Getting High in Guatemala
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2004
1
8
10
Trip End
Nov 27, 2004
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Xela,
Guatemala
Saturday, November 13, 2004
The day after we arrived, we had planned to visit a nearby village, where a church had been split in two by a lava flow from one of the many nearby volcanoes, leaving the pulpit on one side of a 10m gap, and the pews intact on the other! Unfortunately that day there was a national blockade of all the major transport junctions, by an organisation called EXPAC. Without going into too much detail, Guatemala suffered a 36yr civil war last century, which only ended in 1996. During the early 1980's, the Guatemalan army brutally tried to quash the indigenous rebel armies, by marching into local villages in the highlands (including Todos Santos), and either massacaring every man, woman and child in sight, or forcing all the men to join the national army, and then fight against their own people. When the civil war ended, the EXPAC's (the people who had been forced to kill their families and friends) were promised compensation by the then corrupt government. However this was illegal according to the 1996 peace treaty, so when the current government came to power, they reneged on this agreement, and as a result, once a month the EXPACs blockade roads, and demand their compensation rights.
So after a day of not doing a lot, there was only one thing for it - to climb to the highest point in Central America of course!...
About 3 hours from Xela, lies the base of Volcan Tujumulco, a dormant Volcano which rises to around 4300m, roughly the same height as the Inka Trail in Peru.
01 - Volcan Tajumulco
I was going to be hiking with a group of 12 travellers and 2 guides, and the night beforehand we met up to divide up the equipment (tents, sleeping bags, food, etc). Then it was early to bed, as the next morning we were up at 4am to catch a pickup and 3 chicken buses to the start of the trail. One of the travellers didn't turn up (we later found out he had set his alarm for 4pm instead of 4am!), but the guides assured us this wouldn't be a problem, as all he was carrying was some extra food that we now wouldn't need. So at about 10am we arrived at the foot of the volcano, and began our ascent...Climbing at an altitude of more than 3000m is pretty hard work, especially with a tent, warm clothes, and 6 litres of water each on our backs, but there was no hurry, as we were due to reach the campsite at around 5pm, well before sunset. We had been warned that the weather forecast was not great, and after about an hour of amazing views of the other mountains and volcanoes in the area, the clouds rolled in, and we climbed for the rest of the day, with very little visibility, and gradually colder and wetter conditions, due to the drizzle from the low lying clouds. As a result, rest stops were few and far between, to avoid people getting too cold, and we arrived at the campsite about an hour ahead of schedule, at an altitude of about 4100 feet.
By now it was raining pretty hard, so it was a race to get the tents up before everything got soaked. And thats when the guides realised they had made a small error of judgement - the person that had not turned up, had not been carrying extra food, but infact all of the tent pegs, and the fly cover for one of the main tents! Everyone stood there in silence, realising there was no way 14 of us were all going to fit into one 6 man tent, which in any case would have no pegs to hold it down! The guides considered taking us back down, but by now we could hardly see more than 10 feet in front of us, and the rain had made conditions too dangerous to descend.
So it was a case of making the best of the situation - the tent with the fly cover was put up, and tied to nearby trees to hold it down, and then we fashioned a cover for the other tent, out of the guides' inner tent, and some plastic sheets.
02 - Volcan Tajumulco
But the cover wasn't big enough to keep the whole of the second tent dry, so there was only enough space for 3 people to sleep under it without getting wet. This left 11 people, still far too many to fit in the other tent. A group of us went off with one of the guides, to where he had heard there was a small corrugated iron shelter, built in case of emergencies, which this was rapidly becoming - the wind chill reaches well below zero in the evenings at this height, so we had to get everyone inside before nightfall. We found the shelter, which due to neglect only had two sides to it, but after a bit of rearranging we managed to make a shelter big enough for 4 people, with a fire in the middle to keep them warmish.And so then then there were 7, and we didn't have much choice but to squeeze into the 6 man tent, along with all the provisions and equipment - cosy! By the time we had had dinner (it took about an hour to boil a saucepan of water, due to lack of oxygen at this altitude), everyone was knackered, and knowing that we would have to get up again at 4am, we decided to try to get to sleep early. There was however, still time for me to cut my head open on a branch that was sticking out in the darkness - no lasting damage though, apart from the dent to my pride, caused by the stupid looking bandage i had to wrap around my head!
After a clautrophobic, uncomfortable and pretty sleepless night, we woke up in the darkness, to find it was still raining, and was just as cloudy as the night before.
03 - Volcan Tajumulco
But there was no way we were going to turn around now, as we were just 2km from the top. Leaving the tents and bags behind, we set off up the steepest part of the volcano towards the summit, in order to get there before sunrise. Even without our rucksacks the climb was pretty hard - the rain had made the rocks very slippery, and it was hard to see where we were going due to the fog, so it was a case of following close behind the guides, or risk being lost in the darkness.As daylight began to light up the stark landscape of the volcano, we finally made it to the summit - we were now standing on the highest point in Central America, although for all we knew we could have been on the moon - the beautiful views of the sunrise we had been promised were hidden by the clouds and driving rain! The best way i can describe the scene at the top, was like the films of people at the base camp of Everest - horizontal winds blowing accross the top of the mountain, with climbers shouting at the top of their voices just to be heard. We were warned not to stand too close to the edge of the volcano, in case we were blown over into the crater - despite gloves, hats, fleeces and raincoats, i have never been so cold in my life, and after about ten minutes at the top, where we kind-of-sort-of saw the sunrise (ie: one miunte it was dark, and the next it was less dark!), the guides decided it was time to descend, lest anyone got hypothermia!
Over breakfast back at the base camp, the guides told us it had been the worst weather they had ever seen on the volcano, but all we really cared about was getting down to an altitude where it was warmer and drier. Practically tearing down the tents, and running down the mountain, we made it back down to the bottom in under 2 hours, flagged down a chicken bus, and headed back to Xela. It wasn't until we were in the warmth of the hostel, that it struck us - despite rain, cloud, freezing temperatures, a few injuries, and some missing tent pegs, we had made it to the summit of Central America. And our reward? - an afternoon in the nearby natural hot springs of 'Aguas Amargas', heated, you guessed it, by the very volcano we had just conquered!
marky x
