The Volcano: Take One

I had been staring at Volcán Atitlán for some time, and admiring the lush cloud forest that covers it. Saturday evening, I decided to dedicate Sunday to meandering around in that cloud forest, and maybe looking for a route to the top.



I found the coordinates of the top online; it's only 5 miles from Las Milpas! Of course, that doesn't take elevation into account. I let it slip out that I was going to climb the volcano, and was told horror stories of robberies and assaults. I figured, I won't take much. A few bucks, my GPS, camera and cell phone. I'd hate to lose any of those, but they're just things, and I'd need them for the hike.

So Sunday at 6 am, I set out. I walked to the road the shoots east from Panabaj towards Chicacao. After an hour of walking, I was on a trail that went in the direction of the volcano. A few minutes later I was back on the road. The trail was a shortcut. Then a pickup truck drove up. "Where are you going?" "I'm going to hike around on the volcano." "There are a lot of thieves there. You'll get assaulted. Do you want us to give you a lift back to Santiago?"

"No, I'll watch out. Is there a trail that goes to the top?"

There happened to be one a few meters away, so I was back into the coffee and corn fields.



Half an hour later I heard a noise. There was a man with a machete in a patch of woods. Here we go. From fifty meters away I said, "Hola, amigo."

"Where are you going?"

"For a walk. Towards the volcano. Can I pass through?"

"You can't get to the top of the volcano on this path. You have to back to the road, go a few hundred meters along it, then go up that path. This will get you to the front of the volcano only."

He assured me I could still hike pretty far, and that there were less thieves this way, though sometimes one still encounters them.

I plodded forward. Eventually the cultivated areas gave way to woods, and the bird calls were amazing. This is an area where the resplendent quetzal is occasionally seen, though I didn't get that lucky.

The trail met up with the mudslide zone of 2005, the derrumbe that ruined the old Hospitalito with much of Panabaj. I stepped in quicksand at one point and my foot sank eight inches, then hit rock. No big deal, but what a surprise when you think you're steeing on something solid and it's just like a liquid.

As the washed out are got steeper, there were more obstacles to climb over or around, until eventually there was one that seemed insurmountable. I turned back there, about a mile and a half from the summit.

On the way down, there was a farmer preparing a bundle of some plant to carry down. He was about to put what was probably 50 pounds of it on his back. We chatted for a minute, and I went along. A few minutes later I heard his steps behind me. With the bundle, he was going much faster than I was. We descended together. He told me he's 68, he's been up the volcano many times, would be happy to be a guide for a fee. We talked about how I'm looking for a new place to rent -- he gave me some names of people to contact about houses for rent. We talked about Maximon, the local idol, who is now in Tzanchaj (south of Panabaj).

He said he'd give me his phone number so I could contact him about being a guide. When his trail turned off from mine, I asked him for it, ready to type it in to my phone.

"Well, I don't know it."

Geneen at Hospitalito Atitlán

Geneen, my wife, is an RN, and works 40 hour weeks as a volunteer at the hospitalito. She had worked several days in a row, and finally had Monday off. She was nearing burnout, and I was glad she was scheduled to have Tuesday off as well.

We go to bed early here. There's not much to do. Often, the music from one of several evangelical churches bounds across the water and through the cabin walls, making an early bedtime difficult, but that was not the case Monday. We were sound asleep at 10:30 when my phone rang. Geneen was called in to work to escort a patient to Guatemala City.

When the hospitalito gets a difficult case, they send the patient either to Sololá, about an hour away, or the capital, about 3 hours away. The patient, about 20 years old, had a large amount of fluid in her lungs, and needed assistance in breathing. The ordeal was so stressful for Geneen, that, on the highway, she had to have the ambulance stop so she could get out and vomit.

Upon arriving at the larger facility, the receiving nurse chastised Geneen for not removing the patient's jewelry. The fact that this was the first thing the nurse said was disturbing to Geneen. The ambulance crew left, and on the way back Geneen got to witness the beauty of the dawn. Lots of birds, beautiful fields, a smoldering volcano...

Then they got a call from the capital. The patient had died, and the ambulance crew had to tell the family to go back and get the corpse.

Communal Living

Geneen and I live in a cabin in a little compund called Las Milpas close to the Hospitalito. At Las Milpas there are 6 rental units, and, together with other neighbors, most nights we have a communal dinner. Cooking for 10-15 people can be a bit of work, but you only do it once a week or so, and often enlist the help of other. Two nights ago, one of the doctors orchestrated a very labor-intensive Polish meal, consisting of Pirogi and a cabbage dish. Pirogi are a lot of work, as we made dough, filling, everything from scratch. Worth the effort, though! Then Geneen and I made eggplant Parmesan, which was also a big hit. Broccoli with garlic and sesame, fresh fruits, cake for dessert. Last night was a fantastic tofu curry. I made chicken mole a few weeks back. I am salivating as I type...

There are usually visitors as well as us regulars, and there is often Guatemalan beer and rum, Chilean wine, and sometimes something odd (but good) such as Pitahaya wine. the communal dinner and subsequent conversations and clean up occupies our time from about 6pm to 9pm. I'm usually in bed by then!


The pitahaya flower.

The bad news -- Las Milpas, which is currently owned by an heir to the Pabst brewing company, is being sold within a month. The family buying it will occupy the house, leaving the rest of the renters with no communal kitchen. We're looking for a new place....

-----Bike Ride to San Lucas Tolimán-----

Yesterday I decided to ride my new bike to San Lucas, about 15km from Santiago. It's so hilly, I spent the entire ride either zooming down hills with the brakes on, sweating up a hill in 1st gear, or walking the bike. It took about an hour each way, and I had only one near-death experience ( I was flying downhill, and a vehicle coming the other direction was passing a truck -- he backed off when he saw me, otherwise I would have had to run off the pavement).