Never in my life I would have guessed that Guatemala had so much to offer. I dont know if this is because of ignorance or because overall people just dont know the hidden gems of Guatemala. But the reality is that the more I travel, the more I get to understand that no matter what the place is, it will most probable have hidden gems and will have its own charm. If we think of the world more as a playground and less as borders and different cultures, languages and countries we will enjoy more our time at this world.
I met Cobi at Irun, a local running store in miami which slowly has gathered the reputation of the best running store among runners in miami. It has this group run called “Irun Mondays WO” which has become quite popular. They’ve become some kind of family were they hang out even on christmas days and new years… they are also kinda training maniacs…. having some kinda training schedule starting at 4:00am sometimes. Cobi is the co-owner of Irun, and less than two years ago he decided to build Casa Adriana in his home town Guatemala. I remember when he first told me about this high altitude training camp un Guatamela it really caught my attention. Especially because I had spoken to him about traveling to Kenia in order to do some running at altitude and training with locals (he had already been to Kenia a couple times to run over there). This time it was more realistic, since it was closer and didnt have to take of work as much time as if I were to travel to Africa.
So again, I bought the ticket and the adventure began. I landed in Guatemala City (somewhere around 1500mts above sea level, so you are basicaly landing in top of mountains, which btw from the airplane if youy are lucky enough and have a clear visibility you can see a bunch of volcanos around the city). I rented a car and drove a couple hours up the mountains until I reached casa “Casa Adriana” located in the town of Tecpan (2300mts above sea level). The place reminded me a lot of home, even the highway looked a lot like “La Panamericana” in Venezuela, just a little bit colder since it is a little bit higher, other than that, basically the same, just crazier bus drivers in Guatemala.
Casa Adriana
Casa Adriana’s is actually Cobi’s house in Guatemala. I dont know if his initial intentions were for it to be a hotel or public get away, but if it was thumbs up for Coby. The place looks amazing, feels amazing and it is amazing. As most other mountain get aways, the vibes of the people living here are just amazing…. people are a little bit slower in the mountains, mmmm not actually people, but everything in the mountains is usually slower than in cities.. and the same applies to Casa Adriana.
The property consists of a main house with 3 rooms (two in the upper floor and one in the lower floor) two bathrooms with showers, a big living room and kitchen and beautifull terraces. Then you have a cabin for two people with their own private bathroom and small stoves and coffee maker in case you want your own privacy. And finally, kind of separated from the rest you have the glamping tent – See pictures above.
It is the perfect city detox getaway. I personally do not eat as healthy as I would like to. So, Casa Adriana is not also the perfect city get-away but also a perfect “not healthy food get away” if you want to name it some way.. Again, im not actually sure if Cobi does this intentionally, but we ate tons of fruits for breakfast, salad for lunch and dinners, and the ocasianal pasta and pista for carb loading. On the last day a “Parrilla” is offer, which was out of this world. Note: everything is SUPER fresh; we even walked 10 minutes to a house of a local indigenous women who bakes bread and has fresh eggs on a daily basis to replinish Casa Adriana’s kitchen.
Lastly the people in Casa Adriana also play a big role in the whole experience. You havr Josue, a young kid who takes care of everything in the house, Oscar and another guy who watches over the property during the nights. They all are as polite and educated as you can be, not to metion their attention to detail. Also Cobi’s mom came the last day for the Parrilla and was great to have a family like experience.
Training
The fact that we were able to mix both, training and tourism was amazing. Running trails are incredible in the Tecpan area. Keep in mind that you will be training at atleast 2200 mts above sea level, so I guarantee that no matter what your physical condition is, you will most definielty feel the lack of air. You will be able to swim, bike, run and relax while visiting some breathtaking places.
The house has a couple of decent MTB’s and a third pretty basic one (Keep in mind that Delta and American are now not charging extra for bike bags, so if you feel like bringing your bike along that something to think of). The trails are not technical nor hard, although if you desire you choose to go up some pretty tough climbs. Cobi also brought some of his local friends so they could show us aroung local popular trails without getting lost. Cobi dropped me real bad on the tough climb up, but
Running trails or fire roads where epic. Also locals came with us for every run.. This guys are so aclimatize and have incredible lung capacity. I was runing at a 5:00min/km pace and was dying at 180bpm while they where at 110bpm while talking to each other without even sweating a drop. Ideally for me would be to bike in the mornings and run in the afternoons. Cobi usually takes the group to run up one of the Volcanos, but during this stay we didnt. The main reason why we didnt was because of time I guess, but also its been almost 2 years since I took training serieously (since the Chicago Marathon) and I didnt wanted to have a bad time climbing the Volcano (bad time i mean both, bad time because of how tough it would be and bad time in regards of my actual time going up in comparison to other athletes). So the next time Im in Casa Adriana ill be definietly be looking forward going up to that Volcano.
Tourism
Last but not least, we were able to have a great view of the Lago Atlitan – Wow! What a view it was. You are suppoused to get there super early in the morning if you want to have a clear view of the lake and volcanos. We got there (late) at around 8:00am, but were lucky enough to have a beautiful view. Usually cobi says you have to be there between 6-7am in order to get a swim and a view. Anywho, we got there at 8:00am got to swim on a super flat lake and jump of board walks and seightsee some of the mansions around the lake.
We had an american/continental breakfast at the Hotel Santa Catarina just 100 meters away from where we started our swim. Coffee in Guatemala is amazing! You dont need to add sugar nor milk, and if you do, you dont know what your missing out. On our way up in less than 10 minutes of travel the lake had completly disapared because of the fog. Locals say we were pretty lucky in regards of the view and flatness of the lake.
Last daya arrived and I asked cobi to see if we could stop by Antigua Guatemala. We did actually and it is a charming old conserved town, such as Cartagena but just quite bigger. The colors, textures and sizes of the walls are something to pay close attention to. It was really foggy the day we went, but look under for a picture taken on a clear day (not taken by me). It seems like thats the real catch of the place, the gigantic volcano in front of the small spanish conserved town just makes it a place one MUST visit when in Guatemala.
LINKS
Trails we ran
https://www.strava.com/activities/2628207241
https://www.strava.com/activities/2625239471
Trails we biked
https://www.strava.com/activities/2624828182
MiBiCi Adventures 