80. The Huehuetenango region when the time flies

I love Huehuetenango
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- The Huehuetenango region is not well known by tourists. Located near the border with Mexico, it is a mountainous area, which contains many villages very difficult to access. However, this backwater of Guatemala are full of charms. Let’s follow my adventure in this region.
The information I got in Huehuetenango city
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- Arrived the day before in this peaceful city which gives its name to the department, I took the time to study the area. I had already compared my favorite maps from MAPS.ME with those from its competitor Google Maps and another travel application Triposo. There was so little consistency between them, so I had to figure it all out. In the middle of the city, I discovered a relief map of the region (photo). Good catch! However I am not more located in front of this new layout of the villages of the region, which adds a new layer to my incomprehension.
- I spent an evening with Astrid, a Couchsurfing meeting, studying the topic. I'm trying to glean a few orders of magnitude of travel time to estimate where I can get to.
- Result of the evening: I had a good time but I have no certainty of where I'll go tomorrow. I calm my anxiety by trusting my resourcefulness and my sense of direction. And as they say, "Sleep on it."
Church of Chiantla
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- In the morning, I agree on an appointment time for the next day, Saturday, with Astrid. At eleven o'clock I should be in Todos Santos, to visit the city and its market. I will manage to arrive on time!
- Around eight and a half, I set out. I climb into a minibus for. A small stop at the church which was not worth it, and I leave again by hitchhiking at the exit of the village twenty minutes later.
The Huehuetenango valley
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- Where do I go ? Let's try San Juan Ixcoy and Soloma, which are two very remote places on the main road, good destinations to start with!
- The first one, who stops, tells me: "Al Cumbre". This is my direction. I answer, "Perfecto" (Perfect in Spanish), although I didn't understand what the final destination would be. My translator confirms: "Cumbre" means summit in English.
- I enjoy the view of Huehuetenango from the back of the pickup. What a great way to hitchhike! In the minibus, I spend my time with my eyes glued to my phone, usually preparing articles. But when I'm hitchhiking, I really pay attention to these landscapes that follow one another and that fascinate me. It's amazing how a window annihilates my whole interest in the scenery of my bus rides.
In the clouds
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- I cross a thick mass of clouds. I am worried: the fog starts around three thousand meters and I am going to stay at this height for two days.
- In less than ten minutes, we got rid of this cluster of cumulus and crossed the summit. I see the casita of Cuchumatan, also called Mirador Juan Dieguez Olaverri. It is an abandoned hut that serves as a viewpoint over the Huehuetenango valley. It is in the program of my return loop.
Between two hikes
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- The car turns to the right and continues its road. I mentally check my information, I should have gotten off here. I tap on the window, the driver stops and apologizes for forgetting me.
- Always be on the lookout when traveling
- I take the road again by walking, towards the next intersection at eight kilometers... I have to find a vehicle to hitchhike!
- Just at the gas station, a truck driver calls me : "Where are you from? Surprised to hear English from a Guatemalan, even more so in this godforsaken region, I introduce myself and indicate my destination. Juan - his name - offers to take me to the intersection of Todos Santos. He is a former illegal worker who has returned from the United States after ten years of hard work. He has collected a small fortune, ideal for living well in Guatemala. I realize that most Guatemalan men follow this same typical life path.
- Eight kilometers further on, I find two strangely dressed men. These suits look festive to me. I don't know it yet, but they are the traditional clothes of the inhabitants of Todos Santos. I ask permission to take a picture. He asks me for money. I refuse. Five minutes later, he grants me the photo. I grant him the posterity on this site, not a bad deal, isn’t it?
- It is half past ten and it seems that San Juan Ixcoy is still far away!
- A new pickup stops and leads me about ten kilometers. The next one tells me that he will drop me off at the place where he will leave the road. The trip continues on a bumpy road, the driver's driving alternates between brutal braking phases and crazy accelerations. I hold on to the back of the pickup!
- Around me, I am impressed by the agaves of America. These plants have three meters high stems, which overhang the landscape. Also, I see stone villages passing by, women carrying their babies on their backs, boys of about eight years old at work with a machete in their hands cutting wood.
