Chimaltenango

Finally I should climb a volcano! Acatenango with its neighbouring volcano named Fuego is probably the most exciting choice in all of Guatemala. There are at least a million tour companies all over Antigua offering a two day, on nigh trip to the volcano. Most people pay the 100$ and more for this experience, then on the other hand Im not most people!

It was hard to give up on the lazy days in the Hostel with all his comforts and pull up my ass for the upcoming adventure. Everything was prepared, supplies where bought, even a new tent for less then 50$ was bought. Full of energy and excitement for the upcoming highlight we walked with Nadia the 50m to the car. As reliable Schwarzenegger always was, now he let me down (the 16h drive before left his marks). After turning the ignition he would die off shortly after. At first I thought i didn't close the door properly and the lights sucked out the battery. Of course the super friendly Gutematecos where there in a minute to bypass the battery. Unfortunately this wasn’t working. After trying a couple of different scenarios, including changing batteries from another car, there was still no answer to the riddle. A electrician was needed. Half an hour later a car pulled over and a typical 1,60m tall, smiling Gutemalteco jumped out. Equipped with his little workbox he started checking Schwarzenegger from inside out. After ten minutes the mystery was solved- the fuse was burned! A damage worth 5 Quetzals or in other words around 1$! And I was already painting the devil on the wall with thoughts that maybe a serious damages had occurred (like a broken light machine). Unfortunately now it was already to late to start for the hike up Acatenango. It had to be postponed until the next day.

Already on the way the scenery took my breath away. Lush green hills, divers plantations and the magic cones of three volcanos filling the horizon. I had to stop several times to take a shot of this magnificent landscape. In a tiny village on the foot of the Acatenango I parked the car in the backyard of a family. For a small tip they would guard my home for the next two days. It was already around 10am, when you know me, you know that I’m really bad on getting started early in the morning! The sun was at this time already pondering down with full force. My research considering supplies resulted in bringing 4l of water per person, sufficient food for two days, warm cloths and the whole camera and camping equipment! Being a gentleman I took the big backpack with most of these things what resulted in a load of around 20kg!

Hiking up the Acatenango will lead you through three different climatic stages. Stage one is the open agricultural stage with temperatures around 35C. The trail leads through a slot that clearly is a flush canyon during rain season. The underground consist of volcanic gravel, a bit like the stuff you put in the pots of you plats. This leads to the well known effect of of taking two steps up and sliding one down. Not to forget that this gravel will fill your hiking shoes every five minutes! After the first 15min I thought I will die, yeah 15min!!! Sweat was dripping from my forehead like a waterfall and the backpack on my back felt like an anchor I have to drag up the mountain. But the beauty around me was worth every step.

Second stage. Without any previous indicators there is like a magical line where the fauna suddenly changes into a humid dense jungle. Big twisted trees grow in every direction and are overgrown with dozens of other plants, huge ferns cover the ground and try to absorb as much of the sunlight as they get. Finally there is the first hut that marks the first out of four stoops on the way to the summit. The shade of the canopy is a great relief, as are the roots that hold on to the loose gravel and form a solid track. Not just because of these easing factors this is one of my favourite parts of the trail. I have seen a lot of tropical jungles in my life but this one is really special. The way the trees grow here is just unique and breathtaking. You feel like in an Hollywood animation ala Avatar. Well with the slight difference that my head is red as a tomato instead of blue!

