The HIGHlight of the week

Volcan Tajumulco is the highest point in Central America. Now although Central America is not a great deal bigger than Texas, this particular trek gave us some bragging rights. April and May is the rainy season in the western highlands of Guatemala and you can pretty much expect a downpour after 16:00. During the trek, the rain came as predicted allowing us to have our raincoats readily available, though we were still not pleased with the miserable liquid. After five hours of trekking, we arrived at our camping destination to set up in the most efficient and dryest way possible (quite difficult with the downpour). With no fire, we huddled under the tarp in a "calor con pasion" circle attempting strange penguin movements to get blood flowing to our frozen fingers. The next few miserable yet hilarious hours were spent waiting for dinner but more importantly waiting to climb into our sleeping bags and extra clothing. I can't say that anyone was actually sleeping when 03:45 rolled around and we woke up to hike the last few hundred meters to the summit to watch the sun rise. Huffing, puffing, and floating through the thin air, we reached the top of frigid Tajumulco in the dark and were able to witness the brilliant orange sun peek through the pink clouds and dark silhouettes of the surrounding mountains. What an incredible creator we have!