Conquering Telica

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TELICA VOLCANO HIKE:
So even though I'm not much of an avid hiker, I couldn't imagine traveling through three countries in Central America without climbing a volcano. Every country has volcanoes that present a different challenge or thrill. We had to debate between volcano boarding down Cerro Negro (thats right, surfing the volcano on a wooden toboggan while they clock your speed) or camping out on Telica near an active crater and witnessing lava at night! Even though the boarding sounded like an awesome experience (and only 45 minute hike) we decided to rise to the challenge and endure the six to eight hour overnight hike. I mean how many people actually get to lay their eyes on molten lava? It was a no brainer. We started our hike around 1:30 in the afternoon, with four of our friends from the hostel in SJDS and the guide. After a short, 25 minute drive from town, we arrived at what appeared to be a cattle farm. It was a super dusty two hour walk before we even reached the base of the volcano; and the combination of sweat and dirt turned into mud on our skin. Once we were out of the dry, desolate valley we started our hour and a half ascent up the volcano. You could barely even distinguish the volcano from the rest of the hike, except that there was more foliage and less dust. It was definitely a challenge (to say the least) and the pace of the guide was quicker than I would've liked. I don't think I've ever hiked for that long continuously, and without much rest. It felt like we were on a race against the sun; and although we missed the sunset, we had just enough time to set up our tents before a thunderstorm started pouring on us. It almost seemed cliche, getting to the base of an active crater (where the government said not to go because of unusual activity) with thunder and lightning in the distance. What is this Mount Doom in Mordor (dorky lord of the rings reference)? The tent that we ended up with was in the shape of a coffin lol. I've never seen a tent that was only supported by one set of poles and super narrow. Just our luck, we had to take shelter in a body bag! After three unsuccessful tries, Kevin figured out the rain fly situation, but it was still a bitch getting in and out of this inconvenient tent. We scarfed the meals they had prepared for us and moved on to more important things...RUM! I'd say it was well deserved after the hell we just put our bodies through. After the rain let up a little, our awesome guide built us an amazing campfire, and we proceeded to drink more rum. Since there's obviously no bathrooms on top of the volcano and I had already ingested two liters of water, I went to find a private place...next to an evil tree! It was dark and I couldn't tell that I supported myself on a tree that had two inch thorns coming out of it. Thorns, splinters and fire ants..perfect. Luckily only one of the thorns punctured my palm and the rest of my fingers got away with needle sharp splinters. Honestly, it could've been much worse, however it wasn't fun trying to pull my pants up bleeding out of one hand. MORE RUM PLEASE! After about an hour of standing around the camp fire we climbed on loose rock up to the steaming crater for the highlight of this "interesting" experience. Peering down into the crater we could see a little glimpse of occasional lava. It was faint but still such an incredible sight. There were no guard rails so all it took was one step in the wrong direction to never be seen again. Which is why we crawled up to peer over the edge. It felt like we were standing at the edge of the earth, and the unique opportunity to see lava made the struggle worth it. We couldn't have asked for such an awesome last adventure with our friends before we all parted ways.

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