With the second hut the jungle stage was at his end. The last vegetational stage consists of needle trees and a carpet of yellowish gras. The air gets a bit thiner up here and the sun seems a bit too close. At this point I thought I cary a elephant on my back. We met a guided group of around 15 in the second hut. After a quick consolidation with the guides we knew where to put up camp for the night and had a rough overview on the different paths further up. Unfortunately the group set in for the trail before us. Most would pay extra to get there stuff carried by mules up the mountain- tsss pussies! (omg I would pay the world right now to get rid of the elephant on my back!) So we got stuck behind them on the trail and there was no chance of taking over. On the first possible trail fork we took the other trail than the group. This just meant some extra walking but hey, no problem right? Hunger set in and we did a break. The view was mid blowing. We where over the clouds that builded up in impressive columns- so close that you had the feeling to reach out and touch them. The sun was lighting the bright colours of the dry gras in a perfect contrast to the pine trees with their dark green needles. And believe me this fluffy carpet of gras was so inviting to lay down and take a nap! My energy level was at the bottom. I was struggling with every step and had to take breaks every couple minutes to grasp for air. We had to reach night camp! We had to…
Never before in my life did I struggle on a hike or climb. Then on the other hand never before in my life I had a bloody elephant tight to my back!
Eventually we made it around 4pm to the tree line. Here we found a nice spot to put up the tent and make us some avocado sandwiches. The landscapes above us where like from a different planet. Black and grey rock formations changed into slopes of untouched gravel (perfect for some volcano boarding). I was so exhausted that I could fall down in any place and be gone.
Around 5pm the fist raindrops woke me from my siesta nap. We got into the tent. Here I noticed that its actually small, very small! It appears we bought a tent for kids. Well what ever, its spacious enough. It took a quarter hour until the first drops penetrated this brand new tent and trickled down on my feet. Another hour later we sat back to back in the centre while around us a moat of water was formed. The rain got stronger and stronger until a proper thunderstorm unveiled his full power above or rather next to us! It wouldn't stop raining until it started snowing! This was around 3am. We planed to start the final ascend on 4am but I knew that the total sleep deprivation and the tiredness from last days climb cost us a lot of strength and the progress to reach the summit would be very slow.
With wet clothes, a reduced backpack we left our base camp for the final effort. After twenty minutes the rumbling started. At first I couldn't place it- must be still the thunderstorm in the distance. A couple of minutes later the sound increased and I knew it can be just one thing. Suddenly out of nowhere I saw him- El Fuego, the brother of Acatenango, spitting over 1000C hot magma right in front of us! All the pain, tiredness and freeze where gone in an instant! I went into robot-mode and run off to find a better spot to put out my tripod and start shooting longterm exposure. On the way we crossed the camp of the guided tour. A couple of members where shivering around an little bonfire. By the look of their tents I knew their night wasn't any better. The guide gave us some instructions on how to reach the top and so we went into the night that was shone just by Fuego.

The last ascent. Just before going on this excursion I read a friends blogpost about a ascent with a friend where they had to turn around just before the summit because the friend just couldn't go further. Nadia was on the brick to give up! Due to the moving gravel, the track was very hard to make out. After a while I knew that I lost it. This wouldn't be a big problem if I would be on my own. The way was clear for me- UP! My climbing partner was in a very bad physical and even worse psychological state. I knew its 80% in the head, so I wouldn't stop talking to distract her thoughts. After 90min on our own I finally saw the string of lights climbing up to us. The tour! I knew if I can get Nadia to them she will follow the chain of people up and we’r going to make it. I traversed a bit along the steep hill until I knew that the tour will cross our way. As i predicted as soon we got into the group Nadia was able to make it up! Close call thought!

Just in time for the sunrise we reached the 4000m high zenith. A great feeling! I opened the bottle of Gato Negro (red wine) and we enjoyed the view of the neighbouring volcano Agua, Fuego and even the volcanos around lake Atitlan where visible.

The descent was crazy. We got back to base, cleaned up the mess from the night and started going down. I think the wish of a hot shower and a bet drove us to more or less run the whole way down. We got after astonishing 2,5h back to the car!

In Antigua I would spend my last night in Guatemala. So here is once more my country resume! One word; AWESOME! I’ll keep it short. Beautiful souls, the people are extremely inviting and kind. Every difficulty I would encounter wouldn’t be really one due to the locals that would be so helpful. Second big score is the landscape. A variety of places like volcanoes natural pools like Samuc or lake Atitlan. The diversity is one in a kind in central America. And there is the last point that is essential for every shoe stringer, value for money! Schwarzenegger would say “I’ll be back!”

Sactepequez

Antigua is a colonial perl in the mountains of Guatemala. In my opinion the Big Foot hostel is the place to stay. It would shelter us for the next four days or so and it was just amazing to chill out in front of the huge TV for a while, not worrying about a thing. See that might sound strange, but when your on the road for a couple of months you sometimes just want to chill and experience a daily routine.

The vast old town of Antigua is probably the best preserved colonial place in all of central america. Lucky coincident and one of the reasons to drive through the day before was Cup day all over European leagues. The local pub with a magnificent pool table would be the place to be for me. Here I met Dean, another Aussie! I just mention him here because he’s gonna show up many times later in my travels. So here we go, 1st encounter with Dean.

“No se” means in spanish as much as “I don't know” but here in Antigua it is the name of a great little bar that serves Mezcal and has often live music. In my opinion a must when your here! This night, a local performer played music a la Jason Mraz, what was great. After a couple of shots I was unstoppable and started of dancing. Soon after the floor was packed and a great night was about to start.

Im not going to try to describe the beauty of this place. Therefore my english, and in general my writing skills are way to poor, but take a look at the pics instead.

Alta Verapaz

Leaving San Pedro felt like leaving a new found home, but there was just so much more to see. Me and Nadia would head up north, aiming for Semuc Champey. Recording to Wikipedia Semuc consists of a natural 300 m limestone bridge, under which passes the Cahabón River. Atop the bridge is a series of stepped, turquoise pools. If you ask me, it might be the nicest pool(s) I’ve ever swam in!

It took longer than expected to get there so we decided to stop over night near a river. Nadias spanish skills got us a permission to drive to the very edge of the river on a private property. It was once more back to basics, gathering wood, starting a bonfire and cooking simple meals straight on it.
The next morning someone nocked on the window. I got up and saw that in the steep dirt track we drove down last night a truck with sand was parked and around 7 guys would shovel the sand on the only exit from this tinny stone beach. I knew straight away that there will be no chance to drive out without getting stuck. But there was little to change about the situation right now so I decided to go back to sleep. 20 minutes later the same guy nocks on the window again. A bit annoyed I leaned out again and tried to understand what he's matter is. Turns out we had a flat tire as well! I just thought- great! We are stuck with a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. It will absorb probably the entire day to solve this! At this point i clearly underestimated these guys here. They pulled a air hose from their truck and pumped up my flat tire. Then they pulled me through the sandy patches they created and refused any kind of tips! Glad we solved the first problem so quick, we asked about the next garage to fix up the tire. They offered us two options, either go back 20km or drive on for around 30km in the direction we headed. Of course we chose to stick get closer to the target. Unfortunately they forgot to mention that exactly 500m further down the road the surface changes from concrete to a nasty dirt road! Leaning out the window and checking upon the leaking tire every couple of minutes we finally made it to a tiny little garage. The guys where very friendly and had the tire changed in no time. Shortly after we made it to Coban. The only thing thats worth mentioning about this place is the McDonalds. A strange feeling having a Big Mac after a couple of months.

Three hours later we where in the deep jungle where the cascades of Samuc lay. Crystal clear water in turquoise pools. Astonishingly there wouldn't even be that many people. We encountered just a hand full other folks at the time we visited the pools, which was great! If I ever have enough money to build myself a pool, it would look like these! If your eager to do some more activities around here, then you can visit some limestone caves. In these the only light source is a candle that you cary so you better don't drop it! If your gutsy enough you can jump from the approximately 12m high bridge that crosses the river. For me driving over it (it contains just loose and randomly alined planks) was already kick enough!

So once you’v done the pools and the caves there is not much more to do around here. I checked Google maps for Antigua- the next target. With 285km to go it seemed like a bit more than a half day drive away. One more cross over the cheeky bridge and of we where.
After a short time of driving, Schwarzenegger went into a constant shaking. After a while it got stronger and stronger and would just stop while driving corners. I knew that it must be the new tire! What I wouldn't take to account was that the mechanics in this tiny little village did probably the most embarrassing and dangerous mistake a mechanic can do. They didn't tight up the screws! So the tire got loose and twisted two bolts. Once back in Coban I could fix the problem with an mechanic and enjoy another McDonalds pitstop. The journey to Antigua continued. So yeah, I can tell you already that this is going to be one of the hardest drives in my life! There are multiple reasons for it; length, conditions, unexpected surprises and so on. But lets get back to the point where I drive of from Coban. After the inconvenience withe the tire everything seemed finally fine (except that my left front tire was just fixed by three bolts now, and no one knew how the condition of these where). The concrete road was fine and we made good progress until a huge thunderstorm hit us. Guatemala consists to a major part of mountains so all the roads go up and down- all in a nice zigzag line. Once the rain settled and the sun took over, the landscapes and tiny villages would present themselves in their best. Thats the best part about having a car. You get where no one else would ever go and your probably the first Gringo the locals encounter since a while. But you bette love driving. So I mentioned the concrete road before, this was just for the first two hours. Now we are driving since hours already on a dirt track that occasionally offers parts of cuddle stone. Not to forget the millions of speed bumps.
When the sun started to set I checked my super unreliable GPS based pretty much just on Google maps. The distance to Antigua would be around 100km. The question at hand was, staying somewhere in the middle of nowhere or driving through? After a quick pro and con discussion it would be clear that we give it a try. The last part of the journey would be the worst, pitch black night, unpredictable mountain dirt track zigzagging up and down some dark hills… After a couple of Red Bulls, probably two packs of fags and around 16 hours of driving we mad it at 1am finally to Antigua. A great memory now, a big challenge back then! Fuck’n love it!

