Laguna Chicabal.

OMG what a day. Three frenetic chicken buses/ a 45 minute vertical mountain hike/the scariest ride of my life in an open top pick up to a ranger station/ 3 km vertical hike again on incredibly uneven terrain/ then 615 rough hewn ‘steps’ downhill to this sacred lake.

Waiting at the bus station for the ' chicken bus' to leave..before the chickens got loaded on and blocked my view!

Worth every step, slip and slide. The first sight of this magical lake was breathtakingly sublime
This is the one of the most revered sites in Mayan culture with two active Mayan altars and regular worship and ceremonies. The laguna nestles 3000 metres high shrouded in cloud in a volcanic crater and is truly, madly, deeply, beautiful.

Laguna Chicabel. Very sacred lake in volcano crater high in cloudy forest.

My fellow travellers and I left our hostel at first light led by Antonio, a Brazilian chap my age (ish) who has travelled here before and speaks fluent Spanish (luckily). Two short minibus hops to the massive bus station, where we located the right bus among the hundreds of identical brightly coloured ex USA school buses. I gave myself a fright nipping to the ‘banos’ (loo) only to lose sight temporarily of which bus was ours. They all look the same, equally frantic and fluorescent plus as it was market day in various towns, everywhere was heaving with people, massive bags, livestock, fruit, veg, you name it, it went on the buses.

My fellow hikers from the hostel

Chicken buses have two speeds, frantic or snail pace. This one crawled...90 minutes later we fought our way out through the crush in the middle of nowhere and followed Antonio up the mountainside. The air was thin, thanks to the altitude, and the ‘path’ sheer. I puffed along bringing up the rear determined not to be beaten. By the time we reached the ranger station it was noon and I was shattered but the absolute terror of the next half an hour rolling around in the back of a pick up jolting up the sheer volcano slope woke me up!

Made it!

As the lake opened up below us it really genuinely took my breath away, the sudden vista below really amazingly beautiful. Drinking in the sight we trekked down the hand carved 'steps' to sit on the shore and soak in the atmosphere. Flowers gleamed in the altars along the shallows and wispy cloud drifted across shrouding the waters in mystery.

Mayan ceremonial flowers on the lake

The return trek was exhausting. I spent quite a lot of time on my bottom, sliding on the scree, as did everyone, we were covered in thick red dust and mud. Falling literally out of the forest onto the road we were scooped up by a passing chicken bus and rammed in, how I don’t know , it was so crowded I was sitting literally on someone’s shoulders.

Half way back up

This evening all we could do was crawl to the nearby square for street food. Supper of a delicious fruit milk (very sweet) chocolate covered bananas and tacos. Hostel life is hard but the communal aspect is what leads to trips like this: it lends to making friends and so to experience adventures impossible otherwise on my own. Like today, which was really special.

Supper Time