Sunday morning Ryan, Laura, Chati (Laura's friend), and I headed to Antigua to pick up our other Guatemalan friend, Henry and his cousin David. Once in Antigua, we found Henry and his cousin and started to Santa Maria de Jesus to find the trail head to Volcan Agua. The road up to the base of the volcano was not in suitable conditions for the little VW we were driving, so after a few close calls with rocks and loose dirt we decided to park the car on the side of the road and start our hike. While this was not the smartest thing to do, leaving the car unattended in the middle of a dirt road, we didnt have many choices. So we headed up the road to find the trail head .
Henry thought it would be best to make a b-line up the mountain. This was a bad idea, as you'll see later but it did help us find the trail after a while. So once on the trail we found out it was going to be a 5 hour hike up and another 2 or 3 down which was okay since it was only 10am. So we continued up the volcano and soon enough we were split up with Ryan and myself ahead of the group and Henry bushwhacking it straight up the mountain. The volcano has something like 14 crosses that mark the path to the crater, and at the first one we were one man down with Henry god knows where. His cousin called him on the phone and found he was a few clicks ahead of us. So I started up the path looking for Henry and eventually veered off the trail too and found myself in a large field in the middle of the forest. Walking through this field I spotted Henry and joined him while the others made their way up to where we were at. Henry and I then decided to continue and make our own path straight up the volcano. Now at first this seemed like a good idea but soon enough we were crawling in thick brush and getting tangled up in vines. Not to mention it was fairly steep. Bad idea Henry!! So after about 30 or 45 min of this we made our way out and back to the trail covered with dirt and vines.
After this is when I lost Henry and found that Ryan was quite a bit ahead. So i double timed it and about an hour later reached Ryan with his new found Guatemalan friends. I was dead tired by this time only to find that we still had 2.5 more hours to go and it was getting damn cold. The rest of the way up the volcano was very cloudy, freezing, and a bit painful I must say. Right as I reached the peak of the volcano my legs started cramping in both thighs and i collapsed. So I laid on the rocks for about 20 min and then started down since i didn't have a coat and I couldn't feel my hands from the cold. Oh, and we couldn't see jack from the summit because of the fog!!! We ran into Henry about 100 meters down from the summit and he looked like hell. So the three of us ran most of the way down the mountain and got a call from the rest of the group that the car had been broken into. Big surprise! Come to find out they didn't take anything and it was just a small window in the back that was punched out. We headed back to Antigua to eat some dinner and see the Semana Santa procession and then back to Guate.
Henry thought it would be best to make a b-line up the mountain. This was a bad idea, as you'll see later but it did help us find the trail after a while. So once on the trail we found out it was going to be a 5 hour hike up and another 2 or 3 down which was okay since it was only 10am. So we continued up the volcano and soon enough we were split up with Ryan and myself ahead of the group and Henry bushwhacking it straight up the mountain. The volcano has something like 14 crosses that mark the path to the crater, and at the first one we were one man down with Henry god knows where. His cousin called him on the phone and found he was a few clicks ahead of us. So I started up the path looking for Henry and eventually veered off the trail too and found myself in a large field in the middle of the forest. Walking through this field I spotted Henry and joined him while the others made their way up to where we were at. Henry and I then decided to continue and make our own path straight up the volcano. Now at first this seemed like a good idea but soon enough we were crawling in thick brush and getting tangled up in vines. Not to mention it was fairly steep. Bad idea Henry!! So after about 30 or 45 min of this we made our way out and back to the trail covered with dirt and vines.
After this is when I lost Henry and found that Ryan was quite a bit ahead. So i double timed it and about an hour later reached Ryan with his new found Guatemalan friends. I was dead tired by this time only to find that we still had 2.5 more hours to go and it was getting damn cold. The rest of the way up the volcano was very cloudy, freezing, and a bit painful I must say. Right as I reached the peak of the volcano my legs started cramping in both thighs and i collapsed. So I laid on the rocks for about 20 min and then started down since i didn't have a coat and I couldn't feel my hands from the cold. Oh, and we couldn't see jack from the summit because of the fog!!! We ran into Henry about 100 meters down from the summit and he looked like hell. So the three of us ran most of the way down the mountain and got a call from the rest of the group that the car had been broken into. Big surprise! Come to find out they didn't take anything and it was just a small window in the back that was punched out. We headed back to Antigua to eat some dinner and see the Semana Santa procession and then back to Guate.
5 comments:
Pepe you always have to do things the hard way! I'm Glad you got back with all your extremities intact..
hahahaa.. mary couldn't be more right...!! I'm glad you made it back in one piece :* te amo
Hey Joe,
Yeah you def. do things on difficulty blvd. LOL. Sounds like a good time though. ;)
Another lil' MAZI' trip?
im just lookin for a little excitement people!!!
Tottttttttalllllllyyyy!
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