Pacaya blew its top again today and they had to close down the airport. Our weather forecast in Antigua was for “Volcanic Ash”. I think we got a little bit lucky with the winds today because some locations got lots of centimeters of ash on the ground and we just got a heavier snow than normal. But it’s probably a good thing we’re not trying to camp up there tonight. lol.

Our chefs must have noticed that the kids haven’t been eating the amazing food they’ve been making us, because this morning we walked in to see French Toast with fig jelly. They loved the French Toast, but most of them steered clear of the fig jelly. I thought it was great. We also had our usual set of fresh fruit bowls including papaya, pineapple, cantaloupe, and the most amazing mangos I can remember. I may or may not have eaten two bowls of mango and papaya.

At lunch we heard the news about Pacaya shooting ash into the stratosphere and the airport being closed. In a way it could be good news, since we’re already in a holding pattern. Releasing a lot of pressure now may give us the best chance that it will calm down before our Guatemalan adventure concludes. Camping on Pacaya the last week here would be a great way to wrap things up. It’s sort of crazy how fast this trip is slipping away. We’re already 1/4 of the way through it.

Lunch was a really nice chicken soup. It’s probably the first thing we’ve had that wasn’t amazing. It was great, but it seemed more normal than most of the things we’ve seen them make. They also had a bunch of tortillas and guacamole. They put some mint in the guacamole and the kids loved it. They burned through the entire stack of tortillas and the whole bowl of guacamole. The minty guacamole was interesting, but it wasn’t my favorite.