Fog, fuentes, and fun

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  Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Friday, October 13, 2006

Leaving Huehue, we took a crazy two-hour bus ride to the second-largest city in Guatemala, Quetzaltenango (more commonly known as Xela though). The bus quickly filled up with folks wearing traditional indigenous dress and it was fascinating to see the variety all of the brightly colored fabrics and how the women would casually get on and off the bus with huge baskets, bags, and random things balanced on their heads. Everyone was sitting three to a school bus bench-style seat, or in the case of the traveling gringos, two backpacks and two of us to a seat. The driver had a special assistant whose main job besides collecting fare was to lean his head out of the bus to peer around curves, honk the horn, and give the driver the okay to pass on the curve. Another dude would climb out the back of the bus up a ladder to secure new baggage on top of the bus, then climb down and enter through the door, all of this while the bus was whipping around curves at top speed. Our neck and butt muscles were a bit sore from bracing every time the bus took on a curve

01 Soaking at Fuentes Georginas

. Needless to say, there were a lot of curves. We were also reading the local paper over the shoulders of other passengers, which had a multi-page spread detailing a bus (with a drunk bus driver) that catapulted off the side of a mountain near Huehue and killed 32. Reassuring isn´t it? Anyhow, we safely arrived in Xela and took a mini-van to the pleasant center of town and settled in to a tiny room near the main plaza. The afternoon was spent doing errands (trading our guidebook, finding an ATM, buying water, etc.) and getting our bearings, nothing too exciting. We ate some local food for dinner, I had ¨pepian de pollo,¨ chicken swimming in a sesame seed-tomato sauce. We spent the rest of the evening on the internet and catching up in our journals, then headed to bed early (for us) to catch up on sleep. Our second day in Xela began with buying pastries and coffee at the bakery below our hotel, then catching a bus to the sizeable agricultural village of Zunil, where we hired a pickup to take us up to the Fuentes Georginas. These are delicious hot springs engulfed in tropical vegetation and smothered by fog. We relaxed in the hot water for a couple of hours, then waited out a rainstorm by playing cards and eating lunch in the neighboring restaurant. We walked the 8 kilometers down the hill back to town, our views obscured by fog the majority of the way. On the bus ride back to Xela, we made plans with a cool French couple we met at the hot springs to hike to Lago Chicabal early the next morning. Our third day in Xela, we got up early (for us) and met Flo and Aurelie in the central park, taking a couple of buses to get to San Martin "Chile Verde," from where we started a couple hours of hiking to get to the viewpoint for Laguna Chicabal

02 Our only view of Laguna Chicabal

. We got there just in time, after taking in the views of the lake nestled in a very vegetated volcanic crater, we skidded down about 600 slippery steps to the lakeshore only to have it completely obscured in thick fog (very eery). This lake is considered the center of Mam-Mayan cosmovision and many active religious altars line the lakeshore. After hiking around the lake, we tackled the 600 steps back up and enjoyed a cool misty hike back to the village, and a squished ride back to Xela in a mini-bus. After lunch at a "comedor" very popular with locals, we moved to a new hostel called Casa Argentina that would be the early morning meeting spot for climbing Volcan Tajumulco. We signed up for the climb with an organization called Quetzaltrekkers (www.quetazaltrekkers.org) and all of the profits from treks they lead go to supporting a clinic, school, shelter for street children in the city. We had an informational meeting with the guides and the 11 other trekkers in the evening, divving up group gear and packing our bags (much lighter than what we carry day to day) and we are really excited about the two day trip, except I am dreading the 5 am start tomorrow. Climbing would be so much cooler if you didn't have to always get up so early...

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03 Our friends Aurelie and Florian

04 The erie fog covered lake

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