hikes!

So it's only been a few days since i last updated, but they've been pretty amazing, thanks to my current roommates who are much more energetic and in much better shape than me, and thus push me to new heights. :)

On Wednesday we went for a long hike in the mountains, down one side of a "cirque" (a circle of mountains) and up the other...when i say long i mean long by my standards - a couple of hours - which is apparently nothing to a "real" hiker. Also, in British and Australian English, hikes are referred to as "walks" and going hiking is called "doing a walk." I find these terms mildly deceptive, as walking is something i like to do around cities with something calorific in my hands. But yeah. It was BEAUTIFUL and i felt great. We waded through a stream at the top of a waterfall, and saw a cute little red bird, and were presented with many stunning mountain vistas. The "walk" ended in Cilaos, a lovely mountain town where JJ teaches, and where they are right now in the middle of a lentil festival - basically your standard street fair except with half the stalls selling locally grown lentils and local wine.

We had just gotten home from our walk and were all pretty much exhausted and ready to fall into bed when JJ's phone rang and it was Cesar calling to say "pack your things, i'm picking you up and bringing you to my place to spend the night so that tomorrow we can get up at 5 in the morning to go see the volcano." And even though we were all ridiculously tired - we were going to see the volcano!

So at five o'clock the next morning we drove an hour and a half up into the mountains, and then walked for another hour and a half or more across a barren field of lava, above the clouds, climbed up the peak of the volcano and were presented with the view of a tiny new eruption happening right before our eyes. It was pretty amazing. I can't believe the number of things i've done and seen in just the past two weeks. It feels like years since I left Dallas.

I miss you all.

love y'all