Guatemala: Xela

From Todos Santos we headed for the lovely city of Quetzaltenango or Xela as it's known by everyone in the indigenous language. Here we chose a Spanish school and settled in with a local family for 2 weeks.

El Parque Central, Xela

We were in Xela for the elections on September 9th, which had been preceded by 50 political assassinations in the last 12 months. There was the biggest turnout ever, apparently, and in Xela there was very little disruption on the day. Disappointingly there was no clear winner and the second round is not for another few weeks.

Given the information we have gleaned, however, the choice seems to be between a candidate funded by the narcotics trade and a corrupt ex-militant. It is difficult not to be cynical about the Guatemala's foreseeable future. We heard entertaining rumours that one candidate was handing out free chickens to the poor uneducated masses, then threatening to claim them back if they didn't vote for him (and, less believably, that he would monitor their voting booths with cameras)!

Roger in the grounds of Las Calumbres, natural steam in background

One of the Spanish School activities was a trip to Las Calumbres, an area of natural geothermal activity where the steam has been used to make saunas. Unlike European saunas, you get a private room and the steam comes out of a hole in the ground.

Roger enjoying a sauna

View from Las Calumbres

We were also in town for the annual Independence Day celebrations on September 15th. In the weeks and days preceding this drummers and firecrackers that sounded like gunfire would start up at any time of the day or night. No one seemed to complain of missed sleep (except us).

National Flag

The parade

Fruit seller

Surrounding Xela are many tempting mountains to climb but many of them require a guide and it is not safe to walk in the afternoons because of the risk of being robbed. So we took afternoon Spanish classes and had the mornings free to get outdoors. The photo below is from a walk up and around Xela, which lies in the valley in the background.

Luisa and cow

The next week we climbed two volcanoes, Santa Maria at 3800m and Tajamulco at 4220m (highest point in Central America). Both involved early starts as the it is rainy season and cloud cover obscures the views each afternoon.

Santa Maria was a pleasant day walk of about 5 hours which we did with a guide and small group. Unfortunately the nearby active volcano, Santiaguito, didn´t erupt for us but another one in the distance did, sending up a puff of grey smoke above the cloud layer below us.

Santa Maria, 6am

View, halfway up

Forest and moss

Summit

A distant volcano erupts!

Santiaguito Volcano from the summit of Santa Maria

The next day a trip to some hot springs was in order. The setting was a beautiful cloudforest and we had the place to ourselves... apart from some strange wailing sounds from a nearby church group preparing for a baptism.

Luisa in a hot pool

To climb Tajumulco we went with a non profit group led by volunteers - the money goes to a local school. The guides, mostly European or North Americans escaping from real life, live in a flea infested hovel and eat from tips.

Afternoon fog

We met at 4.45 am the first morning to take a series of chicken buses to the start of the walk. The walk was done in short steep bursts with frequent recovery stops. As the day wore on the fog closed in and the rain started, but by 3pm we had reached camp for the night.

Wet tent

We were just getting comfortable in the tent when a we realised a pool of water was forming and soaking through the mats and sleeping bags. Good thing we had helpful guides to swap tents with. A 3.30am start got us to the summit before sunrise where is was a calm and (relatively) warm day. We stayed there for about 40 minutes wrapped in sleeping bags before it became too cold. There was a brief period with views before we were enveloped in cloud that gave an interesting effect to the sunrise.

Roger at the summit

Sunrise

The descent was spectacular. We enjoyed a sunny morning and breakfast back at the camp with some highland cows before following a different route down.

Group descending through the mist