Sooo…we hiked a volcano! Woahhh! First of all, what was I thinking?? I had been sick for about a week and was trying to convince myself every day leading up to this thing that I wasn’t going to do it. But I wanted to so bad. I felt just about good enough the morning of and so said, “let’s send it.” The minute I stepped onto the departing van, I knew there was no going back. I told myself there was no going back from the walk from the van to the trailhead- at which point I was already starting to feel a little lightheaded. And twenty minutes in when I felt like crying already. I had no idea how in the world I was going to do this. So I just started praying. For reference, I’ve hiked three fourteeners in Colorado and this was a whole new level. It was mainly the incline that got to most of us over the course of the 5.5 miles up. Not to mention the 5k ft elevation gain. Noah and Marvin stayed in the back with some of us and were real life savers. Totally just motivating us, being the life of the party, providing the good tunes, and it just felt like I had personal trainers. Oh man, these two dudes were from the Lord! This hike was, without a doubt, one of the most brutal things I think I’ve ever put my body through. But I can say that I definitely sweated and cried all of the sickness out of me. Who would’ve thought 24 hours on a volcano would actually heal you? Well ya shouldn’t always bet on that, but I lived to tell the tale. After approximately five hours of hiking, we made it to our cliffside inn/shack/cabin. The group we went with made spaghetti (my favorite food- score!!), hot chocolate, and we roasted some marshmallows. One thing though- the bathroom sitch up there was pretty fun…just a regular outhouse looking thing, but the toilet was a wooden box low to the ground. No complaints, it was just the recipe for hilarious situations for many. We all went to bed that night exhausted and woke up at 4am for the last hour treck of the hike in the dark to the official summit! We sat on top of Acatenango and waited for the sun to come up while watching Fuego (the active volcano next door) erupt. There were hundreds of other people from all over the world on top of the volcano waiting for the sun to come up. It’s crazy to think that W squad is made up of people from all over the place and God hand picked people that have become some of the best friends I could ever ask for AND we all ended up together on a volcano on top of the world. In the end, the views that pictures on my phone couldn’t do justice were so worth it. I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life. God is crazy amazing and so creative it blows my mind. Here are some pics!!
Such a cool experience! I’m so glad you were abl e to do this. Memories for a lifetime.
Such a great experience and I’m so glad you were able to go and made it to the top!!! Yay, God! Love all your updates.