¿Todo Bien?

Loosely translated, the phrase means is everything okay?.¨ It became the theme of my day. My morning began at 5 am when I awoke to hike Volcan San Pedro. (I spent yesterday doing absolutely nothing but visiting on the back deck of my hotel! It felt great, but I needed to be active today.) My guide, Domingo, met me in town before it was light and we began the most difficult trek ever! The hike to the top of the volcano is 5 miles...all up hill. The Guatemalans don´t believe in switchbacks, preferring to cut 15 trillion stairs (only a slight exaggeration) into the mountain where tree roots don´t provide natural stairs, forcing hikers to go straight up. This 3 mile hike would have been 20 in the US.

Domingo and I walked the first 2 miles to the national park. He passed me off to my guide Sabien, who speaks no English. Needless to say, I got quite a lesson from full immersion today and my vocabulary has greatly expanded. The next 3 miles were even harder than the first two. As we got closer to the summit, it got steeper. The last 10 steps were excruciating, but I was determined. (I met a group of 10 yesterday who didn´t make it.) The views from the top, at 3000 meters (9000 feet), were amazing. San Pedro is not an active volcano, so there was no sacrifice to the fire gods, but I could see 7 or so villages and the lake below. Talk about peaceful!

The park is full of wildlife and beautiful foliage. Sabien patiently named many of them for me in Spanish and K'iche (one of 22 Mayan languages spoken here). All of that vocabulary has already escaped me, but I was a diligent student in the process.

If the way up was difficult, the way back down was twice as painful! Talk about a slip-and-slide adventure. Your legs are screaming and the ground is moving beneath your feet. I managed to make it back down with only 1 spectacular fall and 3 or so magnificent sliding accidents. That doesn´t count the amount of times Sabien took a fall! That´s where I learned most of my new words. ¨Be careful.¨ ¨Are you okay?¨ Several other exclamations that weren´t quite expletives, but could have been! But, it was well worth it and Sabien assures me that Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano I plan to hike while in Antigua, is muy facile compared to San Pedro.

So, todo bien? Si. I had a long massage this afternoon, which helped with the soreness of the hike and folks are starting to crowd the streets for fiesta. The collective good mood is infectious. There are many solo travelers in San Pedro, so we will all celebrate Navidad together tomorrow.

I do miss you all and hope that the holidays are wonderful for you. I will probably leave San Pedro after Navidad. More adventures on la camionetas del pollo to come!!

¡Feliz Navidad! Hasta luego.