Tratamos Subrir el Volcan San Pedro

Last week, Will and I decided we were going to climb the San Pedro Volcano. We are living here at 5,000ft, and the volcano, as reported by Dave, is 10,000ft. It's a common trip for tourists to take, and normally, a guide is advised, since there are a few forks in the trail with no signage. We often look over at the volcano from Dave's property and have notice the clouds at the summit most commonly accumulate around 9 or 10 am. We got some advice to climb the volcano early, (it's about a 3-4 hour hike to the top) to catch the sunrise and the view without the clouds. So, with an adventurous spirit, I walked into a travel agency and fumbled my way into an agreement to hire a guide to bring us up the volcano at 3am. Will and I stayed in a hotel, Joya del Sol, after salsa on Wednesday night, so we wouldn't have to make our way from San Pablo so early in the morning. By the way, I am getting good at bargaining- one night in this hotel is a little more than $4 for both of us. The woman at the agancy assured me the guide would pick us up outside of the hotel at 3am. I suspected the guide may be late, but still, Will and I ate a big dinner (at Tin-Tin, an awesome restaurant) after salsa, and tried to get to bed early.

At 230 we weren't ready to face the alarm, but we pulled ourselves out of bed, and quickly ate granola for breakfast. We locked our room, and waited on the street for the guide. It was quiet, which was rare in San Pedro. Normally there is music blasting, preachers preaching, dogs barking, roosters crowing, bombas booming, among other sounds; there is pretty much noise at all times. This quiet hour Will and I joked that we should be asleep, if only to take advantage of the peace. At 330, I was still expecting the guide to come. I called the agency and left a message in (limited) Spanish that we were waiting. We waited longer. At 400, I called again, not really expecting an answer, but hoping to let them know we were still waiting. We waited longer. Will keeping me from getting too angry by making me laugh and enjoying the quietude. Every motor we heard induced us to turn our heads, but none were for us. We discussed whether we thought "buenas noches" (good night) or "buenos dias" (good morning) was a more appropriate greeting for the rare person who passed. Finally, at 5am (yes, folks, we were optimistic, or delusional, enough to wait for 2 hours) we went back to the hotel to sleep.

After a catching up on our sleep, we woke up refreshed and ready for our day. We ate a small second breakfast, and studied a bit. I returned to the agency, ready to stand outside and tell every potential customer what happened if my money wasn't returned. Turns out I didn't need to argue at all. The agent was very apologetic, and gave my my deposit back, along with a free pound of coffee. I did not reshedule, since we still need to figure out when we can go again. I had class at 1pm, and so after shopping and a nice lunch with Will, went to school. We stayed in San Pedro again that night, this time to hang out with some of our school friends who were leaving town Friday. Altogether is was a fun few days, though disappointing that the trip fell through. We'll have to see what time we decide to leave next time!

This weekend we stayed at Dave's helping out around the property, and relaxing when we could. We bottled beer on Saturday, which was fun. We have made homemade mead before, so it was cool to see the differences and similarities. Sunday was a slow day of gardening for Michelle, with Will and Dave cleaning out and fixing one of the water tanks. Until next time...