"Mare! Mare! Den fisch den machma hi!" his voice boomed. He grinned as he swung an invisible beer stein. Jurgen was singing a Bavarian drinking song, although we weren’t in Bavaria, and we weren’t drinking. We were sitting around the campfire, trying to stay warm, at our campsite on the side of Tajamulco Volcano.
As he finished his song, people from six countries applauded. Earlier in the day, our group had hiked most of the way up Tajamulco Volcano together, led by guides from Quetzaltrekkers, a non-profit hiking tour company out of Quetzaltenengo. An hour into the hike, we had gotten a glimpse of our goal for the next morning: the summit of Tajamulco, the highest point in Central America at 4,220 meters.
Our time-battered tents kept the wind out as we slept three people to a shelter. I’m glad it didn’t rain, as I don’t think our tent would have kept the water out. We stumbled out of camp well before sunrise, hoping to make the summit before sunrise. The going was steep, but we had gained most of the elevation the day before. We made the summit before dawn. Unfortunately, the top was socked in. We settled in to wait for sunrise and for the clouds to clear, crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.
I can honestly say that I have never been so cold in my life as I was when we were waiting for that sunrise. Even with our sleeping bags that we had brought to the summit, I felt the cold down to my bones. We all huddled together in a mass. The clouds never did clear all the way, but we got a few brief openings, during which we saw the Mexican border and the Santiaguito and Santa María volcanoes in the distance. Actually, more fascinating was watching how fast the clouds were moving, and how they swirled around, giving peeks at the stars and into the crater.
When we thought we couldn’t get any colder, we hiked around the crater rim and nearly got blown off the mountain. The sun was coming up now, and the views were very beautiful. There was a little less deforestation on this side of the peak. Camp felt very warm when we got back down for breakfast.
I was a little disappointed by the cloudy summit, but even more disappointed that the guides seemed to really rush us back to town. I think they wanted to catch a football game on TV. We had to eat our meager sack lunches while sardined on the chicken bus. That said, I still highly recommend hiking with Quetzaltrekkers.
Read my separate entry on Quetzaltrekkers to find out about other guided hikes, and also about the school for street children supported by the profits from the hiking trips. We were lucky to be joined on our hike by Miguel (age 14) and Daniel (age 13), two of the former street children that have been helped by the program.
From journal Great Guatemala Loop Part 4 – Quetzaltenango