Quetzaltenango (Xela)

Quetzaltenango is the second biggest city in Guatemala. It's definitely not the prettiest city we've been to, and also not the safest. But, there are some great things to do in and around the place that makes it well worth a visit.

Getting There

We did a transfer from San Cristobal de las casas (Mexico) using Explorando Tours. It was 350 pesos per person, left at 7:30am and took about 8-9 hours. We were also swindled into paying an extra 500 pesos exit fee at the border - however according to this blog you can avoid this. Be prepared!

Also, the roads in Guatemala are a lot worse than Mexican roads!

Where we stayed

Hotel Kasa Kamelot - booked through hostelworld, it's a cross between a hostel and a hotel. We got a double room with an ensuite. It was clean, had good kitchen facilities, and the staff were really friendly, though the shower was very temperamental (mainly very cold).

Food & Drink

• La Esquina Asiatica - When we heard there was a Thai option we couldn't not go, it definitely hit the spot.
• Home cooked meal (pasta with tortillas) - organised by Jose at Quetzal tours

Things to do

• Trekking with Quetzal tours - I can't recommend Jose enough, he went over and above, was honest and gave us a great trekking experience!
• Learn Spanish with Quetzal tours - Jose again came through with flying colours. He's patient and very knowledgeable - not to mention amazing value. We had pretty much a one-to-one lesson for 25Q.

Journal

After the trouble we had on the Mexican side of the border we were worried for the Guatemalan side. Our driver took us to La Messila the border city of Guatemala. As we crossed the change was almost immediate. The roads were thinner and more crowded and the hustle and bustle was more pronounced. This particular town wasn't a place you'd want to spend any more time than you needed to.

The driver dropped us off and announced we were to change vehicle. We took our bags and he walked us from the car park to the Guatemalan border control where we quickly and easily got our passports stamped. We were pleased that it seemed to be so easy, however our hope of jumping straight on to another bus was dashed when our driver disappeared and we were left waiting by the side of a busy street with little clue of what was going on. The other passengers didn't seem to be too worried so we took our cues from them and sat and waited. About half an hour later we were ushered on to another mini-bus and we were on our way.

The scenery of Guatemala took on a stark change to Mexico. Almost immediately we were surrounded about cliffs and lush vegetation all the way up them. Every now and then we'd feel the bus take a sharp turn as it had to avoid the reminiscence of a landslide, large rocks dotting the road; Sometimes the road had fallen away completely. It was another two hours or so before we arrived in Quetzaltenango. We actually had to transfer to another bus in what seemed to be another town also called San Cristobal which was pretty disconcerting. Also because we'd moved countries my map application on my phone didn't have the right information so we didn't know where our hotel was. Luckily because we were the only passangers in the transfer they dropped us right at the hotel.



Our hotel "Hotel Kasa Kamelot" was a mix between a hotel and a hostel. We got a private room with two double beds and an extra single. These types of room often come up cheaper on the booking websites, maybe because they are in lesser demand. It works well for as we get a bed for throwing things on. Before leaving San Cristobal I'd sent out a message to a tour company we'd read reviews about called Quetzal Tours. They'd replied and they were coming to the hotel at 6 to discuss some treks we were interested in. It had been a longer journey than anticipated and so it was already 5:45 by the time we arrived.

I decided to give Quetzal tours a call to let them know we'd arrived and I spoke to Jose who said he'd be around at about 6:15. It wasn't until later that we realised that we had crossed a timezone and we had actually arrived at 4:45 local time... Jose arrived at 6:15 and I immediately liked him. He talked us through the trekking options and gave all the pros and cons. We'd originally been interested in the Xela to Lake Attitan hike which takes 3 days. It's supposed to be a great trek however after talking to Jose we weren't sure it was the right time of year to do it as it's rainy season Jun-Sept.

We discussed a couple of other options and decided to opt for the Sunrise Santa Maria trek. Santa Maria is a volcano that overshadows the city of Queztaltenango. We'd pay 300Q (now we had to get used to Guatemalan Quetzals) each and would start the climb at 2am the next day (so we didn't have long!). After we had settled on the trek Jose took us out to show us where we could get some food at a local supermarket so we could stock up on snacks. After that he showed us to a Thai place for dinner. We really should have got stuck in to Guatemalan fare however we just couldn't resist a Thai. The food definitely wasn't the best Thai and we had some difficulty reading the menu, but it really hit the spot after a day on a minibus eating pringles.

After dinner we quickly went back to the supermarket to get some more supplies for the morning before heading back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. When we got back I had a message from Jose that we needed to actually leave at 1am to be able to make sunrise as it was now earlier in the day. That meant getting up at 12:15am leaving about 4 hours to sleep. We went to bed immediately!

Our alarms went off at 12:15am and we groggily got out of bed, we had some yogurt with granola to give us something to go on. We got our bags ready and put on some warm clothes as it was pretty cold outside. I packed a woolie hat, and some gloves just in case. Jose arrived bang on 1am and we went out to meet him. There was a light rain falling and the clouds were very low. We jumped in to the minibus and we drove about 15-20 minutes out to a very dark track. We got out and Kate immediately realised she'd forgotten her head torch... oh dear. We couldn't go back now so it was onwards and upwards.

It was a cold and wet start to the trek

We started walking and about 50 metres up the track there was suddenly a bark to our right, then another slightly ahead, then another next to that one. At first we thought they were behind a fence however the movement of the eyes shining from our torches quickly revealed that to not be the case. Jose quickly armed himself with a stone (he'd clearly done this before). We walked at a steady pace past the dogs and as one of the braver dogs ventured closer Jose threw the stone. I'm not entirely sure in the stone hit it's target but the dog retreated nonetheless. We were quickly past the dogs and their barks faded in to the distance however it wasn't a great start to the walk.

We walked up some grassy tracks, though at the time it was hard to know what we were walking on and what our surroundings looked like. The track got steadily steeper and more uneven as the time past. We had to try a few configurations of walking to try and make walking with two lights possible, after a time we settled on Jose at the front with a torch, me in the middle, and Kate took my torch at the back. I did my best to use Kate's light and sometimes Jose shone his torch behind him on particularly difficult bits. Eventually the rain stopped but it was still very wet. The trail also got very thin in places with sticks and bushes often needing to be pushed out of the way. Every now and then I'd get a spider web in my face which was pretty disconcerting!

The hours seemed to pass pretty quickly, but it was a good three and a half hours of walking before the first signs of sunrise started to appear. It was a none-stop uphill that just got steeper and steeper, thought the vegetation only seemed to get more intense and it was very slippy in places. It was very slow going. At this point the cloud also started to clear, up until this point it was only cloud everywhere and we were worried we weren't going to see anything so we were very glad when we were able to see our first star.

We continued on for another half an hour and then we saw our first glimpse of the city down below us and the first rays started to light the clouds on the horizon. It looked like we could be lucky, the city literally sparkled below us, it was very beautiful. By this point we were all pretty tired and it looked as though Kate was going to struggle to make it to the top in time. It was very cold and Kate took the hat and gloves to try and warm up. I'd taken off my jumper earlier as I'd been sweating a lot. I didn't put it on again at this point but had my jacket to keep off the chill which worked as long as we kept moving. When we reached a point where the path was finally easy to follow - mainly because I could see more than two feet in front of me - we decided Kate and Jose would carry on at an easy pace and I would run up and try to catch sunset.

Just before sunrise the skies cleared and Xela appeared below us

I started off reasonably quickly - I definitely hadn't found it easy up to this point - and soon was struggling. I could see the sun was quickly rising so I pushed through when I could and make sure to take it easy on the more slippy bits of the track. As I got higher the trees did thin out which made the track a bit easier, though the tree line pretty much went all the way to the top. I passed the last tree and it was only 30 or so metres to the top. As I got to the top I managed to catch the sun as it appeared over the horizon. I'd just made it. I took a couple of pictures and then quickly had to dip in to my bag to get my jumper. It was absolutely freezing up there and my fingers had almost instantly become numb. I had both hoods up in an effort to keep my self warm. Luckily I had an absolutely amazing sunset to take my mind of it, it was truly spectacular.

