Guatemala 2008

Greg and I traveled to Guatemala in the last week of May, first week of June in 2008. Here are initial impressions:

• Everywhere along the way, we met fellow travelers from all across the world (and even close to home!). It was so wonderful to connect with people from such diverse backgrounds (but with a common love of travel and adventure). My favorite memories of the trip are associated with the incredible people we met.


• The Guatemalan people are very friendly and welcoming. The language barrier stood in the way of significant connections but even with that, we found wonderful people along the way to share many laughs. Spanish skills beyond "cerveza and banyo" are a goal prior to the next Latin adventure.


• Many of the Guatemalans are helpful out of kindness. Many are helpful for monetary reasons. Sometimes it takes a few beats to figure out which kind of "helpful" is being offered.


• The "rainy season" is called that for a good reason. Travel during the dry season is better suited to outdoor adventure trips.


• The chicken buses are awesome! You need only take a "shuttle bus / micro bus" once to realize the vast benefits of chicken buses, especially if you have any tendancies towards clostrophobia or aversion to sitting in the laps of strangers.


• The Markets are really amazing. The local markets are vastly culturally superior to the tourist or artisan markets. I found the fruits and vegetables at the local markets to be the most engaging - everything is so fresh and colorful. And don't skip the grocery store - always fun in different countries.


• Guatemala has the most "topography" of any place I have traveled. The land undulates like goose-bumps. And the country is incredibly lush - every shade of intense green.


• Sadly, the Guatemalan people do not yet understand the value of the beauty of their country - there is garbage everywhere that there are people, the roadsides and even remote trails are covered with litter.


• Also sadly, the poverty in the country leads the people to slash-and-burn the forests to create farmland. This is bad because of deforestation - but even worse because of the topography of the country. Much of this slash-and-burn is taking place on dramatic slopes. The loss of soil stabilizing forest fauna results in dramatic erosion, landslides and loss of topsoil.
  
  Here is the trip story with pictures (abbreviated by necessity). To see all of the pictures, follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/kathylangcrowell/Guatemala2008

For the sake of cheap airfare, we took a circuitous route to Guatemala City. Denver to LA to Mexico City to Guatemala. Travel took about 16 hours each way - good time for reading and napping.

Upon arrival in Guatemala City (they call it Guate), we took a random hotel van to a place called Los Volcanes. At breakfast, we met a guy from Fort Collins (30 minutes from our house). And a Guatemalan local who is fluent in English - he gave us some great advice on travels in the country (most notably, don't spend too much time in Guate, and don't pay more than 60% asking price at any street market). On his advice, we hired a taxi to drive us around the scenic parts of Guate and then take us to the bus stop headed for Coban. Here are pictures from Guate.

We took a "first class" bus from Guate to Coban (which means that you have an assigned seat and you get it all to yourself!). The ride was appr 4 hr. In Coban, we stayed at an amazing hotel , Dona Victoria, with a beautiful courtyard and antique furnishings. And we met a wonderful Australian gentleman named Bob with whom we had dinner and great conversation. We also met a Peace Corp volunteer named Laura who gave us great advice on travels - we met up with her later in the trip in the village where she lives. Here are pictures of our hotel:

From Coban, we took a shuttle bus to the village of Lanquin. In Lanquin, we stayed 2 nights at El Retiro - a hostile termed by our guidebook as "the hippest place in Guatemala". We were curious what "hip" meant... The first day we mostly relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere. We ate an amazing dinner (which is sort of family style) and greatly enjoyed meeting both the fellow travelers and the staff.

