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.

Take time to Travel

Tim and Sue, friends of ours from the lively Harrisonburg, Va. area came down to Guate to hang on our home turf for a few weeks of riding. Seeing as they abused a group of us up there a few months back we decided that we wanted to have them here to try and get a bit of revenge. First, to level the playing field we made sure to have plenty of homebrew on tap to give us a leg up the next morning.



We spent a few days hanging in Antigua and riding each day to get a feel for whats around. There are any number of rides in the area so we tried to hit as many as possible. Just south of town sits Agua Volcano at just over 12,000 ft. The views from high up on the trails are second to none passing through old growth forest and flower fields on its way back down to the valley floor.



Antigua boasts a new ride on each new day. Most of the trails lead high up into the surrounding mountains and each side of the valley is distinctly different from the next. We are working on a project to circumnavigate the valley on a mix of trails, jeeps tracks, and chutes like this one below on the bottom of the Cielo Grande Ridge ride.



With tons of terrain nearby to play with some times its just better to hit the trail with some German engineering underneath ya. We headed out and made a big ole lap around the valley on the 650's and even managed to explore a new bit of trail that is going to make a beautiful 2 day ride out to Lake Atitlan. Stay in tune for that one as I'll be doing it soon on a mountain bike to see how it pans out.



A couple hours of stout trail climbing above Antigua lies one of the areas best kept secrets. Earth Lodge is an active avocado farm and travelers mountainside hostal that always makes for a good time. The good folks who run the place always make sure to take good care of us. The food is second to none and more than even a hungry cyclist can manage to get down the gullet. This is going to be a normal stop over for our new ride that will make a 2 day loop around the valley


Heading west we took off for a few days of riding at world famous Lake Atitlan. There is a pretty solid network of trails there that serve for most riders as downhill runs. However, we managed to find oursleves climbing trails and making new rides. It was a fresh change from the way we normally ride these rides and certainly puts the black in what we call a black diamond run. The scenery from the trails is absolutely stellar. There is hardly a ride that does not have a huge view to the lake down below.


Heading further afield we made the trek up to the high plateau of the Cuchumantanes mountain range. These are Central America's highest non volcanic mountains. The riding like the scenery is spectacular and very different here than anywhere else in Guatemala. The rocky trails offer up an experience much like that of East Coast riding. So Tim and Sue were once again in a good spot to show us how its done in the rocks. There's more than a few days worth of riding up there but we were on a mission to hit as many different places as possible. We mapped out a ride that would take us across the mountains into no mans land and connect to an area that likewise we knew would have great riding.

Acul is a sleepy little village nestled deep in the mountains that were once plagued by civil war and Guerilla patrols. Now the wars over and the area is opening up to mountain bikes. Our long time buddy has opened his family run cheese farm at the Hacienda San Antonio to tourists. We took advantage of the area and managed to find a new trail that I would venture to say has never see fat tires.


A parting glance from my room at the Cheese Farm in Acul