Full moon hike to volcano Santa Maria

Few days back I caught my first real flue of the year. Unfortunately for me I also wanted to climb up a volcano called Santa Maria. I had to do it now. There were no options since this week I’m leaving Xela behind and it was full moon. Full moon was important because it meant that we could climb up the volcano in the dark.

It was 11 p.m and everybody had gathered to Quetzaltrekkers (www.quetzaltrekkers.com) office. Delicious chili was waiting for us and after filling our stomachs and backing our bags we jumped on the back of two pick-ups. 20 minutes later we were at the end of the road. Steep climb, 1200 meters of vertical ascent and hundreds of switchbacks was the name of the game.

800mg of ibuprofen kept me going for the first 600 vertical meters with the front of the pack, after that I had to ease out a little bit. After around 2.5-3 hours of climbing we reached the peak. It was around 4 a.m and the sun was nowhere to be seen. Others started getting their sleeping bags out to keep them selves warm. It was around 0 degrees celsius. I took out my camera and tripod. I was a bit bummed since my light tripod would not do the trick on this mountain. It was too windy so I knew many of the photos would be out of focus. Shit! Well that’s what you get when you buy something cheap. Still it was better than nothing so I started taking photos with 4-8 minute exposure. An hour later the last of our crew reached the top. The sun was still down. I decided to head to the other side of the volcano where you can see a smaller extremely active volcano erupt about every 45 minutes.

Just as I had decedent 100 meters down the Santa Maria the small volcano Santiaquito erupted. I quickly set up the tripod and took a 4 minute exposure of the volcano. Before I realized the sulfer gasses where climbing up the side of the Santa Maria where I was taking photos. Within minutes the gasses reached me and I could smell the sulfer. Luckily I was far enough so that the gasses weren’t even close to being dangerous, I think.

Soon the sun started rising from the horizont and I decided to head back to see what where my sleeping bag friends doing. Almost everyone were out of their warm bags and enjoying the incredible view. It was one of those views that no photo will ever do justice. The light was good so I decided to give it a go anyway. The feeling of space and warm sun soon made me forget the cold that had made my fingers frozen fish sticks. There was another group at the top from another travel agency. They had no sleeping bags or warm jackets, which Quetzaltrekkers had provided for us. Soon freezing from the cold weather and sweaty clothes they started racing down the mountain. They had had enough. Too bad since the weather was getting warm really fast.

After some more photos, hot chocolate, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we started our decent. After coming down third of the mountain my left knee started failing me. Biting my lip I eventually got down. Then quick bus ride back to base and some awesome food. It was a perfect day and it was only 1 p.m.

14 hours had passed since we started the night hike and I hadn’t slept at all. I feel really freaky at the moment. Time to check the photos and put it all online.

Tomorrow there is a Michael Jackson in space -party. Friday is for resting and after that hopefully to a lake called Atitlan that is suppose to be one of the most beautiful lakes in Latin America. Unfortunately some bacteria has taken over it and the lake is now pretty much dead because of pollution. 440 million dollars of international money has been received to save it. This country is also facing serious drought and hungre the next year. Let’s see if there is international money for that.

Let the flu(k)e continue, I don’t care. Hasta pronto amigos.