We continued on with our adventures the next day, and in a big way! We went Volcano climbing! It was an amazing experience, and no, I would never do that again.
We started off at about 7:30 am, loaded on with big mountain boots, a backpack with some sandwiches and our boot spikes for when we are on the ice, and a ton of enthusiasm… which lasted us for about 10 minutes.
It was hard! Climbing a mountain is not easy, in case you were thinking otherwise! My friend and I (it was just the two of us, one chickened out) had to stop almost every 5 minutes and beg our guide to let us rest. We had assumed the ski-lift would be working, so we would have traveled almost 1500m of the 4817m up without actually having to use our legs. But who does our luck was that good?! Nope, Fate decided we simply must endure the entire experience. REALLY use our legs.
The views along the way did much to sustain us. The higher we climbed, the closer to heaven I felt. Literally! We could see the big blue lake, and the gray-brown mountains surrounding it from all sides. As we went higher, we could see some clouds below us, forming soft comfortable balls of cotton that made me feel like I could jump on it. It really was a beautiful walk up. So you can imagine how disappointed we were when we were told we could not go further up to the top of the crater, when we had less than 500m left!
I can’t blame our guide; the conditions did get progressively worse as time went on. Soon a mist surrounded us and I couldn’t see more than a new meters ahead of me. The climb got icier – so much so that our guide made us stop and wait for a while before we started our journey back to safer ground.
Even though we couldn’t make it all the way to the top and actually look down the crater, it was an incredible experience – for me, one time was enough, though. And although I can’t cross it completely off my list, I do plan on seeing the top of a volcanic crater one day – preferably in a chopper, taken up in style J
We did have the chance to unwind the next day, when we went to the natural hot springs that evening. There were about seven or eight different pools, all at different temperatures, some indoors and some out. It was a nice way to stretch out our muscles after that mountain hike!
Carried it over the next day, when we went to la playa at the lake. Crystal clear non-freezing blue water, gentle ripples, ground volcano rock in the form of warm black sand, and a relatively empty beach in the afternoon accompanied by a person selling yummy strawberry drinks – BLISS!
More on the rest of our week soon!
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