If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my account of the first day of the hike, which was far more action packed. For all the information you need to do the hike yourself check out this quick guide I’ve put together. Enjoy!

We woke up to the roosters crow. Mind you, they’d been crowing for hours, but they were still at it when we got up at 7:30AM. We had a quick breakfast of oats with fruit, (as well as some kosher cookies, thanks M and Z), packed up our things, put the sleeping bags back in their secure chest, and said goodbye to the village folk. We were only ten minutes up the path when we had to stop; Rudy had spotted a coral snake, a highly venomous species whose venom can cause the malfunction of nerve systems. We waited there for ten minutes until Rudy was sure the danger had passed. 

Today was going to be quite an easy and short day of trekking. After a steep but short up and down to get back from the village to the main trail, we were going to have a gentle ascent for two hours on a road rather than a path, then a gentle descent, also on a road, into the village of Santa Clara, where we’d spend the afternoon and stay the night. 

There really wasn’t anything to note about the walking today. It was a weirdly comprehensive day for me , I spent the first two hours in the back of the group feeling a bit lonely as the fact I was the only one who spoke English as a first language was becoming quite obvious. That, along with me being the youngest and least experienced (in life) in the group (by quite a bit) was making it tough for me to make conversation. Looking back, I had found it easy the first and third day, so I think it was as much about me just waking up on the wrong side of the bed as anything else. But let me continue with my excuses. Anyways, being in the back by myself was kind of disheartening, and I found myself falling further and further behind. I knew I had to catch up, but I just didn’t have much motivation. So, I turned to what I always do in these situations; Spotify. Once I had my music shuffling, I was shuffling, just upwards. And when “Go Pato” came on… Well, I literally skipped past everyone (probably to their amusement) and didn’t stop until I realised I couldn’t see the rest of the group. 

The day went on like that, I’d fall behind, my shuffled playlist would reach something that’d give a sort of second wind, minutes later I’d be be absolutely flying to the front, only to fall behind again, before we eventually made it to Santa Clara.

This village was far bigger than the last, in fact, I’d have to call it a town. It’s a town that gets very few travelers besides the hiking groups. Groups come through to hike the Indian Nose trail (more on that soon) but they usually just park at the edge of town and go straight into the mountains. As we walked through town, everyone we passed greeted us with shouts of “Buenas” or attempted greetings in other languages. Hilariously, when we got to our hosts, one of them noticed mine and M’s Kippah and immediately called out “Mishpaja”. Turns out she knew more Hebrew than she did English! Although, come to think of it, her English was basically non-existent. Staying with this host family was one the highlights of my entire trip. Though they spoke no English, and Spanish, which some of us had a decent grasp of, which wasn’t even their first language, was what we had to get by on; they were just so warm and endearing towards all of us that it really felt like we were part of the family.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon resting, chatting (through motion and Google Translate) with the family, and being taught how to make traditional tortillas. Dinner came around in no time at all, and the “kosher crew” went all out with a delicious shakshuka which may have made the others a bit jealous. (They were making me jealous with their chicken tortillas so it was even-steven). After that we headed outside where we took a family picture for our hosts on C’s polaroid. They didn’t have a single printed family picture in the house so it was really cool to be able to give them such a cool gift. And you just know we had to join in for one snap ourselves. We finished the night off with some music and the host family showing everyone how Guatemalans love their dancing while us Europeans tried to match their energy (some of the others could but I was waaay off. The Guatemalans seem to have never ending supply of energy!!). Then, after washing off in the Temazcal, it was time to get some sleep. Tomorrow we were going to be getting up at 4AM to catch a magical sunrise.

Day 1 Day 3