I climbed a volcano!

Well, folks, I did it. I climbed Volcan La Muela, which is also called Cerro Quemado. And what a climb it was! According to the tour company, Monte Verde, it was supposed to be an "easy-moderate" climb. Um, no. It definitely was not. And I had actually been training for this during the past two months!

(By the way, if you just laughed at the thought of me athletically training for something, it's okay -- I admit that I find it humorous myself. I am definitely athletically-challenged!)

So, here's the photo I posted of La Muela yesterday. I climbed the peak on the right. (The one with the power lines crossing over it in the photo.) And other than one five-minute bus ride, I walked the entire way there! From the top there are generally incredible views of Xela and the surrounding countryside.
I hiked with three other young female tourists and our Guatemalan guide, Luis. I was the oldest one in the group! The other girls were from New Hampshire. I spoke the most Spanish between the four of us girls and Luis is in the process of learning English. There was more than one misunderstanding due to language throughout the day, like when Luis accidentally called one of the girls a "cow," but we all managed just fine. :)

I had to walk 45 minutes to get to the tour company. Then we walked a few more minutes to the edge of the city and got on a bus for a short ride to the next town. From there, we hiked. The route started off on a steep paved road.

I must admit that about five minutes into the hike I was already thinking, "Holy crap! I don't think I can do this!" The altitude of Xela is approximately 7,655 feet, which is already much higher than northern Indiana! The altitude of Cerro Quemado is 10,500 feet! Luis was a great guide, though, and he did a lot to distract us from the fact that we thought our hearts and lungs were going to explode. For example, he brought his ipod, which is filled with English songs from the 80's! We all sang (and some of us danced) to several songs during the climb.
We took a couple photos along the road:
And we were finally almost at the base of the volcano... Yes, I said almost at the base of it, which meant there was still a lot of hiking to do! In the photo below, you can't even see the peak that we climbed to because it was covered in the clouds. I started to get pretty worried because my purpose for climbing the volcano was to see the view from the top. (Well, that and because it's pretty cool to tell people that you've climbed volcanoes!) There wouldn't be any view if those clouds didn't go away.
Then Luis pointed to a narrow, muddy, and extremely steep dirt trail. He told us to go that way, and I thought he was joking. But no, that really was the trail. The photo below doesn't do it justice. By this point in the hike, the altitude was really getting to me. I was drenched in sweat and every couple of minutes I had to take a break to catch my breath. In my overly dramatic mind, I was pretty sure I was going to die.
We finally arrived at a grassy field where the locals play futbol. You can barely see the peak in this photo because of the clouds. I was losing hope of having a nice view, but...
After we had taken a 15 minute break, I looked up again and the clouds were gone! In this photo you can see a Maya family. The volcano is a sacred place to the Maya people and we saw many of them hiking and conducting ceremonies.
By now you might be thinking, "Megan, it doesn't really sound that bad." But I haven't told you about the worst part yet. From the field in the photo above all the way to the peak, we had to climb boulders. Not large rocks. Boulders.
I almost said "forget it" when I saw the boulders. The tour description didn't mention "bouldering." And there wasn't a path anymore. It was basically: find a place that looks safe, step up to it, grab a hold of another boulder with your hands, and hope you don't fall. Seriously? People do this for fun?

We had another group photo at the base of the peak...
But we still had quite a bit to go...
But I made it!
And the clouds had calmed down a bit, so I was able to see Xela...
As well as the towns of Alomonga, Zunil, and Totonicopan (Don't forget you can click on the photos to enlarge them.)
It was gorgeous! For a couple minutes I even forgot that my legs felt like jello. I can't even imagine what all you could see on a clear day. Cerro Quemado has old, hardened lava flows from 200-300 years ago, which were cool to see, too.
We rested at the top for about 30 minutes. Well, I rested. Kayla and Luis decided to practice some tai quan do. It was incredibly random and quite entertaining.
We ate some snacks and started to head back down. Climbing down boulders isn't an easy task to begin with. Unfortunately, it had started raining while we were on the peak, which meant the boulders were wet. And slippery. At this point I was pretty sure I was going to die, and I couldn't stop thinking about how mad my Mom would be at me since she didn't want me to climb a volcano in the first place! :)

But I was careful, I took my time, and I made it back down through the boulders, the muddy trail, and the steep road.

I was planning to go out to eat at Giuseppe's afterward, and I invited the others to join me. (Quite extroverted of me, don't you think?) :) I enjoyed some well-deserved pizza de ajo (garlic pizza).
Of course, then I still had a 45 minute walk back to my house. And now... my WHOLE BODY HURTS! I have six blisters and my legs shake when I walk up and down the stairs. (Did I mention that my bedroom is on the third floor?)

But it was worth it.

I hope you all enjoyed my overly dramatic descriptions of my volcano climb. And don't worry, Mom, I'll never climb this volcano again! :)