What I Did With My Summer Vacation

For anyone who did not know, I just got back from a week plus trip to Guatemala. I have a friend who is in the Peace Corps down there and thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to visit her and to get a chance to see a part of the country that I would not be able to see if I went down there on my own with just a Lonely Planet as a guide.

We spent our first day in Guatemala City, hanging out and waiting for another friend of Audrey's to get fly in. We went to the Natural History museum where we learned about volcanoes, native birds, and native trees. We then went to the grocery store, which, believe it or not, is owned by Walmart. Anyone who thought you could escape them was wrong.

The next morning we hopped onto a chicken bus to visit Antigua for a few hours. Antigua (see pic above and many more to be posted throughout this note) is a beautiful city. It is a bit overrun by tourists, but that does not make it any less beautiful. The buildings are old, many of them left around since the time when the Spanish were in charge. Many of these buildings are now crumbling, but many are still in great shape. The city is bright and colorful and full of life.

After checking out Antigua, we caught a few more chicken buses and headed to San Vicente where we were meeting another Peace Corps volunteer who would take us up to Volcán Pacaya. While on the bus still, Audrey mentioned that we should prepare ourselves to be attacked by children with sticks. While this sounds violent, she wasn't kidding. As soon as we got to the trailhead we were surrounded by children looking to "rent" us sticks for our hike. It was an interesting scene. On one hand we wanted to help the kids earn a little extra money, but on the other hand we did not want to support them as they should have been in school, not hanging around waiting for tourists.

We hit the path at a decent hour, there were still a few tour groups, but we were toward the tail end. That would give us a chance to set up our tents and let the last group of tourists clear out before we went down to see the lava. I struggled getting up the mountain as it had been a little while since I had done a challenging climb, but it was well worth it. The views from the top were phenomenal even if clouds were beginning to come in and cover up the peaks of some of the mountains.

Once we got to the top we set up camp and gathered up some food to take down to the lava to cook up for dinner. They all had sausage and I got a bag of beans. Sometimes being a vegetarian seems like getting the short end of the stick.

To get to the lava you have to run down this fairly steep slope of little tiny loosely packed pieces of petrified lava. I, being the coordinated one in the group, was the only one that did more falling than running. Once again, it was well worth it. We walked across some larger pieces of petrified lava and made our way to where the lava was flowing. It was quite an impressive site. We made it right as the last tour group was finishing up, so pretty much perfect timing. As soon as they cleared out, we started making our dinner. Audrey was in charge of cooking the sausage, and all accounts pointed to her doing a fantastic job. You cannot tell from this picture, but being that close to the lava was HOT. And if you poke it, flames kind of shoot out. Not so much shoot but show up. We all got in for our photo op, and then backed as far away as we could because it was so warm. We ran out of rocks to stand on close to the lava, so I am a bit away from the rest in the picture.

After dinner we had to climb back up the loosely packed little rocks which was quite a challenge. By the time we got to the top we were all beat and headed right for bed. It was a good thing we did as shortly after we zipped up our tents it started to rain. This rain is NOT like the rain in the Pacific Northwest. This is rainy season in a tropical climate rain. This is what makes the landscape green in a country that is HOT for nine months out of the year.

When we woke the next morning all of the clouds had lifted and we stepped out of our tents into an amazing scene. It is not often that you can wake up and feel like you are in one of the most beautiful places on earth, but we got our chance. Mara commented that it looked like we were in an REI ad. She even took some great product placement pictures. We're hoping we can get them to give us so free stuff. Like a tent.

We packed up quickly and headed back down the mountain. At about 7:30 we caught our first chicken bus of the day and headed back into San Vicente. After six very memorable buses we finally reached San Carlos Sija, Audrey's site. The bus ride took us nearly seven hours even though the drivers were driving with a lead foot. Let me tell you a little bit about chicken buses. These are old school buses from the states that find a new home in Guatemala. They get a new paint job, and new engine (that can go well over 55 mph), and a new name.

The drivers of these buses seem to be fearless. This is their livelihood though, so they have a vested interest in keeping the bus safe, regardless of how dangerous it may seem to those riding. Since the speed limit is not exactly enforced, the buses spent a lot of time passing cars, trucks, and other buses. One driver passed traffic going both directions while on the left shoulder of the highway. Keep in mind that cars drive on the same side of the road in Guatemala that they do in the states. This same driver also passed a truck down the center of the lanes going both directions. But like I said, the drivers do not have another source of income outside of these buses, so they need to keep them out of accidents and therefore a probably some of the safest drivers on the road.

