If anyone has been worried about me losing my life...

Sunday would have been the day to do it. We (Gary, Sally, Ian, and I--Jean spent the day relaxing and studying spanish which might have been the better choice) climbed Volcan Concepcion. It's only 1600m or so, but it was a very difficult climb. Gary, Sally, and Ian, who live in Oregon, have a lot of experience with climbing various mountain and volcanoes. I have never climbed a mountain unless you count my ascent of Half Dome last summer. I have done some physically and mentally taxing things in my life, but Sunday's climb may take the cake.

We met our guide and started out the road that led to the trail. The road itself was slightly uphill but relatively flat. However, our pace was ridiculous and I was dripping sweat in the first 15 minutes.

When we hit the actual trail, it got very steep very fast and stayed steep pretty much the entire time. In addition to being steep, it was very rocky and often required using our hands to help us up and over various obstacles. It was some of the hardest hiking I've ever done. On the way up, we again heard the howler monkeys and quickly made our way past that point and into the clouds. During the winter (now), the top of the volcano is obsured by clouds. However, in the summer, it's generally clear. We knew that once we reached the top we wouldn't be able to see anything, but we still wanted to say that we did it.
Our guide kept urging us onward especially when we wanted to break for a snack. We tried to make it to the halfway point before eating something, but we caved early. Once we did make it to the halfway point, things seemed to get harder. We had been in the clouds and wind and it was getting cloudier and windier. Now instead of being soaked with sweat, we were soaked with mist and rain. Sally made the tough decision to stop at this point because she wasn't feeling well (I don't think any of us were feeling great except for our mountain goat-like guide) and Ian stayed with her and they headed down to try and find a more protected spot to wait for Gary and me as we pushed on towards the top.
The next 30 minutes or so were ridiculously hard with the wind practically blowing us off the mountain and the trail becoming extremely steep and wet. I often thought that this was insane and that I shouldn't even be up here in the first place. However, we got to a level point and which the guide told us that it was only 10 more minutes to the top. We practically crawled up this last part, hugging the side of the mountain because the wind was so strong. We stopped about 10 feet from the top (it was in sight) because the guide said it was dangerous. And when HE thought things were bad, you knew they were. He also made some comment about not wanting us to get blown into the crater. That might have ruined the hike if that would have happened. We posed for a picture, my bandana was blown off my head, and we made the slow descent to safer ground.
It didn't take long to reach the spot where Sally and Ian were camped out and we were glad to be all together again. We hiked down a little farther and Gary and I had some sandwiches and cookies and then we made our way down out of the clouds and into the sun once again. Coming down was extremely painful and my quads have not recoved yet. I'm pretty sure I haven't been this sore since I ran in a marathon. Both Sally and Gary (mountain climber extrordinaires) promised me that when I come out to climb mountains with them in Oregon that I will not fear for my life. One volcano climbed...hopefully many more will be as well.