hannaH's wanderings: Guatemala: Saturday Recap

I am back home now. Sitting in my house, in my room, with water I can drink right from the faucet and a shower that I trust will have good water pressure and water as warm as I want it when I go to use it.

I am glad of these things, but possibly more glad to have had the experiences I had last week.

To finish up the recaps, I will give a rundown of Saturday and Sunday in two posts. There are a few more things I want to write in detail about outside of the daily updating, and those may come quickly or over the next few days or a little more slowly over the next few months. But for now, an overview of Saturday:

-

Our last full day in Guatemala was Saturday. For the morning, Nine members of our team opted to hike a volcano. Two members took a cooking class (that ended up being a public turned private class as no one else was there). And another went to the farmer's market with Kayla and he raved about the food there for the rest of the day.

Those of us that hiked were up to have breakfast and hit the road by 7:45. We wound through the roads and a town or two to make it to Pacaya National Park around 9:00am to begin hiking. It was misty and a little rainy to start, but our swift footed guide got us warmed up enough in the first quarter mile to need to shed jackets despite the wet atmosphere. The hike was an uphill climb for sure, I would compare it to Table Rock locally (maybe a little shorter).

We passed a few recommended stopping places and got to see the signs telling us there were lovely vistas there on a clear day, but we were not there on a clear day. This was a slight disappointment, but it's also not every day that you get to hike a volcano and walk in a cloud! (Well, unless you are the guide who does the tours of the volcano...)

We got to the top where there would be an amazing 360 view on a clear day, but we were in a cloud and couldn't see too far away. At this point, we were noticeably walking on the igneous lava rock that had formed in previous eruptions and volcanic activity. This nature nerd was quite enjoying the time!

We then hiked on, a little downward to where you can roast a marshmallow on the heat (or gas fumes?) coming from the ground! It was so neat. We even packed along some Chiky cookies, a local commodity, to make s'mores. They were delicious!

After we all roasted and enjoyed our marshmallows, we hiked on. At this point it was other worldly hiking. We were in a cloud and walking on igneous rock with no vegetation in site. That isn't something you get to do in South Carolina : )

After hiking through the field of lava rock, we arrived at the Lava Store. That's right there is a store on the volcano. It is a hut at the top of the volcano that tells you a little about the history and activity and sells souvenir jewelry made from the lava. I am a sucker for souvenir jewelry and nature related finds, so I of course found the store fascinating.

Once we all had our fill and made our purchases, we started the descent. We hike back down the same path and some of the cloudy mist started to lift. We were able to see some more of the views and enjoyed the ease of downward movement with gravity on our side.

We loaded up in our van and made the trek back to town to clean up and head out for lunch and souvenir shopping.

For lunch, we split into group. I think it was the first meal we ate with less than 7-15 other people all week. It was a much needed downsize for this introvert. I was with the group that opted for Wendy's. Having been in country all week and getting better at picking up Spanish and being at a restaurant we were familiar with, we still were not good at ordering for ourselves, but that is just some of the fun of traveling!

We finished up lunch and opted for gelato to wash it down as we finished up souvenir shopping. In this shopping I successfully haggled by using the walk away method three times! I'm usually pretty intimidated by haggling while shopping, but it is expected in the market there and as it turns out, it is kind of fun!

The rest of the evening was spent packing up, cleaning up, hanging out, and enjoying our last team dinner at a place called Frida's. I think we all saw it as a week well spent and were each privileged to be a part of.

We certainly rested well Saturday evening after a week we will not quickly forget.

...

I can now add pictures! Here are a few from the hike: