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the church and central square in the town of Nebaj, on our way out. So after climbing Tajumulco I decided to stick around Xela and do another trip with QuetzalTrekkers. Because they are awesome and because i wanted to walk more. in the mountains. So, we took a 6 day trek through very remote mountains, between the towns of Nebaj and Todos Santos. Day 1 and 6 were pretty much bus rides, so the actual trek lasted 4 days. amazing.
The first day of walking. We left Nebaj and the hostel we stayed at there, called Popi's... owned by this crazy passionate interesting North American expat who has been down in Central America for decades and has fought in the civil wars of El Salvador and Guatemala... he uses the profits from his hostel/restaurant to run a special education school in town. It is definately the only special education school in the area and was the first time I've even heard the words 'special education' uttered since ive been down here. pretty cool. He is also an amazing chef and he loaded us up with pasta and salad and apple pie(!?!!) before our first day of hiking. So we hiked up up up and out of Nebaj over the wet-got-rained-on-last-night dirt roads. up and
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the special education school and garden owned and run by Don, the guy whose hostel we stayed at in Nebaj- profits of which go to support the school up, super green and beautiful hills and past the Ixil-speaking natives to this area who were walking, mostly carrying loads of things.. firewood, etc... We passed a few small towns on the first day of hiking, and learned a little bit about the history of this area, called the Ixil triangle, from the Civil war. Horrible horrible stories. The military enacted an operation called 'Silence on the Mountain' in which indigenous civilians up in the mountains were targeted for being 'rebel supporters.' People were scared to leave their houses at night to use the bathroom, for fear of being murdered or 'disappeared.' As in most of the conflicts in Latin America, the good ol US played a role in the military coups and training of murder machine armed forces. So, we hiked down and through these towns and some people glared at us with an obvious and completely understandable distrust of foreigners, while others smiled and wished us a happy journey. Women kneeling, weaving with beautiful colors. people working in fields. .... That first night we stayed in the community center in the town of Xexocon, and we arrived there, thankfully, under aluminum roof, just as the skies opened up
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hiking out of Nebaj and started dumping. made hot drinks on the camping stove and talked to a group of boys who had gathered round, curious. it was fun to try to get them to actually speak a few words in between thier fits of giggles. They tought me how to say please and thank you in Ixil. but ive since forgotten. That night we went up the hill to a family's house to use thier temescal (mayan-style steam sauna...amazing to get clean and warm) and to have dinner with them. Bowls of beans and eggs and rice with hot tortillas and chili and salt and hot atol to drink. We spoke and I asked them how to say "linda" (pretty) to describe thier beautiful little 4 year old daugter and that one I remeber... "pura utz" ---beautiful in Ixil. Somehow, hilariously, the conversation turned to me, and how strange it is that I am 29 and unmarried, travelling alone and how maybe i could find a husband while i am here, in the highlands, hiking from Nebaj to Todos Santos. yeah, maybe. ha ha.
The second day of hiking. We woke up at 3:45 and were packed and hiking by 4:15, up
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first stop along the way up up and out of town past barking dogs, our flashlights lighting the way through cold wet steep forested slopes. Up and up and steeply up, switchbacks all the way for almost two hours until we got to our viewpoint, 3/4 of the way up the mountain, where we stopped and made breakfast and hot drinks and watched it turn into morning. beautiful. Then it was up and up the rest of the way until we reached THE ALTIPLANO. We spent the majority of that day traversing the altiplano, and it was one of the most beautiful places i have ever been in my life. Altiplano. High Plains. High high up, cool and foggy, rocky, green, dry, scrubby magical place. We passed through many little villages that day, where people seemed busy with the care of animals and they gathering of firewood. Passed by a couple of soccer games and one town was having a fiesta and you could hear the music from the fiesta lilting over the hills from kilometers away and we were invited by one guy to come to the party and drink some whiskey... and im sure i couldv'e found my husband at that party if
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looking down at Xexocop i'd wanted to, but... hmm. As we started descending from the altiplano, the sky turned darker and darker and the thunder got louder and louder and soon we were walking in a total downpour and the trails turned into muddy waterfalls, rushing rushing rushing and completey muddy and slippery. We had to laugh. Waiting for our compadres to catch up, me and Moishe stood unerneath and overhanging bush, getting poured on, and he tried to teach me songs in hebrew. ha ha. Eventually, soaking and muddy, we reached our accomodations for that night... a little shed like structure next to a school, strange and littered with random objects and obviously inhabited by rodents but it was DRY and sheltered and we hunkered in there, got dry, made food and hot drinks and fell asleep, woken up numerous times in the night by dog fights outside.
Day three of walking we woke up to a surprisingly clear blue sky and the land seemed clean and fresh and glittery after yesterday's downpour. We walked down down down, or surfed on the muddy trails, down to El Rio Pericon, where we put down our packs and heated water for breakfast and coffee.
Ryan and Scott jumped into the freezing cold river, which was impressive, and i wouldv'e, i said, if i didn't have this sore throat. Got clean in the river, though, and filled up on oatmeal before we were on the other side and walking up up up again out of the river valley, serenaded the whole time by the evangelical church across the way whose service was floating down and filling up the steep walled valley. Up and up and up to the village of Pericon, which has more donkeys that people, and up again through an amazingly beautiful oak forest. I love oak trees. there are so many different kinds and they are everywhere. Water breaks and dirty jokes and stories and silence and we walked and walked and went through another altiplano, this one more populated and less remote, and had a trail mix break next to a town and watched these women herd thier sheep with sh sh sounds and waving sticks. bought some supplies at the next little town we passed through, and as the sky turned blacker and blacker, blacker and blacker, we started up the incline that quetzaltrekkers has dubbed "the hill of terror."
there are actually way steeper and longer hills along the way, but this one definately is an ass kicker, and you have little breath left by the time you reach the top. the wonderful thing is that we didn't get struck by lightening on the hill of terror. and we made it down the other side before getting poured on, and hitched a ride in the back of a big truck, full of fertilizer and eggs and pvc pipes and other random things.... to the lil town we stayed in that night. we stayed with geronimo, a guy who has been friends with quetzaltrekkers for years and offered up h
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