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Xela and surroundings
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Well, it's been about two weeks that I am in beautiful Guatemala. After spending time in Antigua and Las Cumbres, I headed for Xela. The bus trip it worth mentioning as I am happy to have survived it without any major physical or mental damage. For those who don't now the guate buses, they are either old US school buses or formerly new Ford that are all very colorful painted. My bus had 9 rows of seats on each side and a rather small isle through which people had to pass sideways. if you were obese, forget about taking a chicken bus; you simply wouldn't fit in. So, there are all together 18 rows of seat times 2 means the us fits about 36 people since nobody is allowed to stand in the isle. 36 people according to US standards. Since the bus system here is VERY efficient, the bus was loaded to full capacity with 3 people in each seat and a few actually standing in the isle. This comes down to about 60 people. I had a tight standing post in the back of the bus with my butt firmly pressing against the backdoor (through which passengers and vendors came and went over the 4 hour trip) and my legs against the seat. I considered myself pretty lucky in this position since I could´t really go or fall anywhere while the bus speeded through horrifying turns. In fact, i swayed like a reed in the wind whereas the sitting passengers were sliding left and right with every turn. While my heart pounded hard, I thought about to who i could pray for survival; God, Darwin (survival of the fittest) or Chickensoup for the soul. I opted for the latter. It's not that i didn't trust the driver and his helper, who, after every half an hour or so opened up the hood and either had to refill water or oil. I trusted them dearly, but i distrusted the buses capabilities. After passing by a bus accident in which the unlucky driver maneuvered his bus across the median and plowed down a not-to-steep of a hill, i thought this would slow down our driver but I was wrong. I never felt so close to death than in this ride having to think about a remark i read in a guidebook which states that on Guatemala's road, "many have gotten their last glimpse of Guatemala" riding a chicken bus on those mountainous roads.
But alas, I made it and I am in my second week of classes. I just started in some of the projects my school offers and hope to work on one of the projects for a week. Then it's time to move to another location and visit other communities and volunteer projects. Flees aside, I am doing well. I almost forgot to mention that I did my first 2-day volcano hike to volcano Tajumulco. It was a wonderful experience. I hiked with a local trekking company that contributes all profits to street children and education. We were a group of about 9 and started out VERY early saturday morning to head to San Marcos, near the Mexican border. There, we had breakfast, jumped into the next bus and after being dropped of in a small village started hiking for the next 5 hours or so. The view was incredible. Lush green forests, miles of corn fields dotted with little houses, blue sky, huge clouds and eventually rain. We made it to the campsite just in time to set up tents before it started raining. We were 6 people in a tent and it was very cozy. We cooked a great dinner, went to bed early, got up at 4:14am the next morning to summit the volcano. What a great view. We waited patiently for the sunrise which did not fully develop but we were happy anyway. The view was breathtaking again, the Chucumantes mountains and the volcano chain to the east and volcano Tacan near the mexican border. After about an hour, we descended to the campsite and had a great breakfast of "mosh". Then we broke up camp and headed down the mountain. Our packs were so much lighter now. We enjoyed a beautiful morning and just as we got down the hill the downpour started. We waited for about 40 minutes for a bus to come..... by now, we were cold and hungry so we hitched a ride with two pickups. We covered ourselves with a tarp so that we would not get too wet and made it back to san marcos to have lunch. What a great weekend. It was well worth doing this trip with a group as I would have never found the trail on my own in the first place. I will most likley do another volcano tip with the same organization in nicaragua.
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