Land of Hills

Well, it’s been a while. What was supposed to be only a six-week volunteer gig has turned into three months and now I’m a manager getting paid. The duties of work and the distractions of an amazing group of coworkers and friends have kept me very busy and I didn’t touch my photos or this website for far too long. I’m sorry I have neglected to share my stories here with you all. I have a few adventures to catch up on that I will be writing a few more blog posts about shortly after this one.

This section doesn’t cover many days riding or distance. Each day had at least 1600m (5200ft) of climbing so it was never easy. It was only four days from the border to Santa Cruz La Laguna.

All I could feel was excitement as Kacper and I were walking across the border. After six months in Mexico, the thought of a new country excited me. Sadly this excitement quickly changed as Kacper was having trouble crossing the border. When he crossed into Mexico, he had paid for his visa but he had never received his entry stamp. The immigration office in Mexico therefore would not give him his exit stamp.

Hoping that he could still talk his way to get his entry stamp in Guatemala, we went to the immigration office there. We knew that it wasn’t likely since it’s technically illegal to enter without getting an exit stamp. Our fears were correct and the immigration office in Guatemala denied Kacper entry until he settled his issue with Mexican immigration.

Realizing that this now meant we would have to split up, the mood was somber. Kacper and I had become pretty good friends and I enjoyed traveling with him. In order for him to properly fix his issue, the Mexican immigration officer said he would have to go all the way back to where he entered Mexico, Tijuana. That was devastating news as it would be a costly trip in both time and money.

I did know that my other friend, Chris, was somewhere just in front of me so I said my goodbyes to Kacper and started the first day riding in Guatemala.

Things changed quickly in Guatemala from Mexico. Everything felt way more lively and busy in the towns. There were tons of people out in the streets. The drivers did feel a bit crazier also. Very few passed slowly and carefully. Everyone honked and waved as they flew by, so I think it was just due to a different pace of living. Thankfully I’m pretty jaded about cars driving fast and close at this point in my trip. I know all I can really do is ride straight and as far over as possible and the rest is up to fate.

I was riding on the Pan American highway at this point which was a wild highway to ride. It is the path of least resistance through the region so it gets the most traffic. It made for the easiest riding as the gradient wasn’t too steep. This region is known for being extremely tough riding as the roads go nearly straight up and straight down the steep mountains.

My blog up until this point has been exclusively photos from my DSLR camera. I wanted to hold my photos to a certain standard and didn’t want to include photos from my phone. I wish I had done this earlier as there have been many photos, mostly with friends, that I never included. I now will start to share some from my phone because they include a lot of photos of the wonderful people I’ve met along the way.

I was biking on the long uphill road to Huehuetenango when I was passed by two local riders, David and Vico. We started chatting while riding and soon we were all riding together. These guys were riding to Huehue also and were on a multiday bike trip around the area. I was noticing that Guatemala was a very active country in comparison to Mexico. I saw many people out running, biking, and exercising in most places I went.

We rode together for a while until I saw a familiar bike on the side of the road. It was Chris! Even though I had been crossing paths with Chris for nearly six months, we had never ridden together. We always would find each other in cities with different schedules. After catching up we hit the road for Huehue.

At one tienda we met some really nice locals who stopped us and bought us some ice cream and drinks :).

Chris and I made it to Huehue after a long gruly climb all day. Per usual our first stop was for some food.

Here a small group of locals stopped and talked to us. Everyone has been ridiculously friendly here in Guatemala so far. I thought people were nice in Mexico but the people of Guatemala loved talking and getting to know us. This lovely lady gave us a couple of Guatemalan treats for free :).

It was a big fiesta time in Guatemala. It was Easter and since most of Guatemala is Catholic it is a HUGE celebration. Here in Guatemala, it is called Semana Santa (Holy Week) Chris and I decided to get a hotel room close to the party. We grabbed a couple of tall boys of Gallo, the most common beer in Guatemala.

After a couple of beers, we decided to see what was going on around the center. It was packed, so many people. Here there was some live music and a huge crowd gathered around.

The streets around the square were closed off to traffic and turned into food stands. Both sidewalks were crammed full of people. The smells of the food were overwhelming and Chris and I made a loop around all the food looking for something yummy. After eating lots of food and enjoying the mass of people, we retired to our room to get some sleep.

The next day we got a surprise visit from Kacper! After spending a couple of hours at the Mexican immigration, he was able to get his passport stamped! We all decided to spend one more night in Huehuetenago together to catch up and enjoy the Holy Week celebration.

There was a large parade going throughout the town. There were these large figures called Processions that took many people to carry and they carried them all throughout the town. I would go on to see many of these the next few nights as every town I stayed in had some sort of similar celebration.

The next day I had to part ways with my friends. Well, only for two days. We were all going in the same direction but in different ways. I wanted to ride some gravel and my friends wanted to stick to the Pan-American highway. I was quickly rewarded for my choice of route as it was very scenic and quiet. The Pan-American that I rode the other day was awful and hard to enjoy. Loads of traffic and noise make for pretty stressful riding.

