That’s fortunate. The group was planning to go up without a guide, because other mantreks had done so in the past (add grunting and pounding of the chests). But this guy, who is probably 14, lives in Santiago and has done the hike many times. Technically the men can still say they didn’t have a guide, if that’s important part of the tale. As it stands, they still don’t know when they’ll go, but it needs to be before Thursday when two of them are leaving.
Watched Pirates of the Caribbean, then Cali came home from her sleepover. Interesting that in the current pop culture for kids and teens, pirates and vampires would be at the top of the list. To be followied closely by wizards and really creepy looking super heros. When we look for suitable movies to watch, I’m often cringing at the covers of kids/teen movies. Makes me feel like I’m from a different generation, oh wait, I am.
We didn’t make it to church because the Masters was on. A few sports events will always eclipse everything else. This is one of them.
Mantrek back on. Tomorrow’s the day. Here’s a trick question. If you and your female friend want to go along on the mantrek, what are the chances you will be included. Answer: 0 chance, hence the name mantrek. Try this one. When going on a mantrek and you can only carry one of the following items, which do you select: red wine and other assorted booze in heavy bottles or a tent? Wait, that was too obvious, no credit for that one.
Let’s move on to the next mantrek trivia topic, getting robbed. Paul and I talked about what he should or shouldn’t take, since there may be robbers who roam the paths, mountain pirates, if you will. When we were robbed by the police we gave them 300Q ($40). The consensus of people I’ve polled is that 30Q would be more than enough to purchase our invisible permit. So if police bandits get 30Q it seems about right that a mountain bandit would get about 20Q. Course that might change considering the temperament and weapon the mt bandit is weilding. The police had guns, so the risk was higher, they got more. Volcano bandits may only have a surly attitude. If they come wielding a machete, I’d give them an extra 5Q…but that’s my final offer. I told Paul he had to give up his shoes before the camera. I was kidding. Sorta. Not really. I just hope the bandits aren’t into French red wine, because Paul may just buy them off with my camera. I’m sure the men will have stories to tell, I just hope we have pictures to go with those stories.
In the afternoon there was a knock on the door. Two of the guys in Madi’s school asked if she wanted to go swimming in the lake with them. She decided to go with them.
Madi’s blog: We went down to the lake. They brought a really tall surf board and we went to a private dock. The guys didn’t actually surf on it, they would just goof around on in in the water. I blew up the tube and then we went into the water. Ale sat on Tom’s shoulders and then Tom ran and jumped off the dock. I watched from the white bouys that floated a bit off the dock. They attached the tube to the surfboard with the ankle attachment line. then they would try to jump from the surfboard and dive through the tube. Eventually they were able to do it. That’s pretty impressive if you see how small the tube is and how wavey the lake was. They rocked the white bouys so hard that I fell in to the lake. Then we came back. We had a lot of fun.
We had a quiet evening after that and went to bed. I wondered how the trip in Honduras was going with Kier and my sister. Today they were going from San Pedro Sula up into the mountains in pick-ups.