Miracles !?!?!?! Something Unexpected .....

After an afternoon of wandering the main street in Panajachel we discovered that a volcano tour cost $50/ person. Thinking that was a little steep we asked Julio about it. By the evening he'd convinced us that him and his brother would be our guide to hike up a different volcano that was higher (3158m) and closer to home. What I didn't realize until afterwards was that he'd never hiked it himself. There are two volcanos right beside each other. He'd done the other one, which is even higher and even that had been 8 years ago. He figured that the shorter one would be easier, but we discovered that it was less travelled. Julio's sister joined us on the hike, this was her first time up a volcano.

We parked in the nearest town and said good bye to the family that would watch out for the van. Their last words were we'll see you tomorrow. Their advice to us was to hike for 4 hours and then turn around, where ever we were. We set out with 1 o'clock being our latest turn around time. The first 2 hours were through fields of corn and coffee. It was steep going and hard for me to imagine the farmers hauling their goods back and forth. We saw men carrying out large rounds of trees on their backs.

We reached a great look out spot where you could see the lake and the town below. From there the terrain was more difficult and the path needed to be cleared with machetes. Pines tree needles made our grip tricky and then we got to the cloud forest that was dense. The clouds were so thick that for the last hours we couldn't even see the top.

Well 1pm came and went. At 2 o'clock we finally sat down for lunch, though we'd had many breaks as we hiked up. The brothers weren't ready to give up and said that they'd go ahead and check the trail. Julio hollered down for us to come meet him. At 3 o'clock we caught up with them. We hadn't reached the top. What were we to do? Well the options were less than great, unfair was how I described it to Jay while I was frustrated. We could go back and do the last part in the dark or we could go to the top and spend the night there. It was cool and we were tired, but we decided to brave going to the top, realizing that it could be cold and that we had only a little food and water.

By 4 o'clock we were at the top. It was totally cloudy and thick underbrush seemed to cover every surface. We wander around in search of a place to lay our heads. After clambering up and down a few hills and through forest galdes we discovered a clearing that had a fire pit. Long ago someone else had been there and left behind a lighter. With several attempts and a few breaks in between we got a fire started with the rusted out and low fluid lighter. Julio got on his knees and prayed thanking God for the fire. With a renewed spirit he complimented us all on working as a team to get to the top.

We prepared as best as we could for the night that lay before us by gathering fire wood and making a thatch lean to. We rationed the bread, watermelon and water. The beignning of the night went by quickly. The chatter reminded me of family camping. There were times when the clouds cleared and you could see stars and the nearly full moon. Jay got in a few hours of sleep. By midnight I was cold and exhausted so I just started to cry. Our supply of wood was nearly gone. And the wind had picked up. The brothers got more wood and piled pine boughs around to ward off the chill. The siblings took turns tending the fire. They gave me the hottest spot and wrapped us in newspaper to warm us up. But by 5ish the wind was violent, everyone was awake. Unfortunately it was cloudy again and rain was spitting. Who knew when it would clear so we waited and ate the rest of the bread. By 7 we were on our way.

Food, warmth and a bed are great motivators for tired people so we made it down in record timing. The last hour everyone was quite. What took 7 hours to climb up we descended in 4.5 hrs. We slept for 11 hours that night and woke up to stiff muscles. There were a few little warning signs along the way that we missed but this was a crazy adventure that Jay had always dreamed of. Though it was tough we remained positive. Though staying on the top of the mountain had not crossed our minds, it was totally legitamate in everyone elses . We learned so much about the Guatemalan way and we well cared for given the situation. And now we are going to carry matches around with us, just in case!

Volcan Toliman (Volcan San Lucas)