The wood carrier
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- It is eleven o'clock and I have been dropped off in the middle of nowhere. I resume walking and I take full advantage of this rhythm, which allows me to contemplate the landscape. A rather old man crosses my way, a big quantity of branches on his back. There are obviously very few vehicles on the road.
A Cantzin stone
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- Around eleven and a half hours, finally I find a vehicle bound for San Juan Ixcoy and even Soloma. It is a truck with three young people who leave me a place in front. Who says truck in the mountains, means also reduced speed in the ascents but also in the descents.
- Twenty minutes later, I see the Cantzin stone. In reality, it is a majestic rock which is not connected to the road. It is possible to climb it visibly if you bring the right equipment.
The second Cantzin Stone
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- The place is called "Cantzin's stones"... My companions continue and point to a new, even more imposing rock on the other side of the road.
- I admit that I would not have refused a small pause to appreciate the sight on the splendid valley which they dominate.
San Juan Ixcoy
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- The curves follow one another and with them, the kilometers that separate me from San Juan Ixcoy. I take a nose dive in the truck.
- One o'clock, we finally arrive in the village. I hesitate: should I continue with them until Soloma? I choose to visit San Juan Ixcoy and to advise. According to Astrid, it is a village where people live whose culture has remained authentic.
At the restaurant in San Juan Ixcoy
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- I explore and notice little difference with the other places of Guatemala that I have crossed. I decide to have lunch.
- To determine a restaurant, I look for the one where locals are present. Here it is a mobile cooking stand which is installed in the dining room. Intriguing!
- I continue to examine the population, contemplate the women wearing rural clothes. Apart from this detail, I did not have the opportunity to discover more curiosities in San Juan Ixcoy. I think of leaving again...
- A bus arrives, I see a sign of destiny! The Magdalena lake is waiting for me at one hour of road and three hours of walk, according to the indications of the locals. I have the impression that it is indeed the marvel of the region, so I give up my ambitions to visit the traditional villages!
On the way to the Magdalena lake
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- So I catch the bus back to Huehuetenango and indicate that I want to stop at the road to Lake Magdalena. The driver gives me the name of an intersection, but my seatmate advises me to get off with him a little further. Completely lost, I listen to the one who insists the most, i.e. my neighbor. Nevertheless, after more than an hour, I carefully scan each intersection hoping to find a way...
- And I see the sign ! It's there, I want to get off! It is three o'clock, three hours of walking and I am there! But my neighbor tells me to wait a little bit. Wary, I count the minutes it will take me to come back to this place just in case.
- The bus drops me off... at the first intersection of the morning. In one hour and a half of bus, I just came back from three hours of hitchhiking in my morning. Nevertheless I loved the authenticity of the landscapes and characters I met during the hitchhiking.
- So we start to wait... fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, ... at thirty, I take things in hand and get taken in a cab car. I confess I really insisted, at least one way please! Direction I-don't-know-where! I trust the driver. An old man named Juan, who had advised me to go back to the intersection at the Magdalena sign, stopped with me and took me to the village of San Nicolás. He also tells me that it's only a four and a half hour walk to the lake. What did he say? He says: I told you to come back to the intersection.
- I stop a first vehicle, which does not understand where I am going, and which takes flight. I ask Juan, my good man, for a minimum of help to get closer to the lake. The next pickup turns out to be the right one! In the back, I try to sit near a plastic sheet. Yes a plastic sheet. It's very strange, but I made a false move and it was enough to deform the knocked object.
- I'm chatting with the other local hitchhiker, whose name is... can't you guess? Juan! I can't get enough of the same line every time I meet Juan: "¿como San JUAN Ixcoy?" I entertain myself as I can, along the way!
- We cross large valleys immaculate of all human traces. Sometimes the herds of sheep block our way. But our pickup always manages to split the mass.
- It is five o'clock in the afternoon, the car passes a rainy episode and drops me off at "El Ojo de Agua". The driver and his son show me a way and give me only one instruction: "Straight ahead! Stay on the main road!" They estimate an hour's walk to reach the end of my journey!
