Volcan Mederas

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Running down a volcano was not on my to do list yet that's what I found myself doing, to my surprise. Matt and I woke up at 6:30am to get ready for our hike at seven. We were going up Volcano Mederas today, the smaller of the two on the island but the one with a better view. Our guide, named Roberto 😊, met us at seven and along with an american tourist, the four of us headed off (7:20am). After an hour we made it to the base of the volcano and began our accent. Before long it was apperent that our American companion wasn't in very good shape. We were waiting every two hundred meters and as our guide could see, becoming frusterated. Eventually he joined a slower guide and we began again at a better pace. At 10:00 exactly we were on the top of Maderas. It was a great hike through a jungle like area. Everything was soaked and dripping because of the clouds that hug the volcano. From the top we then descended down the other side of the volcano where there was a lake in the crater. Again it was socked in so our view wasn't special but we had lunch at the lake thinking it was all downhill from here. To our surprise, after lunch we went back up the trail to the peak which was about 40 minutes away. Instead of telling us about the alternate route down, our guide just headed off back up. So Matt and I followed at a rapid pace. When we got back to the top, our guide must have had a record in mind. He asked us if we wanted to go down rapido (fast), being fairly good bikers we said yes. It's hard to believe but he began running down the mountain! Matt and I looked at each other then though what the heck and began running down after him. The people we passed, still going up, just shook their heads. After running for an hour we were back on level ground and speaking for myself, I was gassed but couldn't show it. We got back to the hostel at 1:00pm, two hours before the first groups that just went to the peak and back arrived. I just walked strait off the pier in all my clothes and fell into the lake shoes and all. It's hard to descibe how good that felt but man! After a shower scrub to get all the mud off, we had lunch at the hostel (Hacienda Merida). Following that, Matt found a hammock to read in and I went down to the dock to swim and listen to music. That's were we remained until sunset when we both got our cameras out to try and get photos of the volcanoes in evening light. The dock was crowded with people trying for the same photos but it was very anticlimatic. Not enough colour so we headed back up for a buffet dinner. In addition, we booked a speedboat to take us back to the ferry docks because we are heading out tomorrow. It was nice here but this hostel is super expensive (15% tax on our bill for everything) and San Juan Del Sur is calling us. We heard today from a traveling friend, who just came for San Juan, that James, Jeff, and Justin had headed to Costa Rica a few days ago. We have no internet and did not expect that at all. Both of us thought they would be there for at least ten days. It isn't too bad though because I find traveling in smaller groups is better for meeting new people. When we get to San Juan tomorrow hopefully we can get in contact to find Justin.

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