I didn't want to just do nothing this weekend, so I decided I'd go up vulcán santa maria. Well thats all well and good but there's this rumor that its harder than Tajumulco and that the views are the same from the "Mirador" which is only halfway up the hill. There's no chance I'm only going half way, so I asked a tour company if they could take just me to the top? They said there has to be 2 people minimum, and its 400Q in total. No problem, I called a few people and they were in. The mini-bus was picking us all up at 4am Saturday morning and at 1:30am I got a text from one of our group - "Too drunk, can't go. Sorry." He had a reason to celebrate that night so I don't hold that against him. So its down to 2. 200Q a piece still wasn't bad. I get in the bus and we pick up my comrade. As we're driving to the volcano, he tells me "I went to the bathroom like 6 times last night, and I threw up...and didn't really sleep." - Why did he get in the bus? If this hike is really as hard as they say (there were Mirador hikers in the bus talking about how they had been warned about Santa Maria), there's no way he should do it. Even if he could, I really didn't want it to take 6 hrs to get to the top (4 is the average) because there's no view by 930 am.
So its just me, but the guide and I are already at the base. I ask if he can just take me and he agreed. We hit the peak in 2.5 hours after sweating more than I have yet in Guatemala (the guide was pretty sweaty too). We came down in under 2 hours and I think the temperature, altitude changes, and exertion had a weird effect on me - my fingers were swollen for about an hour after reaching the base. Oh well, the views were incredible and not having to deal with a group was almost worth the 400Q... almost.
View from Santa Maria (extinct) of Santiaguito (still very active).
Thats the view I worked for. "Vale la pena" - worth the pain.
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