this wild and precious life
welcoming visitors, hiking, and nerds clusters motivation
December saw not one, but two rounds of visitors! I was so grateful to host my family over Christmas and then my friend Maya over New Year’s.
It definitely was a lot balancing being the translator, travel planner, and just a pcv on vacation seeing their fam for the first time in 9 months! However, totally vale la pena as we had an awesome time. We hiked a volcano, learned how to make Guatemalan dishes at cooking class, explored lake towns, and spent quality time together in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
Christmas was truly special as it was the big family crossover day! My host family graciously welcomed my entire fam into their home for a marimba performance, dancing, and cake. My host brother Toni and his marimba band performed the classics of Guate, with a little Despacito and Christmas songs sprinkled into the private concert performance. We exchanged gifts with my host family, with the top items being Warriors merch, San Lucas traje, and a microwave. Before lunch at the hotel, I took my family to see a bit of the famous “convite navideño” of San Lucas, which features dancers in costume suits as they perform around town. We shared a lovely lunch at Hotel Tolimán with my host family and then headed back to San Antonio for mass and one final night at the lake all together.
Isn’t my host sister Ale the absolute cutest???
I’m so grateful to my fam, not only for coming all the way down to Guatemala and visiting, but for all the support, love, and courier services they have offered (and continue to!).
Once the fam headed back to the states, my friend Maya arrived! We journeyed from Antigua back to the lake and spent the night in San Pedro. We were also together when we found out the legend himself, Jimmy Carter, had passed. We owe Jimmy a lot of thanks, not only for his tireless efforts through The Carter Center to promote global health and peace, but also for bringing together a group of friends through this workplace. I can’t imagine Atlanta without my experience at TCC and the friends I made through it - and let’s not forget the great Geese eviction attempt and all the hilarious memes made of it.
“Wherever life takes us, there are always moments of wonder.” - JC
A rare dry season rain couldn’t keep us from going out. The next day, we hiked up the mirador in San Juan and explored all the town has to offer. After, we continued our transiting journey with a long walk, a lancha, and a pick up to San Lucas.
We headed to El Paredón the next day - which is only 2.5 hours from San Lucas! This beach town is popular among surfers and backpackers, so there was quite the crowd for New Year’s. The beach party we went to had a DJ, performers, and lots of bombas of course. No hangxiety when we got to spend the next day recovering on the beach. I’ll definitely be going back to Paredon, especially this fall when it is turtle hatching season
Maya and I then headed back to Antigua to do what she really came for - the Acatenango hike.
This hike was the hardest I had done (this quickly changed the following week with the Atitlan hike). The route up was tough as there are hardly any switchbacks and it’s steep for the first 3 hours. We made it up poco a poco, with lots of breaks. We were elated to finally make it to base camp only to find that our view of the active volcano was completely obstructed by clouds. We retired to our cabin to rest and wait to see if the clouds cleared. Spoiler alert: they didn’t. We did not have the option to hike closer to fuego and we only got to see a bit of lava at night when the clouds did give us some breaks. The bad weather persisted and meant that we also couldn’t summit Acatenango for sunrise. We did wake up to some clearer views of fuego, a small parting gift! Maya and I felt a bit underwhelmed by our hike and so after convincing the guides, they let those of us who wanted to attempt the summit. They were honest in that we probably wouldn’t have good views, but Maya and I were more in it for the glory of saying we did actually summit. This part of the hike was even harder for me, as the first 30 minutes were steep and sandy, making my calves burn and leaving me feeling like I was barely making any progress. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and willing myself forward until we finally reached the cloudy summit.
Then came the fun 2.5 hour descent down and all the leg soreness a hike can leave you with. What I thought was the hardest hike of my life, was quickly usurped by Volcan Atitlán just a week later.
After staring at it out my window for over 7 months, I figured it was finally time to tackle the tallest volcano on the lake. We planned to camp it so that we could enjoy sunset and sunrise. This meant lots of prep to make sure we brought enough food, water, and layers.
We loaded up our bags early Saturday morning and set off for “La Playa” - the start of the trailhead from the San Lucas side. We set off with Jorge as our guide. Jorge is my friend Alejandro’s original host dad, whose family owns a terreno on Atitlán. This meant that he started hiking up Atitlan from a very young age, and he made it look easy while carrying the bulk of our stuff.
I knew the hike would be long, but I didn’t realize just how hard it would be. It was like Acatenango in terms of steepness, but even longer. We did over 5,500 ft of elevation gain to get to the top
The trail on the San Lucas side is not the best maintained. We took a slight detour off the trail into a ravine, but with Guatemalan ingenuity and some ropes, we made it out without having to backtrack. A quick jaunt through someone’s coffee finca and we were back on the main trail.
After a stop for lunch and chugging a red bull, I was feeling energized for the last 3 hours. Nerds clusters were a big motivation for the final section that was craggy, volcanic rock. The summit was so close, but so far.
6 hours and 40 minutes later (including breaks), I arrived at the summit and felt all the gratification that it provides. I must’ve paid my cloudy dues on Acatenango, as we had clear skies and one of the prettiest sunset views I’ve ever seen. Since Atitlán sits at 11,598 feet, we had views of all the surrounding volcanoes - Acatenango, Fuego, Santa María, Zunil, Tolimán, and San Pedro. It made all the hard work and grit feel worth it.
When the sun set, the stars and even a bit of lava from Fuego erupting in the distance were visible. If it wasn’t so cold and windy, I would’ve spent all night outside just gazing.
We woke up to a cold, but clear sunrise. The sun rose right over Fuego, making the eruptions have the most gorgeous splash of color behind them. We could even see headlamps on Acatenango as groups hiked up to that summit for sunrise.
We packed up camp and began the descent down. I quickly learned that my new hiking boots and I did no cae bien as blisters began to develop all over my feet. This made the way down almost as hard as the way up. By the end, I had never wanted to be off a volcano so badly. Shoutout Ailis for providing me some clutch flip flops to throw on immediately once we got down.
Thank yous have to go out to Jorge, our guide who never left us and always encouraged us. Special thank you to red bull, nerds clusters, and Alejandro for carrying the litro de quetzalteca (it just tastes better at the summit).
We kept the trend natural and went to see the quetzales the following weekend. These majestic creatures are the national bird of Guatemala and even have the currency named after them. My host brothers, other San Lucas homies, and I loaded up in a pick up at 5am to make it to the tree they love on time. We hiked for about 30 minutes and saw a gorgeous sunrise. The Quetzal is a delicate creature that can’t drink water straight from the source - they require a specific tree and drink water from its leaves as it’s caught. They are impressive to see in person - their tails are super long and change color depending on the sunlight! We saw 4 different birds, including 2 males courting a female.
I am constantly in awe of the natural beauty here. I never get tired of waking up to Volcanoes out one window and the lake out the other. To quote one of my faves, life really does feel “wild and precious” (Mary Oliver). Wild for all the new experiences I can aprovechar and precious for how hospitable the Guatemalan people are, and how blessed I feel with the community I am part off. I promise I don’t take for granted all the natural majesty that surrounds me. Especially for a girl from the Arkansas delta, simply seeing this much elevation change makes me pause and sit in the wonder.
Here’s to wonder and awe and to finding it in what surrounds us.
can you know the promised land without also knowing the wilderness?
Love! Thank you for a beautiful time together! Love you Iz!