La Soufriére

Sunday morning, after only 2 hours of sleep the night before, a breakfast of a banana and piece of trident gum, and wearing someone else's shoes (a size too small), I hiked the volcano of Guadeloupe, La Soufriére. Hiking a volcano is (now was) an activity on my tada list (list of things to do before I die). However, it was extremely different than I expected. I figured hiking a volcano would be more like a steady incline, in dry air, with smoke and tiny lava explositions in the distance, ha. The air was thick, thick and wet, thick and wet and sulfery; and long, and far from a steady incline. It's a volcano in a jungle, I probably should have been a bit more mentally prepared. But it was worth it, not for the views at the top though, at the summit you could barely see anything, because it's in the clouds, and the wind was blowing about 100 km/h. It was hard to keep your balance, which is pretty important when you realize you are at the top of a volcano with no barriers between you and the 1400m below. There were some amazing views on the way up, they came and went as we hiked through the clouds.

Path

View of the city and sea below

Almost to the summit, I felt like I was climbing Mordor from The Lord of the Rings.

Path

Part of the volcano

The summit

This sign, before you begin the ascent, says something along the lines of "toxic gases and in dangerous concentration for your health and security". The smell of sulfur was very strong, even that night I could taste it when I brushed my teeth.

The day before the hike, I was at a beach in Deshaies, a city on Basse Terre, it was amazing, my favorite beach so far. The waves right at the shore were crazy. One second you could stand with the water at your waist, the next you couldn't touch the bottom.  I didn't have my bodyboard, so instead, the British taught me how to bodysurf, so cool. 

The beach itself was beautiful. The sand is half black half brown, it's the dividing line between the black sand beaches from the volcano in Basse Terre and the white sand beaches from the coral in Grande Terre.

The beach, it's also beautiful because it's so close to the sauvage 

Grande Anse

Today I started the English excursions. I spent the day doing activities with guadeloupean kids, one of them taught me how to do Kurudo, a traditional dance here. 

The kids playing football