Follow the Journey

Hello family, friends, and concerned parents and grandparents, we have had a great time during our second half of being in Xela. All of us continued with our one on one spanish lessons in the morning and cultural activites in the afternoon. We worked closely with Christian, one of the men who works at the school, who helped organize all of our activities. He facilitated a cooking class one day where the group made some delicious food. The next day we all met at Kaqchikel Tours, the trekking company, and learned what we were in store for at the end of the week. Eduardo, the very friendly owner of the company, informed us that we would be hiking 12 miles the first day, 10 miles the second day, and a meek eight miles the third. We were all very excited. The day after we hiked up to a little school with a crazy view where we played soccer and drew pictures with little children. The next day was our final day of spanish class, it was a bittersweet feeling, for most of us connected very well with our teachers. During the break we had cake and each of us said a few words to the whole school, while Christian presented us with handmade Casa Xelahu bracelets. Afterwards we had the chance to go to the sauna, but only Noah, Taylor, and myself took advantage of this opportunity. After a ride in the chicken bus and a little van, we arrived at a beautiful bathhouse with hot air from the earth spewing into each room. It was very relaxing, especially with 12 miles of trekking in the morning.

In the morning, all of us arose swiftly around five and walked ourselves to the trekking place at six. We met up with Eduardo and unpacked all of the things we wouldnt need in the next three days. The weight dropped was quickly countered as we stuffed bags of food inside our packs and strapped tents and sleeping pads to the outside. The majority of us settled into a van where we would drive to the point at which we would begin to walk. Everyone was handed a pancake and a box of syrupy juice. Slowly but surely, we started up to the Mirador, where we would eat breakfast, but because we were moving so slow, we stopped early. After breakfast, we struggled on for a few more hours through the jungle, and   took a quick siesta and ate bologna sandwiches for lunch. Slowly we got going again, but sadly, our hike was cut short because of the rain and we could no longer camp that night. Instead of going the extra 4 kilometers, we stayed in a little concrete house in a small village for the night. During our stay, we were offered a sauna so you better believe Noah, Taylor, Tyler, and I took advantage. We had a nice spaghetti dinner and tried to get some sleep to make up for the lost time.

We awoke at 5:30 for a 6:00 departure, but someone decided that it would be better to leave 40 minutes late so we could be more than four hours behind schedule. We hiked through some more jungle and to the river (where we were supposed to camp the night before) and took a lengthy break. It was then we decided to split the group up. Some would ride in a pickup truck and the rest would hike the rest to the Lunch spot. An hour later on the sunbaked road, we finally arrived, with the Pick Up Sticks no where to be seen. We decided to keep moving without them toward the campsite. An hour or so later we found ourselves in a cute, little town center and had learned that the Pick Up Sticks were infact still stuck on the side of the road, for no pick up truck had stopped, plus other vehicular difficulties. Because of that, we would not be able to camp, yet again. We walked another 20 minutes to another small house where we would stay the night. Upon entrance, we claimed beds and the Pick Up Sticks showed up, which is when we had a well deserved dinner. Eduardo told us his riveting story of being an illegal immigrant in the United States. We all went to bed pretty early because of the 5:00 departure for the sunrise breakfast at the Mirador in the morning, where most of us would do the final leg of the trek. The view was breathetaking. We had a cookie and fruit breakfast before heading down to San Juan, where we took a speedy boatride across the lake to our wonderful hostel with beds and (mostly) hot water.

$tay $chemin

Petey