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Earth Lodge was a welcome reprieve from the rigours of 6 months of backpacking. A lodge, cum avocado farm up the hill from Antigua, with spectacular views over the local volcanos. Those who've heard me bang on about its merits will have already heard about the spanish lessons, delicious family dinners, hammocks and the brilliant characters who make it such a great home away from home. But bear with me ... effectively, Earth Lodge is the Guatemalan boomerang - everyone who's been here once, will someday come back.
I arrived at Earth Lodge jammed in the back of a pick-up with a bunch of other backpackers and was dropped in the small village of El Hato, with nothing but dense bushland below and some local ladies doing laundry at the public village lavaderos. The driver pointed downwards, so we stumbled, pack-heavy down the steep and winding path and found ourselves in a clearing. With Whitey and Chuletta beloved family dogs, snapping at our heels, we were treated to a jawdropping view of the neighbouring volcanos and a friendly welcome from the Earth Lodge crew ... but more on them in a bit. The Earth Lodge set-up is comfy and homely ... there's
a dining room, which doubles as a bar, family room, internet cafe and games room, with an adjoining tv room ... a bunch of huts, the famous tree house hut, a mini-tent city for the budget conscious, a dorm, sauna, a massive swing and 'organic'(?!) drop loos. Perhaps the least 'friendly' aspect of Earth Lodge is the f-ing hill and narrow path leading into it, meaning all supplies need to be carried down on foot.
Bri and Drew, a friendly American and a Canadian couple, met travelling in Central America and started building Earth Lodge from the ground up around 5 years ago. Not only have they earned themselves a highly sought after listing in the LP, but have also had lots of success with their avocado farm and a community project with the
El Hato Public School . And, to boot, have done it all by 30. Impressive! Their good friend Adi, officially the nicest Israeli you'll ever meet, helps out as handyman, fabulous cook and relentless teaser. He came here once years ago and never properly left. Whilst I'm there, Lucy and Kristin - the acupuncturist and the librarian - are the volunteers who help out around the place in exchange
for a good deal on accommodation and food. Both are aspiring authors and are generally seen in their free time penning the next booker prize or learning Spanish. Which brings me to Luis ... the young, patient and I suspect very frustrated Spanish teacher ... who also has an impressive repertoire of Spanish insults and runs a pig farm on the side. These guys, along with the chicas who help out in the kitchen and Venancio the local caretaker and his gorgeous little son Jose, give the place a great vibe with their constant good humour and hospitality.
My days at Earth Lodge followed pretty much the same lazy routine. Some days I'd indulge in some early morning yoga, but mostly in the mornings I'd prop myself up near the kitchen waiting for the red light on the coffee machine to come on! Then, on cue, there was the daily eruption of Volcano Fuego ... which began with some low rumbling and finished with a few dramatic puffs of smoke. I worked out early on, that morning Spanish lessons were the way to go ... get them over with early, to free up the rest of the day. As
Hammock Action
I invested a good deal of the afternoon indulging in some hammock action with a book and I-podanyone who has met me since will attest, I took to Spanish like a fish on a bicycle and my most cleverly honed skills during Spanish lesson were avoidance strategies, where I got Luis horribly off track to prevent another list of verbs to memorize, conjugate and use in a sentance. Arrghh! Post lesson I rewarded myself with a chef salad with loads of avocado and invested a good deal of the afternoon indulging in some hammock action with a book and I-pod. One of the big decisions of the day was whether to go for a hot or cold shower - the former costing a completely worthwhile 70 cents AUD, the later leaving you feeling every bit the budget conscious and freezing, but hardcore traveller. Happy Hour started at 5pm and given a portion of the profits go to supporting El Hato School - it would have been rude not to indulge in a daily G&T with my good friend and Earth Lodge's resident yogi, Jo. A family dinner followed - usually there were around 15-20 guests - with moussaka if you were lucky. A few times we sat around the campfire telling tales - like Thorsten's claim that
Happy Hour
Happy Hour started at 5pm and given a portion of the profits go to supporting El Hato School - it would have been rude not to indulge in a daily G&T with my good friend and Earth Lodge's resident yogi, Jo. between 2am and 3am you could see the Southern Cross in the Guatemalan skies... I never managed to stay up long enough to find out!
