Volcanoes and Machettes

It was time to do some volcano treks in Xela. Marty and I signed up for two over night trips.  The first one scheduled was Santa Maria, the most technical of the Guatemalan volcaones.  This was to be followed by the highest volcano, Tajumulco at 4,220 m (13,845 ft).

Loading the chicken bus for Santa Maria

We went back to Quetzaltrekkers, they are the greatest, no doubt!  Our guides: Sarah, Rach and Lauren.  Our group: five Aussies, a Swiss and myself.  All looks good.  We begin our accent around 2 PM and plan on spending the night.  Everything is going well, Marty is up front with Sarah, Lauren has the rest of the group in the middle and Rach and I are having a delightful time bringing up the rear.

Santa Maria covered in clouds

El Fugo erupting at sunrise

Sunrise, cresent moon and El Fugo!!  Are you kidding me?!?!?

What I learned from this trek is that volcanos get steeper and rockier as you work your way to the top.  The switchbacks become steeper and scrambling up rocks becomes the best mode of transporting the gear to the top.  Also, the later it gets the darker it gets, I know, shocker!  It was getting darker and darker on Rach and I, with no idea how far we had left.  Problem was that our head lamps were packed at the bottom of our packs, brilliant!!  Rach saved the day when she figured out how to use the ¨flash light¨on her phone.  We had light!  Not alot of light, but light!

Meanwhile at the top of the volcano, Sarah and Marty have one tent set up as the rest of the group arrives.  I don´t know if you know this about Aussies, but they don not like the cold.  Not one bit!!  You could imagine at 3,772 m (12,375 ft) on top of a volcano, at night, it is damn cold to an Aussie.  From what I gathered later, the Aussies began to loose their minds.  Lauren was boiling water for hot drinks.  Sarah was hearding the Aussies into the tent and their sleeping bags, not an easy task.  Apparently they were walking around in circles, shaking and in shock.  She finally managed to wrangle the last one into the tent, and went to check on other things, like food.  She came back to check on them a few minutes later and they were not in their bags!!  Sitting their shivering with no clue what to do, Sarah instructed them ¨warm cloths gents and in your bags!!¨  She returned a bit later and the tallest and fittest of the group stood up and said ¨I have a strange request Sarah¨ as he raised his hands above his head.  ¨Well, out with it¨  ¨I can´t feel my fingers, will you zip my fly?¨ Normally every Aussie in the group would start laughing histerically and start verbally abusing this man to death.  No, they all nodded their heads and pleaded that she help their friend.  Sarah, now guide of the year, took care of buisness and got them all in their sleeping bags.  By the way, I am guessing it was no less than 25 degrees up there, but to their defense the wind was howling.

The sunrises!!

Back to my little, darkish hike up the volcano.  A mist set in, making it hard to see.  Rach was getting worried, making me a little anxious.  Luckily it lifted after awhile and our hike continued and continued and continued some more.  You see, with out proper lighting, climbing a volcano becomes very difficult, even more so near the top.  We eventually made it, about 5 1/2 hours after leaving, and hour after the last group.  I might be the slowest climber in the world!!  And Rach must be the most patient guide in the world!! Thank you Rach!!

Santiaguito erupting

We are all at the top, Marty is imobile in his bag grunting that he has hypothermia.  The rest of the Aussies are beginging to appear for hot drinks.  Lauren is a master with a stove, hot drinks followed by delicious noddles.  Then, to warm things up, Marty and brought wine!!  Nothing better than red wine on top of a volcano!!  Now, the cool thing about this volcano is that in 1902 it erupted out the side.  This created a sister volcano, Santiaguito, next to it that erupts reguarly.  I light hike across the top of Santa Maria and you have a great view of it.  A group went at night and were gifted with an eruption.  I, unfortunately, stayed behind with the wine.  Opps.

El Fuego´s shadow

The rest of the night was spent huddled up in the none Aussie tent telling stories, laughing and warming with wine.  Up at 5 AM, to watch the sunrise.  It was amazing.  First a perfect cresent moon with the colors beggining to change to deep blue, to reds.  Than an eruption in the distance from El Fuego.  With another eruption from the sister volcano just below us.  The sun than arose through to peaks in the east, casting the shadow of El Fuego behind Santa Maria to the west.  In total we witnessed four eruptions of the sister volcano.  Coolest sunrise I have ever experienced.  I don´t think anything will ever top that, but I will try!!

Camp

All that was left was breakfast, pack up and head down.  Much easier, but not easy.  Once the frost had melted, the trail became slippery.  Luckily no one fell and we made it down in two hours.  At this point, Marty and I were wondering what we were thinking doing back to back climbs.  So we began getting pshyced for the adventure and realized that it was going to be a ton of fun!  Same guides plus Josh, and our friend Kathrine was going to join us on this one.  Ready!!

I think we are supposed to be up there...hmmm.

We get back to the guide office and get some terrible news.  The Tajumulco trek has been cancelled.  Why?  Because two villages along the trek are in the midst of a machette war over the water source.  A machette war.  Guatemala.  Wow.  We are a bit devastated and are clueless on what to do.  Nap, sleep on it.  I wake up, shower and run into Rach.  She explains that if we do the Flores trek, that the three girls would have the day off on Sunday.  They rarely get a day off, so I talk to Martin and he is in!  Two more join us, and we are off the next day.

Santa Maria from the ridge

The Flores trek might be the greatest day trek of all time.  Twenty-six kilometers in total.  The day starts climbing a mountain and if you get lost you can climb up a mountain through a corn field.  That is great because the locals look at you like you are insane!  Once you find the trail again and make it to the top, you follow the ridge, which has amazing views of Santa Maria.  After lunch, one more accent and it is down through the cloud forest.  It was so amazing, I can not put it into words and the battery of my camera went dead, so google image cloud forest.  We were sweaty with big smiles and we arrived at HOT SPRINGS!!!  This my friends is the best way to finish of any trek!!  We lounged in the springs, enjoyed a beer and caught a ride back to Xela.

Hiking the ridge

I cannot say enough good things about Quetzaltrekkers.  These folks are amazing, always smiling, not losing it in stressful times and all around great people.  They volunteer ALL their time to their cause, the children.  Thank you Rach, Sarah, Lauren, Marcy, Brea, Mason, Malta, Josh, Matt and all the guides that passed their trial week while I was there!!  You have been missed.  I have sent many people to you, and will continue!  Best of luck to all of you!!

http://www.quetzaltrekkers.com/guathome.html