#1, #3, and #4 Down

On November 21st, a couple Peace Corps buddies and I climbed the highest volcano in Central America. Called Tajamulco, which translates to "the big pimple" (not true, I completely made that up), this tallest point in Central America measures almost 14,000 feet. Probably the most impressive part of the landscape is the fact that the volcano hovers right over the coastal region of San Marcos (where I live). Looking at it from the side, the skyline rips from the coast straight up 14,000 feet to the volcano.

We started our hike around 1pm on Saturday with a group called Corazon Verde ("Green Heart") that organized a garbage clean-up on the volcano. Before the hike, a group of locals, led by the mayor, held a ceremony to bless the occasion and to talk about the importance of keeping their sacred volcano clean. After the 25 minutes of speeches and prayers, we all started up. The local Guatemalans charged up the volcano with their burlap sacks, which would return full of garbage. We took a more leisurely pace, mainly because we couldn't take three steps without getting winded due to the lack of oxygen, but also because we planned to camp that night just below the summit.

After about 3 hours of hiking, we arrived at base camp. I was shocked when we arrived because the hike itself wasn't that tough and I thought it would take much longer than it did. But it was nice to get to our camp with plenty of daylight because it gave us time to get ready for the freezing cold that would come with the sunset. After collecting some firewood, a group of us summited the peak to catch the sunset over the Pacific. Even though it was cloudy, the view was incredible (photos below). We stayed there for about an hour, but like clock-work, once the sun went down, the temperature dropped to nearly freezing. We rushed down to our tents to get a fire going and eat some supper. After a hearty dinner of beans, bread, and - of course - campfire-roasted schmores, we all went to bed to try to rest before our early wake-up to catch the summit sunrise. I slept fine, but one of our buddies had a serious case of altitude sickness and was moaning and groaning all night with splitting headaches.

At 3:45am my alarm sounded...time to summit. Still freezing, we crawled out of our tents and started hiking again, but this time it felt much tougher due the to the cold and soar muscles. It was well worth it though because right around 6ish, the sun came out and we could make out the chain of volcanoes stretching from Antigua to Mexico (about 8 volcanoes in all). Definitely one of the highlights of Guatemala so far.

With Tajamulco down, I've now summited the highest volcano in Guatemala (Tajamulco), the third highest (Acatenango), and the fourth highest (Agua). Now I have the second highest in my sites, called Tacana (photo below), for January. #1, #3, and #4 highest down. Next up, #2.