Volcano San Pedro

The 3020m high summit of this extinct volcano was our goal on our second day in San Pedro.  The ascent was to start at 6am with a hike up to the entrance to the National Reserve.  However, as Antonio, our elderly guide showed up to pick us up, he recommended taking a tuk-tuk these 4km so that we would at least have some nice views before the rising sun disappeared behind the prevailing clouds.

He turned out to be correct.  We just managed to sign in at the entrance and to hike a few minutes to see the sun rising in the east from behind the mountains and then just as quickly disappear behind the clouds that covered virtually the entire lake.  From there on it was simply a grueling hike upwards, first through coffee plantations, than through forest with little by way of views to reward us for our exertion.  The trail did not let up and nor did our guide.  It just kept on going up and up and up.  After 2 hours we were thankful for the beginning of the endless stairs.  These seemed to be less of a strain on our calves but were no better on our lungs.

Antonio on the other hand did not even break a sweat.  He simply smiled down at us every time we begged for a rest and patiently waited until we managed to slow down our thumping hearts enough to continue.  Yet we couldn’t have been that bad.  We were the first to make it to the summit.  Instead of seeing the three side by side volcanoes Oro (1892m), Toliman (3158m) and Atitlan (3537m) to our east, and others to our west, we were rewarded by a wall of white that surrounded us from virtually all sides.  There was a blue sky above us, but that was of little benefit.  Even the lake below us was a pool of white.

With no break in the clouds in sight, we decided to start heading down.  This proved to be much easier and faster, albeit much more painful on the knees.  We had managed the ~1300m elevation gain in 2 hours 45 minutes on the way up.  The same distance on the way down took us just under 1 hour 20 minutes.  By the time we made it back to San Pedro, I could no longer bend my right knee and the pain was shooting up into my hip.  We felt like two invalids and felt embarrassed as we shook hands with Antonio who would be repeating the same trek on the next day and the day after that.  For the rest of the day it took every ounce of our energy to get up from the bed or chair and to walk the few hundred meters to a restaurant or store.