Leanne Says:
We had been in Guatemala for less than two hours and we had already signed ourselves up for one of the country’s most challenging treks. I had done very limited research, which was probably for the best, and had been sold a seemingly too-good- to-turn-down deal of US$200pp (we had seen it advertised for around US$350pp elsewhere).
The day of the trek began with an early start. We were collected from our hotel at 6am and began the journey with a two hour bus journey on one of the worst roads I have ever seen… or felt! We arrived at the village of Carmelita feeling sick. This was to be the last village we would see over the next few days as ahead of us lay jungle.
In Carmelita we had breakfast and were introduced to our group. There were seven of us altogether. Made up of an eclectic mix of american mormons, tattooed bikers, a well-travelled linguist and two Geordies. It soon became apparent over our discussions that not everyone had paid the same for the trip. Which was not a good start for those who had paid almost double than us. It seems that if you are the person, or people, to start the trip you pay a premium and if you tag along later you get the trip much cheaper.
Something fishy was definitely going on as the guide split our group of seven into two. So off went all the Spanish speaking people in one group, leaving us English speaking people with our Spanish speaking guide. As he began explaining the trip to us we looked at each other in horror. This was going to be fun!
We didn’t begin walking until 10.30am by which point the sun was heating up nicely. The first part of the walk was down a dirt road with not much foliage for shade. This meant only one thing. Sweat, sweat and more sweat! The heat and humidity was almost unbearable. Our two companions also seemed to be suffering in the heat however the polish guy, called Moscow, had his own method of coping in the form of a bottle of vodka which hung from a hip flask from his belt. As they passed the bottle around at 11am we immediately knew these were the type of people we could get along well with.
By the time we reached our lunch point we had caught up with the other group and asked our guides if we could all stick together. At least now we would be able to understand what the hell we were doing.
We walked for another two hours before reaching our camp. During this time I realised that any sort of system to manage the sweat would fail. All my clothes were drenched and I could already begin to smell myself. I had also found out that another discrepancy between our bookings is that the other people had been told they could put a bag on the mule. We were told we had to carry all our stuff in our day bags meaning we had packed light. As people collected their huge bags at the camp I began to think that we may have come slightly underprepared.
Our first night was spent at a fairly well set up camp located next to the ancient Mayan site El Tintal. From the map we were shown the sight looked huge. However, we were slightly disappointed to find that we could only see the top of one of the temples as all the rest has been consumed by the jungle.
We climbed to the top of the temple for sunset and got our first gimps of the never ending dense jungle that surrounded us. It was fair to say that we were well and truly in the wild now and there was no turning back.
The early start and first days walk took their toll and we were ready to climb into our tents as soon as the sun went down. Day one over, only four more to go!
Karl Says:
The crazy two and half hour bus ride across dirt tracks already had my insides rattled and my head spinning before we even arrived at the village of Carmelita. We passed through two military check points, ranches and remote villages on the way to the edge of civilisation.
It turns out the guide only speaks Spanish which I don’t mind as I can practice Spanish, Leanne however is not so positive. As we set off on the 5 day trek I realise I don’t have anything with me, one spare t-shirt, one spare pair of pants, two pairs of socks, a tooth brush and a bottle of water. But what do you really need in the jungle?
The days walking is awful my body has become lazy with all the travelling, I don’t feel fit at all and throughout the entire 32km walk my back is in pain and my hip injury has made a return. Its 35C and I’m sweating profusely and dreaming of a cold diet coke. The sweat has caused a serious case of chafing and hobbling like a penguin feels like a good idea. I won’t be wearing any boxer shorts for the rest of this trip.
There is really nothing at all to see, well perhaps there was but I didn’t care I just wanted to get the first day over. It felt like walking the wrong way up one long endless jungle escalator.
We camped at the ancient city of El Tintal, the camp was basic but better than what I imagined. The best thing of the day was watching the sunset from the top of an ancient temple. Although mostly reclaimed by the jungle its top manages to burst through the tree canopy giving views of endless jungle in all directions.
