Day 1
We arrived at our last port, Puerto Quetzal Guatemala at about 8am on Tuesday morning. There was no face-to-face immigration procedure so it was fairly quick getting off of the ship. After the diplomatic briefing my trip, as well as another trip that was supposed to leave early, were allowed to get off the ship. My friends PJ, Nick, Julia, Jeff, Chris D, and Chris were all on my trip so it was nice to end my SAS adventures with a good number of friends. We drove about a mile in a coach-style bus until we reached a gas station for our transfer to another bus that can drive down the narrow roads on our way to the Acatenango volcano. The bus that we transferred to is called a “Chicken Bus” and they are all around Guatemala. We were told multiple times to avoid chicken busses because so far this year 64 busses were robbed, and most of the time the driver is beheaded. They are called chicken buses because they are buses stuffed full of people, like chickens. They are converted School Buses, painted and done up. Our chicken bus was independently contracted so we didn’t have to worry about anything but we still got our chicken bus experience (sort of). We drove about an hour in this chicken bus through a small town to the Acatenango volcano. We got off the bus in this private farm area, at 7,000ft elevation, where we began our hike. There were 35 of us . . . 70 of us had signed up for this trip which was supposed to leave the second day we were in Guatemala, but because so many people signed up they asked some of us to change to the first day (which turns out to be the best decision because our third day in Guatemala was so stormy, it would have been miserable). We had two police escorts, two tour guides, and about 4 people from the farm who were hiking up with us. The first third of the hike for the day was fairly easy. We were taking a slow pace to try to stay together. Also, the trail was grassy and not that steep. After an hour and a half we stopped to have lunch. Lunch was very good . . . a sandwich on amazing bread, fancy veggie chips, tea, and cookies. After resting for about a half hour we started hiking again. This hike was the hardest, most grueling hike that I have ever done. The group split up as some people lagged behind. I wasn’t in the back, but I wasn’t in the front of the pack either. The path was extremely steep and the footing wasn’t stable so people were falling and slipping. I felt as if my heart was pounding out of my chest, and it was so hard to breathe (the elevation didn’t help with this). One girl couldn’t make it so the truck that was carrying all of our supplies up gave her a lift. All of the rest of us made it to base camp at 10,000 ft at about 4pm. We were greeted with chips and salsa, fresh guacamole, fresh pineapple, and tea. We ate dinner at about 6pm, hamburgers and pasta salad, and then sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows and talking. It was very cold, but the fire helped a whole lot. We had huge tents, two people per side with a huge middle section. I got my own tent because some girls wanted to be three per tent for the body heat, and I didn’t really care, so I got to turn my sleeping bag long ways in the tent so that I wasn’t touching any side (which turned out to be awesome because then I didn’t get wet with the morning dew). We all retired to our beds at about 7:30pm, and I fell asleep right away. It was dark and I was exhausted, and I managed to stay warm and actually get overheated and sweaty at night. I slept like a baby.
