Xela

You'll all be pleased to hear that we are now officially in the country, and also have officially exited Mexico (though never entered it which really is very impressive).  Once J was more mobile, we moved from our Couchsurf host's sofa where we had been enjoying some very nice food, and trundled back to the border to set things straight.  We had to pay Mexico a bit to get it all worked out, but the whole operation was an experience  We wandered, confused and fairly freely, between the two countries, presenting guards with stories like 'We just need to nip into your country for some money, we're coming right back' which, despite being true sounds rather weak and would not convince anyone.  Meanwhile under the bridge in plain view dozens of people (those without any kind of passport or our privileged treatment as obvious tourists) walk the river, packs held high on their backs.  The guards don't react or even watch- there's no way to make a quick quetzal or peso in it for them most likely.  Certainly this was all the Guatemalan woman who tried to charge us imaginary fees for entering her country seemed interested in (we avoided them by very convincingly appearing very stupid).

Things shut early in Guatemala and we missed the last bus back to Quetzaltenango (hereafter referred to as Xela.  The names are interchangeable and Xela- pronounced Shayla- is easier to type), but found a very cheap hotel and were back the next day just in time to get pounced on in the street by our Arizona friends.  We had known they were in town but hadn't been able to meet up.  It was a lucky chance encounter as we were able to spend the evening with them before some more sad goodbyes as they head back north, a direction we try to avoid.

Mexico is famously more rich and 'developed' (whatever that really means.  Same as richest perhaps?) than Central America.  You actually do see it, at least in this part of Guatemala, though it starts north of the border in Chiapas and Oaxaca.  The state of the roads, the amount of children working or begging, the way the ayudantes (conductors/shouters/loaders on the most common form of public transport, converted USA school buses known as Chicken Buses) play an even more enthusiastic game of human Tetris and of convincing you that you REALLY want to go the way they are going.

J no longer limping, we had arranged a 45km trek from Xela to Lake Atitlan, with Quetzaltrekkers.  We knew the profits go to local kids, but the organisation is really worth a mention.  They fund a school, with dormitories for those who live further out of town, and were only started as a way to do this (rather than the charity being tacked on as a second thought once someone is making a profit).  They're also totally volunteer run and non-hierarchically organised, the guides volunteering at the time making all the decisions.  We'd recommend them to anyone interested in hiking trips in this part of the world, or those who are into hiking already and want to volunteer somewhere that sounds like a lot of fun.  Even if you don't have great spanish, if you have a bit of money and time this is no problem in Guatemala.  The country has really made a name for itself as a great place to learn spanish and schools are everywhere, of every shape size and level of cost.  Xela in particular is full of them, and other volunteer organisations.  A lot of international travelers are here and getting involved.  It's a city full of people from all round the world (including someone we already knew, from London, proving that world is small).  In some ways its like a giant hostel, and whilst its nice for a change we're glad we don't always travel this way as it can get oddly samey no matter where you are and it gets too easy to just spend time with other young English-speakers.  But its also full of energy for genuinely interesting projects like Quetzaltrekkers or PLQ language school and very lovely people full of ideas.

Ruminating all this (and some slightly suspect hot sandwiches, which was not pleasant) we set forth with our two guides and small band of co-hikers.  We covered 20km the first day, past fields of corn

bamboo forests and gorgeous views.  The trek price includes all food and accomodation, and we picnicked in the hills before staying that night in a municipal building in an almost deserted village.  Hurricane Mitch hit the town and caused half the population to leave, destroying buildings and infrastructure in the process.  What remains is like a ghost town, made all the more eerie by the fact some people still live there.  But some of them run a temazcal sauna, traditional Mayan steam baths, and we all got to take one that evening.  It was amazingly cleansing and felt very good on the day's aches and pains although we were very scared of burning ourselves on the low tin roof.

The next day we set off early and covered another 20km.  Almost needless to say, the views remained spectacular

and the hike was challenging but satisfying.

That night we stayed with a local family, who have been housing Quetzaltrekkers Trekkers for seven years.  They made us amazingly welcome, with a delicious meal, smoothies and a song and dance show by the kids of both local and popular songs, which could not have been cuter.  There was also a cat, which always makes C happy.  We also toasted marshmallows on a fire and the family were playing some Christmas songs.  The whole evening was very cosy and everyone discussed Christmas in their country.  Did you know the traditional Czech Christmas dinner is deep fried carp?  (Though our Czech guide is not a fan...)  Or that in the States they have one TV channel playing nothing for weeks but a picture of a Yule Log fire so that if you don't have one you can watch it on TV instead?

Here in Guatemala, Christmas is in full swing, much more than in Mexico.  There are lights and decorations everywhere and at least one huge tree in every town, though because they are mostly sponsored by the beer company which has almost total monopoly here and is called Gallo ('rooster'), they are mostly topped by a gigantic rotating chicken.

This is actually rather appropriate.  As far as we can tell, chicken is the national religion.  When they're not being eaten (and they do not have a lot of spare time from that) they are advertising other products (the beer a case in point, also seen on electronics stores...) and appearing in lots of imagery (one pueblo even had a statue, there was one of Jesus but it was much smaller and hidden away).  When a Guatemalan chicken fast food place opened in Los Angeles, ex-pat Guatemalans from across the States queued around the block.  We tried it tonight but don't have much to report that you couldn't guess about fast food chicken.

After the kids at our host family had taught J a dance, we took an early night as we were up at 4am.  This was to hike the short distance to a viewpoint to watch the sun rise over Lake Atitlan.

We breakfasted on porridge and coffee and relaxed for a while watching the views until descending the hills to the towns which surround the lake.  Some of it is beautiful to look at, but the sight of the rising waters engulfing peoples' homes and livelihoods is horrible.

Not surprisingly, this is most likely due to human society.  Lake Atitlan has no overground entrances or exits for water, only submerged tunnels which were once lava flows when it was a super volcano.  Pollution is not only causing the layers of thick algae, but probably clogging these tunnels and thus raising the water level.

We passed a lot of coffee plants and people picking them.  Maybe we're especially ignorant, but we never knew a coffee bean growing looks like this:

and is juicy, almost like a grape though not that soft.  They start green and then turn this red by the time they are picked.  It's weird how little you know about things you use all the time.

Several resort towns edge the lake (hotels and bars of course safely higher up than low income farms) and our trek finished with lunch in one of these, before we wished everyone goodbye and good luck on their varied and exciting travels and jumped on a Chicken Bus back to Xela (after J had got her papaya fix.  It's turning into a worse problem than the iced coffee).  Sadly, our bus was not a happy bus.  It broke down three times and we ended up squashed into a minibus (C not so squashed but clinging onto the back) and almost two hours late back.  We are here though, and taking a night and morning off before joining another interesting-sounding project in the area.  More on that next week...