Hiking Volcan Momotumbo
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2004
1
46
228
Trip End
Ongoing
Leon,
Nicaragua
Monday, July 12, 2004
An organization that I was familiar with from Xela, Guatemala called "Quetzaltrekkers" is also based here and guides hikes to 4 of Nicaragua´s volcanoes. Their profits go to help street kids in Guate and Nic. This weekend´s hike is to Volcan Momotumbo; a rigorous 2 days of adventure and I´m signed up to go.
Saturday: 4:30am wake up call followed by breakfast and an introduction to the others that are going. 19 year old Miguel, a former street kid from Guatemala and now employed as a guide will be our fearless leader along with Jane from Australia
.01 Basilica Cathedral de la Asuncion
. My companions include Myka, Inge, and Hirman from Holland and Marcos and Claire from England. We will all share the load of tents, food, water and supplies for 2 days on the trail. The climb up was steep and very hot, not to mention complicated by loose volcanic rock. After about 5 hours, we reached a point to set up camp and then dumped our heavy gear and headed for the summit. This is by far the most difficult hike I´ve been on so far but the views and exhilaration of standing at the crater were awesome. The way back down was just as difficult as the risk of taking a fall was quite high.
Sunday: Hiked down with all our stuff and began what was a 6 hour hike to a small town where we hired a pick up to get us to a bus stop for the ride home to Leon. All in all a really cool weekend. The pix are more impressive than this quick account of the hike.
