Partly in response to Mr Arsey from Brighton, though i can´t imagine who it might be, and partly because i have a story to tell i will recount the events of the past few days.....we are in Xela(Quetzeltenango) wandering around looking for places we thought looked interesting in Lonely Planet. It was a cafe that showed films in the evening and we wanted to check the schedule, nothing interesting though but on the otherside of the street was a doorway with signs advertising shuttle buses, tours and that sort of thing for tourists....anyway as we are and are looking to move on soon we had a look at what was on offer. It soon became apparent that the girl in the office didn´t speak a lot of English and we don´t speak too much Spanish, well i don´t too well but Siobhan is racing ahead with the lessons we brought along......to cut a long story short we paid up for what we thought was a civilised three day trip in a coach or at least a minibus with trips to volcanos and lakes and eventually ending up at Lake Atitlan for a relaxing week or so.............

.......we should have became a little more suspicious as the only thing we did get from our short meeting at the office was be back here at 6am tomorrow and bring 4 litres of water each.....we paid little attention to these two facts as we ate our pizzas and drank our wine that night and looked forward to being shipped around the countryside to various beauty spots. Arrived at 6am at the office with our supply of water and all our belongings. It turned out our big bags could be shipped on to the lake to wait for us in three days time so we quickly sorted out what we thought we would need for three days on the bus....i forgot to mention we got up at 5 and were ten minutes early to the office in our enthusiasm to get going all fresh faced in the cold early morning.
We actually came to Xela on the recommendation of Pamela and Fernando because they told us how cool the city was and that there was a wicked museum that we should really check out....the museum turned out to be closed until February. We also heard about an amazing vegetarian and vegan resteraunt at the top of "an arduous ten minute climb" from Lonely Planet....it was Monday, we did the climb, searched for the place for an hour and eventually found out it was closed on Mondays, a fact Lonely Planet failed to mention.....so Xela was rapidly becoming a washout (not really though as it is a beautiful place) So there we were outside the office at 5.50am, then it got to 6.15 and no one showed and later and later and the sun was coming up and it was getting light and we were there thinking not again and laughing deleriously looking at our breath in the cold....then a guy arrived and let us in at around 6.30...it was on, we were actually going on the trip...a few more people arrived and a minivan pulled up and we were all set; Andy, Kristy, Ben....from the States and Eduardo who was to be our guide....introductions over and we said goodbye to our big bags thinking it might be the last time we saw them (we should stop thinking the worst all the time...). The sun was coming up as we headed out of town and towards the hills, the others began to fill us in on what we were actually going to do which seemed to involve a lot of walking....how much we were soon to find out as the van ride was pretty short and we pulled up on a dirt track in a small village at the bottom of a massive looking hill....that was as far as the ride was going, the rest was to be on foot!
40 km was the distance to the lake...and it was anything but flat, mainly a track up and over the mountains which seperate Xela from Lake Atitlan....there was frost on the ground, i was wearing my new etnies sal barbiers, jeans and a hooded top, Siobhan was on a similar level of being prepared for hiking and we set off up the trail.....steep became steeper which soon became climbing, up and up we went through the forest and into the clouds.....out of breath and hurting within ten minutes it began to sink in that we were going to be doing this for the next 9 hours....now that is a funny story Mr Arsey, from sitting and doing nothing for three weeks in Puerto Escondido to having a pretty rough time of it with the Flu since New Year here we were struggling up a mountain in the icy cold wearing nothing you could call recommended hiking gear....this story is a long one, the hike was longer but it soon became the best thing we could have done, the only way we could have got to see the things we saw in those three days.
About 20 minutes up the mountain and Eduardo pointed over a ridge to our right to a groing plume of white cloud...it was a volcano and it was erupting, 10 times a day though but i never saw anything like it....a few minutes later and we were being passed by some pretty old looking men in the bright traditional clothes you see a lot in town and they had huge bundles of wood on their heads strapped on round the forehead....coming down from who knows where at some speed....buenas dias as they passed, everyone has time for a greeting it seems even if they have half a ton of wood balanced on their head coming down a near vertical slope with bare feet...putting our wheezing, struggling and now sweating selves to shame. It was the most excercise iv´e had in a while and we were only half an hour away from the mini van and basecamp!!!
The top was hot and as it turned out pretty flat for a while, flat in comparison to our mountainous climb anyway....Eduardo´s idea of flat being a little different from anyone else´s....
It was rolling hills and dusty roads through farm land and small windswept villages for a while which was really nice as far as exertion levels and pretty interesting to see....kids working the land, a big hollow tree that looked ancient and Eduardo said witches used it for somekind of rituals, it was all burnt out inside and it was pretty barren around it, we moved on with the promise of easy terrain from now on and lunch in a couple of hours.
Trees up ahead broke the barren landscape and it seemed the land was about to change, there we were at the top of a mountain...you could see peaks of volcanoes in the distance and Eduardo pointed out where the lake was, behind some pretty fierce looking mountains way off in the distance....time for a breather and our water was going down and we finished off the remains of our pizza from last night ......then it was downhill from there, downhill it was, steep and winding and rocky and slippy with dust...we were sweating and hot and filthy like we had rolled through the dirt instead of the slow walk we were expecting....easy it definately wasn´t but i was getting into it.....actually there was no choice, we were in it till the end..........down and down we went and the bottom seemed to get no closer...through trees, hummingbirds, huge butterflies and then patches of cornfields....the corn was high, higher than i´ve ever seen, like 15 feet high but on steep dusty patches between the trees.....still we descended...i thought down was going to be easy but it was a lot harder than climbing....it was 40km but zig zagging up and down mountains it was feeling like 400......made up for by the view though.....amazing, i think some of this might be a bit different to Siobhan´s account, the pain was increasing and we were joking about how our stories were going to vary when we put it all down at the end.....as it all turned out and with hindsight and the slow recovery we both agreed how amazing the whole thing was...right now though we were both ready to give up and catch a bus or something, the only problem was we were on an overgrown trail that seemed to disappear at times and there was no chance of giving up or even rescue from our isolated mountain trail.
We came accross coffee plantations amongst the woods, little homes and families living in what seemed the middle of nowhere, this trail was their link to the rest of the world and the way they transported their produce on foot to the markets or buyers in the towns....we were pretty priveledged to witness how these people live...Eduardo filling us in on the details of what we were seeing with the help of Ben who was translating and also doing research for his anthropology doctorate at the same time so he was super knowledgeable about Guatemala and its history, geography, language...everything, so we were in the best hands between them.......
Lunch was prepared by Eduardo....bread, onions, tomato, avocado....crisps, all carried by him along with two tents, all his stuff and cooking gear, crammed into two rucksacks strapped together on his back....his speed was amazing, always in front and waiting for us, despite the steepness of the trail and the weight on his back....Eduardo rules and i gotta recommend his tour to anyone. Along a ridge and it was getting close to the end of the first day, an easy slope down to a river where we were set to camp....the hill was the worst part of the whole day, steeper than steep and super dusty and slippery, through trees and moving rocks down and down and never seeming to end, everyone was absolutely filthy and knackered by now....even Eduardo who seemed to be slowing down a little but then he was loaded up beyond beleif.....we finally made it and Eduardo set to collecting wood and setting up the tents and building a fire as we all tried to stop shaking and sweating and get our bags off and shoes and tend to our blisters and all that.....it was so good to stop...i had been focused on that moment for the last painful hours and it was heaven when it finally came....dinner of more bread and coffee and cheese and carrotts for us vegetarians....pot noodles for the rest and then sleeeeeeppppp.............