- I hurry up a bit! It is sporty the walk in mountain with about fifteen kilos on the shoulders but I do not have the choice! It is gray and the night begins to fall!
- That's it ! I found a lake ! But it is rather a duck pond.
- Seventeen hours fifteen, a woman estimates twenty minutes to reach the lake! I am surprised to walk so fast. Surely there is a false estimate between the two.
- The duck ponds follow one another but no trace of my big lake Magdalena!
- Confident about my chances of getting to the lake quickly, I express the nightfall theorem. On every big trip I make, I surprisingly always arrive just before nightfall.
- It's 5:30 p.m. and I haven't seen a house for the last fifteen minutes. And I find myself in front of an intersection without any sign. One way up, the other way down. I look at the position on my map. Yes, my GPS locates me but I don't see any path, I just know that I have to continue north, where the two paths go. Where do I go?
- I imagine that the lake is higher and that the other path comes from the main road. So I go to the right...
- A little further, I look for a path to the left, in case I can see the lake. No nothing! The anxiety rises a little, I realize that I am alone lost in the middle of nowhere, but everything is fine! I go back on my steps, towards the path...
- Saved by children !
- When in front of me appear two kids! An "Oh yes!" of relief comes out of my mouth. They are laughing. I ask them the way to the Magdalena lake and they tell me it is the one where I am. So we have to go down to the valley. Ten minutes later, I am in Laguna Magdalena, the village with the same name as the lake.
- I walk to the Sopresa parking and talk with Reynaldo, the owner of the place. He offers me to pay him the entrance fee (twenty quetzals or two euros) because the guard has gone home.
- Last worry of the day : where will I sleep tonight?
- Reynaldo offers to show me the places near the lake where I can tie up my hammock. And if it doesn't suit me, I can also sleep at his place. Great!
- The lake is still about fifteen minutes away! So we walk towards the lake. The sun falls already, while we arrive in front of the huts of the hotel. On the front, there is indeed a place partially protected from the wind, but I do not detect any good fixing position. No, thanks! We continue and Reynaldo suggests the big shed in front of the lake. This time, it's the too large distance between the columns that are a good pretext to justify my preference. So I accept Reynaldo's proposal to sleep at his place.
- From his face, I can see that he is happy with my choice. On the way back to his house, I already ask him about my day tomorrow. Either I turn back and hope to be as lucky in hitchhiking, or I take the direct way, which corresponds to three and a half hours of walking. I choose this solution by imagining that there will be a car to take me on a good part of the way!
- We arrive in front of his house and he opens the door of his corn barn. I can sleep there and fix the hammock on the beams of the barn. I discover his little family and his daughters discover the joys of swinging on a hammock:
- I continue to play with his daughters. They show me their marble playing skills and I teach them in Spanish of course the Categories game (the word game to find word starting with a letter in several categories). I also show them some pictures of my trip. While they admire with their cute little eyes the pictures of their region, I prepare my dinner: corn tortillas filled with tomato sauce and tuna crumbs. From the look on their faces, I can see that they wouldn't say no if I offered them to share my meal, so of course I share with them! The older sister starts to prepare a tortilla. Then she hands it to her younger sister, helping her to eat while trying not to drop the dripping tomato sauce. They are adorable!
The river leading to Lake Magdalena
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- Waking up in the early morning, I go to enjoy the lake. From the entrance, I contemplate multiple waterfalls coming from a river.
The mirador of the lake Magdalena
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- I arrive disappointed in front of the lake, because I do not observe the blue reflections of which I was so much spoken.
- Without much conviction, I follow a path that climbs to the viewpoint. Surely the view will change my disappointment into something better.
- The path is very slippery: I need thirty minutes out of the ten announced to reach the top. And finally the show!
The small waterfall of the lake Magdalena
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- A new panel leads me to complete the tour of the lake. I discover this waterfall at several levels. It is pretty, but not so impressive. Is it really the waterfall of the Magdalena lake ? A small path continues along the stream. I decide to follow it...
