El Volcán Santa María

Today is the day I reached the top of the world.  Or at least as close as I'm going to get to it.

We met at the school at 4:30am and our guide, Martín, drove us in a van to the base of the Santa María volcano.  A few of us from Miguel Angel Asturias went, as well as about 10 other people from other English schools in Xela.  Last weekend I went for a bike ride to a neighboring pueblo with a guide and two of the other students I went with also came on the volcano hike.  We started hiking just after 5am.  About 20 mins into the hike one of my classmates started getting so dizzy that she couldn't walk straight.  This was before we had climbed any significant vertical amount, so Martín was going to take her back to Xela. 

In the meantime, we continued with the other guide.  The first part was relatively tame, we basically walked in a little creek bed - that is only a real creek when there are heavy rains, like there were 2 weeks before - until we made it to la meseta, a flatter, grassy area before we start climbing the actual cone of the volcano.

View of cone of volcano from la meseta

Xela is at about 7,700 ft and the top of Santa María is at 12,375 ft.  If I do my math right, that's more than 4,600 vertical feet of climb.  And it sure felt like it!  From the meseta the cone didn't look all that imposing, as another student pointed out, but of course, that was enough to jinx it.  It was a steep climb from there with lots of switch backs.  Every time I though we were getting close, the guide would say, "Oh, not much more, maybe another 2 hours or so."  As we got closer to the top we started spreading out more because some people, like myself, were more affected by the elevation and had to stop more often to recover.  At one point I was going at about the same speed as a group of 4 indigenous women, representing 3 generations.  They said the they hadn't had anything to eat or drink since the night before because it's better to make the climb on an empty stomach.  I had already had a cinnamon roll for breakfast, which in hindsight was probably not the best choice.  I didn't feel quite as out of shape seeing that the women had to stop almost as often as I did to catch their breath.  However, they were climbing in foam flip flops with their lunch wrapped in cloth on their backs.  And they do this climb very often.

As I neared the top of the volcano I started getting nauseous.  I would catch my breath just fine when I stopped to rest but then once I started moving again I felt like I had to rest every 10 steps.  I finally got there at 9:40am.  I sat with a group of students who had already arrived and tried to eat some of the bread and peanut butter I have brought.  I didn't get far into the food before I had to stick my head behind a rock and vomit up everything I had eaten that day.  I felt a little better after that, but still like I couldn't fully enjoy the view and the experience of being there, which was truly amazing.  I laid down on one of the many huge boulders and took a 40 min nap in the sun.  It was cold enough to need a fleece and jacket over it, but in the sun it was perfect.  After I woke up I was finally able to look around and appreciate where I was.  We could see every little town and the clouds were racing by just below us.  Groups of people in their indigenous dress were doing their prayer rituals mixing Spanish, Quiché, Christianity, and indigenous rituals.  Some people climb the volcano to pray every weekend.

View from the top

At 11am we started the descent, which was much more pleasant.  Usually my knees and hips start bothering me when I go down, but this time I felt fine the whole time.  We reached the vans around 2pm.  I thought I was going to be so sore after such a hike, also because I haven't been doing any significant amount of exercise recently, but I actually felt great the next day.

The girl that had gotten dizzy at the very beginning of the hike had actually continued after sitting for about 30 mins.  I couldn't believe she still wanted to keep going after getting so dizzy fromt he very beginning!  She was pretty hardcore.  We ran into her on the way down the volcano, she made to within about 20 mins of the top, but never actually made it there.  Later that day she said she had really wanted to get to the top and asked if anyone would do it with her the next day.  Seriously?  The next day?!  Maybe in a couple weeks.