- Summary
- Full
- Festival
- Additional Info
Trek Length: 7 days (Full Trek) / 4 days (Festival Trek)Price: Full Trek - 1600Q / Festival Trek - 750Q
When: Full Trek - 27 October 2014 to 2 November 2015 / Festival Trek - 30 October 2015 to 2 November 2015
Trekking Distance: 58km (full trek)
Highest Elevation Reached: 3870m (La Torre)
Once a year, the town of Todos Santos transforms into a place of haunted horses and crazed caballeros...
Join us as we visit one of the best festivals of the year; watch locals hurdle their horses around the town, observe people pay tribute to the dead in the cemetery, and climb the highest non volcanic point in Central America, La Torre.
This year we are running two Day of the Dead treks The Full Trek and The Festival Trek. You can find more details are in the tabs above.
The full trek follows the same itinerary as our usual Nebaj - Todos Santos trek, with the addition of a two day stay in Todos Santos for their annual Day of the Dead Celebrations .
We'll trek through the hills and houses that lie between Nebaj and Todos Santos, and arrive to witness the mystical spectacle of the annual horse race.
The trek itself will travel through three Mayan language zones, far from the reaches of any guidebooks (or modern roads for that matter). We will traverse the far-flung Cuchumatanes Mountains that hug the seldom-visited North-Western corner of Guatemala and will bring you up close and personal with the area´s rich culture that has changed little since the arrival of Europeans (first with their guns, then with their cameras). The scenery along the way is also as unique as it is spectacular, from lush green valleys to pine forests to barren, other-worldly plateaus.
Local families will welcome you into their homes, share a home-cooked traditional meal, and provide a warm, dry space for you to get some well-deserved rest. Interactions with the people of the Cuchumatanes might be an even bigger draw than the stunning alpine scenery. The region was one of the hardest hit by the recent civil war and memories of massacres and disappearances still weigh heavy in the minds of the locals. Despite this, they warmly welcome us into their communities and will often find the occasion to share with us their stories of personal tragedy.
For even more details of the trek itself, visit our Nebaj - Todos Santos trek page.
The Festival Trek involves less walking, but just the same amount of time enjoying the festivities.
If a seven day trek doesn't sound like your thing, or you're just short on time or money, the festival trek is the trek for you. We meet the Full Trek group in the village of La Ventosa, and spend one day scaling the highest non volcanic point in Central America, La Torre, and descending through forests and waterfalls before arriving in Todos Santos in time for the Day of the Dead.
Price includes: guides, accomodation, temascals (mayan saunas), 15 meals, snacks, water, all equipment rental, all transport and local trail -usage fees.
*Porter service (mule) may be available for special groups at an extra cost (800 Q per person). Please contact us for more information.
When: Full Trek - 27 October 2014 to 2 November 2014 / Festival Trek - 30 October 2014 to 2 November 2014
What to bring:*
- Large backpack
- Sleeping bag/ mat
- Light-breathable clothes for hiking
- Warm clothes for the night (ie. a good fleece)
- Comfortable shoes for hiking (ie. tennis shoes)
- Rain coat/ poncho
- Bathing suit and small towel
- Sun Protection
- Flashlight
*Don’t have all this stuff? No problem- we’ll lend you what you don’t have. Do have some of this stuff but don´t want to carry it anymore? Consider leaving it as an equipment donation! Quetzaltrekkers relies on the generosity of individuals and companies for equipment.
