Okay, I'm ready to write now
Man did I sleep well last night! It felt so good to wake up and be underneath 3 blankets... It gets cold here in Xela, as we're at a pretty high altitude (I don't know exactly how high...) After sleeping in a 6-person tent with 7 people in sub-freezing cold the night before, my bed in Casa Argentina was like heaven!
In any case, I want to try to give you some highlights from the trip. We met at the Quetzal Trekkers office at 4:45am with our backpacks all ready to go (they lend out equipment to the trekkers). Each bag weighed about 50-60 pounds. We rode in the back of a pickup truck through the dark streets of Xela to the bus station, where we got onto a chicken bus to San Marcos, where we ate breakfast. We then took another bus to the entrance of the hike. The first 15 minutes was tough, just getting used to the altitude. It was really hard to breathe, and I felt a bit nauseous the whole time. The trail leveled out at many points, so it wasn't straight up the whole time. We started pretty high up in the mountains, and had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains the entire time. There were clouds nestled in between them. At one point we walked through a foggy ridge with really tall thin pine trees. Later on in the afternoon, the sun beat out the fog and made the purple, yellow, and rust-red flowers shine brilliantly. We stopped for trail mix and then lunch later on. The QT guides cooked everything for us... potato salad, cabbage salad, guacamole, peanut butter and jelly from a local collective, bread and tortilla chips. The last ascent before we reached our campsite was the hardest... right after I thought I couldn't go any farther, it ended and we reached the campsite. After dinner everyone crashed, but no one really slept well.
The guides woke us at 4am, and we hiked in the dark 220 meters to the top of the volcano. It was really steep and again just when I thought I couldn't go much farther, we reached the top. There was a biting cold wind, so I wrapped up in a sleeping bag with Ana, another trekker, facing the volcanos to the east that you can see in the picture I posted yesterday. As we sat there, Santiaguito, all the way to the right, errupted twice. It felt like we were on top of the world... Behind us was Mexico, but all we could see was mist. Above us a million stars, and a crecent moon sat low above the volcanos. A few groups of Guatemaltecos joined us on top of the crater, and when the sun finally rose, everyone cheered. Our group then hiked around the crater, taking in spectacular views of the mountains around us, and the shadow of Tajamulco cast on the mist to the west.
The entire hike down was unbelievably beautiful... everything that had been couched in fog the day before was completely visible. We could see all the little towns in the mountains, forests, trees and farms, plus the spectacular mountains themselves. By the end my quads were shot. I can see how hiking can become addicting, although I'm ready for a break before I try another volcano... This trip was inspiring for many reasons... the people I met, the time I had to reflect, the physical challenge of hiking in high altitudes, and the exhileration of walking around the crater of the highest volcano in Central America.
In any case, I want to try to give you some highlights from the trip. We met at the Quetzal Trekkers office at 4:45am with our backpacks all ready to go (they lend out equipment to the trekkers). Each bag weighed about 50-60 pounds. We rode in the back of a pickup truck through the dark streets of Xela to the bus station, where we got onto a chicken bus to San Marcos, where we ate breakfast. We then took another bus to the entrance of the hike. The first 15 minutes was tough, just getting used to the altitude. It was really hard to breathe, and I felt a bit nauseous the whole time. The trail leveled out at many points, so it wasn't straight up the whole time. We started pretty high up in the mountains, and had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains the entire time. There were clouds nestled in between them. At one point we walked through a foggy ridge with really tall thin pine trees. Later on in the afternoon, the sun beat out the fog and made the purple, yellow, and rust-red flowers shine brilliantly. We stopped for trail mix and then lunch later on. The QT guides cooked everything for us... potato salad, cabbage salad, guacamole, peanut butter and jelly from a local collective, bread and tortilla chips. The last ascent before we reached our campsite was the hardest... right after I thought I couldn't go any farther, it ended and we reached the campsite. After dinner everyone crashed, but no one really slept well.
The guides woke us at 4am, and we hiked in the dark 220 meters to the top of the volcano. It was really steep and again just when I thought I couldn't go much farther, we reached the top. There was a biting cold wind, so I wrapped up in a sleeping bag with Ana, another trekker, facing the volcanos to the east that you can see in the picture I posted yesterday. As we sat there, Santiaguito, all the way to the right, errupted twice. It felt like we were on top of the world... Behind us was Mexico, but all we could see was mist. Above us a million stars, and a crecent moon sat low above the volcanos. A few groups of Guatemaltecos joined us on top of the crater, and when the sun finally rose, everyone cheered. Our group then hiked around the crater, taking in spectacular views of the mountains around us, and the shadow of Tajamulco cast on the mist to the west.
The entire hike down was unbelievably beautiful... everything that had been couched in fog the day before was completely visible. We could see all the little towns in the mountains, forests, trees and farms, plus the spectacular mountains themselves. By the end my quads were shot. I can see how hiking can become addicting, although I'm ready for a break before I try another volcano... This trip was inspiring for many reasons... the people I met, the time I had to reflect, the physical challenge of hiking in high altitudes, and the exhileration of walking around the crater of the highest volcano in Central America.
posted by mbrigell at 3:46 PM
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