Day 2
We were woken up at 4am for a light breakfast . . . fresh watermelon, papaya, yogurt, and granola. As I emerged from my tent I was greeted with the most amazing view of the stars . . . it was beautiful. We ate around the campfire, and began to hike again at 5am. It was still dark when we left, but about an hour later the sun began to rise. The cloud cover settles lower than our elevation, so we watched the sunrise over the top of the clouds. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. It was breathtaking, and my pictures can’t even being to capture it. We soon emerged over the tree line, 10,500 feet. We could see so many other volcanoes in the distance, it was unlike anything I have ever seen. The hike was terribly difficult. We eventually reached “The Saddle” the crevice between the two peaks of the volcano. At this point the terrain was all ash, sand, and rock . . . there was no grass or trees. We pushed out way up the rest of the volcano, everyone in so much pain . . . we all wanted to give up. When we reached the top an amazing sense of accomplishment came over us all . . . we had reached the top of the 3rd highest peak in Central America. We could see Mexico and Honduras form the top of the mountain. Another awesome view was that of the volcano named Fuego, and we could see it shooting smoke about ever few minutes. There were a few steam holes in the top of the volcano, too, that when we put our hands in them we got a warm blast. The crater at the top of the volcano wasn’t that big, and there were a few rocks that were arranged to say “Will you marry me?” in Germany. We rearranged the rocks to say SAS’09. We stayed up there for about 45minutes, and the more time that went by the colder and colder it got because our bodies were settling down from the hike. After soaking in the rest of the amazing views, we started our way back down. The tour guides wanted to take us a different route down . . . this is where the problems began. As soon as we started down we realized that it wasn’t going to be easy. We were literally on the side of cliff that was almost straight down with rocks as far as we could see, and we all had to hold on to rocks in order to keep our balance and keep from falling. Some people that are scared of heights had some problems. We then got to this extremely steep part that was soft black sand and rocks. We were supposed to run down this very long, steep part of the volcano in order to get back down to “The Saddle.” I had a panic attack, something that doesn’t occur to me that frequently. I just had a bad feeling. Chris tried to help me take it slow but I didn’t want to hold his hand because I thought that if I fell I didn’t want to take him down too. As I started to go I started to pick up speed and soon I was going faster and faster and running faster and faster and I couldn’t stop. I tried to fall backwards but I couldn’t. I saw a rock in front of me and I knew that my face would smash into it if I didn’t do anything, so I lunged forwards and launched myself off of the rock to avoid it. Evidentially I fell very far and was tumbling head over feet . . . the tour guide said it was one of the worst falls he has seen in a while. The tour guide, Emmanuel caught me right before I hit a huge rock, thank goodness. They made me lay on the ground for a while until they were sure that I was alright, and then I stood up and they cleaned up my back which was all scratched up. We headed back down to base camp where we picked up the rest of the group who didn’t hike in the morning, and then we headed back down the rest of the mountain (which wasn’t easy either, many people fell and ended up with some scrapes and bruises). When we got back down we boarded our chicken bus and headed into Antigua, a very touristy area, where we ate an awesome authentic lunch at a restaurant. We had a few hours of free time and Chris and I wandered around and shopped a little before we boarded the bus back to the ship. On the way back to the ship an amazing storm started. There was awesome lightening and thunder, and I hadn’t seen an awesome storm in such a long time so it was refreshing. I love storms. Since Guatemala is so dangerous there was an 11pm curfew for getting back onto the ship at night so we just stayed on the ship and hung out and relaxed (because everyone was in so much pain). At this point my ankle started to give me problems and I could barely walk on it . . . it was huge. My back didn’t feel to bad and it wasn’t that bruised. It wasn’t hard for me to fall asleep . . . at all.
Day 3
I woke up hurting pretty badly. My ankle felt a whole lot better but my shoulder and arm were starting to bruise a bit and my neck hurt pretty badly. My butt and legs hurt from the actually hike . . .I was in pretty bad shape. We decided to take the day easy, and that would be easy since there is nothing to do close to port anyway. We took a taxi to a local town called San Jose. San Jose was extremely shady. There were no tourists there and children were screaming and waving at us from busses passing by. We walked around a bit to get the feel for the town, found a grocery store to get some soda to bring back onto the ship, and then got some delicious cake at a local bakery. Chris had been to Guatemala briefly a year ago and recommended that we buy some chocolate that is different from the chocolate at home and is great to shave off into hot milk to make hot chocolate. We found such chocolate at this bakery, and I can’t wait to try it when I get home! After we enjoyed our cake we took a taxi back to the ship where we relaxed for the rest of the day. There were many people who didn’t even get off the ship that last day because there was not much to do in port.
So, as the ship left Guatemala last night my last port left my sight . . . my voyage is almost complete. Finals are over, I think I ended up with mostly B’s which for me is less than average but in the perspective of what I have done this semester I am completely satisfied with my performance. Everyone is spending so much time outside lately, laying out, but there is this tone of looming sadness . . . .everyone knows that we soon go home. The next few days bring more finals (for some), meetings about disembarkation, pictures with friends, the Ambassadors ball, and then home. I just can’t believe everything I have seen and done. I started packing tonight . . .getting breakables and clothes and stuff together, sorting out what I have bought. Wow . . . just wow.
A girls mom texted her and said: “A few days and you will be back to the real world.”
The girl replied: “Mom, I have seen the real world, I am in the real world.”
