People Have Perished on This Volcano?

So today I climbed one of the 2 volcanoes on Ometepe Island on Lake Nicaragua. Maderas Volcano is about 1300 meters and before I decided to hike it, information and stories were circulating about the difficulty (very muddy and rocky conditions, especially now during the wet season), the length of time (8-10 hours), the view (mostly cloudy), and whether we'd make it out alive (apparently a handful of travelers "perish" every year trying to climb it. We saw reports from the BBC warning us of the danger of climbing it without a guide). I didn't climb any of the volcanoes in Guatemala, and kind of regretted not doing at least one (especially the one by Antigua where you can be about 2 feet away from lava and feel it burning on your face!). So I was determined to get my hike on in Nicaragua. Last night Lauren and I got word from our New Zealand friends who we worked with this summer that they're going to be in Costa Rica just for a couple days more and we really wanted to get together with them before they move on, so we decided to cut our stay on the island a day short, therefore forcing ourselves to decide which activities were the most important to do on our last day. Lauren wasn't really into hiking, and after working alongside the Volcano Arenal all summer, she was a bit over volcanoes. So I decided to go it without her (this was a fairly difficult decision, seeing as this would be the longest amount of time we spent apart in a month, haha). So I joined up with 2 Israelis and an Australian that were going up with a guide today.

Awesome tree that L and I climbed the day before my hike

I woke up bright and early at 6:45 and had a hearty breakfast of porridge and fruits at the hostel. After working out some minor details about the number of guides necessary for 4 people, we set off for the volcano. The hike wasn't as bad as I was expecting (last night I was honeslty preparing myself to climb Mt. Everest). The first hour was through rice and corn fields and just a little bit uphill. After that, the next 2 and a half hours or so were pretty steep and had us crawling under trees and over roots and grabbing branches to balance ourselves. The path wasn't really that well laid out either (my machete would have come in quite handy!), so we ended up getting soaked from water that was on the plants and trees from last night's rainfall. Within the first hour I had mud all over my legs and shoes and had managed to fully immerse my foot in some muddy water puddles. Luckily I was wearing proper socks and shoes and had brought the recommended 3 liters of water plus another liter just in case, so I wasn't too miserable. When we got to the top, I felt revitalized and accomplished, though this feeling merited more than the view offered. Unfortunately it was cloudy and off of one side where a view of the lake and other volcano should have been there was mist and clouds. Off of the other side luckily there was a view of a lagoon and another part of the volcano, which to be fair was pretty impressive. Of course after snapping only a few photos, my camera battery ran out on me and I was left to take in the view with my photographic memory.

hazy view at the top

Next came the hardest part, the way down. If I thought it was muddy on the way up, I found out going down was a real treat. It started raining, so there was even more mud, and I spent the next 3 and a half hours bracing myself while I slipped, skidded, and sunk my feet into every form of mud on the trail. When I got back to the hostel Lauren was there waiting for me wanting to see pictures and hear all about it. All in all, I'm glad I did it, even though the view was dissapointing. The BBC articles and reports from the embassies about travelers gone missing while attempting the hike just seem ridiculous now, it really wasn't that bad!

The sunset I came back to!