Earth Lodge soon became the playing field for a number of sporting events. There was already a well established bocce, frisbee and horse-shoe set-up, but what Earth Lodge really lacked was a cricket pitch. Adi came to the rescue requesting cricket bat specifications and quickly knocked up a Guatemalan cricket bat with a plank of wood. My next challenge was gathering a team together and explaining the rules. No easy feat when your team comprises several Americans and one confused looking Swedish guy! It turned out Chuletta and Whitey were the quickest to learn the rules, but the match was abandoned on account of missing and soggy tennis balls and a wasp bite on my hand that swelled to elephantine proportions! One weekend, a large European contigent arrived at the Lodge, so it wasn't long before a soccer match was in progress. Despite my inappropriate attire ... I wore havianas, whilst the rest got into runners and sporting gear ... I scored a goal and was declared by one resident Argentinian 'man of the
EL Cricket Match
The match was abandoned on account of missing and soggy tennis balls and a wasp bite on my hand that swelled to elephantine proportions! match'! Other games played included perhaps the longest game of trivial pursuit of all time and a particularly unintelligent game of scrabble ... well on my part anyway!
One day, Drew asked a few of us to come up with ideas for a new Earth Lodge t-shirt slogan. With Drew and Bri out for the day, what began as just a few, albeit hilarious, ideas turned into a full-scale, agency-style, brainstorming session. With Charlie, the frustrated graphic designers creative know-how and my marketing degree ... Charlie, Lucy, Kristin, Anna, Anders and I had soon created an objective statement, profile of the target customer, background, SWOT analysis and recommendations. Later that night in an outrageous presentation involving newspaper ties and a powerpoint presentation, we revealed the winning slogans to Bri, Drew and Adi who laughed their guts out at our crazy ideas... or maybe just at us?!! (PS - Bri ... I'm still waiting for my EL t-shirt!!). I'm not sure whether the winner in the end was 'slip into a coma', 'blame it on the altitude' or 'I beat Adi in a drinking game' ... I voted for the latter!
There was a lot of laughing going on
Earth Lodge t-shirt slogan presentation
In an outrageous presentation involving newspaper ties and powerpoint, we revealed the winning slogans to Bri, Drew and Adi who laughed their guts out at our crazy ideas... or maybe just at us?!! at Earth Lodge. One night a guy from Guatemala City sneaked his dog into the dorm room and proceeded to sleep in the top bunk above me. During the night, his enormous dog took a flying leap and landed on top of me whilst I was sleeping - I screamed (of course), but could not rouse the owner, or dog who was by now a dead weight on my legs. Then there was the laundry episode. The morning after a particularly nasty storm, I went to get my laundry off the chicas and they told me I could go get it myself off the line. The no-peg strategy proved risky and I discovered clothes strewn all over the ground and my knickers MIA. I returned to explain my predicament, but both spanish and sign language was unsuccessful, at which point Adi appeared and before I could stop him, began a search for my travel-worn knickers ... embarrassing. But perhaps not as embarassing as the 19 year old (not so) straight laced Americans occupying the tree house, who kept the entire tent city awake and tested the strength of the tree house construction with a loud creaking and groaning which lasted
Volcano Pacaya
I embarked on the evening hike with Kristin and Mark - another EL guest - because apparently the lava is more impressive at night. most of the night!!
During my eleven day stay at Earth Lodge, I only left once. To hike up Volcano Pacaya. So with head torch newly purchased in Antigua, I embarked on the evening hike with Kristin and Mark - another EL guest - because apparently the lava is more impressive at night. The walk up left us all a little breathless - you really could feel the altitude in these parts. Once reaching the top, the view down into the crater was incredible - you could see rivelets of red hot lava bubbling on the surface. Without further ado, or any kind of safety railings, we wandered down into the crater to get up close and personal with the lava. The heat was in some places unbearable, but perfect for toasting a peanut butter sandwich on a stick. Other people had brought marshmellows, but we just werent that organised! The walk down, was also debut of the head torch. I've always put travellers with head torches into much the same category as the ones who wear zip-off trousers, those velcro sandals and other nerdy gadgetry, but common sense prevailed over fashion just this once. I proudly showed off
Volcano Pacaya Lava
rivelets of red hot lava bubbling on the surface... my torch to a German guy in the group, but alas, it didn't work. The kindly, good-looking German escorted me the entire 40 minute walk back down the volcano with his torch and promised to get his electrical engineer friend to take a look at the torch when we got back down. However, back in the mini-van I discovered the torch was fine, I'd just put the batteries in back the front. I told the German guy to put the engineer on hold, I'd managed to 'fix' it myself!!
Leaving Earth Lodge was no mean feat. Especially owing to the honesty system/running bill system they have going for food, drink, internet, hot showers. Amazing how when you don't actually have to hand over the money at the time ... its easy to forget you're actually spending. My bill was so impressive, that Bri and Drew have since bought a donkey with proceeds. Actually, I wouldn't be suprised if they named it after me!
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Andy Horsman
Andrew Horsman
My Fave Blog So Far
Hi Ellen, sounds like you are having a fab time. This was one of my favourite blogs so far - felt like I was there, in fact, I wish I was! Where to next? Hope to catch up with you in the summer if you're around. Cheers, Andy