"Preparing" for the Trek-- Because Unless You're Running Marathons Every Other Day, You're Not Preparing!
If you were to ask me, “When did you decide to hike Volcan Santa Maria?” I would tell you that I didn’t. I just woke up one morning last week and found myself in route to MegaPaca. It wasn’t till I was at the checkout counter, sliding my visa card in exchange for my first true winter’s jacket that I realized it: I was preparing to hike Santa Maria. I hoped I wasn’t about to embarrass myself.
For those of you who don’t know, MegaPaca is this awesome second hand thrift store that also receives all the excess clothes that didn’t sell in the States. For example, say the Gap can’t get a certain style of sweaters off the shelves in time for a new products arrival. So they send it to MegaPacka to make room for new products and MegPacka sells you this $50 sweatshirt for Q25—or $3.50. It’s any shoe-string budget traveler's heaven!
On the Micro Bus back I got to doing what I do best: planning. From what shoes I was going to wear down to what I was going to eat the day of. God forbid I should go to the Friday Night Potluck and find my body riddled with food poisoning at the top of the Volcano. Later that day I spoke with one of the teachers at my school, Mary, who I knew had recently conquered the Volcano. It was there that I received my first real bit of information about the trek I miraculously decided I’d be taking.
For those of you who don’t know, MegaPaca is this awesome second hand thrift store that also receives all the excess clothes that didn’t sell in the States. For example, say the Gap can’t get a certain style of sweaters off the shelves in time for a new products arrival. So they send it to MegaPacka to make room for new products and MegPacka sells you this $50 sweatshirt for Q25—or $3.50. It’s any shoe-string budget traveler's heaven!
On the Micro Bus back I got to doing what I do best: planning. From what shoes I was going to wear down to what I was going to eat the day of. God forbid I should go to the Friday Night Potluck and find my body riddled with food poisoning at the top of the Volcano. Later that day I spoke with one of the teachers at my school, Mary, who I knew had recently conquered the Volcano. It was there that I received my first real bit of information about the trek I miraculously decided I’d be taking.
THE MONSTROSITY
Standing at 12,375 feet, Santa Maria is one of the highest Volcanos in all of Central America. She also has some pretty destructive eruptions under her belt. Eruptions that caused some serious damage to Xela, the city I'm currently living in and took 5,000 lives in 1902-- fear not Mom! Santa Maria is currently inactive.
At the summit, hikers have a crystal clear view of the Central America Volcanic Arc that includes active Santiaguito (and many others) which is considered to be a vent for Santa Maria and also the most active Volcano in Central America.
At the summit, hikers have a crystal clear view of the Central America Volcanic Arc that includes active Santiaguito (and many others) which is considered to be a vent for Santa Maria and also the most active Volcano in Central America.
Trekking the Monstrosity
12 AM sharp we departed for the Volcano, two police escorts in check. Sounds silly, I know. I mean really, any thief looking for some action on Santa Maria is going to have to make one hell of a get a way. But after hiking the trail it became quite clear that if someone were to rob you, you'd have absolutely no inclination whatsoever to do anything other than let them run off with your shit-- that's how exhausting it is.
The trail up is as treacherous as it is torturous. Made no less so by the dead of night. We carried flashlights and trudged through thick sludge; dirt turned mud from the rain that drizzled out the clouds rushing past us. Yes, past us-- not over us. We were damn high. It caked over our sneakers and inched up under our fingernails as we stumbled along, every once in a while latching on to tree roots to break a fall. The crazy part is that you don't even care that the nasty filthy sludge is seeping into your sneakers or that you've just wiped a nice thick streak of it across your cheek because A) it's dark B) you're wearing two pairs of socks anyways and C) all you want is for this hellish nightmare of a hike to end. But it doesn't. It goes on for hours -- 5 to be exact -- and that's just to get to the summit.
