The trek is over and we are here in San Pedro on the lake. We arrived yesterday after two and a half days of hiking. Our group consisted of two Canadians, two Israelis, three Germans and our two guides from Quebec and Ireland. We left Xela early Saturday and took the chicken bus out of town into the hills. The roads were steep and narrow and it was amazing to watch the school bus navigate them. The bumpy ride and the grinding of the bus' transmission reminded me of high school field trips. We had pasteries and an egg for breakfast at the end of the road before getting started on the trail. Initially the trail was steep and soon we were high up looking down at the outskirts of the city through the haze and smog.

We didn't find a summit at the top of the thing we were climbing, rather the landscape changed into grassy hills with sparse trees. We had a break from the sun underneath one of them. After the fields, we climbed up into a high forest. We had tomato salad, coleslaw and potato salad for lunch at a great spot that I think was the high elevation point of the day. Just at that moment the clouds moved in replacing our views with solid whiteness over the edge of the path. This wasn't disapointing because it really cooled us off. These clouds were low flying, close up, tangible things that you could watch float up your hillside and you could feel hitting you in the face. We left the forest and spent the afternoon descending through charred fields.

The first night's camp site was a soccer field close to a village. We played some frisbee there in the field while it was still light out, then our guides cooked spaghetti for dinner. Everyone carries a portion of the supplies and you have to dig them out of your pack when called upon.

We each had to bring along three liters of water but everyone's bottles were empty by the end of the day. To replenish these supplies we used a filter device with a hand pump to clean water from the village tap. It took about five minutes to pump 1.5 liters of water through the carbon and ceramic filter. After dark we toasted marshmallows and went to sleep probably around nine.

In the morning we hiked down the road to the next village. Breakfast was beans and rice and eggs prepared for us in a restaurant type place with an ancient and dirty health inspection certificate on the smoke-blackened walls. I found the food okay but the coffee awful. Apparently there were bathrooms in this town but when we talked to the guy about getting the key we found out that the toilet was so clogged with paper from the last trekkers that we couldn't use it.

Leaving the road, we walked through corn fields on a path that clung to the side of the valley. The next event on the trek was swimming in a stream at the bottom of that valley. This was refreshing but the climb back up the other side got us hot and sweaty again right away.

We had lunch at a nice green patch of grass outside a village near a laundry area. The trail was very dusty at this point. It was like walking on the moon and we had to space ourselves out so that you wouldn't be choking on the dust kicked up by the person in front of you. Despite this, we ended up with legs tanned brown with the finest dust.

The next stage of the hike (it was a long 25km day) was following a stream through a different kind of low forest. We crossed the small stream a bunch of times by hopping from rock to rock. Next we climbed out of the trees to a perfectly paved road that took us to town where we stopped for dinner. Dinner was one leg of fried chicken with rice and beans, ordered in advance and eaten in the courtyard of a restaurant/home with lots of kids and dogs. They had a poor toilet with no seat that didn't flush.

But we weren't done walking yet! It was dark but our campsite was still about 45 minutes away. We all turned our headlamps on and headed out of town, trying to ignore the couples that we revealed making out in every corner and doorway.

Finally we got to our campsite overlooking the lake and setup the tents in total darkness. Again we went right to sleep even though it was probably only 8 o'clock.

In the morning we had to wake up super early to see the sun rise over the lake. Unfortunately it wasn't that fabulous because of the mist. We couldn't actually even see the water until much later. Breakfast was called mush -- oatmeal mixed with leftover marshmallows, granola, chocolate, cinnamon, sugar and everything else we had lying around. It tasted pretty good but was hard to wash off our standard issue plate and spoon. It got hot right away as we packed up and started down towards the water. We basically walked straight down the mountain and landed on the beach after a couple hours. The water was nice but was defended by a border of mud that you could sink into up to your knees. After that, the bottom was sandy and suitable for standing frisbee playing. Further out, the shore dropped away very quickly and you could tell that Lake Atitlan is really deep. After an hour or so of swimming, a boat came and took us and our packs across the lake to San Pedro where we all ordered pizza for lunch.

This was the end of the trek and we were supposed to then take the bus back to Xela. However it turned out that Monday was the first day of a nationwide strike in protest of CAFTA and we heard that all roads back were blocked. We sat around for about an hour uncertain of what to do until a the leaders finally decided that they would take their chances and get on the bus. We decided that since we didn't really have any plans, we would rather stay in beautiful San Pedro than risk getting stuck in traffic for hours trying to get back to the polluted big city. The only price was that Julie and I both left some stuff in the Quetzaltrekkers office that we would have to live without for the next while. Other people in our group left more essential things there like money and passports, but we were in a fine position to decide.

So as of now we are chilling here on the lake with some German friends from the trek, waiting for the three days of strike to pass. Our hotel is only Q20/night with beach access. The food here is also really good. Last night I had a super veggie burrito at Munchies and this morning I had a "full monty" english breakfast at the Alegre Pub. Today we might go canoeing or read in our hammocks.