Advertisement
It didn’t matter who you would ask about their favorite place in Guatemala, Lake Atitlan is always the answer. It is Guatemala’s pearl, 18 km long, situated between mountains and volcanos, located between the two biggest cities in the country, Guatemala City and Xela, and a “must-see”. When we first visited at the lake, both of us got caught by the flu. Yeeees, this happens to backpackers too, every now and then. So, instead of raving through the nights, recovering on paddle boards during the day, and enjoying the lake we spent our time in bed.
The second answer to the “favorite-question” is volcano Acatenango. Therefore, Eva’s final stop would be Antigua, where the tour starts (Three month after arriving in the North, we finally found out, that we saw the volcanos Acatenango and El Fuego during the flight from Costa Rica to Mexico). We booked a tour with GT Adventures Tours & Travel Agency for 150Q (US 21$), which included all camping gear.
„We pick you up at 9am at the hostel“. So, ready to go we were sitting on the side of the road waiting. We waited… and waited… 1h…2h… until the shuttle FINALLY arrived. We were
the last ones to be picked up, which meant the first ones spent all this time at 30°C in the bus. At this point I considered us very lucky. I guess we all could have walked the 200m to the office (maybe the tour operators should take some organization classes).
So, at 1 pm everyone had a backpack full of gear and we were ready to go. „This is the hardest hike I have done in my life!!“ told us other backpackers. One step up, half a step down… loose rocks all the way to the top and a backpack full of tents, mats, water, and food – this didn’t sound very promising.
However, no one mentioned the size of the group (15 people) and hey, you are just as fast as your weakest member. Let’s say, we had all the time in the world to relax our muscles during the extended breaks along the way.
Our get together around the bonfire ended early due to sudden rain. Disappointed we didn’t get a glimpse of „El Fuego“, we went to bed. Natural necessities made me leave the cozy tent in the middle of the night. Chiiiiiccccooooos, get
your butt out of the tent! We can see it!!!!!! And there it was, the crystal clear night with a sky full of stars and „El Fuego“ in its full beauty, lava flowing down the hillside and with every thunder sparkled the sky with eruption. I have truly never seen anything that beautiful!
We fell asleep with our heads outside the tent, trying not to miss a second of the eruptions. At 4 am decided our guides that the night ends. It was time for the sunrise hike to the summit. The sun rose behind Volcán Antigua and flooded everything in a golden light. Petrus had a good day and there was no breeze freezing us to death.
Going down was like skiing on little stones. I wish this would have worked all the way down but soon it changed to solid ground and we had to walk, step by step. Covered in dust and dirt we arrived in Antigua – safe and sound.
Over a beer, we changed the plan for Eva’s last three day in Guatemala completely and left the next morning with Mitch and his friend Rick to the beach “El Paredon”. We moved
into the Driftwood Surfer, which is the only place to stay there at the beach and joined the party immediately. These guys know how to motivate people for a party! And the super bonus of all times, they offered horse riding along the beach.. I would have never assumed this would happen again while Eva was here. Sometimes destiny is on your side… and we rode together in the sunset…aaaayy so romantic :D
The time since November just slipped away, faster than we would ever expect. Thank you Eva for all the adventures we shared. It was a great time with you!! It makes me really happy, that the wanderlust caught you as well.
And then she left. A day later I traveled to Guatemala City and took the TOEFL-Test at the
Universidad Mariano Gálvez de Guatemala. Then I joined Mitch and Justin at Lake Atitlan, not very amused to do the final decent into San Pedro again, which was quite frightening. It has a zigzag formation down the hill, which barely allows small vehicles, let alone small chicken buses, to make the sharp corners. Most curves on the road require at least a three point turn. However, it was worth the
effort and I met Justin’s lovely family. We stayed at a Pasajacap, about 15min outside of San Marcos.
San Marco in a few words: Vegan food…payable in crystals…while doing yoga… this is the real Hippie deal! I had to smile sometimes - todo un poco loco(everyone a little bit crazy) but this place sucks you in. After Justin’s parents left we stayed another four days camping, waking up to the beautiful lake and volcano view. We spent the days debating about our biggest problem – when we would walk into town to get food, and I was writing another master application. There, we met Laura and Andy, some unique Brits who hiked with us all the way up to Volcán San Pedro (yees, one more volcano!!)
Finally, we had to leave, to get to South America this year. We spent a night in Guatemala City to recover from these ridiculous, dangerous and frightening chicken busses. They race each other in order to be the first at the next bus stop. Critical locations and narrow curves are not an obstacle on their journey and they don’t have any common sense for speed limits.
Summary of my expression of
Guatemala: a beautiful mountain countryside, smiling people, corn and beans dominated food with vegetables and meat, woman dressed in colorful traditional dresses, absolutely crazy chicken buses, trash spread all over the country and a unfortunate lack of basic education, especially for woman in the countryside (who’s task is house and children, starting at a very young age).
From now on, I am traveling with Mitch and Justin, who are going the same way via motorbike. For some more inspiration: www.elevationupgrade.com
Advertisement
Tot: 0.128s; Tpl: 0.029s; cc: 11; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0311s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb