Hard at work and not just trekking!

Here at QT Towers, we spend a fair amount of time walking, as you´d probably expect. However, we also find time to do other things (occasionaly)...

With rainy season upon us, we decided it was time to check out the rain jackets. See which ones were acutally waterproof, which ones were sort of waterproof and which ones just weren´t! So we decided the best way was to wear them and spray each other with a hose gun. Sounds like fun eh? Well, it was! Mostly when I was the sprayer, rather than the sprayee....

Are you wet yet?

Making it look good...

Carpinteros, hard at work

Last monday an intrepid group of guides set out to repair the bridge near to Santa Catarina, a bridge we cross over every week. The planks have been rotting away for some time and it was deemed unsafe. After bumping along a dirt road for 45 minutes, we had to carry the new planks down to the bridge ourselves, about a 20 minute descent. Planks on heads, planks on backpacks, planks underarms - planks everywhere!

A couple of hours hard work resulted in alot of rotting bark being removed from the main spar logs, old rotting planks replaced, old planks that were still good being nailed down properly and the new planks being put into place. We then hiked back up, hitched a lift to the Interamericana Highway and met the guides on the way back from the Lago Atitlan hike and headed home. Job well done! Looking forward to the guides´ reactions when they get back from a mid-week Lago tomorrow...

And just when you think we´ve given up on the whole trekking business, we just climbed Santa Maria for the full moon hike on Tuesday night. We had a good group of 26 and the first group made it to the summit by 3.45am, time enough for a good siesta before watching the sun come up. Then the guides stripped down to their under/swimwear for the now legendary and traditional guide shot before we headed down for some well deserved chocobananos at HQ.

Pico Santo Tomas sticking up in the background