The Volcano... Round two!

Once again we scheduled with a guide only this time we requested the regular 6 am start time. We had been watching the weather to try to plan for a rainless and cloudless day.

I traveled over to San Pedro on Saturday night to meet up with Michelle after class to go to our now ritual Tin Tin dinners. After devouring incredible dishes of Pad Thai and Gado Gado we got to bed early in preparation for the event. And an event it was!

At six we met with our guide and started walking out of town. Most guides, we had heard, would go to the small trouble of getting a tuc-tuc for everyone and saving the 45 minute walk UP to the park entrance. Almost everywhere is up or down here, unless of course you are going sideways :) This proved to be a slight frustration because we were already concerned about making the entire hike as it was said to be extremely strenuous. I was especially dismayed since we chose to wear our five finger toe shoes and the entire start was on pavement and cobble stone. After a good half hour of frustration and complaning :) we made it to the entrance where we took a break at the park entrance with informational signs boasting of the wonders to ensue. One such chart for example showed common plant life, another animals, another birds. No there are no Quetzals in this neck of the woods as they have all been flushed out of their environment. Darn. Our guide reported there were still a few leopards and pumas, but he had only seen one cross the path in front of a tour once.

We trotted off to the trail bringing up the rear as the oldest of four other hikers and the guide. The two leading the pack were young energetic europeans who after the halfway point just went on ahead. The other couple were younger Germans who had been living in Nicaragua for 5 months. They matched our endurance level better and became our trail friends. The trail wound down and around farm patches of the various staples grown here for local consumption. Coffee, beans, and of course corn. We finally got to see some coffee fruits that had turned red- the time when they are picked, husked, and dried for roasting. We even grabbed a few to taste. The outer fruit was sweet and the coffee "beans" were a little slimy. We didn't feel any caffeine effect from the fruit.

After crossing a large dry stone flash flood river bed we said good bye to the last of the long segments of horizontal path. From then on every time we would see a 10 foot section of flat land we would rejoice. We have hiked pretty strenuous trails before, granted they have been few and far between, so much so that we haven't really carried the physical benefits that they give far, but still... We've hiked Mildred lakes and the Putvin Trail in Olympic National Forest both of which have elevation gains of roughly 2,000 feet over 5 or so miles with full 30-40lb packs. Those were hard, and injury inducing. This we could not have done with those packs. We estimated roughly a 8 mile round trip, but the elevation gain was at least double anything we have ever done prior. Step after step, break after break after 4+ hours of climbing dirt stairs we made it to the main event.

We could not have timed the trip better. Almost every day the mountain top has at least a small disc of clouds around the top, but this time it was perfectly clear. From the top you could see almost the entire lake if it did not somewhat wrap around the volcano. We saw Santiago, normally hidden from our sight, shown here.

Digging out our snack lunches we found some shade under the most weathered of mountain top trees and imagined what it would be like to weather one of the regular miraculous thunderstorms from such a vantage point. After eating the guide and other two couples were ready to go... we were a little surprised after all the effort, but had prepared to bid everyone good bye and do the climb justice by enjoying the treat to ourselves. For me this mostly consisted of sleeping in the sun, for Michelle taking flattering pictures of me sleeping in the sun...

The piles of rocks we made our beds was on a narrow ridge, the edges of which fell down into the jungle 50 ft below before sloping significantly. Our backs faced the crater of the old volcano, long since overgrown by the jungle and too large and covered to feel like a "normal" crater.

While it was wonderful to have the "hardest" behind us and the downhill started out easy, it unfortunately did not stay that way :) By the half way point we were hard to rouse from our lying breaks and became delirious with sillyness and light headed. Foot pains started around hour 6, but fortunately by the time we reached the park entrance a tuc-tuc was there waiting for us. Then it was just a matter of playing good tourist/bad tourist to barter down to the fair price and catch our ride to the city center.

Its amazing how a ten minute tuc ride downhill could tide such a physical depletion while we walked the market for food. We picked up apples and a cut coconut w/straw and some good oatmeal raisin cookies at the gringo healthfood store. We even felt up to getting our puppies on Dave´s farm 10 pounds of food. I wasn't up to carry one of the 100 lb bags...

We made our way back to the hotel and crashed for a few hours before heading to our Tin Tin and Choco Bananos for a well deserved treat.

This morning after sleeping in we decided to save a visit to Santiago for another weekend and caught up on some reading, internet, and relaxing. We took the boat back around noon after a nice omelet lunch and cleaned up! We're not exactly sure what we'll be doing next weekend, but as for the week its Michelle school and Will tree house.