Saturday, 07 March 2009

• Volcano Hiking in Panama

  by Molly

  

  Hike a volcano? Of course I want to hike a volcano! Wait....what.....what time do we have to leave?
  
  When I was staying in a smaller mountain town in Boquete, Panama, I was excited by the idea of hiking a volcano where I would be able to see both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from the top. When I was told that we would have to leave by 12am in order to make it to the top in time to see the sunrise, I was a little more skeptical. We had heard a great deal about the hike, and were very excited to make the trip - but a little nervous at the prospect of hiking a volcano in the dark.
  
  We ended up leaving our house at 2am to go the the trailhead for the hike. The drive up to the trail was absolutely terrible. The rocky roads and quick turns definitely did a number on my stomach at that hour of the night. Once at the starting point, we took our backpacks from the back out of the back of the car, turned on our flash lights and hit the road.
  
  About 30 minutes into the hike, we finally hit the beginning of the actual trail. That was a pretty disappointing notion for me, as I had thought we were dropped off at the trailhead....as in the beginning of the trail......but it turned out that we had been dumped 30 minutes from it! After accepting the idea that we were now beginning our volcano ascent, we put our heads up and started our hike.
  
  I have never seen so many steep uphill faces in my life during a hike. The trail underneath us was made up primarily of sheath rock, and it was really difficult to get a hold on it. So, on top of the incredibly steep pitches, it was the dead of night and we kept slipping everywhere. About 3 hours in, I was absolutely exhausted, and we weren't even half way up. Every time I thought we were getting close to a summit, the trail took a turn up a different set of faces, and it felt like we had to start all over each time this happened. By 5am, we started to realize that making it to the top for a 6am sunrise would be a pretty difficult task. We were hiking as fast as we could, but the ridiculously uphill trek was making it difficult to pick up the pace.
  
  We started to get up further, and finally got to a place where we could see the sun rising through some brush. Even through we weren't at the top of the volcano for it, it was still a pretty amazing sight. And, on top of that, we could finally see where we were going!
  
  As we neared the top of the volcano, I don't think my legs have ever been so dead in my life. After six hours of climbing straight uphill with only a couple of minute long resting stops, I couldn't imagine having to hike any longer. When we reached the summit, it was freezing, but so amazing. From the top we could see both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, and the clouds were just beginning to part as the sun warmed the sky. We stayed up there for as long as we could, eating the lunches we had packed, and taking in the amazing view. When it was time to turn back down, I was definitely proud we had made it so far.

  Have you ever hiked a volcano? What was the most difficult hike you have ever done?

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