Last month I found myself on top of Central America. This was the second volcano I have climbed since arriving in Mexico – here’s some info on how I got there.
How We Got There?
We came in from Tapachula, Mexico, so it wasn’t a far journey. This created some issues though, because we had to spend seventy-two hours outside of Mexico before we would be allowed to return. The hike would definitely not take us that long from everything we’d read on the internet.
On day one, we traveled from Tapachula to Talisman, the border town about thirty minutes away. We crossed the border in Talisman which was a quick and painless process. From Talisman we traveled to Malacatán where we caught a chicken bus to San Marcos. We decided to spend the night in San Pedro (the town just outside of San Marcos) in order to get acclimated to the altitude. San Pedro had its fair share of cute restaurants around town – providing a slightly western feel compared to what we were used to.
On day two, we made our way to the San Marcos bus terminal where we took another chicken bus to crucero Tajumulco. When we arrived at the terminal, we asked the drivers where we needed to go and they pointed us in the right direction. The bus ride was about an hour and we got dropped right at the start of the hike.
The Hike
The hike begins with a walk up a paved road and past a set of houses. After the houses, the road turns to loose dirt (this was not enjoyable on the descent as we kept twisting our ankles) and leads straight towards the volcano, which you can see just in front of you as you begin the walk. We figured the dirt road was recently extended as all of the blogs from 2016 and earlier made no mention of it going past the (old) trailhead. You can now follow the road up and around to a “parking lot.” This is where the trailhead officially begins and the last point you can access by car. The hike is a pilgrimage site, so from here it is pretty well marked out and easy to follow. The dirt road takes you all the way up to a flat plane – part two of the hike we would have for day one.
The next part of the hike is pretty flat and a nice break before things start to get a bit more difficult. By this point, we were above the clouds and starting to feel the effects of the altitude. After the flat, the trail started to gradually get steeper and steeper.
Once we passed the flats, that was when the hike started to really get hard – part three of the first day’s hike. It was about two hours from there to the campsite. As we hiked the last leg, we all started to get a bit discouraged. I kept thinking we had made it to the campsite or even past it, but I would later find that I was very wrong. My pack weighed about 50lbs and all I wanted to do was put it down so I was ready to be done for the day. The last part of the hike was the steepest, but it was the altitude that was really getting to us at this point.
We finally made it to the campsite – according to the blogs we had seen, this wasn’t the official spot for camping, but we felt it would be blocked from the wind compared to the other spots we saw. It was surrounded on three sides by the mountain whereas the other spots were a lot more open and had a few trees surrounding it.
By the time we got to the campsite it was about 5pm – we started our hike just after 12pm so in total it took us about five hours with a stop for lunch. By this point, the clouds had rolled in and the wind was whipping. There were some hikers that had come up right after us looking to hit the summit for sunset. While we set up camp, we wished them luck making it to the top. When they came down, they admitted to us that it was a miserable experience – they were freezing and they couldn’t find the summit as the cloud cover was so thick.
After dinner, a fire and some music – we headed to bed early. The next morning we woke up at 4am to hike to the summit for sunrise. This part of the hike was about an hour and we tried to time it so we wouldn’t be sitting in the cold for too long. The hike to the summit was again a pretty easy path to follow as it’s lined with crosses (due to the pilgrimages). The footing was difficult and there were a lot of loose rocks along the path with some steep jumps up you had to make. We soon arrived to an opening with a peak on either side – to the left was the summit, to the right was a false summit. We went to the actual summit first and later explored the false summit on our way down.
The view from the summit was absolutely stunning. The clouds formed a waterfall over the mountains below us and as the sun came up, it was beautiful. On the other side, we could see Volcán Tacaná and as the sun rose, you could see the shadow of the volcano we were on, reflecting in the distance. They were some of the most incredible views I have seen in a long time.
I much preferred spending the night and hiking up for sunrise – it seemed to me that in the afternoon, the cloud cover was just too thick and I think we would have been very disappointed as we wouldn’t have seen much.
What I Packed
In terms of warm clothing – I was wearing two sweatshirts, a rain coat, a long sleeve shirt and a t-shirt on top plus two socks (one long, one short), leggings and joggers on bottom. I was not cold in my sleeping bag overnight, but sitting around outside, I was pretty cold. We had sleeping bags rated for 20F and they worked quite well. It did not rain on us, but we strapped a tarp over the top of our tent to try to block out as much wind as possible.
I took up 10L of water, but only drank around 6-8L of that. I tend to drink a lot of water so I packed extra just in case. I also took Nuun electrolyte tablets with me to pop in my water when I was feeling like I needed it. As far as keto foods that I took with me, I had salami, nuts, avocados and peppers. I didn’t find myself to be that hungry up on the top so I didn’t end up eating very much.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, the hike was incredible. The views from the top were well worth all the effort. Comparing this hike to Volcán Tacaná (the second tallest peak in central America) – it was much easier. The hike was much shorter and starts out much higher than Tacaná. Spending the night at altitude before beginning definitely helped us get acclimated. It was a wonderful experience!
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