Volcan Tajumulco - Day 2
Woken up again at 4am, everyone reluctantly bundled out of sleeping bags and tents into the very crisp (ie freezing) morning on the mountain. At 430am we were all ready and off we went on the final climb to the summit.
The path was rocky and very steep and most of the time, we scrambled up using our hands. At times like these, I held my torch between my teeth and envied those with headlamps!
After about an hour of steep climbing and picking our way along in the torch-light, we got all got to the top and walked across the flat top of the volcano to the summit point. Once we had cooled down from the hot walk up and piled on fleece after fleece, we sat on a rock to watch the sunrise, wrapped in a sleeping bag that I carried up with me. As the sun began to rise, the black sky was suddenly divided in 2 by a bright red-orange strip of light.
Soon it was time to go back to base camp for brekkie and to pack up the tents and then we wre on our way back down the volcano. The descent took us about 3 hours and once we were back to the road we waited for the next bus to go past. Bit of a bugger that the bus was packed so we all crammed on and stood for the hour journey to the next town. This would have been Ok if it hadn`t been for the suicidal bus driver flying around corners at 100mph.
Back in Xela, after a much-needed shower, we went for a bloody marvellous curry and a beer, stumbled home and then promptly fell asleep at 9pm. Slept for 12 hours!