On the second day, we went to Semuc Chempey National Park. El Retiro organized the tour and roughly 15 people were along. We figured out that "hip" probably means 20 something and really fun. We didn't fit the 20 something - but we sure had a great time with them all and might have been at least honorarily "hip" for the day. The tour started with a short hike through the forest to a place with a rope swing that dumps you into the river below - really fun! I had a great dismount, but my entry needs A LOT of improvement. Next, we went spelunking in a cave with a river flowing through it. We had only candles - what great ambiance! We had to swim through sections of the cave holding our candles out of the water. In the States, this cave tour would be a law suit waiting to happen! After the cave, we intertubed down the river for a time. Then we went to the park itself. In the park, a big river goes into a cave and disappears for about 500 meters before it comes rushing out again (2 tourists have fallen in above the cave... it took a month for them to come out the other side...). Above the underground part of the river is a limstone shelf with travertine pools of crystal clear water. We spent the afternoon playing in the pools. The last activity was to climb down a rope ladder that is slung around a boulder and hanging in a waterfall. At the bottom of the ladder is the river outlet to one side and a roughly 20 foot drop into a deep pool at the bottom of a waterfall. Again... in the US, lawsuit waiting to happen! We got to jump into the pool and then rock scrabble back up for another go. The day ended with the wonderful family style dinner with all of the great people with whom we had such a great day of adventuring. If I had to pick a favorite day on the trip, this was it - both from an activity standpoint and from the wonderful people we got to know.

The next day, we headed to the town of Usbantan (the village where Laura from the Peace Corp lives). We took a shuttle from Lanquin back to Coban. Then took a shuttle from Coban to Usbanta, roughly 2.5 hours - this was the most traumatic ride of the trip. The road is under major construction - there are frequent closures and the ride is punishing. We had the pleasure of sharing the long and brutal ride with 26 other people in a 15 passenger van. Really, there were only 26 people actually IN the shuttle, 2 others where hanging on the outside. This is the experience that convinced us that chicken buses are the best (chicken buses are old US school buses painted wild colors).

Here are some pictures of the chicken buses that became our preferred method of transport:

Usbantan as a sleepy village which is the home of Rigoberta Menchi (a Nobel Peace Prize winner for her efforts on behalf of the native Mayan people in the area). There are some great hikes in the vacinity but we only had time to enjoy the village. Laura gave us great advice on how to manage the bus trip for the next day. So the next morning, we were off on an epic chicken bus adventure - we took 4 of them to get Xela (Quetzeltenango) with a stop in Chichicastenango on their Market Day. The Market was an amazing experience in color, texture, and local culture. Unfortunately, the vendors were a bit pushy and even I was ready to flee after just over an hour. But I got some great pictures in between "NO gracias"

We eventually made out way to Xela (Quetzeltanengo) and were very pleasantly surpised by the atmosphere of the town. It is an intriguing blend of colonial and Mayan culture. Greg and I are not usually "door" people... but we really loved the doors of Guatemala - most notably in Xela.
The next day, we did a 1/2 day trip to a natural hot spring just outside of Xela called Fuentes Georginas.

It seems that about the time we were leaving the hot springs, a Tropical Depression came to call. Just in time to join us on our 3 day trek from Xela to Lago Atitlan. We trekked with Quetzel Trekkers - a non-profit organization that puts its profits into supporting a school for street children. Really a great organization! Were very fortunate to be on the trek with a great group of people with excellent spirit and a good sense of humor (both were important as the adventure unfolded).

The first day, we began the journey in a light mist. As the day progressed and we moved into the "Cloud Forest", it got ...cloudy... the clouds were so thick that it frosted hair and beards.We walked through areas that had to have been incredibly beautiful - but we mostly saw clouds, and then the mist turned to rain. Here is a break in the rain - our fellow adventurers with the mist in the background: left to right Jess (US), Steve (US), Michael (Canada) -our awesome guides. Laura (Ireland), Greg, Dee (Ireland), Tom (Isreal), Vilma & Darius (Lithuania but currently Philidelphia).

That night, we stayed on sleeping mats in a municipal building in a very small and remote village. We had the opportunity to go to a Tomascal - which is kind of a Guatemalan Sauna. It is about the size of 3 large dog houses, there is a fire build inside, a metal bucket of water is set by the fire. You crawl into what feels eriely like an oven and pour the hot water on yourself (there is a bucket of cold water too for temperature modulation). It was a cultural experience but the smoke made the experience less than good for me - it was hard to breath...

