M-Trek: GuateBelize - Part 1: Guatemala

The first highlight of my MBA: 10-day M-Trek to Guatemala and Belize

So what is a M-Trek?

M-Treks are outdoor adventure trips organized by the second year Michigan MBA students for first years.

Which trip did I choose?

I originally choose to go hiking, kayaking, fishing, and snorkeling in Honduras.

Unfortunately due to the coup in Honduras the school did not allow is to go on this trip.

Thanks to the great effort of our leaders we were offered an alternative trip to Guatemala and Belize.

(For those as ignorant as me: Belize is a small country in the Caribbean with approx. 300,000 inhabitants)

Who went there?

14 incoming students and 4 2nd year students from Germany, Israel, India and the US.

Rumors has it that one of the Americans is actually from Finland.

What did we do there?

Via Houston we flew into Guatemala City and took a small bus to Antigua where we spend our first couple of nights.

Looking around Guatemala City I thought, well this world is indeed 'flat'. Along main street Burger King is next to the Mercedes dealer and next to a Bayer factory.

However Antigua is very different. A beautiful small town.

It has a McDonald's, but it is arguably the most beautiful McDonald's in the world.

Having this surrounding all the time I may even become a fan of the golden arches! ;-)

The first morning in Guatemala I found out that German Tourists are really everywhere. Next door they would be watching German TV from 6 am to 8 am.

For the first hand coverage of Usain Bolts incredible new world record over 100 meters, I had to trade two hours of sleep.

But why did they not spend their vacation in Berlin at the Championships instead of ruining my sleep?!?

Inspired by Mr Bolt (and without steroids I might add) we spend our first day hiking up a volcano near Guatemala City.

The two highlights of that hike: Running down a field of old lava and standing right beside glowing new lava.

To run down a gravel field of old lava was a lot of fun and almost like skiing. Too sad they did not have a lift to immediately get up again! ;-)

To watch the glowing lava in the dark, from only a few feet away was sensational!

Thanks to our guide we all arrived safely at the bottom of the mountain, although we climbed down in complete darkness.

The manager kept reminding us to tip our guide, which was even proclaimed by a sign in his office "... we do not pay them very much!".

As it turned out, he did not pay them at all!

On our second day we visited a coffee plantation in Antigua.

Most impressive for someone like me, who does not like coffee:

The coffee was delicious!

Since I never drink it I cannot judge, but my classmates told me that this kind of coffee would be very different (read: better) then the coffee you get at Starbucks.

So I guess although I liked it, it will not change my coffee drinking habits (or lack of them).

Definitely the most memorable experience of the trip was an overnight bus ride from Antigua to Tikal. For western standards the seats in the bus were uncomfortable and it was not possible to recline them without jeopardizing newly formed friendships with people setting behind you. When we got on the bus I thought that was bad - well it got worst! :-)

When boarding the bus we all had to go through a security inspection which seemed reasonable considering that Guatemala City would not be "entirely safe" as we were told. Nevertheless the driver would stop some blocks away from the station just to let some random duds on the bus.

More then compliant with Western standards however, was the Air Condition - at least its ability to produce ridiculously low temperatures which made one classmate put his feet into his backpack. Others slept in their rain gear since the a/c would drop water on the passengers when the bus went around corners.

Unfortunately that water did not reach the trunk. In the trunk a hole got burned into a bag destroying several dresses. (but maybe this started the next fashion trend? - watch out Ed Hardy! ;-))

At the end of the night we (luckily all healthy and with rather more then less friendships) reached our destination: an AIRPORT!!! (I am not kidding!)

Nevertheless we had some fun moments along the way.

One, was a conversation between one tall and one rather small classmate.

Do you play basketball?

No, do you play mini-golf?

After reaching Tikal we immediately went to see the Maya ruins which were extremely impressive and more then worth this bus ride!

Besides these impressive buildings, I still amazed how rather small monkeys are able to make such a big noise. Oliver Kahn (for none soccer people: a German player often compared to a monkey) would be proud of them.

The rest of the day I enjoyed time at the pool and lessons in US college card games.

The next day, we would be heading to Belize.