Hard to beat this type of riding. Even though it would take me two days on this route compared to Kacper and Chris’s route, I’d rather ride this route every time.

One thing everyone talks about when it comes to biking in Central America is the steep hills. On this route, I started to experience some of what I’d heard about. The roads here are either straight up or straight down with gradients of more than 15% pretty common. It is not uncommon for me to walk my bike up a hill because it is easier than trying to ride it.

The river at the bottom of the hill. Something that is really noticeable in this region that isn’t as in your face in some countries is pollution. It’s an issue I have strong ideas and feelings for because it’s hard to see such beautiful places slowly killed by us. The pollution and trash is really prevalent in the rivers as it is where most things end up. This river wasn’t nearly as bad since it is more remote, but the river that flowed along the Pan-American highway was awful.

This issue exist all over the world and in countries like the US, there is only better infrastructure in place to hide it from us. Out of site, out of mind. This is just one of the many things I think about during my many hours on the bike.

On this route, I rode through many small and quiet towns of farmers.

When I passed this house I was called at by the owner. He invited me to come join him for lunch and to meet his family. He was a farmer in the area and was very proud of his family and house. We ate a simple meal of beans and tortillas all from his farm. This is the type of meal he eats all the time. He explained his frustration of not having more to feed his family and how he wanted to go to the United States to work and make more money for his family. It was rather heartbreaking to hear and he kept asking me to help him. He wanted me to help him find a job farming back home but there was nothing I could do for him. I left here with a weird feeling, being reminded again how lucky I am to be able to take the time and ride a bicycle for a few years.

The kind people who invited me in and fed me.

Shortly after continuing on, I came across my first snake in a long time. This was a new snake for me and was very cool! It was a brown vine snake. They are very distinct and vine-like, just as the name implies. He was able to stretch very far and reach branches far away. I watched him climb effortlessly for a few minutes till he slithered away.

Some of the beautiful views of the Guatemalan mountains.

I had made it to the town of Momostenango. A small but lively town just outside of Quetzaltenango (Xela), the second biggest city in Guatemala. This town had a massive party for Holy Week as well. Each day was something different related to the Holy Week holiday. Even though this town was one of the smaller ones I was in for the holiday, they had the largest procession. There were around 80-100 people helping carry each one throughout the town.

Everyone in this town was so friendly and curious about me. It helped a lot that I was nearly a foot taller than everyone and had long blonde hair. The average height of a Guatemalan is 156cm (5ft 1.5in) and I’m 184cm (6ft). I was the only foreigner in this town as well. I was greeted with lovely smiles everywhere I went.

The next day I started the short ride to Quetzaltenango (Xela). This city used to be the capital a long time ago and is named after the beautiful national bird of Guatemala, the Quetzal.

The Mayan culture is so strong in Guatemala. It is beautiful to see. Especially the women’s dresses which pretty much every single woman wears every single day. They are all different and colorful and beautiful. I tried to sneak a few photos of some as I get nervous taking photos of people looking at me haha.

The city of Xela is in the distance with the big and beautiful Volcán Santa Maria towering over the background. I had yet to climb any volcanoes on my trip yet but that would soon change.

Just outside the city, I heard some whimpering from the side of the road. I investigated and found a cute little pack of puppies :). They were so excited and jumping all over each other.

There was also this wonderfully colorful church in this town outside of the city.

Finally made it to the city! This bus you see here is a Chicken Bus and is the main source of public transport in Guatemala. They are old American school buses, each beautifully and uniquely painted. I have yet to ride one yet but I would really like to. You can also see Santa Maria in the backdrop.

I came to Xela to spend two weeks at a Spanish school. This city is known for really good and cheap language schools and I really wanted to stop and focus on my Spanish for a bit because it’s been hard to focus on practicing Spanish while traveling on the bicycle. I know enough to get by and ask for the basics, but I find it very hard to connect with people still. And connecting with people is one of my favorite parts of this travel.

My friends Kacper and Chris had made it to town also! Kacper was only staying a day or two but Chris was also staying for a few weeks for Spanish classes, but at a different school so we wouldn’t get to see each other too much.

Holy Week was still going strong as well so we watched the procession and enjoyed hanging out around the city center.

My Spanish school was also a hostel and that was where I was staying. I had a nice private room and a kitchen as well. It was a great place to stop and have a little home for a bit. There were also some other people staying at the school with me who became really good friends.

Here I am with Marc and Paul from Germany, Ilsy the manager of the school, and Vivian from Tiawan. Paul and Marc became really good friends of mine and we spent a lot of time together. They were big football (soccer) fans and we would go watch Bayern Munich play and we even went to a local Guatemalan league game. The local game was crazy and so much fun. There were loads of flares, fireworks, and musicians in the stands.

The view of Xela from the top of a hill we hiked by our Spanish School.

One of my goals in Xela was to climb my first Volcano, Santa Maria. Part of my bike setup is having a backpack so I could load up my camping gear and go hiking on overnighters. On a day when the weather looked good, I decided to load up my backpack and hike up with the goal to camp on the summit for a sunrise.