We´re told that the start of Day 3 is the most brutal section of the Nebaj trek...and it might be true! We wake before dawn, put our packs on and head straight up the infamous Cerro Ochenta y Siete (eighty-seven hill): a sheer mountainside boasting 87 switchbacks (count’em, we have). Why would we do such a thing in the dark, you ask? Well, you might start to understand just after the climb when you’re sipping a hot drink and watching a beautiful sunrise over the forested mountains and valleys below.After breakfast, we continue climbing until we hit the altiplano (literally: the high-flat) and stop for a break while taking in the spectacular views of the entire chain of Guatemala´s volcanoes sitting on the Southern horizon. The martian landscape of the altiplano, with its weathered boulders is unique to Central America and really something to behold. For the next few hours of hiking, we share this roadless, prehistoric plain with no-one apart from the few scattered goat-herders moving their flocks between highland hamlets. A lonely pocket of pine-trees serves as shelter from the intense, high-altitude sun while we eat a picnic lunch and rest our legs. At the edge of the altiplano we descend a beautiful valley to arrive in the K’iche’ village of Pajul Pais where we spend the third night. A family kindly provides us a shelter for the night and, after a filling meal, we slowly slink off to our sleeping bags for some well deserved rest.
After drying-off and letting our breakfast settle, we get started on a steep climb out of the other side of the valley. The winding ascent takes us through corn-fields, green pastures, rustic villages and pine forests until we emerge from the trees onto the second desert-like altiplano. From here, the next few hours are mercifully flat as we pass highland swamps and one particularly eerie village-graveyard. When we reach a small village with road-access, we buy some provisions and have lunch under the shade of a lone tree.
Towards the end of the day we arrive at the affectionately-named, ‘Hill of Terror’: the short, but very steep uphill section that ends the day´s hiking. Some hikers have got into the habit of racing up the hill – current record: 6 mins 56 secs. Wiping the sweat from our brows, we continue to a nearby road where we catch a ride to the village of La Ventosa: our destination for Day 4. Arriving in La Ventosa, seemingly all the kids in town come out to greet us, as does the village-leader, Jeronimo – who graciously invites us to wash up in his temascal, eat a hot meal and bed down in his family´s spare room.
Waking in La Ventosa, we settle into a hearty breakfast before stepping over pigs and chickens to start our ascent of La Torre: at 3870m, the highest non-volcanic peak in Central America. Jeronimo occasionally joins us for the hike up the mountain and shares his tragic personal story of how the Guatemalan Army came into La Ventosa in the early 1980s and terrorized the town.
Taking a long break at the top of La Torre, we are treated to expansive views of the distant chain of Guatemalan volcanoes – from Agua, Acatenango and Fuego to Atitlán and Santa María all the way to Tajumulco. The rest of the day is spent negotiating the slippery Western slope of La Torre. The mossy, temperate rainforest in this area makes for a beautiful descent and we stop at a swimming hole set into the side of the mountain for lunch overlooking the Todos Santos Valley. After lunch, the trail flattens out as we follow a river through pastures and cornfields before finally leading us to Todos Santos itself. Here, we stay at a hotel with hot showers, located right above and run in conjunctioin with a local weaving cooperative. In Todos Santos – a Mam-speaking town famed for it´s unique traditional dress and beautiful mountain-setting – we have enough time to wander around the town and maybe grab a celebratory beer before the delicious pasta dinner and hot cocoa.
Quetzaltrekkers is the only trekking outfit that regularly runs this trek and it is bound to be remembered as the highlight of any trip to Guatemala.
Price includes: guides, accomodation, temascals (mayan saunas), 15 meals, snacks, water, all equipment rental, all transport and local trail -usage fees.
*Porter service (mule) may be available for special groups at an extra cost (800 Q per person). Please contact us for more information.
When: Full Trek - 27 October 2014 to 2 November 2014 / Festival Trek - 30 October 2014 to 2 November 2014
What to bring:*
- Large backpack
- Sleeping bag/ mat
- Light-breathable clothes for hiking
- Warm clothes for the night (ie. a good fleece)
- Comfortable shoes for hiking (ie. tennis shoes)
- Rain coat/ poncho
- Bathing suit and small towel
- Sun Protection
- Flashlight
*Don’t have all this stuff? No problem- we’ll lend you what you don’t have. Do have some of this stuff but don´t want to carry it anymore? Consider leaving it as an equipment donation! Quetzaltrekkers relies on the generosity of individuals and companies for equipment.
