I got up at 7:00 and took a shower, letting Stan sleep until he felt like waking up. I dressed in the same clothes for the third day and went to eat breakfast. Stan joined me soon after. I had the same as yesterday and enjoyed it thoroughly. We then headed to El Centro to use the internet and witnessed a nice ash eruption from the cone on the top of Fuego.

I taught Stan some of the arcane art of Windows and we did our emails for about an hour. When we returned to the hotel, the dueño, Magnus Fackmar, a young Swedish Guatemalan, was there. We negotiated rooms for two nights for the group and he arranged lodging for us in Guatemala City the final night. He then told us about the other part of his life. He founded an organization that helps young girls escape the grips of the Salvatruchas, a vicious gang in the poorest section of the capital. He is one of the few outsiders allowed to pass through that area unharmed. He had some incredibly sad stories.

Stan and I bid farewell around noon and headed up to CA-1 at Chimaltenango. We stopped to photograph Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango before heading west. We passed by numerous landslides that resulted from Hurricane Stan in October. It was great to be back in the highlands after so many years.

We arrived in Xela after 4:00 and wound through the streets until we found the Hotel Modelo. I don't think the place has changed at all in 30 years. It is still very clean and welcoming. After getting our room, we drove south of town, in the waning light, to find the home of Pedro Pérez, the old Dartmouth guide. We almost witnessed a horrible accident. A pick-up and a dump truck just missed colliding.

It was dark by the time we found Pedro's house. He wasn't home from cutting wood yet. As we waited, we saw two ash eruptions from Santiaguito rise above Santa María volcano. It was the first time I had seen eruptions from two different volcanoes in the same day. Pedro finally arrived and we arranged for him to be our guide on Monday, if needed. He seemed to remember Stan but he and I had never met. He used to climb Santiaguito regularly to collect gas samples for Dick Stoiber. We heard a phone ring as we spoke with him but when we asked for his telephone number, he said he didn't have one. After some discussion, one of his grandsons(?) asked if we wanted the cellular number! It dawned on me that to these people, a telephone is a fixed line and was something they never had or could afford. Gracias to the cellular age, they have been able to leapfrog over that 100-year old technology.

We got back to the hotel and had a good meal served by a pretty Indian woman named Gloria who was remarkably friendly, which is unusual. Although Stan and I have known each other since 1978, we haven't spent too much time together and don't know each other well, yet. We both have hundreds of great field stories to tell from all over the world so we kept each other entertained until 10:30 and then turned in.