First of all I should probably apologise for being a lazy bastard and not uploading dor a fair few weeks. It is probably about time that I posted another blog, so in this episode of "A 15 Month Adventure of an Intrepid Norfolkian", I will be telling you about a week I spent with a 67 year old chap called Carl from Guatemala (mostly in the form of pictures, because I am too lazy to be writing much right now).
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| Carl's Beast |
Carl. This guy was a true inspiration and after spending a week with this extroverted grandpa, I felt like getting old wouldn't be too bad after all. So let you tell you a bit about him. At 67, Carl has a stronger set of lungs and heart than most people in their 20s - on regular occasions he climbs the volcanos that surround his beautiful home in the heart of Guatemala; these are no molehills either, they stick out at well over 3000m and some over 4000m above sea level. He spoke of a trip he did a few months' ago, where he had climbed 7 volcanos in a week on consequetive days, including the tallest and second tallest in the whole of Central American. He is also quite the avid cyclist and there isn't a day that passes by, when he doesn't get on his little bitch :D (so he called it) and on occasions I was panting to keep up with the sod on some of the ascents we did around Guatemala. A true inspiration.
So what did the old boy have in store for a young whipper snapper? Well, a lot is the answer. And you would think that after a week-long stay in his botanical haven (my own home for the week), I would be well-rested, but instead I was more drained than when I got there.
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| My little botanical garden for the week |
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| Inside my home |
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| Wood powered stove |
To give you an overview of the week:
- Climbed Santa Maria Volcano with an overnight camp
- 40km ride with and copious amounts of uphill in order to talk at a conservation meeting he had with at his local district bosque (woods) on the top of a volcano. Surprisingly
- Climbed Volcano Chicabal at the crack of dawn 04:00 for sunrise.
- Digging up his organicly grown vegetable allotment - which is the size of most people's local park.
- Climbing and camping at the top of Tajamulco, Central America's highest peak at 4220m.
As everybody knows a picture tells a thousand words, so instead of mumbling on about the treks. I will just present a few of the photos to give you a taster of what it was like (plus I am feeling lazy and not very creative to write about it):
Volcano Chicabal, extinct with crystal clear green pools
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| Santa Maria from Chicabal |
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| Extinct Olcano Chicabel with it's green lagoon |
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| And again |
Volcano Santa Maria 3770m high, camping at the top...
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| Camp fire at the top of Santa Maria |
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| Sun rise |
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| Best sunrise. I have ever seen! |
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| About 06:00 looking down south |
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| Looking North from Santa Maria |
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| Looking down at Volcano Fuego, still smoking away |
Volcano Tajamulco 4220m high (tallest mountain in Cental America), camping at the top...
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| A cold ascent to the top of Tajamulco |
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| Carl sorting out the bangers |
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| Morning jobby looking over to Mexico |
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| And again... |
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| Descending into the clouds |
Tom's Cool Facts about Guatemala:
- The name "Guatemala" is said to mean the "land of many trees," and there’s truth to that. The country’s three types of terrain include the volcanic central highlands
- The first inhabitants of Guatemala arrived as far back as 18,000 B.C. And Guatemala was the hub of the Mayan civilization
- Lastly, Guatemala is home to 33 volcanos despites it's small size
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