Midnight Volcano Hike

8:30 pm: Go to the local market to stock up on water, granola bars, and a banana for the hike

10:30 pm: Get back from the Internet Cafe and try to catch some zzzzzzzz

11:15 pm: Roll out of bed and throw stuff we think we'll need in our packs. My normally non-cumbersome backpack/purse doesn't seem to hold enough

11:30 pm: The Jeep comes to get us, but we're still groggy from not enough sleep. We drive through town, then through the most bumpy impassable road to the base of Vocan Baru.

11:43 pm: and the hike begins...

It's so dark we can't see anything besides the few feet in front of us that the headlamps allow. The path is not what we expected at all. It's not a trail--and it's certainly not a foot path--more like a steep road full of boulders, loose rock and canyons.

We immediately see why we warned about this hike; it isn't for the casual hiker. We start to peel off extra layers of clothing and regret that we even brought jackets. It isn't cold out, and the exertion of the hike makes it seem hot.

After we've hit the first couple of trail markers, we're still in good spirits, and we naively think we're making good time. Two hours into the hike, we realize that we've been crawling. The group starts to stagger, and it becomes a mental uphill battle for each of us. We all wonder how this ever seemed like a good idea.

To keep our minds off how strenuous the hike is turning out to be, we play an international game of 20 questions. It works for a little while to trick our minds into forgetting how exhausted we actually are, but after awhile the game is abandoned because we're trying to conserve every last bit of energy to get to the top.

We finally reach the top in 5.8 hours. It's gorgeous and the views are incredible, but the cross that is sticking out from the middle of a steep jagged climb is the actual top--celebration too soon. We do a little climbing and scrambling to get up the unstable rock, and if we weren't so deliriously tired it might have registered how dangerous and unsteady that last part of the ascent really was.

The view at the top is amazing. Standing on top of the highest point in Panama feels more like being on top of the world. We were standing above the clouds, and watched the sun break through. The peak we were standing on strandled two oceans.

We couldn't enjoy the view for too long becuase it was freezing cold. We put on every single article of clothing we had brought with us, and it still wasn't enough. We said goodbye to the beautiful mountain, and tried to get down the volcano as quick as possible. The loose rock made it tricky. There was a lot of skidding, and by that point we were so tired--even amidst the beautiful scenery, (since it was no longer dark, it was like a completely different hike) all I could think about was a soft bed and a warm shower.