My Spanish classes finished up yesterday, class was 5 hours a day for 5 days. It was difficult at times but it also taught me a lot, i have a note book full of all kinds of words and sentences, i got a certificate on completion of my course and the first thing i did was went to a book shop to get the learning book the teach used. Im hoping that will help me a lot, also after the first class i went and got some blank little paper cards and wrote about 100 words on them, Spanish one side with English the other.
I'm really enjoying it here in Xela it is such a beautiful town in a big valley, this is my 10th night here, i will be leaving tomorrow to go to Lago (Lake) Atitlan, which is surrounded by big Volcanos.
The climb up Tajumulco was fairly difficult, my bag weighed around 25 kgs and carrying that up the mountain was challenging. We had about 12 people in our group. The climb was ran by a non profit organisation called Quetzal Trekkers, all the money raised goes to local charities here in Xela, The hike up was around 4 hours and a great hike going through all kinds of terrain like pine forests, farming fields, rocks hills and a whole lot more. The second we arrived at base camp (4,000 M) it started raining fairly heavy so everyone got out there rain jackets, for some stupid reason one of the girls who was leading the group (Grace) decided it would be a smart idea for everyone to start setting up the tents in the rain which made no sence because then our tents were absolutely saturated. About 30 minutes later it stopped raining, we cooked up some lunch and sat around for a while by this time it was around 4 pm, it was sooooo cold up there i was wearing thermal underwear, pants, thermal top, shirt, jumper, rain jacket, big winter coat, beanie and gloves and i was still freezing. It was to cold to sit out side once the sunset, so everyone was in bed by 7. The next morning we woke at 3am to leave for the hike to the summit at 3:30am for sunrise, it was a difficult hike up, basically anything at that altitude is difficult and hard to get a breath. The temp was bellow freezing due to the wind chill possibly around - 8c on the summit. We reached the top around 5:30am just in time for the sunrise, we were very lucky with the weather, it is wet season here at the minute so basically it is cloudy everyday in the mountains, but the stairs were out and we were in for an epic sunrise, and that is was, standing at 4,220 Meters above see level it was possibly the best thing i have seen, the view was really just indescribable, standing well above the cloud, looking down at the distant cities and mountains, even as far as the Mexico boarder. My hands were numb giving me a lot of pain in my fingers from my previous Alaskan frost bite issues, i just had to try keep my gloves on and try keep them warm, which made it hard using my camera with them on. The sun rose with an orange glow on the distant storm clouds, that were lighting the sky with lightening. The sun rose a higher above the storm which gave the most amazing visual ever, the shadow of Tajumulco was off in the distance to the west towards the Mexican boarder. Despite it being extremely cold i wanted to spend the whole day up there. It was a strange feeling to think that i was the highest thing in all Central America besides the flag pole next to me it was an amazing feeling. After seeing the sunrise and the shadow we headed back down to base camp, where we had some breakfast, packed everything and started the trek down which was great because we took a different route which ran along a mountain ridge looking down a gigantic valley. It took around 3 hours to get down, everyone was soooo tired by then. We got to the little village at the trail at lunch time, where we sat in a restaurant and had some lunch, then the 2 hour ride back to Xela on the chicken busses which are so packed with people that you basically can't even move your arms, not even to itch your self, occasionally people will go on the roof if there is no room in the cabin, not to mention the chickens haha, one hell of an experience. Climbing Tajumulco was probably one of the best things i have done, just that feeling when you stand on the top throw your hands in the air, close your eyes and say to yourself "I DONE IT"... Sooooo amazing!!!!!
The night we arrived back i arranged for a few of the people in the group to go for dinner and a few drinks at a really cool little cafe in town where they have live music, it was really fun and such a great bunch of people. I also couldn't speak more highly of Quetzal Trekkers they are such a well ran organisation, with amazing people running it.
I was so tired at Spanish class the next day, but i battled through. I even went with Caroline to help volunteer at a little school in a local village about 30 minutes away, the 30 minute ride in the chicken bus cost 24c haha it is crazy how cheap they are. The kids at the school wear just awesome they absolutely loved us running around hanging off our clothes holding our hands, they were so cute, they wanted to know everything about us. We spent about 3 or 4 hours there just helping them with Math & English. I even fixed the chain on there swing set outside! I couldn't stop smiling it was the best Cultural experience i have ever had. It really meant a lot to me and i felt so happy i did it. The kids were hanging off us as we left, they really didn't want us to go..
I have really enjoyed my stay here in Xela, it will be sad to say goodbye. But at the same time i'm excited to move on to my next adventure!! Talk to you soon
Forgot to add i have been drinking coffee nearly everyday here which i never used to drink at all, Guatemala produces some of the best coffee in the world and it is amazing.
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