So we went and got
ourselves back on the road to Quiché, one of Guatemala’s most populous
departments. The work at hand was to scout out the “Nebaj to Todos Santos
trek”, a trip that is essentially a traverse of part of the Sierra de los
Cuchumatanes. This mountain range runs for 400km in west-east direction through
the neighboring departments of Huehuetenango and Quiché. With peaks clearing
3800m, it is considered the highest non-volcanic sierra in all of Central
America. The name “Cuchumatán” btw is derived from the Maya Mam words “cuchuj”
(=to join) and “matán” (=with great force), and thus means “what has been
joined with great force”.
When crossing the Sierra de
los Cuchumatanes, we set out from Nebaj, one of the villages that form part of
the so-called Ixil Triangle. This is the first hint as to the historic cross
references that come into play on this trek. The hike entails clearing roughly
70km of trail in 6 days, most of which while crossing the flats of the “altiplano”,
the Guatemalan highlands. The initial climb onto the plateau contains most of
the elevation gain (ca. 1300m/5600ft.), with the rest coming as part of the
ascent to La Torre, one of the highest points of the sierra
(3832m/12.646ft.)
The trail on this hike
comes in all kinds of terrain, from pine-needle strewn forest floor, to
limestone scattered over dirt roads, to grass-covered flats. The occasional
mudfest is also not unlikely, as we learned this time around: After some
torrential downpour in the night, descending through Pajuil País became
somewhat of a unexpected challenge. As we were going downhill, our boots, caked
in mud, were about as useful as soaped up cement blocks on our feet.
The Cuchumatanes are something
else. I still can’t quite put my finger on it, even after two visits it’s hard
to describe. Hiking there is not a spectacle, not a show as, say, hiking up
Acatenango to see Fuego erupt. Some of the most gifted turns of phrase (and
most of the lesser gifted; this very piece here not excluded) about Guatemala
revolve around its beautiful landscapes, so I wonder if it bears repeating: but
there really is no way around acknowledging the views, and to a great degree,
it is the remoteness of the area and the vastness of the views that make up the
lasting impression. They give the hike an even more contemplative quality than
usual, especially when you happen to walk flat, green pastures in a soft rain
with sheep in distant sight.
But it’s really when you’re
walking through the villages that the slower pace of life becomes strikingly
apparent. In so many cases, you get sensory overload from all the
sensations around you before you can really get a sense of place, and by the
time you’re leaving, you’ve forgotten half of them. Hiking the Cuchumatanes
provides a good balance between perceptive details and ample time to process
them. Here you have distinct notions of architecture, clothing, and pastoral
lifestyle that you can observe and grasp in order to get this area’s unique
geographic and cultural identity.
Would you like to know
more abut this trip. Check out the 5 day Nebaj to Todos Santos hut to hut trip on our website. See ya on the trail.
Eventually useful bit of random
trail advice: when you come across a sheep that's tied to a tree trunk and
effectively stretching the rope across the trail, don't step over the rope.
Because once you spook the sheep, which you will, it will try to cut across
into the field while still ahead of you and, with the rope, take your feet
right out from under you. See the sheep understands the implications of being
tied to a tree just about as much as the courtesy behind trying not to spook
it. And since you're going to do that anyway, there is no sense in trying to be
polite about it.
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