Tajumulco volcano
Today was a fun but exhausting day. One of the activities that the school put together is to climb Tajumulco volcano about two hours away from Xela. The summit of Tajumulco is the highest point in Central America and is 4220 m high (over 12,000 ft).
We left yesterday in a private van and checked into what supposedly was a hotel in San Marcos. I can't remember the name, but there were chains locking the front door, no mirrors, toilet paper, or waste baskets (to put the "used toilet" paper in) in the bathrooms and most of the water wasn't running. The beds were uncomfortable with bed bugs and a lot of light coming in from the streets. We all had a good laugh, but not the kind of night that you want to have before a huge climb.
The next morning we got up at 4:00 am (nothing should be happening at that time in the morning), put on our clothes and traveled another half hour to hour to the volcano. We had three guides Martin and Carlos from the school and Carlos' brother Tony plus 13 students. Two Andy's, David, Bill, Merrilee, Lisa, Rachel, Lee, two Megan's, Lindsey, Stephen and I.
The hike up was amazing. I took some great pictures and I will hopefully be able to put some up. There are some great shots of the scenery which changes drastically from one part of the volcano to the next. It was one of the hardest hikes that I have been on, mostly due to the elevation. Towards the top most of us were suffering from "high altitude sickness" which is basically nausea and dizziness. Scary when you are climbing up a mountain straight up with the cliff behind you.
It took us 3 1/2 hours to climb up and about the same to come down. We took a lot of breaks and had lunch at the summit. Glad that I had a chance to experience this, but extremely tired.
We left yesterday in a private van and checked into what supposedly was a hotel in San Marcos. I can't remember the name, but there were chains locking the front door, no mirrors, toilet paper, or waste baskets (to put the "used toilet" paper in) in the bathrooms and most of the water wasn't running. The beds were uncomfortable with bed bugs and a lot of light coming in from the streets. We all had a good laugh, but not the kind of night that you want to have before a huge climb.
The next morning we got up at 4:00 am (nothing should be happening at that time in the morning), put on our clothes and traveled another half hour to hour to the volcano. We had three guides Martin and Carlos from the school and Carlos' brother Tony plus 13 students. Two Andy's, David, Bill, Merrilee, Lisa, Rachel, Lee, two Megan's, Lindsey, Stephen and I.
The hike up was amazing. I took some great pictures and I will hopefully be able to put some up. There are some great shots of the scenery which changes drastically from one part of the volcano to the next. It was one of the hardest hikes that I have been on, mostly due to the elevation. Towards the top most of us were suffering from "high altitude sickness" which is basically nausea and dizziness. Scary when you are climbing up a mountain straight up with the cliff behind you.
It took us 3 1/2 hours to climb up and about the same to come down. We took a lot of breaks and had lunch at the summit. Glad that I had a chance to experience this, but extremely tired.
posted by Unknown at 6:49 PM
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