Our ride in the back of the pickup truck took us to La Ventosa, Guatemala's highest on the flank of La Torre, the highest peak in the Cordillera Cuchumatanes and highest non-volcanic peak in Guatemala and Central America at 12,589 feet (3,837 meters). We spent the night in a room in the compound where our host Jeronimo lives with his extended family of children, brothers, nieces, and nephews, some of whom had spent time working in "El Norte" enabling the family to build somewhat better digs that most rural Guatemalans in the area. Interestingly, many of the house in the Todos Santos area have American flags painted on a wall, a proudly displayed indicator that a member of the household has made the great sacrifice of going to the U.S. to work.

The village had a little tienda where we were able to buy some cervezas . We were then able to use the family’s temescal (Mayan sauna) to warm up and clean up a little. Dinner consisted of a huge pot of mashed potatoes accompanied by a spicy salsa and, of course, tortillas. Now that’s some good carbo-loading for the last day of trekking. The sleeping arrangement was another room full of beds with very thin mattresses. Even using my borrowed sleeping mat and sleeping it didn’t take very long for my hip or back to start hurting against the hard surface. Like the other nights, though, I apparently slept some because I didn’t wake up particularly tired, even though it felt like I was awake all night.

After breakfast of rice, beans, salsa, and tortillas we began our hike up the hill from La Ventosa to La Torre. It turned out to be a relatively easy and not particularly steep hike up the peak’s southeastern side, probably less than 1,000 foot elevation gain through open pine woodland. The views from the top to the south and east were spectacular and encompassed the whole range of volcanoes I climbed in the two weeks earlier peeking out above the clouds all the way from Tajumulco in the west to Agua in the east . Volcan Fuego was even puffing a bit of smoke in a minor eruption in the far distance.

The hike down into Todos Santos was a different story, though, a descent of more than 4,500 feet (1,400 meters) on a steep, infrequently used, and poorly marked trail for which we needed a young member of Jeronimo’s family to guide us. After the most arduous parts were done with we stopped for a picnic lunch he carried for us. Guess what – rice, beans, salsa, tortillas, and a boiled egg again.

The last part of the way was a long two hour march on a trail through a valley and then a dusty road into Todos Santos as the weather rapidly changed from bright sunshine to low clouds and mist. This home stretch felt like it would never end. When we got to town it was market day on Saturday, so there was much activity and a fair amount of drunkenness. We had to dodge a few very friendly drunks on the way into town. Todos Santos is quite unusual in Guatemala in being one of the few places where men mostly still where the traditional local costume, here striped pants, embroidered shirt, and a hat .

The chilly mist and fog was unfortunate since Todos Santos is supposed to be one of Guatemala’s most scenic towns, encircled by mountains and the cliffs of La Torre’s west side. Alejandro, one of the guides on my volcano climbing tour, described it as how he imagined Switzerland to look like. Our hotel in town was quite nice, probably the first comfortable mattress I’d slept on in about a week. As with all treks I do, when I get to the end I can’t help feeling a great sense of accomplishment and also relief that it’s over.

We got up early to catch a 5:00 A.M. minibus to the provincial capital of Huehuetenango where we changed to a “chicken bus” for the ride back to Quetzaltenango/Xela. I treated myself to a big breakfast and lots of coffee and relaxed in town while waiting for an afternoon shuttle van to pick me up to go to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. This six-day super budget-oriented trekking trip with Quetzaltrekkers turned out to be every bit as enjoyable as the much more expensive and comfortable two week volcano climbing trip I did earlier. It proves you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a good time.