Climbing Volcan Aconagua - Antigua Guatemala

Although it was only a couple of weeks ago, it already seems like ages since my summer holidays - traveling around the south east of Mexico, a quick hop to Caye Caulker in Belize, and then Guatemala.

One of the highlights of Guatemala was climbing Volcan Aconagua (3976m). I've climbed a fair few volcanoes and mountains over 4000m before, and been lucky enough not to struggle with the altitude, so didn't expect anything different this time, but clearly I've got a lot older since I last climbed that high!!

The walk started easily enough, up through some corn fields, but it was a steep, scrabbly path that just kept on going up and it was hard! We started hiking at 2,500m, climbed until 3,700m where we camped for the night, with just a last little bit to climb in the middle of the night for sunrise.

Despite the hard walk, lack of oxygen, and freezing cold, it was an incredible sunrise, combined with the feeling of ebing on top of the world, and with Volcan Fuego smoking excitingly next to us (it had last erupted 2 months before our hike!!).

Here are some photos.....

Starting the hike

Our accommodation for the night

Just a few volcanoes around!

Almost at the top for sunrise

Such a stunning view!

We made it!

Volcanoes, the moon and volcano shadow! So cool!

The cloud quickly rolled in!

Volcan Fuego silently smoking away...

The nicest part of the walk as it was flat!!

A view over the valley

Backpacking Adventures

I am very excitingly off on some backpacking adventures tomorrow, for a few weeks, and so am now doing all sorts of things I can think of to put off packing.

This is not as bad as it sounds - I have actually almost packed, I just need to wash a few last bits, and add in a few extra things I've just thought of to take.

I am however, trying to be very good, and not just keep adding things I think of!!

I got my trusty Lowe Alpine 55l rucksack back in 2002 and have taken it all over the world with me on various adventures, and it's been great. The only problem (apart from it now being very old and worn) is that it is surprisingly roomy, and so if I have space, I tend to fill it!

So as I now go on more weekend/long weekend trips (Can't wait for retirement!!) rather than month/year long trips, I have replaced my trusty old favourite with a new Lowe Alpine 45l carry on. It's lightweight, has the right amount of padding and pockets, and is surprisingly roomy, whilst still fitting into hand luggage size guidelines. 

I have so far taken it as hand luggage on a Ryanair and British Airways flight and there has been no question it's within the size allowed. 

Now as I really am one of those people who will pack stuff if there is space in my bag, and then get annoyed later, I decided that I can do 3 weeks backpacking in Central America with hand luggage only. It's going to be hot, so I can fit a lot of sundresses, bikinis and shorts in my hand luggage space. 

Slightly bulkier but definite essentials also include my snorkel & mask, hammock, mosquito net, and a big box of English Breakfast tea. 

Off to pack now.....photos to follow in a few weeks!!

Train Travel & Other Exciting Adventures ~ No.4

South America!! Which was surprisingly much easier to travel around than I'd thought it would be. And the Cama buses. Oh how I wish National Express would introduce them for journeys here, it really is the way to travel!!

But I still didn't neglect my trains, and so the first journey was an overnight train from Villazon, in Bolivia, just over the border from Argentina to Oruru, about 4 hours from La Paz. The first challenge was making it to the train station on time. My 16 hour bus to take me to the Argentine border, La Quiaca was only 2 hours late, but then it took 4 hours to queue to get through immigration. By this time, everyone was telling me that the tickets would have sold out, but when i arrived at the ticket office with about half an hour to spare, there were plenty of 2nd Class tickets available, which entitled me to a little bit reclining seat, plenty of legroom and a heater! Perfect!!

The journey was quite terrifying, as there were sections where the earth had entirely eroded away, on some of the cliff edges, and the rails were literally hanging over nothing, but I am not sure that the roads would have been any better! I had 2 seats to myself so had plenty of room and a man arrived first thing in the morning with a steaming pot of tea.

We then thought the easy bit was getting the bus from Oruru to La Paz, as it was only a few hours, and the bus touts wait at the station to herd you all onto their buses so they can leave straight away. Unfortunately, about an hour into our journey, the driver pulled off the road, and drove into the middle of nowhere, and then stopped the bus and demanded more money from everyone before he would continue. I would have understood more if the bus was full of tourists, as they would be an easy target, but there was only me and 2 Belgian guys on the bus who weren't Bolivians.

So the arguments started....and continued....through my basic Spanish I got that they were asking 5 Bolivianos more from everyone. Considering there was about 4.6 to £1 when I was there, that really isn't anything, but when you consider that we only paid 15 Bolivianos in the first place, it is quite an increase.

Eventually everyone realised that we didn't really have a choice so we all paid up and continued on our way to La Paz!

My next train journey was actually in Panama and was much more civilised, but also much more expensive. I took the tourist railway along the Panama canal from Panama City to Colon. Colon is pretty scary, but I managed to find the largest taxi driver I've ever seen in my life, who ended up pretty much proposing to me, but also showed me all around the Panama canal and it is really interesting watching all the ships being raised and lowered to get through.