1750 Waiting outside Quetzaltrekkers office; sign says they've popped out but welcome
1810 Back home. Chap came out of next room, they had only popped there. Anyway, I have paid a Q100 deposit for 3 day (2.5 day) trek a week today. I went into teacher-recommended agency beforehand to ask if they had found any other people; they had not, chap was nice enough but I think he sort of wanted me to wait a few more days but I said I didn't want to risk waiting any longer in case eg QT filled up. (He phoned his son - who I had spoken to the other day, while teacher talked with the father - and from what he said to him I am not sure I got across the "conditional risk" aspect of this but WTF.)
TBH I don't feel super happy. QT have a great reputation and yes it's all volunteers and for charity, but they are charging 750 compared to 600 at the other place, there's an *extra* Q100 fee to have a bag transported (perhaps this is what really sticks in my throat actually) and they also seem to be implying I will have to carry a 50-60 litre backpack (they can lend me one) as I will need to carry some shared gear. There is a mandatory pre-hike meeting at 6pm next Fri and I can at least sort out borrowed gear and what/if I want to send on then, but compared to other tour agency where I could apparently send my main bag on and just take my tiny daypack with sleeping bag and mat strapped to it this seems a hell of a lot more involved. But WTF, it may be "reassuring" if I manage to do it under these apparently more onerous conditions, they *do* have a good rep and the key thing is this isn't some day/weekend thing in the middle of my long stay in Xela where I can be flexible and keep waiting to see if other agency can find anything - this is essentially a form of transport, in part, I need to do it that particular weekend or not at all.
I had been warned QT was right at back of weird complex (apparently a hostel, as I see from QT's confirmation e-mail) and indeed it is. As I made my way back out solo, I got to the street door and a fucking dog appeared. I may have panicked a bit rather than been tranquil and thereby provoked the fucker but - exact sequencing unclear - I rushed the last metre or two to door, fucking hound came at me barking, I emitted a loud high-pitched scream and slammed the door behind me just in time. FFS.
I won't do it tonight but maybe tomorrow I will book a hostel for the Fri night here (as I will have given up this flat; as prob already waffled I can't risk checking out of here 5am or whenever Sat given it's not a hotel with a checkout desk and there may be arguments over cleaning), ideally right near QT (but probably *not* the hostel on their premises) and a hostel for a couple of nights in San Pedro at other end. Wrt the latter may want to wait and see if Joel or anyone else *is* doing the QT hike that weekend and try to get same hostel in SP as him/them. Jolene - who I did Chicabal with today, though not written than up yet - is doing it with QT but the following weekend.
I can pay the rest of the money at the 6pm Fri meeting anyway.
Can't help but feel I am paying more for less - but it's for charity - but there you go. I do want to do that hike (interesting in itself and also a sort of practice for other activities) and being solo it is difficult to go with a less busy company. I think Joel is probably up for it - but he *may* not want to do it that weekend - but he definitely wanted to do it with QT, my (deliberately weak) sales pitch for this other agency didn't convince him, I would guess he'd be not-unhappy at doing it with me but not so keen to do it with me he'd sign up with the cheap agency instead of his preference just to do it with me.
1840 Just done some laundry, not in mood but had to. To be clear, I do realise the Q600 tour with other agency wasn't a "concrete" thing, given absence of other people to join group, so I'm not paying more for less, I'm paying more for something guaranteed and concrete rather than a possible better option which might fail to materialise.
Current thinking is that I will pack all the stuff I *might* be willing to send on separately (ie heavy and/or not-needed-on-hike stuff) in my small daypack and take that to the pre-hike meeting inside my main bag. May also try to pack rest of stuff inside main bag in a bin bag for ease of transfer to another borrowed backpack if necessary. This should make it as easy as possible to shuffle stuff round and decide what exactly might be being shipped on the night.
2157 Some pretty nice fireworks earlier, watched from balcony. Particularly liked some of the expanding sphere ones, some of them gave a vivid impression of the sphere coming towards me which verged on being unnerving. Didn't go out tonight, probably already said was the plan, *slightly* tempted to have a beer on walk back from QT but been out a lot this week, not really in mood and it's an earlyish start tomorrow.
2320 Need to shower and go to bed but quick write up of Chicabal trip. We got the minibus OK, same one we'd take to XelaAid. Jolene sat up front as she (I've seen her puke; she's not making it up...) gets motion sickness if she can't see the horizon. Super rammed in the back but I had a seat and it was OK. Interestingly coloured views of the world outside through the tinted windows. Woman did get on with a basket of raw chicken (covered, though) towards end of journey; it sat in the doorway just in front of me. I asked conductor to tell me where to get off and Jolene also asked driver, we were put off somewhere next to a sign to the lake so all good. Q7 each way on the bus.
