Starting the New Year with a Bang

Arriving in Pucon on January 1st, I was thinking about New Year´s resolutions. Now, confronting your fears is kind of a vague resolution, but that´s more or less what I´ve settled on; I was originally thinking of skydiving here, since where else can you jump out of a plane over an active volcano, but the price ($300) is something I´m not ready to confront.

So instead I´ll be canyoning today (which as I understand it, means rapelling down waterfalls and generally overcoming your fear of heights and cold water) and climbing a volcano tomorrow. Now as some of you know, the first volcano I climbed in Guatemala left me doing a search and rescue with the American Embassy the next day. This trip should me much more organized and I´m not so worried about that, but apparently a volcano about 60 miles north erupted last night for the first time in 20 years-- causing the locals to be evacuated, and somebody at the BBC´s ears to perk up. Its strange looking at international news on the net, knowing it´s taking place an hour away on the bus (and almost making me wish I´d caved in on that skydiving package which probably would have been the best view on the block).

So keep your fingers crossed that the eruption continues until at least tomorrow around lunch, so that I can see it from my volcano, but that it doesn´t cause any other eruptions in this area. Hopefully, my days of search and rescue are over.