Last week in Guatemala part II

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1) Hiking: the bad ass way (moonlight, sunrises, and early morning light)
2) San Salvador: La Capital

1) Hiking: the bad ass way.

The Thursday before I left guatemala i went on a midnight hike to climb Volcan Tajamulco, the highest point in Central America at 4220 m (13,845 feet). The key here is Midnight Full Moon hike, which means starting at 12 midnight and hiking by moon light to see sunrise from the peak. We left Xela at 10 pm and started the hike at 12:30 am Friday morning. Our goal was to make it to the summit (of central america!) by 5:45 to see the sunrise. At first it was tough to see because there were clouds. But after hiking for 2 hours we climbed above the clouds and could see beautifuly. Not only that, i had a moon shadow. I dont know if ive ever had a moonshadow before, but i had a legitmate shadow that night from moonlight. Pretty trippy to think about, but unfortunately my camera couldnt capture it. So we continued hiking up despite it being cold and dark (as the moon progressed past the horizon there was very little light). None of the pre-sunrise pictures came out, but you can look at all these and imagine hiking it in the dark. At one point we were climing pretty vertically up some rocks using all 4´s, and it was just as much guessing the route as planning it. And after 5 hours of legit hard hiking, we made it to the top. Unfortunaately, the scenery on the way up seemed pretty bare and rocky, so i knew the highlight was going to be the sunrise. But i was very, very wrong.

At the top, the sunrise was spectacular. Coming up well above the clouds, i realized id never been on a mountain for sunrise before. The downside is it was cold as balls. I mean i couldnt feel my feet, and my hands, even with gloves, were on the way out.

But the way down is where everything changed. The 5 hours of hiking through barren rock magically turned into a lucious green forest during the 45 min we were at the top. I was stupified by what everything looked like on the way down. Every 20 min. or so id recognize a spot from the climb up and be blown away by how different it was in reality when compared to what i had imagined at night. That experience alone made me want to do more hikes. But the best part, by far, was hiking through the early morning light. The entire hike down was from sunrise to about 10:30 am, and the volcano was lit up with the early morning, low angle light that makes even the most dull colors vivid. And in the backdrop of this lit up forest were clouds. I beleive it was the first time ever that i had been above the clouds but not above the tree line. Green fields, low trees, colorful flowers all with a blue sky and white clouds below(!) in the background. That is what I will always remember and why i will do more midnight hikes by moonlight. Hiking during the day is fun, but coming down during the early morning light is the most beautiful thing ive ever seen.

4) The end of guatemala
And after the hike was my last day in guatemala. I went to school, learned some spanish, drank a beer with my teacher and said ¨adios gautemala, im out¨

5) San Salvador: not so bad and pretty cool
I spent Saturday, all day, on buses to get to San Salvador, where becky met me at the bus station. We spent that night and the next day in San Salvador. And i have to admit, San Salvador is pretty bomb ass. Def. better than its reputation. We went to some really cool places for dinner, and were always the only travellers and foreigners in the place. One was an artsy lounge with live music at night, the other was an old german styled ale house with louis armstrong music in the background, funky art on the walls, and lots of beer. During the day we went to the parque central (central park) where there was another kids celebration going on. So we walked around eating frozen chocolate bananas and looking at kids until we stumbled upon the puppy celebration. And this was a big ol party of puppys where children were dressed in matching costumes with there dogs and there were lots of treats and things runnign around. As opposed to the common street dogs we saw puppy huskies, st. Bernards, spaniels, bull dogs...all young and all cute. So if anyone ever asks, San Salvador is the shits (even though it does sometimes feel like miami, malls especially, and that noone in the city knows how to read a map, including bus and cab drivers).

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