For the first time since coming to Xela, I was grateful for the rooster, who helped me jump out of bed just after five. I tossed some water, bread, and a rain coat into a bag; hopped into the back of a pickup for a twenty minute ride over dirt roads, and pulled up at the bottom of Santa Maria -- a 3700 meter dormant volcano, located next to Santiaguito, a slightly smaller, very active volcano.
The 9km (like how I´ve gone metric after just a week!?) hike to the top took about four hours with some occasional water/exhaustion breaks. By the time we reached the top, we´d crossed the tree line and the cloud line, the second being a new, surreal experience. At the tip of the volcano, we were well above the clouds, through which we could see small towns, mountains many miles away, and--twice in the hour we were up there--Santiaguito erupting, launching a miniature mushroom cloud into the sky.
Along the way up, we also made some new friends. At our first break from hiking we picked up a small dog who seemed to have mastered the fine art of begging food from gringos. Within a few hours, we´d picked up two more! Delta flashbacks were not something I´d expected to have on the side of a volcano, but I´m beginning to think every rural part of the world is filled eiher with dogs or monkeys. Hopefully, I´ll encounter more of the laer soon!
Posts
1 comment:
Awesome volcano picture! I'm glad to hear those dogs were friendly...there was a dog that haunted me last year that I liked to call "the Harry Potter dog." It looked a lot like the one in the movie, although it admittedly didn't have three heads. Anyhow, I can vouch that there are definitely monkeys in Nicaragua! And if you want to hear the slightly longer story of my encounter with an actual chicken on a chicken bus, check your email...
Post a Comment