Fuji, Tajumulco...what's next? Everest?

Maybe not Everest, but perhaps Kilimanjaro!

I decided in Xela last Friday to do a two day hike up Tajumulco. It is the highest peak in Central America at 4222m. It is an inactive volcano last eruption was something like 100,000 years ago. The hike looked good day one up to base camp and then a minor peak for sunset, get up early in day two to hike to the summit for sunrise. Should be pretty cool.

The organization I used donates all their profits to three charitable organizations in Xela, helping kids get homes, school, and medical attention. The guides are all volunteers. Meet our guides: Tal (Isreali), he was in charge of the trip and was a pretty serious but fun, and very good guide. Becca (American), offcially out of the guiding business but they needed some one sshe jumped on for fun. Brent (Canadian), looked a bit like Heath Ledger and talked all about getting drunk and hoepfully getting laid. James (Canadian), new to the organization but earnest and nice.

As a hiking group we were pretty diverse: An 50ish Canadian pilot, a 50ish British MD who has worked on a cruise ship for four years, 5 Norwegian girls, a 12 year olf guatemalan girl who is part of one of this gruops charities, a couple of guys from Northampton, a couple who hae been volunteering in Guatemala and are going to work in a national park in Idaho, a American girl starting Oberlin in the fall, a goth-type Spanish guy named Oscar and me.

We organized our water, six liters (13 lbs), all of our warm clothes and we carried with us the tents, sleeping bags, sleeping rolls, food, and all the other gear we needed for the two day hike. Yes, the packs were heavy. I carried tent poles, pasta sauce, peanut butter, and soup packets for the group.

Here is how it went: Meet at 4:45am to take a pickup to the bus station (12 of us and our packs in the back of the truck), take one chicken bus for 2 hours or so, have breakfast, take another chicken bus an hour and half into the mountains, then climb. The ascent was from 3000m to 4000m on day one. They kept talking about altitude and that we were going to be experiencing some altitude sickness, perhaps. I thought how can it take us five hours to walk 1000m? That is 3000 feet, which is under a mile. No problem. This was an intense hike. I like to think of myself as a pretty fit individual, but this was a streuous hike. At times we are walking, at other times we are bouldering up the cliffs with our packs on. They gave us frequent rest breaks and they were needed. My thoughts were a bunch of these throughout the day: "Why do I like hiking?" "Why does anyone like hiking?" "I should have done some extra running before I left." "Just keep walking, Just keep walking" "I am not sure I can breathe" "Damn, I am getting sunburned" "Why do I like hiking?" "Is this worth it?" "and to think, I could have gone to the hot springs today and sat in the thermal baths instead." "why is hiking fun?" you can see how it was going for me.

So, why do I like hiking? The views along the way were amazing and our rest breaks were perfectly timed so that we could rest after particularly steep sections and also so we could see the surroundings. Pretty amazing. I felt a certain sense of accomplishment after having made it to the summit. Excercise in fresh air is always good for the soul, even if it doesn't always feel like it at the time. This was one of the hardest hikes I have ever done. That said, my compettitive sense kicked in and I was always one of the top three hikers to make it to the rest breaks. I was on a mission.

We det up camp and of course are about to start our sunset hike to the secodary peak when the clouds roll in. Not worth the hike. Much like when Duc and I hiked Mt Fuji in Japan all night to see sunrise at the summit and it was cloudy. Shame. Of course, just after the dark, the clouds rolled out and we could see clearly the stars and the Milky Way.

We woke up at 4:00am the next day to see sunrise. The steepest and most difficult part of the climb was the last 222m, which we did in the dark. It was tough, but at least we did not have to carry our packs. I had four layers of clothes, two hats, and gloves, and it was still a bit chilly! We got to the summit to see a magnificent sunrise. You could see Mexico, almost to Belize and the amazing mountains and volcanoes of Guatemala. It was one of those moments that remind me how blessed I am to be able to walk, hike, climb, see, feel, and travel. Certainly not a moment I will forget.

Today, I took a shuttle to Panajachel, a small town on Lake Attitlan. This lake is surrounded by volcanoes and is beautiful.