Pokhara

Island temple

Somwhere in those clouds is a magnificent mountain range, but the clouds never moved and we never saw the hills

Valley of the Euphemisms

Apparently, the local name for this valley translates into 'Valley of the Erect Penises'. I don't see why they'd call it that. Anyway, it now has the more tourist-brochure-friendly name of 'Valley of the Monks'.

Atitlan at Sunrise

I'm not sure what came over me but one morning I got up with the sun...

A fisherman in one of the boats from the last post

The Light of Lago Atitlan

Lago Atitlan is a beautiful lake in the south of Guatemala. In the mornings, the light is crispy, like this.

In the afternoons, the clouds comes over and the air fills with smoke from old crops being burnt in the surrounding area. The light turns soft and golden.

Volcan Pacaya

Antigua

A pharmacy that sells cigarettes

Another volcano

STOP

Volcano Tumbling

Apart from inhaling sulfurous fumes, people climb Cerro Negro to come back down to sea level in what the tour companies promise to be an EXTREME (!!!) fashion. It's called volcano boarding, and involves strapping your feet to a short, snowboard-like object an then swooshing down the basalt slope of the hill. I tried it, and failed miserably at any kind of stylish descent, instead, I tumbled down most ungracefully, filling my gloves, boots and face with gravel. Angie took a toboggan and made it down in one go, but the fact that all the goggles were scratched beyond anything resembling clarity, and also the fact that it was now dark, made the experience a blind one.

The slope looked just like a regular piste, except in negative

Up

Down ...and repeat

Low-light sliding

Cerro Negro

Cerro Negro is a young volcano. It first appeared in 1850 in the middle of a cornfield, and has since grown to reach around 700 metres. It's active, and you can walk right into the smoking crater where sulfur fumes billow straight from the hot earth.