The Week I Stayed with a Man Called Carl

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).

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.

My little botanical garden for the week

Inside my home

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

Santa Maria from Chicabal

Extinct Olcano Chicabel with it's green lagoon

And again

Volcano Santa Maria 3770m high, camping at the top...

Camp fire at the top of Santa Maria

Sun rise

Best sunrise. I have ever seen!

About 06:00 looking down south

Looking North from Santa Maria

Looking down at Volcano Fuego, still smoking away

 

Volcano Tajamulco 4220m high (tallest mountain in Cental America), camping at the top...

A cold ascent to the top of Tajamulco

Carl sorting out the bangers

Morning jobby looking over to Mexico

And again...

Descending into the clouds

Tom's Cool Facts about Guatemala:

1. 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
2. The first inhabitants of Guatemala arrived as far back as 18,000 B.C. And Guatemala was the hub of the Mayan civilization
3. Lastly, Guatemala is home to 33 volcanos despites it's small size

 

Posted with Blogsy