Tajulmuco & Fuentes Georginas

Tajulmuco is the highest point in Central America standing just below 14,000ft. On Friday evening, we met up with Garrett and Kyle Dickman who had know idea we were planning to climb this volcano with them the next day. They were both surprised and excited. We went through an organization called Quetzal Trekkers who does overnight trips to the volcano in addition to other treks and donates all their money to a home and school for street children in Xela. We left the next morning at 5am for Tajumulco and after spending the morning on Chicken buses began our accent around noon. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we spent the entire day hiking in rain and fog. What was the most frustrating was that our guide insisted on stopping constantly in order to do head counts(32 people were on the trek). Which made no sense b/c we would sweat and then have to freeze while he did his 50th headcount. There were actually 4 guides so it would have made much more sense to divide the group in half (having a fast group and a slow group) and have 2 guides with each group however, they did not seem experienced enough to really have this figured out. That night we ate undercooked, unsalted, slightly burnt pasta and played cards. The cards and conversation were good, the food was not.

We awoke the next morning at 4am and headed to the summit to watch the sunrise. The weather had cleared and we were stoked to see stars. It was a great sunrise and we could see a volcano erupting in the shadows. It was awesome! The hike down offered amazing views of Guatemala and Mexico. It was a much better hike in the sun than in the fog! After returning from our volcano hike we decided we were in need for some hot springs and headed to Fuentes Georginas yesterday afternoon. These are natural hotsprings that you access by a 30 minuted chicken bus followed by an 8km ride in the back of a pickup truck. The drive in the back of the pick up was through the most beautiful area we have seen yet in Guatemala! The hot springs themselves were incredible as well. There was one large pool about the size of your average swimming pool with water coming in via a large rock face covered in moss and vines. It was beautiful. We rented bungalows for the night and spent the evening playing cards. There was a total of 5 of us (Me, Keith, Kyle, Garrett, and Jeff who we met in Xela)and somehow we managed to drink 3 bottles of Rum! It made for an interesting card game and a fun game of nakey marco polo in the hot springs late in the evening.

Kyle and Garret just departed for Mexico and we plan to leave Xela tomorrow. Not sure where we are headed next but we have the rest of the afternoon to figure that out.


Keith helping unload backpacks from a chicken bus.