Laguna Chicabal

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On Saturday my family, well Patrick and Francisco took me to Alguna Chicabal. About 10 miles from Xela, the lake is in the centre of a dormant volcano, surrounded by lush highland forest. It's also the home of the Quetzal - the national bird. It's very rare. We got up at 5am, Pablo my Guatemalan brother decided not to take us in the pickup truck as promised the previous day so it was another trip on the chicken bus.

After leaping off the chicken bus in the middle of nowhere we had a 3hr hike to the summit. We set off, I kept having to wait for my companions. Francisco complained that I was "muy rapido" - fortunately a pickup truck passed, Francisco hailed it and we jumped on. There were three small boys in the back with machetes and a couple of spade things, I didn't really want to slip and fall on those. Halfway up we had arrived at our destination, meaning we had to get off. Francisco and the driver argued for a few minutes about the price and we jumped back on again. Our arrival at the summit was followed by more arguing about the price. The view from the top of the volcano was impressive. In one direction was the lake, clear and pristine, to the other views over a lush forested valley to another couple of volcanoes, the early morning mist lingered around the volcanoes.

From the view point about 400 steps led down to the waters edge. The lake was cool and calm. Patrick and I spent some time skipping rocks on the calm surface of the lake, and wondered why the rocks floated. We walked around the lake, a trip of around a mile, much forest and keeping our eyes open for the Quetzal. I took hundreds of photos. Then whilst waiting for the return of the pickup I slept on the beach.

Walking up the 400 steps was much harder work than going down. Looking back down at the lake the mist had started to roll in, in the space of two minutes the entire lake and the volcanoes were obscured by cloud, it wasn't even 10.30 in the morning. Which is why we had left Xela so early. Francisco decided to run down the mountain rather than wait for the pickup. Running down the volcano was much easier than walking up it. We jumped on the pickup again at some point and rode it back to the bus stop.

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Comments

[anonymous]

wrong name
isn't called alguna is the laguna de chicabal what mean chicabal's lake