Yesterday, while my aunt toured a local coffee plantation, I zip lined through it. And, although I was a bit nervous, it was awesome! It's not nearly as scary as a roller coaster nor near as fast. With this set of zip lines, we had 7 segments of varying lengths with the longest being around 90 meters. One was slightly faster than the others but still not alarmingly so. Besides the 7 segment zip line, they also had another course that was two very long segments over a wide canyon. Next time, I'll be ready for that one. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures as it is hard to take pictures of oneself when suspended in mid air and moving.
Today, was a very busy day. At 9 AM, we were picked up and carted 90 minutes to Pacaya Volcano. It was a fairly steep two hour hike to the top with my guide Carlitos. They also have horses you can take instead of walking. The horse guides follow you for the first kilometro saying, "You need a taxi? My horse no es tired." But, I knew I needed the exercise and I have a bad history with horses so I hoofed it to the top myself. It was a great workout and well worth the views. Pacaya Volcano is still active and, in places, we could feel the heat coming from the ground. An Israeli company has also put a geothermal electric generating plant there as well. Unfortunately, the geothermal profits are not staying local. So the hike was two hours up, 35 minutes down, and a good time was had by all.
Carlitos was really typical of the people I've met in Guatemala - extremely hard working, holding multiple jobs, friendly, and with a positive outlook. He told me that they did not teach English in his school and he'd studied independently and learned from books. He has an 8 year old son and a 5 year old daughter and in addition to taking huffing and puffing Americans to the top of the volcano at a snail's pace, he farms with this dad. He also let me practice my terrible Spanish on him and for that, he deserved a reward. As such and because I've spent very little money here, I gave him a hefty tip.
After we got back form the volcano, we caught a taxi and headed out to the Valhalla Macadamia Nut Farm. It's run by an American named Lorenzo who came to the area for 3 days in 1972 and never left. He and his wife have built up the farm and now have several hundred varieties of macadamia trees. Lorenzo invented a machine that removes the outermost green shell of the nut by using a deflated tire as well as another device that sorts the nuts by size (a chute with 5 wires that get progressively farther apart and the nuts fall through into bags). They also give away hundreds of trees to locals. Lorenzo also made a lot of jokes about spending his days playing with his nuts. In the gift shop, we all got macadamia oil facials and got to try the nuts and some chocolate. The nuts were definitely good and less oily than the ones I've had before. Valhalla - it's a good place doing good things.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Guatemala. We plan on relaxing and taking it easy. We're done a lot this week and it will be good to wind down.
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| The truck that took us to the coffee plantation |
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| Volcano taxi |
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| Pacaya Volcano |
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| You can see where the lava flowed down about 8 years ago. |
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| The old crater from a previous eruption |
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| Facial with macadamia oil |
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| A hard day's work is best followed by a nap on the way home. |
1 comment:
Zip lining is super fun! I did it in Honduras while visiting my dad. So, I've never been to a coffee plantation, but I've always wanted to.
I'm so excited about all of your adventures, my friend.
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