How To Make a Mountain

Juan, our erstwhile off-road bicycle trip guide is now our Pacaya volcano climb guide. Juan is like The Man in Jack London's To Build a Fire; "he was quick and alert in the things of life," but unlike The Man, Juan was quick and alert in the significances of these things. Juan told us that he never tired of visiting the Pacaya volcano. One, it was always changing. Out of that came the most compelling appeal of a Pacaya visit: "It was like watching a mountain being made,"says Juan. It was.

Our group started climbing the steep dusty path up, up, up. We stopped for several breaks to catch glimpses of a view and to admire some of the remarkable vegetation.


The forest soon gave way to open terrain and soon we noticed that the "dirt" underfoot has changed character, as well.
The loose lava underfoot had a brittle, crunchy texture. We were told that this lava filled in the former site of a verdant valley. And in fact, the cone that was hikeable only months earlier, now had collapsed into an impressively chaotic pile of scree.

This is what is left of the cone.


Above is the view behind us as we climbed. The immense valley below was home to Guatemala City. We eventually had no choice to walk on fresher lava if we wanted to continue climbing. There was a crude walking path forged for and by tourists. Footing was dicey. The lava was mostly cool. But there were hot spots. They were obvious for the heat that emanated as well as their pale white ashy look. We did not feel we were in any danger, but we were literally walking on an active volcano. We all brushed aside the stray thought that we would not be allowed to do this in the U.S.
We also tried to ignore the occasional acrid scent of burning rubber wafting by. Yes, some of us returned from the trip with loosened shoe soles. I was one of them.
The lava was as sharp as glass shards in places. It crumbled easily in some spots and held as firm as cement in others.
The smoke behind Marty and Mike is from a hot spot.
And where there's smoke, there's...
Fire in the form of fresh, rolling lava; a clumsy molen mass stumbling, hesitating and surging. It was a slow motion gallop of something, an insignificant thing from a distance, but it was liquid rock, rock changing shape and position as simply as us walking up the mountain.
We were witnessing the birth, rebirth, of a mountain.
Marty had joked earlier that we could toast marshmallows, but he was joking. Juan knew otherwise though and surprised us with a bag of fluffy white Guatemalan marshmallows. And a stick.


Just the right spot,
just the right distance,


some hungry climbers,


just the right amount of time;

This is the recipe for a much-appreciated afternoon volcano-side snack!



We made the climb back down and I took these shots to show how steep the path was; like stair steps.


Adios Pacaya!

The Sights and Sounds on Lake Atitlan

This is Lake Atitlan. Mike, our friend (and tour guide) paddled with us across the lake in a couple of our hotel's kayaks. Notice the (lack of) freeboard here... Lake Atitlan is ringed with volcanoes and Mike's backdrop is one of those volcanoes.Here is another paddler we encountered on our lake crossing. His boat was quite literally carved out of a log. All of the local fishermen had such a boat and yes, most paddled standing up in this tippy little craft. Somehow Mike's boat's freeboard issue didn't seem too serious.

This is another very common and very busy Lake Atitlan craft: a shark boat or lancha. Lanchas serve as the public transportation on the lake. They are very efficient, very responsive (just stand and wave on a dock if you want to be picked up) and very inexpensive.

This is the restaurant at our hotel. We ate breakfast here every morning. It was very quiet and peaceful, not to mention beautiful. It has been my goal ever since to turn our front porch into our own version of this idyllic setting. Somehow, though, the piles of snow on the fringes of our porch many months out of the year interfere with this vision!
Below is a very common scene in Guatemala: wild dogs. Though they are not really feral, they seem to be domestic dogs just simply let loose. They were thinnish, but otherwise seemed quite healthy. They did not beg for food, but they were glad (and seemed surprised) for any handout.

No center of population would be complete without graffiti. This may well be the Mayan version of "Heather+ Brandon 4 ever."
Guatemala boasts one of the most intact indigenous populations in all of the world; the Mayans. This alone is enough of a reason to visit. The Mayans are profoundly creative; their textile work is wildly patterned and boldly colored. These petite people are also very hardworking. Everywhere we traveled, the Mayans were busy walking, carrying, hauling. The yound women below are carrying cement blocks to a construction site quite a distance up a hill.


This is a typical lakeside scene above: a concession shack, a little boy, a stray dog sleeping in the shade, a lancha off in the distance.

Here is a tour of our hotel on Lake Atitlan: the Posada Schumann. Above is one sleeping area off our main room and our outdoor patio.
The second floor under the steeply sloped roof (above) slept four more. Another balcony afforded a magnificent lake view. (below)


This is the main building and spectacular grounds of our posada.

This is the view from our (rickety) dock.

Above was my view one morning from our 2nd floor balcony.
This is a view from the trail that leads partially around the lake. This is a house that, during a very heavy spring rain no doubt, slid right off its site into a new canyon. Guatemala has a very serious problem with deforestation and resulting erosion. In fact, the main city on Lake Atitlan, Panajachel (PAHN-ah-ah-CHELL) -no longer has the use of its sewage treatment plant. It now sits in an adjacent canal, useless. "There is no money to fix it," the locals told us. A big pipe now spews sewage into Lake Atitlan near their lancha dock. It's a big, deep lake.


Poinsettias grow "like weeds" next to the trail.

Speaking of the lake trail, the main transportation route between several of the lakeside towns, here is Marty posing on one particularly adventurous section.
Here is the main trail again. Corn was planted everywhere it could and beyond.
This is the main drag in the main town, Panajachel. The tiny three wheeler taxicabs skirted and darted through traffic. There were lots of booths,tables and storefronts bursting with all types of exotically colored items from gaily patterned textiles, scarves, skirts, shoulder bags, rugs, bedspreads, blanket, jewelry, paintings, tablecloths, hotpads, and greeting cards. It was an absolute delight to shop here. The prices were embarrassingly inexpensive and the Mayans were unfailingly polite and graceful. Young women paraded regally by with their headpieces of cheery, folded fabric wares for sale.

The Picture Frame Maker

This is a picture frame studio just outside of Antigua, Guatemala. It was very tiny and staffed (owned?) by a young and very friendly man. He spoke little, or no, English but was very flattered by my interest in his hand carved and gilded small mirror frames.








These are the four snapshot size mirror frames I bought from him. The gold is an especially mellow antique gold.