¡Viva Guatemala! Second go Round!

Where do I even start to explain my weekend… Here is the logistics. I decided to go on a guided backpacking trip to an inactive volcano called Acetenango. Mind you, I have hiked a lot and I like to think of myself as somewhat athletic. So when I signed up for the overnighter the guide told me it’s a tough hike but its 80% mental and 20% physical. Ok, no problem right! So Saturday morning I got up at 5 just before sunrise, packed my backpack and headed over to the office where our group was going to meet. In our lovely adventure group we had 4 Germans, 1 French-Canadian, 1 Bolivian, me and two guides. Pretty good group I’d say. We all could somewhat communicate in either Spanish or English so it made it somewhat easier. The guys packed a lot of the food in their packs and the girls took the tent equipment etc. We loaded the shuttle and headed off to Soledad (city where the trailhead is). Oh and as we were getting onto the shuttle I just happened to glance at the back tires, BALD! Literally no tread. Hmmm sounds muy seguro ha. We had about an hour drive through country side and mountains to get to our trailhead. Once we arrived we put our packs on and set off. The first 30 minutes of trail consisted of a mix of lava rock and mud which was about 6 inches deep. Basically walking straight up. Within about five minutes I was breathing hard and the Brazilian guy fell behind (he was wearing Puma shoes… need I explain more). So the group split up. I stayed in the back to encourage this Brazilian who we shall call Greg. Or by the end of the trip F’ing Greg. Our four to five hour hike turned into six with this guy. That whole 80% mental was not working out for him. We had to go about 6 or 7 miles to get to our camping spot and probably ascended 3500 to 4000 ft in elevation gain. But this guy would literally take four steps and stop. I tried to explain to him in my best Spanish that stopping more often can use more energy (He is from Brazil so he speaks Portuguese.. Enough differences from Spanish that he had no idea what was going on). Then he didn’t bring a lot of snacks so being the good Samaritan I was, I gave him 2 of my power bars and my most favorite snack, DARK CHOCOLATE SEA SALTED ALMONDS L It was a sad day. Throughout the hike we ascended through about four eco systems. We started off with low land farms and corn fields, then to the “Cloud Forest” which is very tropical and filled with mossy trees and natural orchids and finally up into high alpines. It was gorgeous to go through such different systems as long as you ignored your legs screaming at you. I kid you not out of the six miles I counted maybe 5 switchbacks, the rest was straight up! But I’m rambling. We are about 30 minutes from the top and the first group is way ahead and the guide and I tell Greg we need to hurry up the rain is gonna come soon since there were huge clouds rolling in at rapid speeds… He still did not walk any faster and within ten minutes of telling him it was going to pour on us, sure enough the clouds opened up and drenched us. I had all my rain gear and I was still soaked. It came in sideways and every which way. It took us about 15 minutes to find the group, who was struggling to set up the tents and get under cover. Within minutes the temperature dropped and it was fraaaaeeezing. We got the tents up and quickly took cover. You would not believe how much water I had to scoop out of our tent with my dinner cup. It was silly and just miserable. So for about 3 hours it rained and we all just stayed in the tents. Thankfully the guide cooked us dinner and even brought it to us. So I guess that was a bonus to hiring someone to do the tedious work.

Our camp spot sat in a saddle right next to Acetenango and usually when the weather permits you can summit Acetenango and view the active volcano called Fuego and an inactive one Agua. As you can tell from the story we did not get to do that… By 9 pm the temperature probably dropped into the 40s. As I was going to bed, being my usual self, my heart felt like it was racing so I freaked out... My lovely guide said “Just let me know when it’s not beating…” Real funny. I slept for maybe 2 hours and then woke up at five just to wait. The weather was still horrible so again we could not summitL All of my gear was soaked except for my gloves... but just wait the Brazilian guy proceeds to somehow take them grrrrr! So we start our descent around 8am in wet gear and get to our van at 11. Thank god. My everything hurt and I just wanted a hot shower. When I got home the hot water was out. Fail! But all in all it was an adventure, it definitely tests your mental toughness and it was good to be surrounded by all different types of people. Hopefully the next time I do it Ill actually get to see the volcanoes and not just sheets of rain. 1/2 a day to recover then off to the school week!