I wake up at 4:30am, already feeling like this was going to be a rough day. After a short micro bus ride, we make it to the base of Santa Maria. As we walk to the first path, we see a giant Coca-Cola stage and banners. Apparently there is a gaint hike/race up the mountain planned that day and we would have to wait for another hour and a half and pay Q200 ($24). The gaurd refuses to make an exception for us and insists on the Q200. This sounds like a terrible idea but what else are we going to do? I didn't get up at 4:30am to not get up the mountain.
Luckily our bus driver found a random Guatemalan woman who knew a back way that would take us further up the trail. Under the cover of fog, we follow our sherpa into the fields and mist. We find ourselves back on the main trail only 50 yards away from the security gaurd with a shotgun. After a nervous 5 more minutes, we are safely further up the mountain away from armed Guatemalans.
The hike takes us nearly 5 hours to get near the top. While Brenda and Agnethe are full of spirit and energy, Geralda and I are taking it easy, creeping up the mountains at a nice, slower pace. It was rough and 3 days later, I'm still hurting, but once we reached the top, it made all the pain and sweating completely worth it.
The view was fantastic. The clouds hindered our ability to see some of the other mountains but sitting on the rocks, feeling above everything... purely amazing. We ate lunch and took pictures and treked back down the mountain. The trip back down took another 4 hours or so. This part was WAY more difficult due to the dusty trails and it was almost like skiing down the mountain. I might have fallen a few times...
A hard day of hiking, my first mountain climbed, sherpas, shotguns - only in Guatemala.
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