The next day, the rain was harder... We hike through more beautiful scenery here's one of the overlooks:

Our guides did a great job of describing the scenery. We also got to hike along and through a beautiful moutain steam. That night was our favorite cultural experience of the trip. We stayed in the home of the Quiche family. They are a prominent local family who support the efforts of Quetzel Trekkers and who love to share their culture and home with foreigners. We arrived in the afternoon to a wonderful fire under a covered courtyard. We were treated to a delicious and typical meal of chicken, rice & beans. After dinner, the patriarch of the family - Don Pedro brought out his accordian. His 16 year old son played the guitar. They sang and 3 grandchildren danced for us. After dinner, Don Pedro told us a fable told in the region about an evil donkey spirit that was driven off. And he told us a heartwarming story about a Catholic Priest who came to the region roughly 50 years ago, he helped to education and uplift the people including Don Pedro. Our guides translated for those of us who could not speak Spanish. It was really a magical evening.

The next morning, we were to awake at 3:30am to hike to an overlook to watch the sun rise over Lake Atitlan. The good news is, we got to sleep in. The bad news is that it was raining really hard. We still hiked to the overlook which was another test or our guide's abilities to describe breathtaking scenery and our somewhat soggy imagination. Picture a volcano to the right kind of closer that the volcano to the left, with a crystal blue lake in the middle of the picture... or maybe its a bunch of crazy gringos standing in puddles in the rain - but still smiling :-)
After this picture; Tom, Steve & Michael hike for another couple hours to the town of San Pedro la Laguna. The rest of us took a shuttle.

So, the weather didn't cooperate. The hiking probably would have been beautiful. But as it stood, the terrific people in our group and the Quiche family made the trip memorable and well worth while. I would do it again!

After the trekking trip, we made our way to Antigua (via our favorite mode of transportation - chicken buses!). In Antigua, we met up with Greg's sister and her family - Terry, Lisa, Morgan, Darby, Tatum and Katty. They were accompanied by their dear family friends - Keith, Sue, McKinsey, Kye, and Aleah. They had spend a week volunteering at Casa Bernabe - an orphage on the outskirts of Guatemala City. They had a spectacular experience (read more on the Ellis blog: http://www.ellisfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/.

The original plan was to go hiking and/or mountain bike outside of Antigua. The continuing rain led us to modify the plan to a walking tour of Antigua. Antigua is a beautiful city that was once the capital of Guatemala - after it had been fairly destroyed by earthquakes, it was abandon and the capital moved to Guatemala City. In time, Antigua has become a significant tourist attraction and a "World Heritage Site". While we were sad to miss the "active" tourist options, the walking tour was great - 4 hours or so of any trip to Antigua should be spent just wandering the town. Here is a picture of the whole crew at the ruins of the cathedral.

The following day, we loaded up the van and headed to the Mayan Ruins of Iximche. This is another erstwhile capital of the region. The ruins were in varying stages of excavations so it was really cool to see how time had hidden the treasure. And it was a great place for the kids and adults alike to climb and play on what was a sizable and important city in its time. Here's a great picture of the crew on top of one of the temples with ruins in the background:

And so ended my adventure. I left that evening for Guatemala City in preparation for my all day travels back to Colorado. Greg and the others continued on to visit Panajachel/Lake Atitlan and the Rio Dulce area after my departure. Greg really enjoyed the rest of the trip but is leaving the blogging to Morgan.

A few final thoughts:

The people of Guatemala are truly beautiful and I wish that I could have taken lots of wonderful pictures of them in their native clothing and enviroment. However, they are sensative about having their photos taken (I suppose I understand...). But here is one priceless photo of a little girl who was selling chocolate to the tourists outside her home near Semuc Chempey:

The food was excellent. Preservatives do not appear to have taken over Guatemala like the US so everything was fresh and delicious. And the hot chocolate is to die for! I can't swear to know the recipe, but it appears to be pure Cocao and sugar. It is much darker and richer than what you typically find in the states. And don't skip the "liquados" - basically fruit smoothies made from super fresh tropical fruit, yum!

Now we are home in our beloved Colorado. All of our gear has been dried - rapidly in the glorious sun and low humidity. And we have made our way back to the mountains - it's glisade season, we climb the mountains and slide down on our behind... it's like a super long slide at an amusement park without the lines or the cost. I love to travel abroad but it is always a pleasure to come home to Colorado, the mountains, and the sunshine!

