Climbing San Cristobal

Well, yesterday we climbed the tallest volcano in Nicaragua, San Cristobal which is located in the department of Chinandega. (where we live, lucky us!)

Jeff and I got up at 4:15 to fill our water bottles, eat a little bit of oatmeal and put on our hiking clothes. A white t-shirt turned out to be a bad idea, but I didn´t realize how dirty I would be by the end. We walked over to Ernie´s house to meet everyone else and left in Javier´s truck. It took about an hour to drive there. We picked up our 18 year old guide on the way, watched the sunrise and we were ready! We drove until we couldn´t drive any further, for a stupid rock and I grew to hate on the way back..., and we started hiking at about 6:15 or so.

Here is a view from the car on our ride over.
Early on the boys and guide seperated from Annmarie, Javier, and me. It was fine, we hiked at our own pace, and I sweat A TON. My clothes were soaked in about an hours. SOAKED. And I was already really really dirty, but not as dirty as I would become. So at about 9:30 we made it half way up, up to this base area where you can see the point of the volcano. About this time I was wondering what I had decided to do.

Well the boys seemed to run up the remainder of the base, Annmarie and I took our sweet time. There was 2 times where I really thought I wasn´t going to make it. Halfway up the to the point, everything turns to volcanic rock and you take one step and slide back 2. It was frustrating and sucked. Then about 100 meters to the top, there is all of this cactus and you feel like you are in a video game trying to avoid everything and make it up to the top. Well, finally we made it, and were rewarded with a stunning view of the crater.

The crater, though it smelled pretty gross.
We stayed up there for a while, took some pictures, had some lunch, and then headed back down which was by far the worst part. This picture is Javier, Jeff, Travis (our new sitemate), Ernie, and Paul (who is new to Corinto).

So we started to head back down, and everything slides out from under your feet. All the rock, and your feet so I spent the majority of time on my hands and butt. But not everybody had so much trouble as I did. I couldn´t stay on my feet and fell, and fell, and fell. It sucked. I was sooo unhappy. Luckily, once you make it down the peak part, it just turns into a normal hike down, instead of some super steap, volcanic rock ridden hell. This is Jeff and I once I made it down the peak part. We still had about 2 hours hike down from here.
So we countinued down, and once it was getting flatter all I could think was WHERE IS THE DAMN CAR? I thought that for about an hour I would say, until finally it appeared and I was so happy. We rode home, and arrived at about 5 making this a 12 hour journey. When Jeff and I got out of the car our neighbors about had a heart attack and laughed really hard at how dirty we were and how I couldn´t walk normal. I think they were impressed.....

It was totally worth it. Would I ever do it again? Hell no.