The Volcano Paracutín

This was a day of epic proportions, and it's not often that one gets to start that way. We stayed the previous night in Uruapan and we got to wake up much too early in the morning to hop a bus to get to where we needed to go. Keeping in mind that I jumped in a lake the previous day, I started the day with shorts and five shirts.



However, our "base camp" for the day was high enough in the mountains for frost to exist. We hopped off the bus on the side of the road, and let me tell you, the backwash from cars was really darn cold! But we found a spot to lay down what our plans were and we were approached by a guide. Before we found him, we had turned down one guide with an eye patch and we were about to turn this guy down, but he made some convincing arguments. So we hired him, him being called don Pablo. And he showed us to his house and throughout the volcano...



This is basically as downtown as we could have gotten. As we headed through town, we stopped at a convenience store and bought waters and fruits. I think I bought two oranges and three bananas for $7 pesos (70 cents US) And we continued out of town.



I also saw this cute guy as we were walking through town. Not much story, but I felt it was a good enough picture.



On our way out of town, don Pablo stopped for a quick prayer. I thought it was mostly neat that there was a place outside of town for religion. Afterwards, he pointed out where we were headed, like so:



The hill behind it kinda hides the volcano, but we were going to cross across the lava field, and climb up to dark hill and then head up the light brown hill. It's not the greatest picture, as the side of our ascent is out of frame, but the volcano is also about three to four hours away by foot.



And we start walking. In a large circle from the volcano, all the ground is dust. Throughout the forests, the plains - everywhere. Volcano dust. And we continued on.



And our fearless leader, don Pablo, lead us through an aguacate field. Aguacates, pretty good stuff... But the plant is ready for harvest every six years, and the field we traveled through had four years to go. It was pretty interesting, because all the plants have a little house to protect them from the strong sun.



As you can see from here, we start to enter the bigger rocks. This was 90 minutes after we met our guide, and forty minutes after we left the outdoor church. But as the sign clearly says, 2 hours to the volcano. Not a problem, we get to the top of the mountain by 1:30 at this point, we can make it out in plenty of time. One selling point of the guide was that he'd be able to get us in and out in a faster time.



Two hours into the trip. This was 50 minutes after our roasign, but that volcano looks really darn far away. This was also our first break, which probably lasted a few minutes too long. But we started hiking again...



Here we are at our second break. 40 minutes later. You can't see it, but the mountain is still far away. And this is one of the very few pictures with don Pablo in it.


And we continue on...


And our third break; we're at the base of the volcano. Finally. It's 1:39, and we began at 9:30. We've still got the volcano to climb, and we need to walk out. But heck, I think we might be able to do it. Why not?



At this point, we're about halfway up the volcano. If you reference the first picture of the volcano, there's the shorter hill and the bigger volcano? We're basically at the top of the small hill. There's still a -long- way to climb.



This is nearly the final of the final climbs. We had yet to round two bends and another climb. But, for those of you who have climbed dunes before, this was exactly the same. Except with larger rocks. It's not any easier, either.



But we finally made it to the top, and it was an incredible view. I'm not sure exactly from where we began, but we walked from the green part all through the black part and up a volcano. Oh yeah, this picture was taken just before 3pm. Hmm... Time crunch might be starting about now. But this picture is neat because of the three mountains in the distance.



And this picture was a requisite. Because when else am I going to be on top of a volcano to do a handstand? There'll be better pictures of me in a bit, I promise.



The climb up took a long time, but it was promised that we'd get down the volcano in less than five minutes. Turns out he was right, too. I took a few movies while I was on the top of the volcano, and a few on the way down. Very exciting stuff, especially when we figure out the math to figure out how fast we could travel down the hill.



This picture had to be taken because, well, we are very cool. We climbed a mountain. We've got Anna, Melissa, don Pablo, Noah, and Erin. Brad and Jessica are out of the frame, and I'm holding the camera.



We finally reached the second destination of the day after a forty minute (or so) ride in the back of a truck. They said it would have taken forty minutes on foot. Somebody really has to learn distances. We finally got there about 5:30. Our bus leaves at something like 6:15; I don't think we're going to make it. But we've had a hell of a day.



And we've made it back towards civilization. We're even dirtier than before, we're darn tired, and we're still not anywhere close to Querétaro. But at this point, the camera went away after more than 100 pictures.

We sat in this little town for long enough, and missed one bus, and the taxi drivers didn't come back for us. We caught the second bus and missed the bus back to Querétaro. We had to take another bus to Morelia and catch a connecting bus back home. I got back home at 3:30am and didn't quite make it to my test at 7am. But I got to reschedule and the next day I went to México, D.F.

Oh yeah, and because I promised another picture of me...



Four days of beard, nine hours of sun, and kilometers of walking through volcano dust. Enjoy it! Oh yeah... I finished the day with the shorts and only one shirt.