Xela to Lake Atitlan Photo Tour

We had spent some time in San Pedro Guatemala and were travelling to Antigua where we were happy to have met up with our good friend Megan from On My Way RTW. We had only been chatting to Megan for a few weeks  through Twitter and Facebook. But as soon as we met we were totally at ease.

It’s always awkward meeting someone for the first time, but this wasn’t the case and we spent our first catch up talking for hours before Megan had to shoot off as she was travelling to Xela to do some Spanish Lessons and also go on a 3-day trek with Quetzaltrekkers.

Talk about being a blow in…I am not sure if we invited ourselves or she invited us, but before we new it we were on a bus a few days later to meet up with Megan, lugging our gear across a mountain on the same 3-day trek.

Quetzaltrekkers do a great job with the local community, and ALL money that comes from the treks goes to street kids and children at risk within Quetzaltenago. This is the first of many articles that we will be writing about our experience during this 3-Day trek from Xela to Lake Atitlan. But for now, I hope you enjoy this photo tour.

After packing our bags with all our gear and our water bottles full we were ready for everything and anything .

We spent the beginning of the trek walking through private property and were surrounded by fields and fields of corn crops.

Along the trail there were many farmers followed by hard working donkey’s taking home firewood or carrying all kinds of things.

Passing the hard working locals along the trail, they were all to happy to stop and have a chat in the little Spanish we had learnt. Here this friendly man is sporting Megan’s sunglasses and posing for photos for us.

These hands belong to the man above and reminded me of my fathers hard working hands. These locals are all hard workers and every line on these hands have a story to tell.

Houses were dotted along the trail before we got into more dense forest. The traditional farming life.

We were carrying wet weather gear but hoping we wouldn’t have to use it. However, as you can see in the photo above we were walking directly into a storm and before too long we would be getting extremely wet.

There were flower along the trail and even some unusual ones like the ones below that we have never seen before.

 

Since we were walking through all this farmland we were greeted by a pack of Turkeys which gave us all an unusual mating show. A first for us to watch turkey’s mate, and I think it will be the last!

We were really surprised at the delicious food on offer for lunch. We stocked up on hearty, healthy dishes, full of energy ready to battle the mountains again.

We ate breakfast the next morning after resting our legs and the sunlight was beaming in to wake us up.

After it raining all the previous day we woke to find the sun out and pleasant semi-clear sky.

We passed through many small villages and the locals were inquisitive to see us and wave as we passed by.

 

 

Connecting with the locals was one of the best parts of this trek and most of them wanted you to stop and take their photo. Here Megan shows some local kids their picture.

Rain was on an off for the whole 3 days, but the rain drops did make for some great photography!

A lot of the time during our trek we had views above the clouds for as far as the eye could see.

 

 

Throughout the trek the views were spectacular and lucky enough the rain stayed away just long enough to show us this beautiful countryside.

 

 

This trek was physically challenging and there was a lot of up hill battles along the way. There were many times that we had to put mind over our sore aching muscles, but the views and experience were well worth it.

At one stage of the trek, we had to slap on our sandals and work as a team to get across many fast flowing rivers and streams.

 

We trekked up to this lookout in the early hours of the morning to watch the spectacular sunrise over Lake Atitlan. The three days of strenuous walking was well worth the effort to see this view from up above. This was the moment we had hiked all the way for.

We were on the last leg of our trek and we could see the final destination of San Pedro. We took some time to take it all in and what a wonderful experience it had been over the past three days.

As we reached San Pedro, it was time to celebrate with our fellow trekkers,  have a beer and some lunch by Lake Atitlan. It was a hard three day trek that was paired with some of the most spectacular view that Guatemala has to offer. It was an added bonus to be able to help children in need by doing the trek through Quetzel Trekkers.

If you would like to find out more you can visit Quetzel Trekkers Website or you can also take a look at our good friend Megan’s articles about the trek. Stay tuned for our an in-depth personal look at this trek shortly.