(Siobhans bit . . . )

For dinner that first night I'd had a pile of beans with a cheese slice on top. This was because it was the only food put directly within reach of where I was sitting and I couldn't move. There was the promise of onions and tomatoes and more in a bag about 4 feet from me... too far.... can't move......
We went to sleep all hoping that somehow we'd be able to walk up the steep mountain right infront of our camp in the morning. And amazingly we did it too. Until we'd done that first hour of climbing back up through the fields I had still had the thought that if on a rare road I see a chicken bus I was just going to jump onto it and get there the easy way. Some would consider that quitting; I consider it common sense. But after the morning of the second day it was the point of no return, we'd done the truly steep painful up and down and we'd been promised it would be as bad again. Although I agree that Eduardos version of 'flat' doesn't translate well, but things were looking more hopeful. We were very lucky we had him there to explain what we were doing... we came across a town committee meeting in the middle of the steep climb and there was a suspicion that we were prospector searching for gold. One look at my beetroot face could have told them that all I was looking for was more air and a taxi.
The second days lunch was the best moment of the whole thing. It was cooked by this sweet amazing family that lived high on one of the hills we were walking by. There were loads of kids all loving my digital camera so much, I have about 40 pictures of them all. The tortillas they made tasted so amazing! We stayed there for an hour just taking it all in, then we had to head off. We walked through some towns, then, finally, got our first view of the lake! Wow, we were so out of it by then, walking like zombies, gurning our way down the windy road to our campsight over the lake.
Dinner that night was a feast in comparison to the night before - spagetti and tomato sauce - a taste sensation. The final day we were up for the sunrise over the lake and had a 3 hour decent into the town. Couldn't believe it when we got to the restaurant in the town and sat there back in the middle of the touristy world again.

Here are some views along the way . .. .

moooo
A rare bit of flat
The view from the camp, day 1
Sunset over the lake, day 2
Don't lean back, day 2 camp
Sunrise over the lake, day 3
On the other side: deranged smiles of the weak and battered.