Trekking from Xela to Lago Atitlan - Part 2

Day 2

Wake up at 6 am. I get my blisters dressed by Lotti and we go with the no pop option in hopes that if the skin stays intact this gives me better chances of not getting them infected. I guess this means I’m continuing on this hike. The first steps I take after putting those horrid shoes back on are amazingly painful. Just walking down the street to a local comedor for breakfast is quite an effort. Again I think “Oh no. I’ve made a mistake”. Breakfast is eggs, frijoles, tortillas, something like a pancake, battered plantain and some very sweet coffee/tea. We are given some rice and beans for lunch by the ladies at the comedor and are soon on our way. We follow a road around the side of a mountain, offering some pretty good views, and walk through some fields to find ourselves at the base of record hill. I know that the bit of walking I’ve just done was pretty easy but every step I’m taking is painful. Record hill however, that is not easy. The current record is something like 8 minutes (Santi used to hold the record at 8 minutes something). We are told that if you are just casually walking up the hill it should take you about 20 minutes. This makes the hill sound deceptively easy. It’s not. Alex splits off from me to see what kind of time he can get. He makes a good 17 minutes. The Germans are around 14 minutes and the Israelis are somewhere in-between. I crawl in at about 30 minutes with Caitlin and Lotti just behind me. There are rules to Record Hill, like you’re not allowed to dump all your water before going up, but I’m not sure of the rest.

Blisters all dressed and ready to go

Having a rest before attempting Record Hill

View from the top of Record Hill. That little bridge in the blown up area is the official start point. 

After what is a very quick rest for me but a leisurely rest for almost everyone else we head further up the hill, through some cornfields and then make it to a little tienda (shop) in a village where we can purchase hard earned ice-creams and other snacks. I am later told that it’s at this point that they lose a lot of people to blisters as it’s the only point that day where a bus can come pick you up. Somehow I power on after the ice-cream, sometimes just wanting to cry. Soon after the tienda we stop for lunch in a nice clearing on the side of the track. Lunch is rice, frijoles, tortillas, left over veggies and corn chips. This is an amazing lunch break, everyone fits in a nap. After this we soon come to a river crossing. There will be 8 more river crossings so we swap our trainers for sandals, giving my feet some relief. The river is cold but soothing. Not long after the river crossing we come to the part I had been dreading all day “The Cornfield of Death”. I had been told this was quite easy, again, not so. While it only lasts for a relevantly short amount of time, 15 minutes maybe, it’s pretty damn vertical. I was climbing with my hands at some points. However, we all survived the cornfield of death and then just had to walk along a paved road to Don Pedro’s House (the nicest man in the world). 

An example of the views we were getting

Me crossing one of the rivers with Santi watching over me

Pro Hiker

The Start of the Cornfield of Death

Cornfield of Death Views

View from the main road leading to Don Pedro's House

There is a cold shower here; a ready-to-serve smoothie and a huge dinner of veggies, chicken, rice and you guessed it: frijoles. After dinner we road marshmallows around a fire and this time Alex and I join in on the card games. We play Yarniv, an Israeli card game that none of the Israelis seem to be able to win. Then it’s back to bed in the same room we had dinner in, although now the dinner table has been removed and there’s straw mats on the ground for everyone to sleep on.

Day 3

We wake up at 3am and start hiking at 3:30am. I decide to wear my sandals for this part as it’s just along a road, my feet need it. About 15 minutes along the road we are met by two police officers who escort us for the rest of the trek (there have been incidents of robberies in past around here). After about 45 minutes we make it to the Mirador where we settle in our sleeping bags to watch the sunrise over the lake. While we are settling down one of the volcanoes on the other side of the lake erupts and we actually see some lava spewing out of it. I think it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. The sunrise is amazing and makes you feel like it was all worth it. There’s dark smoke slowly rolling out of the volcano. We have a breakfast of oatmeal mixed with nuts, peanut butter and jam; it’s surprisingly good. I put those horrible shoes back on again and hobbled around the Mirador until it was time to go.  From here it was mostly downhill all the way to San Juan at the Lake. I’m not good at downhill at the best of times and my feet were in agony so it took me a pretty long time to get to the bottom. At one of our breaks on the way down we were told about a local legend for the volcanoes. There are three volcanoes surrounding Lake Atitlan, San Pedro, Toliman and Atitlan. San Pedro and Toliman were in love but one day Toliman starts cheating on San Pedro with Atitlan. San Pedro gets jealous so he chops Toliman’s head off. There’s a little hill called Cerro de Oro near the lake’s edge that represents Toliman’s head. 

Chillin out waiting for the Sunrise

The View from the Mirador

Lake Atitlan - during our decent

After the break it was back down again. Eventually we got San Juan and headed straight for a coffee co-operative for a café frio or cappuccino.  I hobble around the co-op having a look at the coffee museum or the drying coffee beans. I almost can’t believe that we’re finally in San Juan! I actually made it. Now it’s just a short walk around the corner (still painful) to a weaving shop where we dump our bags and have lunch. It’s over! We made it! Damn!

There’s an hour until lunch and apparently it’s tradition to jump in the lake at the end. Most of us jump into two tuk-tuks and head for San Pedro. We rock up to a restaurant/bar that has a deck right out onto the lake where you can jump off from. I don’t realise how high the deck actually is until I’m about to jump off it but I’ve come this far I might as well jump in so after staring at the lake for about 2 minutes I finally jump in. It’s a bit cold and I’m way too tired to keep myself afloat for long so I’m soon out but the others jump in a few times. We sit on the deck and stare up at Indian’s Nose across the lake and contemplate the fact that we were up there about 8 hours ago. Then it’s back in the tuk-tuks to go back for lunch. Lunch is chicken, rice, sauce, veggies and tortillas. No frijoles?? Eating lunch in that shop, thinking back over the last 3 days, I’m glad I didn’t give up, it was worth it.

View of Indian's Nose from our Lake Swim. Can you see him?

The Gang

After lunch it’s time to deal with the bags and say good-bye. We still can’t believe it’s over. Feeling a bit sad but I relish the moment when I get to give those shoes back. Emails are swapped and good-byes are had. We jump back in a tuk-tuk to go back to San Pedro where we end up staying for 4 nights. We do almost nothing while we are in San Pedro. We meet up with the guys from the trek a few times for drinks and eats. We also spend a lot of time in the hot tub at our hotel, we feel like we’ve earned it. Lake Atitlan has been described as the most beautiful lake in the world and while I wouldn’t say that the villages surrounding it are beautiful, the lake certainly is.

My Feet at the end of the Trek

The View from our Hotel

Some Stats:

Trek Length: 3 days

Trekking Distance: 45km

Highest Elevation Reached: 3050m

If you want to learn a bit more about Quetzeltrekkers you can check out their website here

but put basically – Hike Volcanoes, Help Kids