Closer to the top the dirt path turned to straight rocks, all ice cold to the touch, they cut and blistered our hands-- though we wouldn't realize it till many hours later when the sun finally came up. Our senses had become so numb that we could only feel what we saw. My nose ran constantly; confused by my body's sudden exertion and the fierce cold that battered my face. I learned the next day that I'd wiped the skin around my nose clean off without ever knowing it. We tried to carry on conversation, to distract ourselves from the pain but in the end there wasn't enough air for breathing, let alone talking and we listened to my music instead.
We started hiking at 12:40AM.
We reached the summit at 6:03AM.
We started hiking at 12:40AM.
We reached the summit at 6:03AM.
The Summit
Though our bodies were almost entirely wrapped with double layers, the wind pierced through our jackets and pelted our skin, fighting us, like the pebbles in our shoes, every last step of the way. Convinced that the raging winds were about to sweep us off our feet and blow us and all our hard work right back down to the bottom, we quickly took shelter behind some nearby boulders.
We may have escaped the wind, but there was no escaping the cold: our Iphones blacked out, unable to function in such a harsh environment. Even my Android had problems. Our prepacked ham and cheese sandwiches froze solid, as did my granola bar and a friend's bottle of water. The forecast had told me it would be 41 degrees with 8mph winds at the top-- I swear it lied. I've never experienced cold that cold in my life! Granted, I'm from Florida but I was not the only one still shivering underneath two pairs of pants, a sweatshirt, a jacket, a beanie, gloves and 2 hoods.
It took all of what little energy we had left to dart out from the rocks, snap a few photos of the sunrise and race back into shelter. Asking someone to take a photo of you was like asking them to commit suicide: it required that the other person leave our boulder shelter, de-glove a thumb and risk exposure to the winds and brutal cold. No joke! It was not something us exhausted, malnourished and sleep deprived hikers asked lightly.
Though the trek up was difficult, the trek down was excruciating. Here's why: hiking up required physical and mental endurance to push on-wards. Since the summit was still waiting, the motivation was easy to find. But on the way down we were battling sleep deprivation (24 hours for most of us) and the physical pain in our toes, ankles and knees without the goal of reaching the summit to motivate us. We were all suddenly a lot more prone to bitching and tripping. Simply put: we wanted this hike to be over. And it didn't help our egos any when the local women came scurrying along with their picnic bags and sandals either!
The Full Moon Santa Maria Hike took:
5 hours and 20 minutes up
3 hours to hike back down
31,711 steps
burned 3,401 calories
was 12.81 miles long
and took 2 days recovery!
We may have escaped the wind, but there was no escaping the cold: our Iphones blacked out, unable to function in such a harsh environment. Even my Android had problems. Our prepacked ham and cheese sandwiches froze solid, as did my granola bar and a friend's bottle of water. The forecast had told me it would be 41 degrees with 8mph winds at the top-- I swear it lied. I've never experienced cold that cold in my life! Granted, I'm from Florida but I was not the only one still shivering underneath two pairs of pants, a sweatshirt, a jacket, a beanie, gloves and 2 hoods.
It took all of what little energy we had left to dart out from the rocks, snap a few photos of the sunrise and race back into shelter. Asking someone to take a photo of you was like asking them to commit suicide: it required that the other person leave our boulder shelter, de-glove a thumb and risk exposure to the winds and brutal cold. No joke! It was not something us exhausted, malnourished and sleep deprived hikers asked lightly.
Though the trek up was difficult, the trek down was excruciating. Here's why: hiking up required physical and mental endurance to push on-wards. Since the summit was still waiting, the motivation was easy to find. But on the way down we were battling sleep deprivation (24 hours for most of us) and the physical pain in our toes, ankles and knees without the goal of reaching the summit to motivate us. We were all suddenly a lot more prone to bitching and tripping. Simply put: we wanted this hike to be over. And it didn't help our egos any when the local women came scurrying along with their picnic bags and sandals either!
The Full Moon Santa Maria Hike took:
5 hours and 20 minutes up
3 hours to hike back down
31,711 steps
burned 3,401 calories
was 12.81 miles long
and took 2 days recovery!