The Volcano Hike

This weekend, I took part in the midnight hike up the Santa Maria volcano.  Now, I´m not sure I have the story completely straight (since the story is told in Spanish.. our guides did not know English), but I think we climbed up Santa Maria, which is not dormant, but is not itself erupting.  The nearby Santiaguito (according to Wikipedia) is really just an outlet of Santa Maria, and it is what erupts.  So we climbed with the hope of seeing a volcanic eruption there, which happens pretty regularly, especially early in the morning.

Now let me set the stage by saying that this trek was probably my least favorite part of Guatemala thus far.  In the first place, I was not prepared enough.. I didn´t bring enough water, my sneakers weren´t really tough enough for the hike/climb, my clothing wasn´t really warm enough when we got to the top (although, whose was?), and I didn´t have a flashlight (although, to be fair, the Flashlight app that Dad downloaded on my iPhone worked amazingly well.. I figure that I hiked for about 45 minutes completely on my own, using only the flashlight app to guide me up the mountain.. there truly *is* an app for everything!).  Secondly, by the way, did I mention we left AT MIDNIGHT!?!?  And third, hiking is just not my thing.  I think Derrick or Ted or Katharine may have loved it, but as for me, give me a kayak anyday.  Still, I didn´t hate it; I´m just not sure I can go as far as saying, "I´m glad that I went."

The trip started about a fifteen-minute car ride from Xela.  The trip began about midnight, and it was DARK.  Many (probably most) people brought flashlights, because you are hiking in the complete dark.  And when I use the word hike, I mean it, this was no walk in the woods.  There were rocks, there was mud, there were 45-degree inclines; this was serious work.  There are many signs for abogodos (lawyers) in Xela, but I have a hard time believing that there are any civil lawsuits here, because I cannot imagine a similar trip in the U.S. sponsored by a school without having to sign a gazillion waivers.

About five and a half hours after we began, we reached the summit of Santa Maria, just a few minutes before the sunrise.  I am glad it took that long, because it was frigid up there!  Whereas we started the trip in short sleeves and shorts (well, not me, but others), at the top, we couldn´t possibly have enough layers.  But it was a nice sunrise, and we all took a bunch of photos.  Although, to be fair, I was so tired and cold that photos were the least of my concerns at that point!

Would be better without the spray-paint, of course.

The city of Xela sleeps below...

So we all admired the sunrise for a bit, and then we moved to the other side of the volcano to watch for the eruptions, which occur about a mile below the peak on Santa Maria.  Now, usually there is no visible lava from these eruptions, just plumes of smoke.  And it seems that there is always some smoke wreathing the dome.

It turns out that volcano watching is similar to whale watching.. you spend a lot of time, money, or both to attempt to view something that may or may not want to cooperate.  We were there for a while, but there was nothing really going on.  Finally, even our guides recommended we head back down to town, because it didn´t look like there was going to be any more action.  So we started to gather our things to leave, a little disappointed, when suddenly someone (it may even have been me) spotted a huge plume of smoke.  We did get to see an eruption after all.  The following pictures were taken in rather rapid succession, and though you cannot see anything other than the smoke, you can see that the plume on the left is growing relative to the plume on the right.

So, yeah, it was pretty cool to see an eruption live.  But a five-and-a-half hour climb up, followed by an hour of freezing, followed by another three-and-a-half hours down is a steep price to pay for a nice vista.  So I don´t know yet if I´m glad I did it.

There was one guy with us who dislocated his shoulder.  Fortunately, one of the other guys on the hike was a doctor, and was able to diagnose and pop the shoulder back in.  He said, however, that he had never treated an injury like this, in the dark, without medication, on a steep volcano before...