Jagged Peak - San Juan Mountains CO

Jagged Peak via the Beartown Trailhead

We took at trip to the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado over Labor Day weekend in 2007. The group met at the 30 mile campground (National Forest Campground) near the Rio Grande Reservoir - to the west of Creede. 4 wheel drive vehicles continued on while less hardy vehicles (ie the Impala) stayed in a hiker parking lot just inside the campground. The drive from the campground to the Beartown Trailhead took an hour or so. The GPS was valuable in finding the trailhead. From the trailhead, we headed up over Hunchback Pass and down to the Vallacito Creek. We camped at the confluence of Villacito Creek and Sunlight Creek. Beautiful spot - here's the Seirra Design Tent Magazine shot of our camp:

The next morning, we headed up Sunlight Creek. It was necessary to ford Villacito Creek - beta is to make sure you cross above the confluence (to the right) as you will stay on that side of Sunlight Creek for the duration. It will be necessary to navigate across two significant avalanche fields - lots of downed trees. At the top of the valley, stay left - climb the boulder field to an amazing view:

From the top of the boulder field, climb to the right of the significant rock formation. Then head left towards the base of the Jagged technical route.

At this juncture of our climb, the clouds had built in significantly. As we contemplated go or no-go, it started to rain. No-go. In the interest of something different, we returned to camp via the Leviathan valley and creek. We climbed up to Leviathan pass - here is the view looking back towards Jagged:



The loop trip was great fun. Group consensus is that Sunlight is probably the best route for ascent and that either is good for descent. Here are a few pictures from the descent:

Here's a photo of the group at dinner (left to right - Bill, Jacq, Britton, Brenda, Bart, Ralf, Greg)

On the way out, the majority of the group headed back to Beartown. Bill and I went to the Villacitio Reservior where Greg drove around to pick us up. The drive around is long, but the one-way trip is great fun because you get to see so much more of the area.

In 2007, a bridge was washed out an it was necessary to wade across Villacito Creek at a significant avalanche log jamb. Looked like the goverment was at work on replacing the bridge.

Property in San Luis, CO - May 2007

In the fall of 2006, Greg and I bought 5 acres of land in south central Colorado just to the north and east of the town of San Luis. The property is on the El Poso River with roughly 400 feet of riverfront. The river is spring fed from two springs with the source located on an 81,000 acre ranch owned by the Forbes family who have donated the development rights to the Colorado Open Lands - a land preservation non-profit organization. Quite the tax write-off for the Forbes, and quite the preservation boon for those who love the area. There are three 5 acre lots up river from us before the road ends and becomes the Forbes property. The property across the river from us is designated open space.

Here is a picture of the property from an eagle's eye view:

The access road (Malcom Drive) is at the top of the photo. Our white truck can be seen just north of center. It is located along what will eventually be the driveway. In the lower left hand section of the photo, you can barely make out two tents - these are in roughly the location of the future cabin. The bottom of the photo is the river.

Here is a picture of the perspective cabin site:

Here is a picture of the view up the valley from the perspective cabin site:

Greg and I (with the much appreciated help from Caryn and Brandon) spent the best part of Memorial Day weekend clearing trees along what will be the roadcut into the property. Here are a series of photos along the roadcut:

Here's a photo from the river's edge looking down the valley:

A roughly 45 minute hike above the property along the river is a really beautiful waterfall. Here's a shot from there:

There is a hike up the mountain across the river to the spot were the eagle's eye photos were taken - roughly 90 minute hike. There is a wooden cross on top. The story of the cross is that it was located by the Spanish settlers - apparently a cross was located every 20 miles and a church was to be built at each location. True or false? It's a cool hike and view:

Hopefully, the roadcut will be finalized this year so that access is reasonable. Further improvements will proceed as time and funds allow. Stay tuned for updates.

Mt Hood Climbing - June 2007

Greg and I climbed Mt Hood with a friend and past co-worker Warren.

When I was younger, I lived near Mt Hood and did most of my early skiing on the mountain. I have always wanted to climb it. We took advantage of a family reunion in Vancouver Washington to accomplish the deed.

The distance from Timerline Lodge to the summit is roughly 3.6 miles and 5300 vertical feet.

