I've been looking forward to going hiking in Guatemala ever since I saw a poster for a mountain trek in our language school in San Cristobal. It was a poster for a 6 day hike in the Guatemalan highlands through a non-profit company, Quetzaltrekkers, and I've just got back so thought I'd write about my experiences.
The trek I went on is advertised as a 6 day hike from Nebaj to Todos Santos (although in reality it's more like 5.5 days, with 4 days of trekking and 1.5 days of travel to and from Xela). Honestly, I picked this particular hike more on the duration then anything else - it was the longest one they offered and I really felt like a challenge! So I left Xela with my trek group on 21/4, while Maryanne headed back to Antigua.
We started off with a decent pancake & fruit breakfast in the Quetzaltrekker office, while we met all the members of the group. For my hike, I had 2 guides, John & Brendan, and 4 other hikers - Yens & Dorian (German), Marie-Eve (Canadian) and an Isreali guy who I won't name here. The first day was spent on chicken buses between Xela and Nebaj, which was my first experience with a suicidally competitive driver who was determined to overtake another chicken bus on the blind mountainous curves. I should have been terrified, but since there was absolutely nothing I could do about it, it was really just funny.
We got into Nebaj mid afternoon. It was bigger than I expected, and really quite pretty. It's tucked away between some lush green hills, which hide away the dumpiness of the buildings. We stayed that night at a hostel (perhaps the only one in Nebaj?), and had a decent home-cooked spaghetti and salad dinner. Most of us were dead tired - so we tackled a half-hearted game of scrabble (with Spanish words allowed) before crashing for the night.
The next morning we woke at a respectable time for another pancake breakfast. After loading up our packs with more water & food, we hit the trail, eager to get started. The trail started as a road through Nebaj, then turned into a dirt road, then a small mountain track. It climbed quickly and steadily! About 30 mins into the climb we lost one member of our group - the Isreali. He claimed the altitude was making it impossible for him to go on, but we all just suspected he'd underestimated the trek. Honestly, I was kinda glad when someone turned back - it gave me a really strong motivation not to give up when the rest of the trek got hard!
One member lighter, we finished the climb over the first hill and descended to a little town called Acul. To me, it looked like what I imagine the Swiss Alps look like. There was a little farm there that we bought some fresh cheese from and relaxed a while admiring the countryside. We passed a new-born calf struggling to stand, and a local farmer digging a grave for another cow... Another short walk later and we stopped for lunch beside a little creek. We kept hearing the taunting strains from an icecream truck, but when it finally passed us, no-one was sure exactly what it was so we missed out on that. The rest of the day was a fairly gentle climb through some more small villages, until our destination for the day, Xexucom.
I loved Xexucom. It's a really tiny farming community, and unlike a lot of villages here, it's spotlessly clean. We stayed the night on the floor of a community hall, and had dinner & a tamascal (basically a local version of a sauna) at a local teacher's house. We went to sleep this night surrounded by thousands of stars and a perfectly quiet night.
The second day of hiking began at 3am with a horrendous climb up a mountain next to the village. Honestly, I really struggled with this part of the trek. By the time we got to our breakfast break I was stopping nearly every minute to regain my breath and build up determination to tackle the next switchback. But, I pushed through it and made it to breakfast, and an awesome view of the sunrise over the mountains. It felt so good to get rid of my pack and have a hot drink. While we sat and ate, the fog from the valleys gradually lifted to our level, so for the rest of the morning we were trekking through fog-shrouded forests. I loved it. When we got to the top of the mountain, we were surrounded by weird stone formations. I kept expecting to be attacked by an army of orcs or something, it was so much like something from Lord of the Rings. Most of the rest of the day was a gentle walk along the mountaintop, passing through fantastic scenery, and feeling very accomplished for making it through a morning I'd been dreading.
At the end of the day, we scrambled down a dusty dirt path to the village of Canton Primero - nicknamed Canton Basuro by the guides because it's one of the trashiest places ever. We slept in a local school house, surrounded by garbage, dust and sheep. If you don't like roughing it, this night would be hell.
I barely slept at all, and was glad when the sun finally rose and we got up to start the next day. The third day of the trek turned out to be my favourite - after making it through the climb the day before, I felt invincible and tackled the morning's climb without any problem. This day, we passed by lots of small shepherd and farming communities on the mountain top. It was almost exactly what I'd always pictured South America would be like for me - walking along beside stone fences on a mountaintop, all rugged up to protect against a light rain. The day climaxed with a short, but very steep climb called 'The Hill of Terror'. It wasn't too bad since the guides had talked it up a lot, and it was easy to see the top and know just how far was left to climb. At the end of the day, we jumped in a van to skip ahead to our night's accommodation (a basement at a local family's house), and another sauna. Dinner was made by the family, beans, rice & tortillas.
The last day of trekking started with the hardest breakfast I've ever had to eat - beans, tortillas, rice and cold coffee. I had to force down every bite of it. I'm pretty sure this is the worst type of food you can eat in the morning - I need my cereal & milk! I've realised by now I hate corn tortillas.
Anyway, we we're all pretty eager to get underway and make it up the last climb of the trek, La Torre. Apparently this is the highest non-volcanic point in Central America. It was a pretty tough climb, but we'd been through worse by now! At the top we were fogged in unfortunately, so didn't get to see the view. I got hit by a massive wave of tiredness and just felt like sleeping on top of the mountain. But we had to descend down a steep slippery path down the other side of the mountain to Todos Santos. The scenery became really lush green forest, and again we were fogged in.
Half way down we stopped for the worst lunch ever - leftovers from breakfast. I fed my tortilla to a dog which was following us. I hate tortillas & beans.
Just after lunch, and about 2 hours from Todos Santos, we got stuck in a massive downpour. We had no choice but to push on through, past locals calling to us and giggling from the safety of their windows. Finally we made it to the language school were we spent the night, and a dry change of clothes...
The last day was nothing really special, we woke at 5am to catch buses back to Xela. By the time we got back we were all pretty zombiefied and ready for clean clothes & a hot shower.
So I made it through all 4 days of hiking. I think I did alright, considering my level of fitness and experience. It makes me feel much better knowing that some people can't handle the trek and have to turn back. For me, the morning of the 2nd day was definitely the hardest. After I got through that I coped fine. All in all, it was a great experience, I saw some awesome countryside and saw a lot of things I'd never get a chance to see any other way. Quetzaltrekkers do a great job - I've got no complaints with them or how they run things, and I'd highly recommended them to anyone else who's interested!
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