This one time in the mountains of Guatemala...

Hi Friends! I wrote this right after our trip two weeks ago, but was a little slow in posting it. Enjoy!

Friday, April 20th 4:45 am
The alarm clock went off. The sun had yet to rise. With only a couple hours of sleep Daniel and I dragged ourselves out of bed. We quickly got ready brushing our teeth and grabbing our bags. Hey at 5 am you're not worrying so much about how you look! Our plan was to catch a 6:00 am bus, but at such an early hour there are no tuk-tuks (taxis). So there we were at 5:15 am trudging through our pueblo with our backpacks. Thankfully, the bus was there and left on time. (Here bus schedules are pretty sporadic.) After a 3 hour ride full of bumps and curves (thank God for Dramamine!) we arrived in Xela (aka Quetzaltenango). We jumped in a taxi and got breakfast with a new friend. It was lovely minus my intense cold. Unfortunately, I was super congested all weekend and had to make a roll of toilet paper my #1 accessory.

Another hour and a half bus ride and we arrived in San Marcos where we met up with my friend and our guide for the weekend, Nate. We also met a friend of Nate's, Ann, who would be joining us for the weekend. After grabbing a quick bite to eat we were off again. We took another bus ride (a little over an hour I think) to Malacatan. Then, we took a taxi to the border of Guatemala and Mexico. After passing through immigration on both sides we took a short micro (minivan) ride to Cacahoatan. Next was another micro ride to Union Juarez. At this point, I was officially exhausted and the micro ride was anything but smooth. (For those of you that don't know, bus rides here are notoriously awful. There is no way around it with such curvy roads full of potholes.) Little did I know what was coming up- a 45 minute hike in the dark to the town where we'd be staying! I do not jest. How I made it up the mountain I really do not know. Did I mention that we had been traveling for 12+ hours at this point, that I was drugged up on Dramamine, that I was not really wearing hiking clothes or shoes, and oh yeah, that we were carrying our bags!?! And you all know that I am not much of a light packer. Haha. Despite how horrible the journey sounds it was not that bad. Just exhausting. Needless to say I went to bed at 9 pm on Friday night.

With our fearless leader & good friend- Nate :)

Saturday was our HIKING day. Woohoo!!! I definitely had my hesitations considering my last Guatemalan hiking experience (commonly referred to in my storytelling as "The Hike from Hell") and I even considered bailing because I was pretty sick, but after my hubby and Nate encouraged me to go I decided I would. The advantage to this day was that we didn't have our packs with us. Nate warned me that the first part of the hike was "pretty steep". Uh yeah, UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR! I wish I had photos to show you the incline, but I was focusing on not keeling over. Let's suffice it to say that we were pretty much rock climbing up the mountain. Lol!

The steep part on the way down. Nate & Ann taking a rest.

Thankfully, that truly was the hardest part. Once we made it up that part we were hiking on a ridge that had some ups and downs, but nothing as crazy. We hiked for 4 hours or so until we got to a village. We randomly ran into a woman Nate knew while we were hiking (funny since we were in the middle of isolated mountains) and ended up going to her home for lunch. Nate has been working in the region for over four years with Mennonite Central Committee so it was fun meeting people through him. He is well loved by the community! By the time night was falling we made it back to Juan Pablo's- our host for the weekend. We received a serious treat- going into a temascal (traditional Mayan sauna). It was A-mazing for my tired muscles and congestion, BUT the intense heat almost made me pass out. Thankfully, our awesome host, Juan Pablo, was there when I was exiting and kept me from falling over. Lol! We truly enjoyed getting to know him and his sweet family especially his grandson, Freddy- one of the cutest children I have ever met. He was so lovable! They also had a newborn puppy that was precious. :) As I have been so many times before, I was amazed by the wonderful hospitality in this country!

Juan Pablo's granddaughter & adorable puppy

View from Juan Pablo's house. So GREEN!

Our gracious hosts- Juan Pablo & Nate

We wish we could have stayed longer, but on Sunday we had to complete the same journey as Friday, but in reverse! Poor Ann had the awful luck of sitting next to a little girl on our first micro who was throwing up the whole time :( But other than that things went smoothly. We even scored some NUTELLA at a Mexican grocery store! Woohoo! (Oh the little things in life. ;) ) Thankfully, going through immigration went smoothly.

The only bummer was that we were not able to get a direct bus from Xela to Pana so we had to take three buses instead. That makes 5 buses, 2 micros, 1 taxi, and 45 minutes of hiking just to get home! Haha.

A big THANK YOU to our wonderful host, Nate. It was a great trip and we truly enjoyed getting out of Pana and enjoying some of God's creation! :) Thanks for your prayers. We are glad to be back home safe and sound and to be with our puppy again! :)

Juan Pablo's home

Dan & Freddy acting silly