Weekend Fun

This weekend was full of new sites. On Saturday, the school organized a trip to the Laguna de Chicobal (photos: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/673426.html- not my photos unfortunately, but you get the idea). The laguna is a sacred Mayan site, the water is a communicator between the gods and the underworld, therefore you are not allowed to swim in the water. Twice a year, on a date determined by the Mayan Calendar, the Mayans head to the lake to conduct various rituals. Some say that tourists aren´t welcome during this time, other say just be respectful. We didn´t have to worry, because those events don´t take place until April or May.

So, at 7am, we all crammed into a local microbus that took us to the start of hike. Hiking a relatively steep slope for about 45 minutes, we got to the entrance of the national park. From there is was about another 45 minutes to the "mirador," viewpoint. On one side you could see the Volcan Santa Maria and another extremely active volcana where you could see the erruptions. It was pretty cool. There are 37 volcanos in Guatemala, so I´m sure the novelty will wear off, but for now I´m still pretty excited to hike them and be near them. On the other side you had a nice view of the Laguna. From there, there are 600 steps that go down the laguna. They are really steep, and as soon as we started going down, I started dreading coming back up. They reminded me of the Incline, for all you CCers reading this, and they were just as fun to go back up.

The laguna was quite beautiful. As we got there, you could see the clouds starting to come in over the lake. And by the time we left you couldn´t see the laguna at all as the clouds had taken over. After climbing up the 600 steps again, and seeing the view one more time, we headed back down where we had fresh squeezed orange juice and crammed back into a microbus to head back to town. It was great to do a nice hike, see some of the nature around Xela and get a little sun (forgetting that we are at 7000 feet, I of course, have nice rosy cheeks now from not putting on sun screen...). Exhausted from the early morning and hike, I crashed that evening barely able to hold a conversation with my host family that night.

The fun times continued on Sunday. In the afternoon I headed up to the Fuentes Giorginas, http://www.lasfuentesgeorginas.com/, with my british friends, Rob and Rachel. They are natural hotsprings about 30 min outside of Xela. We drove through Zunil, a small town and then up the mountain on a road that overlooked Zunil, the river and neighboring farms. There were people farming on the side of mountains, and 10 year olds cutting and carrying large bundles of wood on their back. I started to get a little anxious on the ride as the higher we got up into the mountains, the thicker the fog got. The visiblity quickly dwindled away to practically nothing and our driver seemed to know what he was doing, minus the occasional sudden braking.

The hot springs themselves were wonderful. Just what I needed after a nice hike on Sunday. Three pools of different temperatures are surrounded by trees and plants, that felt like an enchanted forest because of the all the fog. It was magical at times, and lying on a rock in the super hot pool, I forgot where I was. There were a ton of kids whose hands look a thousands years old and ghostly white from having been in the water so long. The cutest girl though, was one who was sick and couldn´t enter the water. About 2, and dressed in traditional Mayan attire, she just stood by the side of the water, looking like she was about to cry, while her family played for hours. It was a great way to end the weekend, and only 30 min away and about $10 for the entire afternoon, I hope to return again their soon. As soon as I can get pics off the camera, I will post. Adios for now!