The waterfall of the Magdalena lake
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- And I fall in front of a giant waterfall. Wow! Impressive! I have absolutely no idea of its height.
- I decide not to try to go down further : it is 8:30 am. I estimate that I need four hours to arrive to Todos Santos. If I want to be there at eleven o'clock, I must already count on a helping hand from the destiny.
On the way to Todos Santos
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- 9:30 am: I leave confidently in the direction of Todos Santos. Objective number one: to join the main road at three hours from there. Although I got rid of the weight of the meal, my back will have to support again more than ten kilos. Perhaps it would be necessary to optimize that, next time!
- I didn't see any vehicle on the dirt road I'll follow this morning. Oops, let’s crossed my fingers to be a lucky hitchhiker today. At least, in these conditions, each vehicle stops. There should be some going in my direction... My mind wanders and calculates the probability of vehicle appearance. At each intersection, it doubles but remains quite meager. I add a supplement of percentage at each sight of recent wheel tracks in the mud.
- Ten minutes later, I hear vehicles in the distance, but in front of me... This is not the right direction!
- I see a horse grazing and a man loading it with wood.
- I hear a car behind me. It approaches, I continue to walk in the same direction waiting for it to join me. It stops at fifty meters before me. Disappointed, I nevertheless cross the pass at 3118 meters. I realize that I have just climbed three hundred meters in half an hour and that I will continue to zigzag between the passes for perhaps hours.
- I see three horses resting peacefully in a meadow. A hamlet is located at this pass. Who says dwellings, insinuates men, induces displacements and means of transport. A godsend! I take again my calculations of probabilities...
- Indeed a motorcycle approaches the way. "Come towards me! Come towards me!" I hope while crossing my fingers. And of course, it is on the other side that the biker goes away.
- I look in the distance: some dogs have already warned their fellow man of my presence and offer me a barking concerto. I didn't ask for anything! There is not good hospitality, dogs!
- I advance but I am still five kilometers as the crow flies from the main road.
- Ten o'clock: there is a truck in the village around which are agitated poor souls. One unloads it, one loads it, only one thing interests me: will it leave in direction of the main road soon?
- I continue my walk: that climbs again and it is seventy additional meters accumulated in seven minutes all that in full dusk.
- I pass a new pass. 3232 meters, a nice figure, but I am still waiting for my vehicle! Fatigue is getting to me. Should I take a break or not? I decide to continue, my chance will come and I will rest in the transport which will take me in hitchhiking.
- A new valley offers itself to me. Large pastures, a road that goes around them - I will cut through. In front of me, shepherdesses guiding their sheep towards the village where I come from and a... truck in the opposite direction. But there are vehicles on this road! My chance will come! For a moment, I appreciate the purity of the air I breathe in these mountains and valleys.
- I fall on a cemetery. Composed of small multicolored constructions and surrounded by a barbed wire fence, it is undoubtedly the cemetery of the village.
- I observe more and more people along the roads, crowded to work, moving their herd or collecting wood, a bundle on the head. Life here follows a very calm rhythm, very peaceful, that I hope not to disturb too much.
- A new pass: 3242 meters, the highest point of this walk. The road crosses desert valleys so inaccessible that the footprint of man is not very marked. However one finds in these deserts only few wild species. The traces, that men strive to leave on each parcel where they put their feet, can only give a sense and a reason for being to these lands abandoned by wild animals. I wonder about the reason for this exodus. Long plains, temperate weather conditions combining very wet periods and drier periods, nothing very hostile for animals like hares, wild boars, deer. But none of these mammals were found at the time of the settlers. Here is probably the explanation of this absence of wild animals in the department of Huehuetenango.
- Ten hours thirty: it is officially impossible to arrive at the meeting point in time. Astrid should arrive soon in Todos Santos. I hope that she will not wait for me too much. I begin to be angry with myself.
- At the next intersection, I discover a woman. About sixty years old, her face tarnished by the weight of age, she represents an ideal interlocutor to know the walking time before finding a bus. She answers me that there is no bus. What? I specify my request by worrying about the absence of bus on the main road. She repeats negatively, justifying herself: "No bus on Saturday". I'm sure there are minibuses, you can't always trust what the locals say.