I stayed on the top for about ten minutes taking pictures and also trying to see if I could see the other surrounding volcanoes. One whole side of the volcano was still covered in cloud so unfortunately I couldn't see in to the nearby crater of the Santiaguito volcano, which is apparently still very much active! After ten minutes of trying to minimise my exposure to the elements I decided to come back down and see if I could meet Kate and Jose coming up. As I left the top the cold wind stopped immediately and I was able to feel my fingers again shortly afterwards, phew! I met Kate and Jose after about five minutes and we decided to head back down. Kate was very tired and going further up would only add more distance to get back.

The top of Santa Maria was absolutely freezing - take warm clothing!

We started our descent and half expected to make good time. It was perhaps even harder. It was extremely slippy and we still had to negotiate our way around bushes and fallen trees. Though it was quicker coming down, we did realise how far we had actually walked. It seemed to go on forever, but we could finally see the scenery that we hadn't been able to see earlier. It was extremely beautiful. About half was down Jose said we should stop for rest and some food. We thought Jose was going to have a bit of food but instead he pulled out a bag and a blanket and announced he was going to have a quick nap and then did just that! He put the blanket over him and Kate and I looked at each other without really knowing what to think. I guess if you need to sleep then you need to sleep! After five minutes the blanket sat up and said it wasn't allowed to sleep. Jose then appeared from beneath it and started to pack away the blanket.

The Guatemala siesta - Jose taking a nap on the volcano

It was another hour and a half hour at least before we started to come to the end of the trek, we started to go through farm land and see some of the locals at work in the fields saying "Buenos Dias" in our best Spanish. The sun had fully come up and it was a lot warmer. The downward journey took it's toll on both mine and Kate's knees though and by the end we were both hobbling!

We got to the bottom of the trek and Jose had ordered a taxi to pick us up. We jumped in a drove away and were able to see the Santa Maria volcano towering over us, no wonder we were so tired! It was 9:30am, and as the rest of Quetzaltenango was waking up, we were very much ready for bed, it had been a long night!

Santa Maria disappearing as we drove away

We were very tired when we got back to the hotel and we pretty much fell asleep immediately after having showers. When we woke up we still had an avocado and some tuna that we were planning on eating on the trek. We went and grabbed some rolls from a nearby bakery and came back to have some sandwiches before heading back to bed! When we woke up it was about 3ish. I got a call from Jose offering to give us a Spanish lesson that evening and to have dinner cooked by the family he was currently living with. It sounded great!

We met Jose at 6pm in the main square and he walked us over to his rented place about 15 minutes walk away. When we got there we met the lovely family and went upstairs where the kitchen is located to do an hours Spanish lesson for which he was charging 20 pesos each, an incredible price for pretty much one-on-one teaching. The lesson was great, and Jose did an awesome job of answering all our questions. I did my best to help Kate, as at some points we were doing slightly more advanced things for me, though afterward she said she had no idea what I was talking about - doh! After the lesson we had dinner. The woman who Jose rents from had made us spaghetti for dinner which we were very happy about. As well as that she had made some tortillas (you have tortillas with everything here), they had a green tinge because she had used some special flour. They were amazing. After our meal she asked to have her picture taken with us and then headed out for her local church service. We said gracias, and thank you for all her hospitality and then said goodbye then Jose called us a taxi and we headed back to the hotel for bed.

Our plan for the next day was to head to Lake Atitlan which is about two hours away from Quetzaltenango. We hadn't managed to book on to a shuttle so Jose said he would do his best in the morning to book us on to a transfer for 100 pesos. It was an early start again as Jose might be putting us on a 7am shuttle so we were up early to pack. He called be at about 6:45am to say the 7am shuttle was full and he'd put us on an 8am shuttle. We hung around until then and then met up with Jose so he could take us to the shuttle.

We thanked Jose for all his time and all his care while we were in Xela, he'd been absolutely awesome and we couldn't thank him enough. He'd sorted our transfers and at about 8:10 the shuttle pulled up and we were off to Lake Atitlan.