The 30 Mile Trek

We just finished our three day thirty mile trek from Xela to Lago de Atitlan. The day after we finished might mark the laziest day of my life not including extreme illness, where as the trekking might mark the hardest physical thing I have ever done.

We left to hike a full eight hours after a delicious meal of hot chocolate, banana cinnamon pancakes, and a heap of fruit. It was complete uphill for hours to the top of a mountain that was a perfect view point for many cities in the valleys and volcanoes. We strolled through rolling hills of wild flowers and passed the highest point in Guatemala. The trail then lead us through a hilly rain forest area and down slippery switch backs. We came out in foggy cornfields for a while and then we took an abandoned road which seemed never ending. Eventually, the road did dump us at our sleeping spot for the night. It was a deserted government building ever since Hurricane Stan. It provided us with a free dry cement room for sleeping. Before calling it a night, we went in groups of three to a ¨sauna¨. It was essentially a cement pueblo with coals in someones backyard. We walked past and changed in front of some turkeys and then crawled on our hands and knees into a sweltering hot dog house splashing muddy water on ourselves for relief. We then walked back a few blocks, and devoured piles of pasta before passing out.

We got up early again to hike another 8 hours. But, this time we were starting extremely sore and covered in insect bites, sweat, and dirt. We hiked up, down, and around a dirt road with a heavy amount of trash on it and then past fields of crops. The views were similarly amazing to the first day: lush green hillsides, crops growing up steep slopes, a few tin roofed houses scattered about, and a magically fast moving clouds in a bright blue sky above. We munched trail mix and then raced up ¨record hill¨. More or less, it was a vertical mile. We barely managed to do it in 26 minutes, and the record is supposedly 9. Following record hill, there was little relief. We walked up muddy steps, gravel slopes and through clouds and more jungle terrain. Post lunch we went through a town where kids would poke out of fences and corn to greet us. We then splashed through a river dozens of times in pouring rain. When the small rain drops started I deemed it not worth it to put on a raincoat and within minutes it was not worth it since I was so soaked. I was defiantly wrong. I became so wet and dripping that when I had to pee, I choose to pee my pants for a solid minute. With one more climb up a mucky hill and a short stroll on a road we were at Don Pedro's house where we had a full dinner, tasty strawberry shakes, and a cozy fire before bed.

The final day we awoke at three in the morning, which is one of my least favorite hours of the day. All we were forced to do though, was walk brain dead 45 minutes up to where we could see the lake, all volcanoes, and all waterside towns. We had a few rewarding and relaxing hours in which we watched numerous shooting stars, sipped hot drinks, watched the sunrise over the lake, saw Volcan Fuego erupt, and had a meal of mosh. Once it was a reasonable hour of day we did our final trekking downhill for a few hours. We passed some smelly coffee plants, went under platanos trees and were finally at the lake eating pineapple. We had lunch at a women's weaving co-op to conclude the many miles of pain and joy and then parted ways.