Ring O Fire Volcano Climbing Charity Trip

This November Old Town Outfitters is teaming up with the good lads at Global Vision International, or GVI to put together a charity volcano climbing trip to help raise funds for their local Guatemalan projects. The goal will be to raise enogh money through tour participation to increase the projects sustainabilty into the future.

The itinerary will be tough but super rewarding, cut from the cloth of one of Old Town's awarding winning Ring Of Fire treks. We will be climbing 4 of our favorite volcanoes in only 5 days!! This is your chance to spend the night on Acatenango Volcano with a front row seat to watch the spectacular Fuego volcano spew lava, and to look out over all of Guatemala from the top of Tajumulco, Central America's highest volcano, while at the same time supporting the hard work of a real "grass roots" development program in Guatemala.

The trip is already half full so reserve your spot soon and take part in a real adventure, one with a social conscience.

Hope to see you on the trail.

Mateo

Camping on Pacaya Volcano

This past weekend we packed up and headed out to Pacaya Volcano National Park for a classic Old Town Outfitters camping trip on the side of the active cone.  We left Antigua with enough time to get up on the mountain as the crowds were leaving to take in the sunset.  Its pretty surreal to be up there as the sun's going down, there is lava oozing out of the side of the mountain and you have it all to yourself.

Most people go to Pacaya as a day trip.  Old Town Outfitters, in a constant effort to go againist to grain and do things slightly different takes folks out there at night.  Dont get me wrong its still pretty cool to be there during the day, but a night time trip out to the lava fields on pacaya is something different all together. We like to be out there when no one else is to make sure that you have a one-of-a-kind experience!

After a gourmet camp cooked dinner by our seasoned guides, we head out to explore the glowing red lava flows where we hopefully will get a chance to toast some marshmallows for desert.  Its a pretty amazing experience to be up there at night.  Dont worry if you missed this weekend's trip.  We'll be going again, we go about each weekend.

Get in touch with us at the shop www.adventuregautemala.com to book a space on the next trip.

Hopefully we'll be seeing on the trail next weekend,

Mateo

Rio Cahabon Expedition

Guatemala's premier river experience can be found on the Cahabon River.   We run a two day float on the Cahabon River up in Alta Verapaz just out of the sleepy mountainside village of lanquin.  Its a class V + river so you better show up with yoru game face on.  The trip stages from the local backpacker stronghhold of El Retiro which conviently sits on the lanquin river which can also be paddled in a hard shell.   About a 2 hour paddle takes you to the confluence of the Lanquin and Cahabon rivers just above the big boy class V set of Rock 'n Roll and Entonces rapids.

                                               Entonces Rapid Class V

                                                  Greg paddling Entonces

The river is absolutely beautiful.  It's emerald water cuts an amazing canyon with calss III rapids stacking up one after the next.  There are a few scenic and tranquilo stretches in there to give you a break from the action. 

The end of day one comes just in time as you are starting to get tired.  We set up camp, get the camp fire going and cook up gourmet vittles while you relax at the campsite.  The sound of the river is the perfect thing to lull you to sleep for a big day tomorrow.  

Day 2 starts just after the Class VI portage of Chulack Falls from the campsite.  We kayaked down to the falls and somehow painstakingly dragged our boats around the rapid to get a view of her.  Impressive to say the least.  its been talked about for years who will be the first to run it.  I think the consensus is always the same...."not me!"

The fun contines downriver as we pass through "cork screw" a class III+ rapid which then funnels you into the Cahabon Canyon.

Chilling in the pools and waterfalls at the end of the run.  It truly is one of Gautemala's best 2 day River Runs.  Get in touch with us about water levels and availabilty and let us show you this amazing place!!

Old Town turns 10!

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Old Town Outfitters! We have been running adventure tours in Guatemala since the end of 1998. Its been a long but very fun road and we have come a long way in these past 10 years.


This past weekend we squirreled away a rare Saturday of no trips and headed up to Earth Lodge for the 10 year anniversary blow out.


There was a 75 pound pig on the spit and plenty of great food thanks to the lads at Earth Lodge, plenty, well almost plenty of beer to go around, and no shortage of debauchery to ring in the celebration.



Thanks to all of you who have made this possible, who have supported us in these past years and to those who have worked here at Old Town.

mateo

OTO Racing....Fast...Its coporate policy!

Team Old Town Outfitters continues to hammer the race scene fielding 3 riders across the categories.  
Young gunner Pancho Haeckel is dominating the Jr. Elite with his lightning fast climbing prowess and surgeon like ability to pick his way through the technical bits.   He finished in 1st place this past weekend at the Race in Tecpan.

 Follow the Old Town race team as we head to Coban, Vera Paz the 19th of April. 

Mountain Khakis

Our good friends at Mountain khakis have hooked up the team at Old Town and sponsored us with their incredible line of Outdoor Utility pants and shorts.   Our guides are out most days and appreciate clothing and products designed and built for outdoor professionals.  This stuff is the bomb!  I highly recommend you get yourself in a pair of 'em and find out for yourself.

Voluntourism

Wanna get involved? We have teamed up with a couple different organizations here in Guatemala and abroad to help get travelers connected to the community. We can customize your adventure trip with Old Town Outfitters to head out into the campo and volunteer on different projects. Mountain bike a few days with us or trek into the countryside and stop off in a small community to get involved before moving on to the next stop.



There are any number of cool projects to get involved with around the country but one that we think is great is building high efficiency stoves in rural communities. These stoves were designed by the guys at Global Vision International, an international volunteer placement organization, and are said to not only reduce the amount of smoke in the house but uses up to %90 less fuel wood thus keeping our hills greener.



This stove below was finished by a group from Play It Forward, a U.S. based travel company that focuses on adventure travel with a moral compass. Voluntourism as it has been called is getting more and more popular. We are facilitate travelers to not only come and tour Guatemala but to give something back to the rural communities in which we travel.


Get in touch with us at www.adventureguatemala.com and let us help design a trip for you, get involved, get your hands dirty and get out on the trail.