From Antigua we drove, together with our friend Dermot, to Quetzaltenango by chickenbus. As usual the schedule of the chickenbusses we needed fitted nicely together from city to city. During the trip we also made a boat tour on Lago Atitlan, to San Pedro, to collect Evas contact lenses which were delivered to our homestay family. In the beginning of the evening, we arrived in Quetzaltenango and I lost Eva and dermot who walked in front of me to find a hostel. Luckily I found them again after one and a half hour because I sent an e-mail with my current location. Quetzaltenango is the second biggest city after Guatemala city, and the city is popular with spanish students who want to immerse themselves in a city without a lot of english speaking locals. We thought that the city (except for the central plaza) looked like a big suburb, and we did not like it that much. 

In Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela, we wanted to climb the Santa Maria (3772 metres altitude) from which you have a nice view on the active Santiaguito volcano (2500 metres altitude). The Santiaguito has several eruptions per hour, and you will see an enormous cloud while you hear the sound of a jetfighter. We climbed with full moon, and we booked our tour with Kaqchikel tours. We started at 01:00 at night, and it took us 4 hours to climb up. First I tried to walk slowly so I could keep breathing normally, but this did not work. Later it was just a matter of putting one foot before the other, and this worked much better. Before climbing I thought of climbing all the volcanos around xela, but it was freezing this night… brrr! … I was not a happy camper! I arrived at the top around 05:15 hrs (with my tongue touching the tips of my shoes) and luckily there was a fire burning so we could warm ourselves a little bit. At the top there where a lot of climbers who booked their tour with Quetzaltrekkers. They had started at 23:00 hrs and would sleep and eat at the top of the Santa Maria volcano. When we arrived there where several (half frozen) people lying in their sleeping bags, and I could not say I was really jealous. It was almost a survival test. Half an hour later the sun rose, and it became warmer.

Several times we could hear Santiaguitos rumbling sound, and we could see the lava boiling in the crater. When the sun came up we could see the enormous shadow of the Santa Maria volcano appear at the horizon. A few hours later we went down the mountain, and my knees were really hurting. Dermot, our Irish friend, decided to go to bed as soon as we came back at the hotel, but we decided to go directly to the hotsprings of fuentes Georginas to wash the dust from our bodies, and to warm up our muscles. The ride to Fuentes Georginas is really beautiful, and you see many villages and nice gardens where the villagers grow their food. Fuentas Georginas itself is really beautiful with the vegetation of a cloud forest growing against the steep mountain from which hot water flows down. The next day we had no problems with our legs, but unfortunately our friend could hardly walk anymore. Dermot decided to go to the hotsprings the following day, but it did not really help for his muscles.

Paul de Boer