Atop the Indian Nose

Saturday morning, I sat at a restaurant with Connor and Bryan on Lake Atitlan, overlooking the mountain nariz del indio--Indian Nose--that we would stand on top of in just a few hours.  The restaurant seemed to be in no rush to serve us, and we waited impatiently for the food to arrive.  We joked that we could climb the mountain and come back before our food would be ready.  Little did we know the difficulty I would have to reach the summit.

El nariz del indio boasts the best view of the lake and its surrounding volcanoes.  As you can guess by its name, the mountain is shaped like a nose.  The area also sometimes acts as a ground for Mayan rituals, although we did not come across any on our hike.

 

Can you spot the nose?

Within about five seconds of our climb, I was already panting like an old lady who just walked up a flight of steps.  I felt, to say the least, pretty pathetic.  I downed half of my first of two bags of water so quickly that I had to watch myself and make sure I didn't finish both within the first few minutes of the hike.

 

Replenishing on liquid fuel. 

Although the view was picturesque, I mostly concentrated on how tired I felt.  I mean, really, how pitiful!  Every time I do reasonably tiring exercise I realize how much more often I should be doing it.  I felt slightly dizzy, and memories came back from all the times I have almost fainted from pushing myself too hard.  (Emphasis on almost!)  I thought about the one and only capoeira class at New York Sports Club that made me never return again.  My early morning bike ride in which I had little food in my stomach and ended up sitting on the sidewalk to wait for a friend to come get me.  Or how about my middle school gym class when I ran a mile and ended up resting for the afternoon in the nurse’s office.

I was going to make sure I would not make a fool of myself yet another time, especially because I did not want to force Connor and Bryan to wait for me.  So before I began to see black dots, I stopped following their pace and began to take breaks.  At one point, I had to lie on the ground to recuperate.  It was not too difficult putting my legs higher than my head to get the blood flowing since I was laying on an incline.  After a nice rest on the ground, two packs of Chiky cookies and my two bags of water, I was ready to go--this time at my own snail pace.

You don't have to doubt for a minute how good it felt to get to the top of the nose.  The sweat trickles and weak-feeling leg muscles screamed in delight, “I did it!” Our reward for an hour-and-half long hike that turned into two hours because of my stops?  A full view of the most beautiful lake I have ever seen.  As I’ve mentioned in posts before, Lake Atitlan, in my opinion, looks like paradise.  The lush hills protect the blue waters that from a high distance have no sign of the litter and pollution that threatens the lake.  From el nariz del indio, you can see all the towns that sit on the lake’s shore.  The volcanoes across the way do stand taller than the Indian’s nose, but that did not make the view any less spectacular.

 Our full view of Lake Atitlan

 I wasn't the only one who was pooped.  Bryan takes a quick catnap to recharge.

 The volcano across the way and the view of San Jose and San Pedro La Laguna

 The way down was much easier!

 I got a little off track on the way back down and had a chance to practice some climbing.

 View from below the Indian Nose.