We walked up to the entrance, didn't take anywhere near as long as I expected. Passed a small shop on way which had a presumably mechanical cow ride outside the front which looked a bit like it might have real cow hide on. Not sure. Paid 50 to get in (international price) and walked on up to lake. There was a big group of Guatemalan tourists on our colectivo as it happened, which may have helped encourage bus to go slightly out of its way to drop us where it did, BTW. The walk up was steepish but not insane and except for talking while walking which did make me a bit breathless I felt generally OK; not *easy* but not terribly difficult.
We luckily got up to the lookout over the lake a few minutes before a load of cloud/fog drifted in. Very impressive though. We then went down the steep and strangely impressive stairs to the lake shore and did a circuit of it. Mist drifts in and out in a quite fascinating and vaguely mystical way. We walked up some kind of side trail instead of going back up the stairs. We doubled back to the lookout on my suggestion before leaving but it was just totally misted up; took a few photos of each other as 'proof' of having been there anyway.
No trouble getting bus back, we both ended up sat in the front which gave me good views but I also got a bit pre-squeamish at a couple of points when I thought we were about to run over a dog or hit an oncoming car. We got back about 1430ish; I dropped bag at flat and went to get a pizza at Pizza Ricca (I quite like their supreme pizza, with chilli powder sprinkled on it) and I'd eaten just over half (saving rest for tomorrow) before going out to speak to "old" tour agency re hike to Atitlan, as already written.
TBH I think I would have been OK (i.e. safe) to go to Atitlan alone - though not saying I would do it on a weekday, Saturday seems busyish and it didn't feel threatening. Busyish; we were still largely alone walking round the lake and sat and had a snack and looked at mists etc for a while in peace during that walk round. A few other groups of people walking round met occasionally and some presumably locals sitting and perhaps involved in religious stuff at some points.
Lake is not huge but very attractive all the same. Even the mists added to the quality of it. I dipped a finger in the water (you're not allowed to swim, even if I could swim) and it was cool but not freezing. The weather oscillated between sunny and overcast (it was pretty nippy when we left Xela at 7amish though) and I didn't wear my fleece a lot of the time. I had my waterproof clothes in bag just in case but absolutely didn't need them (which isn't to say it wasn't smart to take them; I remember it pissing down the first afternoon I went to XelaAid). Only drank maybe 400ml or so of water; I had more (a whole unopened bottle) but I just didn't want any more than was in the refilled coke bottle I had in my fleece pocket, which wasn't full when I started to keep weight down and I didn't finish that.
Obviously having some familiarity with that colectivo route and getting advice re where to get it was an unitentional side benefit of having done the XelaAid stuff. I am mildly mortified to have realised in conversation with Jolene today I had been calling the XA organiser woman the wrong name on Friday, but can't be helped now.
Fortunately my generally misadvised (I'm sure it's inhibiting and makes me appear more unfriendly than necessary) policy of not using people's names more than I can help means I only did it once or twice, which isn't great but is better than doing it continually.
Pedometer app says did 33191 steps today; it does sometimes wildly miscount but I think that's reasonably plausible.
My feet did hurt a little bit after all that walking but not excessively and while we'll see how my leg muscles feel tomorrow (coming down is perhaps the most difficult bit) I feel generally fine now.
There is a slight lingering feeling of malaise but I'm not entirely sure what it's about. It may well not be rational. I suspect a certain unsatisfactory "I had to (very very slightly, in a justifiable way) let down that tour company re the trip, and I'm a bit edgy about what's involved in the QT version and slightly narked at the price" feeling is mostly responsible.
This is my last weekend in Xela (until next time :-) ) and I haven't been out but it doesn't really bother me. Met one of the musicians out late Thu night when we left Shamrock and though I recognised his face and went over to say hi after we exchange smiles of recognition, I didn't remember his name and think he may have been miffed and so - not that it was the primary reason - it's nice not to have had to worry about meeting him again this weekend. In theory I may be out (tho prob only if school people are) midweek and may meet him again then but not a big deal and not that likely. I really do need to try to work on remembering people's names though.
It's not like this is the end of my holiday, I can go out in Lake Atitlan or wherever of course.
Don't really feel tired but am going to bed shortly. I was yawning quite a lot on way back from Chicabal - I don't know if this was due to the exertion or if it was kind of not-enough-sleep related. (I kept waking up - not entirely unpleasantly - during the night and wondering if it was time to get up yet and worrying very slightly about the bus.)
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