Solola

One of my primary goals for this trip was to learn spanish. So far I didn't accomplish much in this direction. Sure I knew how to order food and ask about directions, but that was pretty much everything. I know after 100 days in Mexico and a month in Cuba you should do better. Guatemala offers the perfect conditions to learn spanish. The spanish here is explicit and the pace is rather slow. Additionally Guatemala is one of the poorer central American countries so the living costs are low.

I targeted San Pedro on the lake Atitlan as my home base. Here I had already arrangements with a spanish school where I would attend lessons for a couple of weeks. The drive to San Pedro is unique. At first you arrive on a high ridge above the lake. Three perfectly shaped volcanos surround the lake and offers mind blowing view from up here. The road down to San Pedro is mind blowing in a different way though. Judging by the size of the craters in the concrete I was glad that Schwarzenegger didn't break an leg/axis!
Once down I would check in with the school and get directly transferred to my host family. Gabriella, my new replacement mum for the time being, would show me my simple room and the rest of the typical concrete house. Pedro her housebound is the local artist. Once a teacher himself he spends now the days painting traditional paintings containing local traditions and typical sceneries. For the first week Wesley, another student at my school stayed here as well. His spanish skills where well ahead mine and so it was very comforting to ask him in situations where I reached my limits. In my case, pretty much all the time!

The house was unfortunately located next to a baptist church and across the road was a mechanic. The followers of the church managed to do crazy ‘shouting’ ceremonies, even during the whole night! The mechanic started hammering steel regular around 7 am. After one week additionally the family started the redoing of the bottom bathroom (including breaking down various walls). With that I had an additional source of constant noise. Thanks to earplugs I could keep up with that for two weeks, afterwards I decided on leaving my host family and switched to the Pinocchio Hostel.

I still clearly remember when after the first dinner (all the meals where consumed with the whole family and would serve to practice the language) me and Wesley would go for an introduction of the town. First down the steep San Francisco road, than we took a left and walked passed the place where on sundays the best BBQ in the world would take place. Than another left in a tinny alley passed the corner shop, here is the Barios which would grant us some good after parties. Just a bit further you'll find on your right hand side the Blue Parrot, a restaurant run by Americans that will serve you all your favourite fast-food in great quality! If you keep on going you walk by my school and then the Buda-Bar- the place to be on mondays for the jam sessions. A couple of steps down the road you'll see the Pinocchio Hostel. Here you can climb up three stories to the roof and enjoy a great overview of the lake and parts of the town. I could go on like that now for another 20 minutes with great places that spoil you in one or the other way. But you just have to experience it yourself! One place not to be forgotten though is the Sublime on the other side of town. A fantastic playground for travellers.
With all these distractions it would be very hard to concentrate on the task at hand. My teacher Clemente would have a tough time with me. And I with him because he is a big Real Madrid fan and you know how Barca and Madrid go together. Anyway, we became good friends and he would even after moths I left check up on me if I keep on practicing my spanish stuff. Brilliant times here. You learn in little bungalows on the shores of the lake and the surroundings are so nice that you catch yourself starring at them instead of the board in front of you. The four hour long, one on one classes would be a great challenge. Especially in the first week I wold be drained after the daily sessions. It felt so weird to be in school again, but definitely worth the effort.

After a while you get addicted by this place and its people. The special thing about Atitlan is that you have a constant base of travellers that stay here for a longer time period. This makes it easy to connect to others on a deeper level then just the starting conversations of the type “ Where you from? Where you heading?”. On the other hand there will be plenty of new faces showing up and unfortunately some leaving…
After a month Nadia from Mexico would join me for an undetermined amount of time. After a couple of final days here it was time to drive the dusty Schwarzenegger out of his garage and keep on adding miles on the odometer.