I took an Uber from my School to the start of the trail. I loaded up on water and tortillas and was ready to take on anything.

The beginning was a slow incline and easy, but now it was time to start heading up. It took me about 2.5 hours to climb the 12km (7.5mi) and 1250m (4100ft) to the top. It got extremely steep near the end, sometimes upwards of 50% grade.

It was a tough hike, but boy was it worth it. As soon as I made it to the summit I was blown away by the views. I was above a sea of clouds. I had made it up just in time to setup camp and enjoy the wonder sunset.

There were so many nice flat spots to camp on top. I was the only one up here and I would have it all to myself until the early morning sunrise.

I sat and stared into the horizon, watching the clouds move and the sunset change the color of the sky.

Xela at night from above. I was only out of my tent for a little bit since it was very very cold at the top of 3810m (12,300ft).

I woke up at 5am to watch the sunrise. Around this time lots of other people started arriving to watch the sunrise also. It is really cool seeing so many people out enjoying the beauty along with me.

One of my favorite things about being up on top of a volcano is that you can see so many other volcanoes as well. Here on the far horizon on the left, you can see Agua, Acatenengo, and Fuego. Fuego is world known because it is one of the few active volcanoes and it constantly is erupting lava. You can see in this photo some smoking coming out of the top also.

The sun peaking its head just above the clouds. That is Volcano Santo Tomas on the right side.

In just a few minutes the colors change so much. This is probably my favorite photo from the sunrise. The clouds have a magical appearance to them.

Some dogs live on the volcano and will follow hikers in hopes of sneaking a snack. This cute pup watched the sunrise with me and I rewarded him with a lot of peanut butter.

The city of Xela is below the clouds in this photo.

By this time I was far from alone on the summit. Since around 5am, more and more people came up to enjoy the view. I was able to witness a cool religious prayer from a group as well. I saw tons of local women hiking up this volcano in their traditional clothes and shoes and it was very impressive. It’s a tough and challenging hike and these tough women are climbing it in shoes that look extremely uncomfortable and painful but yet they do it all the time.

At the top, I made lots of new friends. Everyone was curious to chat when they saw I had camped up there. One of the people I met was a terrific local guy who spoke incredible English named Carlos. I ended up joining his friends hiking down and they gave me a ride back to my Spanish School.

After another week of Spanish school, it was time to head to Lake Atitlan. I was scheduled to start volunteering at a hostel in Santa Cruz on the lake called La Iguana Perdida. I was extremely excited and nervous at the same time. Being able to volunteer would give me the ability to live nearly cost-free in a beautiful place for an extended period of time. I would be able to deeply explore and experience a place and also meet some great people.

Riding through some small farm towns as I approached the lake. The landscape was dramatic and beautiful around the lake. The lake is actually the crater of an old supervolcano and is also the deepest lake in Central America. There is a powerful feeling and energy around the lake. I always feel a certain way around volcanoes like this. They are such powerful geological features and also just magnificent to look at. I used to live in Seattle, WA, and always loved seeing Mt. Rainer.

The road down was steep and rugged. This road gets very little use as it takes a decent 4wd to get up it. I felt terrible for my poor brakes as I clinched them all the way down.

My first view of the lake as I descended into the town of Santa Cruz. It was pretty cloudy so I wasn’t able to see much but my excitement of seeing the view was getting to me. I knew I wouldn’t see much today but my first morning in Santa Cruz would be special. I knew that there were three large volcanoes across the lake and I couldn’t wait to see the view.

Getting closer to the lake the feelings of anxiousness started to swell up. I was nervous because it was going to be an entirely new type of work for me. I’m a software developer who would normally be sitting at a computer working away all day with little human interaction and now I would be working at a hostel / restaurant in the service industry. I would also have to be a bartender which I had very little experience doing up until now. These were all things I want to learn and do. I love doing new things and learning new things. Each experience we gain in our lives makes us a better person overall and one of my goals in life is to become as well-rounded and experienced as I can. The only way to do that is to push past discomfort and uncertainty.

I’m not going to share too much about Lake Atitlan or my time volunteering / working at La Iguana yet. This is a story that deserves its own blog post when my time here is up.

As of now, my plans are to work here until middle / late September when I will be taking a trip first to Dallas to see college friends and catch the Arkansas vs Texas A&M college football game before heading to visit my parents who have recently retired to St. Petes in Florida. My brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew will be making a trip to visit also. I’m looking forward to seeing my family again after over a year on the road. I will spend most of October with family in Florida before flying back to Guatemala to continue riding toward and through South America. I originally wasn’t planning to take a trip home due to flight costs, but thankfully I have a good friend named Brandon who works for an airline company and is helping me with standby flights :). I’ll be able to take a trip home for almost no cost at all!

Thank you so much to all of you who were patiently waiting for this blog post. To have some of you so interested in following along means a lot to me. It will still be a few more months until I continue biking again but I will still share some blog posts about my adventures in the meantime. I’ll have one about a three day hiking trip summiting two of the nearby volcanoes soon :).

Peace and Love,
Zach