We drove up to Timberline Lodge on a Sunday afternoon in a rain and snow storm. The weather was crap and we were worried that we would have to bag the climb. My dad brought his RV to the parking lot which served as base-camp. The first alarm was at 3am - sleet was beating on the side of the RV, we went back to sleep. Second alarm at 4am - weather was still crap. Third alarm at 5am - still foggy and various forms of precipitation so we decided to call off the climb. Warren decided to drive back down the mountain to Gresham and go to work - while warming up his truck, he saw a sign of clearing and came back in the RV to have us take a look. Knowing that we would be kicking ourselves if the weather actually cleared and we hadn't made an attempt, we decided to get started and watch the weather - we'd turn back if it didn't clear up by the time we got to the top of the lift chairs. The weather did indeed clear! Here is the view from above the lift chairs looking back to the lodge (still in the light clouds).

During the summer on weekends, Timberline Lodge runs snowcats for climbers. They give you a ride from the lodge to the top of the resort for a fee (never figured out the cost, no doubt very pricey - but we'd have paid!). Unfortunately it does not run on week days which is when we needed to be there (probably a better time to climb anyway as the mountain was not lonely but was not the ant-hill of people I half expected due to the multitude of people who summit the mountain each year). So we added roughly 2500 feet to the climb by hiking up from the lodge to the top of the Palmer lift. In a demoralizing turn of events, the early morning skiers were getting off the lift chairs just as we were reaching the top of the lift. We could have skipped the alarms at 3,4,5am, slept until 7:30 and been in the same place! Grr. Then again, we can scoff at those who take the cat or the lift chair... In case anyone might read this as climbing advise, the 3am departure would have been necessary on a more typical day. Give our crappy weather of the night, the snow had frozen solid and did not soften until later in the day than would be typical.

Here is the view roughly 1000 ft above the top of palmer. The snow-ridge just to the left of center in this picture is the "hog-back". The summit is just behind the tallest point in this picture.


Here's another shot of a climber on the hog-back ( this was actually a shot on the descent so the lighting has changed appreciably). To the right of the hog-back is the "pearly gates". The route goes to the right below the crevasse, then up to the left of the buttress. This is the standard route up Mt Hood and is typically snow filled at this time of year. However, the snow had melted out and there was an ice-fall - it was roughly 15 feet, no 25, no 50 feet at least. We did tie-off and setup a belay through this section.
After the pearly gates, it was a short stretch to the summit. The day had cleared nearly perfectly - we were able to see Adams and Rainier to the north, and Jefferson and the three sisters to the south. Here is a picture looking north - see the burly glaciers in the fore-ground.And here is the view to the south:

Here is a summit photo of two great people we met on top (Sabrina and Chad from CA). I took the picture so that's my involvement - haven't gotten pictures of us on top from Warren yet.We descended a different route down a steep snow slope. The short ridge walk to the snow field made for great photos. Here are Greg, Warren and I on the ridge:

And here is Greg looking for the perfect glisade:
Here's the view down (see the climber below us on the hog-back):

One very interesting part of the climb is that Mt Hood is quite an active volcanoe. We passed a number of fumeroles on the mountain. This is one viewed from the hog back. What looks like a smudge on the camera lense is actually sulfurous gases. Yes - it smelled bad.The ascent took roughly 5 hours with the descent taking 2 hours (not a great glisade mountain but there were some fun sections). Here is the view from the parking lot:

The mountain did not feel technical on this route (except the short ice-fall stretch). In good conditions, I would feel comfortable solo. However, given the frequent climbing tragedies on this mountain that make the news every year, it is not a mountain to be taken for granted - especially when it comes to the unpredicability of the weather in the pacific northwest.

For anyone who has read previous blogs, you will remember the unfortunate drowning incident involving my camera. While it has recently been replaced, I did not have a camera on Mt Hood so these pictures are courtesy of Chad and Sabrina. Thank you both very much for sharing your excellent photos!

Jackson Hole WY Skiing - January 2007

In January of 2007, Greg and I joined our friends Jacq and Britton (and a bunch of their friends) for a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Here is most of the crew:



Classic Jacson Hole pictures:

View of the Tetons on a clear(ish) morning:

We skied for 4 days. We had fresh powder on 3 of the 4 days. It was quite the epoche trip! Here are a few of the not so stellar moments. Greg hugging a tree and me making a snow angel:

Awesome resort, snow, and company. Definate must-return. Next time hit Grand Taurghe too.