This week, I went to see the friend who took me on that trail to the waterfall and introduced me to Ronald. She lives in a place called San Antonio Aguas Calientes, which translates to "a place with hot waters" (it's very warm there). Getting there meant taking two camioneta rides (camionetas are local buses also known as "chicken buses"), which took a total of almost two hours. Camionetas are super colorful repurposed school buses from the United States that everyone uses in Guatemala. They go pretty much everywhere--cities, towns and villages. Riding them is always an adventure because they're decorated in all sorts of styles, and their horns often play tunes from popular songs like "Baby Shark."
The distance I travel isn't about how far I go, but how high I climb. Most of my big adventures involve hiking up volcanoes, which are really tall. The tallest one I've climbed so far is called "Acatenango," the third-highest volcano in the country at over 3,900 meters (or 13,000 feet) tall. It's located pretty close to where I live, so getting to the start of the trail doesn't take too long. It's the climb to the top that seems to last forever. But once you're up there, you can see the clouds below you--you're literally above the clouds!
