Guatemala - Xela and the hike Pictures page 1 of 4

Guatemala!!!!!! My first traditional Guatemalan feast! With chicken, black beans, rice, onions, and beets. Yummy! Let me back up just a second. Getting to Guatemala. The country guides and web sites suggest that when you arrive in the airport and need to take a taxi, you approach a taxi stand and have a taxi brought for you since random taxi's found on the street may be dangerous. Sound advice. However, when we arrived in the airport, as we exited customs, we entered a large, mostly empty room. It contained: barricades to the left and right with hundreds of people waiting behind, signs for transportation pointing to nonexistant exits, and an exit straight ahead with a crowd of people waiting behind. So we walked out the door, milling through the crowd, bombarded by "Antigua, Antigua!" "Flores! Flores!" "Panajachel! Panajachel!" "Where you want to go?" and so on. We never found any taxi stands or any official looking transportation options. But we did find a nice old man with an "official taxi" sign around his neck, which apparently worked just as well for us. And with that, we were on our way to the Linea Dorada bus station in a bad part of town. The ride through Guatemala City was eye opening. There were roads with huge chunks ripped out in the middle and cars whizzing by on either side. There was a lot of garbage, but some great architecture and intrigue. There was also a Taco Bell (and Pizza Hut, McDonalds, etc). The bus to Xela was slow, with a lot of lengthy traffic jams, but we made it no worse for the wear. The colorful restaurant decor We had some time to waste in Xela before needing to get back for our hike overview meeting, so we explored a bit and found a procession going on at the central park. Apparently this is a yearly procession by the students against the government/military? Lots of people! VIDEO TIME! Procession 1 (2,026 KB) VIDEO TIME! Procession 2 - Most in the procession wear masks to cover their faces (1,208 KB) VIDEO TIME! Procession 3 - But I guess some don't care! (1,433 KB) Rise and shine, time to go hiking! This room had 6 beds in it, and thats about it. Was nice though. Our hike is through the Quetzaltrekkers, a great organization that employs volunteer guides for a variety of hikes in Guatemala and Nicaragua with proceeds going to local needs, in our case a school in Xela that provides education for a lot of children in remote villages that have no other educational opportunities Although the hike is usually for a group of 8-12 people, we had 25 people, so they split us into two groups that would hike about an hour apart, but we ultimated stayed at the same spots each night Grounds of the hostel We started the hike across town to the chicken bus pickup - this was a monument in the central park The Church of the Holy Spirit Long building VIDEO TIME! Efficient unloading! (599 KB) On the chicken bus to a small town outside Xela The local women often carry large loads on their head And so we started hiking We began with a pretty steady climb until late morning Through the fields Resting spot I think this was the high point for our hike at about 10000 feet, on the way up and down to Lake Atitlan at 6000 feet. Guest photographer Andrea (yet she's in the photo! Shazam!) had this great capture of the whole crew Just for Jen Onward to the cloud forest The cloud playing on the hillside This flowering plant grows on a variety of trees To Page 2 To Page 3 To Page 4 Back to pics