The Manns in Santiago, Chile!: El Vulcan de Agua

Howdy once again from Antigua –
After our first week of classes we decided to get outside of town for a day and check out one of the volcanoes that can be seen on a clear day in Antigua. This particular volcano is called Agua and is the closest to Antigua and one of the tallest in the country at over 12,000 feet. We went with Fernando, a guide who rents a room from our host family. We got up a little after 5 am Saturday morning and met the bus outside our house with Fernando shortly before 6 am. We had a short ride to Santa Maria, a small town that sits up against the base of the volcano, and began our hike on the outskirts of Santa Maria at around 6:30 am. The first half of our hike took us through some fairly dense forests on a well maintained trail. There were several points where the forest was clear and we had incredible views of Santa Maria and Antigua below. The skies were clear except for clouds of steaming coming from a nearby volcano called Fuego which is still active. After several hours, we came out of the forests and had our first views of the upper portion of the volcano. The trail here was slightly more difficult, but the views of surrounding valley and glimpses of the summit kept us going. After a couple of more hours we finally found ourselves looking down into the crater of Agua. We stopped for a few minutes to get some pictures, and then returned to the trail to reach the rim of the crater. The rim of the volcano contained several television and radio towers and a small cabin where a group of guys spend their week working on the volcano. They sleep at the top throughout the week and sell water, sodas, and hot Ramen noodles to hikers who reach the summit. Then they trade off for the next week with a second set of guys. Fernando happened to be friends with the group working this particular Saturday, and they welcomed us into their small cabin and let us rest on their bunks for a few minutes while they boiled water for some Cup of Ramen. It had taken us about 6 hours to reach the crater at the top, so we needed to get off our feet and recharge for a few minutes. Amanda began to feel sick because of the altitude, and this didn’t improve with liquids and some medicine, so we began working our way back down. Going down was somewhat easier until it began to rain. The trail had already been fairly soft due to recent rains, and now it became muddy and the rocks scattered throughout much of it became incredibly slick. We picked our way carefully down the trail, slipping many times but never actually taking a spill into the mud. Four hours after leaving the summit and right as the last bit of light left the sky, we made it back to Santa Maria to meet our ride home. We were incredibly exhausted and dirty by the time we got off the volcano, and barely had the energy to eat dinner when we returned to Antigua. Overall, we had been on the volcano for about 11 hours, and made roughly a 6000-7000 foot elevation gain to reach the top. Our pictures from the top aren’t too great due to the cloud cover that prevented us from viewing much of our surroundings. We had a great time and got in some excellent Spanish practice with our guide Fernando during the trip. Hope y’all enjoy the pictures below. Love Y’all and God Bless!