ODO: 320,119
When we arrived on the volcano Berne’s tummy had been unhappy, and it stayed that way for a couple of days delaying our hike. Tummy troubles are not something you want to bring on an unknown quantity difficult hike. Instead we settled in. This was a nice opportunity to acclimate to the altitude, and continue recovering from our whirlwind work trip. Sasha and Shakira (the campground dogs) came by a couple times a day for their treats, a combination of summer sausage and peanut butter on bread. And whenever we could, we got hike intel from people passing by.
Today is the day, Berne is feeling healthy again. Time to start eating so we have enough energy, and we need to try and pack between bouts of rain. And nap because we will start hiking between 11pm and 12am. Usually people do this hike as a two day, one night outing, but we will be doing it in just one day. It is 7-8 miles depending on your route, and gains around 5000ft. Typical time to the top is 3-5 hours. It’s a steep one. We used to hike a lot, but are currently very out of practice, so we’re both nervous. And we have to make layering decisions! We need to pack for rain, cold, wind, sunny, and hot. On top of that, we have limited layering options because we live in a truck. The trickiest part of packing for this trip was deciding which of our things could do double or triple duty. We have a lot of multi tools, which means we have very few things that are really great at a single specific task.
Hike day! Which feels a lot like yesterday since we are technically starting on Saturday, but have been awake since Friday…We leave exactly on time. A cloud is sitting on us so its damp and cool as we head into the dark. Everything feels like a normal hike for the first half mile, up to the restaurant, and then things change. We find ourselves walking along a very narrow path lined with barbed wire on both sides. Don’t lose your balance here. And then the trail gets steep. Like really, really steep. Apparently they do not build switchbacks here. Our pace is slow, less than 1mph. Thankfully we’re still inside the cloud so we’re not overheating.
Once we get above the clouds the temperature drops, so we’re still not overheating. Our headlamps only cut so much of the darkness as we climb. All the noises seem louder and foreign, when in reality they’re pretty normal night forest noises. KoKo keeps scanning the trees for jaguars and we see the occasional bat. We even heard a few small landslides. Our final mile and a half is when things get serious. Nighttime is running out, and even though we are exhausted we need to hustle. It’s a hard push, but thankfully the terrain is less aggressive and we just barely make it. We get to see a handful of eruptions complete with lava, as well as a killer sunrise. After changing into warmer and dryer clothes we settle in to enjoy snacks and more eruptions. An hour later it’s time to head down. Down is its own adventure. We’re wrecked, it’s steep, our knees are mad. It feels like an eternity back to the bottom. Having been awake for so long, and not eating nearly enough, we are so ready to drop our packs and climb into bed. And that’s exactly what we do, nap for a couple of hours. Awake again, we toss our stuff into the camper and head back to Antigua for a big steak dinner and a shower.
Wow do we wake up sore! It probably didnt help that we walked a half mile to dinner and then had a bottle of wine. And then pub crawled our way back to the hotel. The extra dehydration is not doing us any favors. Good thing we booked massages to start the day. Once we get loosened we pack our things and head towards Lake Atitlan. We’ve heard its the Lake Como of the Americas. The drive is a little bit bonkers. It is steep up hill after steep uphill, followed by steep downhill, followed by steep uphill. And this is before we turn off the main highway towards the lake. Once we got onto the lake road, it gets more adventurous. Steep, steep downhill the whole way with exceptionally sharp corners. So sharp that the buses cant make it around them in one shot. As we pull up to each corner we honk to warm any oncoming traffic we’re there. One semi close call with a bus later, and we are navigating through the last town before our campground. It’s a beautifully landscaped lake front property with a mix of camp sites and cabins. Time to settle in.
And settle in we do. We spend the day admiring the views and enjoying the perfect weather. Parts of the truck and camper became more organized, some less. Thunder booms in the background all afternoon, turning into monsoons throughout the night. We attempt to give the truck shore power capability (being able to plug the camper in so we can run the camper off the power grid instead of using the battery. Handy when we don’t plan to move for several days.), but the wire we use is too small, and starts to melt. Not good. Hopefully we can find some bigger wire in town tomorrow.
Check out more of our hike:
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