I’m starting to repeat myself. Photos and countries keep changing but diet is the same. I’m not talking about just beans and tortillas but about the challenges I’m facing. Mountains, oceans, heat, cold… It’s all becoming one. There are still moments of zen when I’m able to stop and enjoy the surroundings but I feel that my hunger for doing things is changing.

I have this itchy feeling in my chest and it’s not the horrible rash on my chest that is bothering me. Although the rash is pretty god damn painful and it burns like hell. Then again, I can deal with the burning pain but what I can’t deal with is the fact that I’m missing ‘the’ challenge. I do have my surf board and that is physical challenge for life but that’s not what I’m looking for. It took only the worst earthquake UN has ever encountered to realize all this.

I was two mouse clicks away from buying a flight to Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic but then I hesitated for a second and that was enough. After walking back and forth on the porch of my hostel I decided to still continue repeating myself. There is no point on looking back on that decision but still something changed at that moment.

Three hours later I woke up. It was 3 a.m and I took a two day hike. Quetzaltrekkers ( the very same organization that I spent 6 weeks with in Guatemala) also has an office in Nicaragua and I decided to see the local volcanos with them. It was an awesome hike except I got sick. I don’t know what it was but on the second day I was just exhausted and felt like shit.

Still, seeing a long line of volcanos, running down one of them, sleeping on one of them under the stars and finally swimming in one of them was a fun experience.

Overdosing on fun is not that much fun anymore.

It was 11 p.m and everybody had gathered to Quetzaltrekkers (www.quetzaltrekkers.com) office. Delicious chili was waiting for us and after filling our stomachs and backing our bags we jumped on the back of two pick-ups. 20 minutes later we were at the end of the road. Steep climb, 1200 meters of vertical ascent and hundreds of switchbacks was the name of the game.

800mg of ibuprofen kept me going for the first 600 vertical meters with the front of the pack, after that I had to ease out a little bit. After around 2.5-3 hours of climbing we reached the peak. It was around 4 a.m and the sun was nowhere to be seen. Others started getting their sleeping bags out to keep them selves warm. It was around 0 degrees celsius. I took out my camera and tripod. I was a bit bummed since my light tripod would not do the trick on this mountain. It was too windy so I knew many of the photos would be out of focus. Shit! Well that’s what you get when you buy something cheap. Still it was better than nothing so I started taking photos with 4-8 minute exposure. An hour later the last of our crew reached the top. The sun was still down. I decided to head to the other side of the volcano where you can see a smaller extremely active volcano erupt about every 45 minutes.

Just as I had decedent 100 meters down the Santa Maria the small volcano Santiaquito erupted. I quickly set up the tripod and took a 4 minute exposure of the volcano. Before I realized the sulfer gasses where climbing up the side of the Santa Maria where I was taking photos. Within minutes the gasses reached me and I could smell the sulfer. Luckily I was far enough so that the gasses weren’t even close to being dangerous, I think.

Soon the sun started rising from the horizont and I decided to head back to see what where my sleeping bag friends doing. Almost everyone were out of their warm bags and enjoying the incredible view. It was one of those views that no photo will ever do justice. The light was good so I decided to give it a go anyway. The feeling of space and warm sun soon made me forget the cold that had made my fingers frozen fish sticks. There was another group at the top from another travel agency. They had no sleeping bags or warm jackets, which Quetzaltrekkers had provided for us. Soon freezing from the cold weather and sweaty clothes they started racing down the mountain. They had had enough. Too bad since the weather was getting warm really fast.

After some more photos, hot chocolate, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we started our decent. After coming down third of the mountain my left knee started failing me. Biting my lip I eventually got down. Then quick bus ride back to base and some awesome food. It was a perfect day and it was only 1 p.m.

14 hours had passed since we started the night hike and I hadn’t slept at all. I feel really freaky at the moment. Time to check the photos and put it all online.

Tomorrow there is a Michael Jackson in space -party. Friday is for resting and after that hopefully to a lake called Atitlan that is suppose to be one of the most beautiful lakes in Latin America. Unfortunately some bacteria has taken over it and the lake is now pretty much dead because of pollution. 440 million dollars of international money has been received to save it. This country is also facing serious drought and hungre the next year. Let’s see if there is international money for that.

Let the flu(k)e continue, I don’t care. Hasta pronto amigos.