Once in Sija, Mara and I got ahold of Audrey's buckets and went about getting ourselves clean. Bathing becomes much more difficult when you do not have a shower and have to clean yourself off by dumping water on your head. We also made the mistake of not heating the water up, and after sitting in the Pila all day, that water was COLD! I don't have any pictures of this as they would not be appropriate for the blog, but just take my word for it that it was an interesting experience. After we had cleaned an napped we went to a comidor for dinner. The food was good and the coffee, though most likely instant and probably not even Guatemalan was pretty darn good too. We hit the sheets early in anticipation of a busy day of tree planting the next day.

On Tuesday we hopped into a truck and headed up the mountain (large hill?) to plant some trees. The trees in the area had been wiped out by a pest, most likely the pine beetle, so we were going to plant something that the pine beetle would not like. As part of their project they will be planting several thousand trees. We made a small dent in that and planted 100. Not too bad for four hours of work.

We then headed back down the mountain to go to the market to get food for dinner. Audrey made an amazing mango salsa and Mara cooked up some good veggies while I was trying to clean all the dirt from the day off. It was a delicious meal, even though it was the beginning of the end for me.

Wednesday we headed out bright and early to go on a field trip with folks from the Muni that Audrey works with. They were checking out another eco-tourism site in hopes of getting ideas that they could use in creating their site. The site was pretty and laid out really well. Unfortunately, I was having a bit of a reaction to the food/water and was miserable. By the time we got home the only thing I wanted to do was sleep, which I promptly got to do.

Thursday Audrey and Mara went to work on the trail that is the other project that Audrey is working on. I stayed in, in hopes of recovering from whatever it was I had gotten ahold of. When they got back from the trail, we packed up our stuff and headed for Quetzaltenango (Xela - pronounced Chala with a hard "a" in the first syllable). Xela was a really pretty city. Apparently it is popular for hot springs, but we did not go and check those out. Maybe next time? We explored the city a bit, had a great dinner, and then I went back to the hostel to gear up for the road trip to the lake the next day. Audrey and Mara went out and did some serious partying. Not too serious though as they made it back at a decent hour and were chipper the next morning.

When we got up Friday morning, we headed for the lake with two touristy pit-stops along the way. First we went to check out the zip line and then to a coffee farm near Santa Clara. I skipped the zip line as it had a bit of a hike attached to it, but Mara and Audrey seemed to have a good time zipping through over the lake. I am a bit sad that I missed out, but that's ok. Maybe next time when I do not get sick.

The coffee farm is what really excited me. I spend all this time accounting for coffee, I want to know where it comes from. Unfortunately it was not coffee season, so we did not get to see the full process, but we got to see quite a bit. It was amazing to see all of the trees, and to think about all of the work that must go into getting the coffee that makes up the latte that you buy every morning. Anyway, we checked out some coffee trees, and drank some of the coffee. Well worth it in my opinion.

After the coffee tour, we left Santa Clara for San Marcos where we would be spending the night. San Marcos is a town on the lake that is overrun with tourists. It has become the place to be for the yoga people. It is a BEAUTIFUL spot though. I imagine it would be a great place to come and practice yoga for a week or two or more. We checked out the sunset on the lake that night, got some curry at a restaurant owned by some British dude, and then headed back to our hostel.

On Saturday the plan was to head accross the lake to Panajachel, which we did, and to spend the day, and the night in that town, which we did not. Panajachel is the lakeside town where Guatemalans do their vacationing. It was a busy little town that had a pretty active market. Unfortunately, it did not seem to have any hostels and therefore no cheap places for us to stay. After checking out the town for a bit, we hopped back on the boat and headed for Santa Cruz where there was a hostel at which we could stay. The best part about this hostel is that on Saturday nights, they do a big barbecue. Even better news for me was that most of the food that they made was veggie. I was in heaven. We had a big day planned for Sunday, so we hit the sack early in order to be awake and ready to go pretty early.

Sunday was our last full day in Guatemala. We left Santa Cruz fairly early and took a boat back to Panajachel to catch a bus to Antigua. Mara and I needed to do some shopping and pick up some souvenirs before we headed back to the states. Again, Antigua was beautiful, and the market was full of life. All that bartering looked like hard work, though thankfully I had Audrey and Mara to do my haggling for me. I don't think I would have had the spine for it! After spending some time in Antigua, we headed back to Guatemala City so that Mara could get some rest before her early flight on Monday morning.

On Monday Audrey and I chowed down on some breakfast at the hostel and then I headed out for the airport, and she started to make her way back home. All in all it was a great trip and I cannot believe how much I was able to see in such a short amount of time!