- The new village where I have just arrived is made of a good thirty houses. Therefore, I feel that hitchhiking will be possible here. My instinct feels it, as the other would say!
- Two minutes later, a car passes me without stopping. It indicates me that it enters the village. What a pity! It could still have advanced me by five minutes...
- I cross the village. A motorcycle appears behind me but before I can wonder about the possibility of a motostop, it parks at the local grocery store.
- I find myself in front of a nice relief, which pushes the road to form a big loop to go around it. It is after having followed this meander that I realize a shortcut. Too bad. Long stretches of meadows color the landscape with an intense green. And in the middle, two shepherdesses desperately trying to separate a calf from its mother. Nevertheless, the latter surprises a lack of vigilance of the women to escape and in three strides to break their hopes of carrying out their enterprise. An entertainment worth of the name!
- The motorcycle I met earlier overtakes me and obviously can't take me in hitchhiking. That is at this moment that... a man on a bike with a kid on the front appears. I won't go far with this! I explain him my situation and he tells me that it's the day of the fair and if I wait one hour, a car will take me to the main road. It is clearly tempting! A local party and a direct stop. But I run after time, and I promised myself to do everything to not make Astrid wait too much.
- I take the opportunity to ask for estimates of the walking time. Three hours, I am told, not possible. Two hours, answers a shepherdess, a more reliable and plausible answer. But it is already two and a half hours of walking. I should have one left!
- I still do not stop to take a break. A new hamlet appears ahead and a truck seems ready to leave. I sprint with my backpack on my back, I get really close to the truck, pacing again, then it speeds up and distances me. I would have tried. Nevertheless as a result of this effort, I am out of breath.
- It's at half past eleven that I finally get a stop sign. It's a truck that will turn off quickly, but I persuade it to drop me off at the crossing. No way to get into the truck, the cockpit is full with the driver and two friends, I have to decide quickly before they change their mind. It is thus hung on the right door, the backpack on the back, outside the truck that I will advance ten minutes. I just gained half an hour!
- As I see the truck disappearing in the southern plains, I have to start walking again towards the west. I take a deserved snack. I contemplate the area. There are so many stones here, especially that day. It looks like a reg, a desert of rocks scattered by thousands on these mountainsides. A vulture passes over my head. No, you will not eat my flesh today.
- Twenty minutes pass. I meet a new truck, cross a new pass, reach a new valley, pass an intersection... How beautiful it is!
- I get a second stop: at the back of a jeep filled with wood. The vehicle moves slowly but everything is relative: fifteen kilometers per hour is always better than walking four times slower!
- Twenty minutes later, I am dropped off quite close to the crossing! Five minutes later, I am there! Objective reached in ... three hours of effort. I will learn to be wary of the estimations of duration of the locals. The two stops having advanced me a good hour, I wonder how they make this distance in three hours!
- Ten minutes later, I take a minibus to Todos Santos. I will arrive there at 1:30 pm. Astrid is not there. She was waiting for a sign of life at eleven o'clock, she stayed in Huehuetenango. Good for her!
Todos Santos
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- The city has a notable characteristic: the men still wear the traditional dress. Saturday is market day and it is also an opportunity to discover the colorful city in full swing. The traditional dress is composed of a shirt with white and sky blue stripes with those nice purple seams and red pants with white stripes.
- I also take the opportunity to eat and observe quietly the life in the village.
- At four o'clock, I set off again, just to have a little time to see "la casita de Cuchumatan". This abandoned hut offers to the travelers the occasion to enjoy a beautiful point of view on the valley of Huehuetenango. It could even be suitable as a place to stay for the night.
- The bus is very slow, it is the second to last one to return to the crossroads at the three ways. It takes twice as long to reach the intersection. From there, I have to change again for a new minibus, which would be the last one to enter the city of Huehuetenango. Well, the casita, it will be for another time and I can rest, and tell my adventures to Astrid.
- For your information: I added the main road to the Magdalena lake on OpenStreetMap : https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/57893519

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