Throughout the night locals were firing fireworks and fire crackers consistently and dangerously for their prayers, this went on all night and by the sounds of things more and more people were gathering… none of these people slept during the evening and we were consistently awoken by the sounds of firecrackers and smell of gunpowder that seemed right beside us and indeed they were right beside us because later in the morning all the debris from them were no more than 10 meters away from our heads. During the night I could have sworn I heard gun fire and I was right again as some of the locals we met in the morning were Guatemalan rebels and were possessing hand guns that they showed us… scary stuff.
Hopping out of the tent after a pretty restless night (not as ill rested as Edwin) just before sunset I looked around to see a hundred or so people surrounding us… people who arrived during the night to celebrate the end of year and prey for the new year. All eyes were on me because of my hair but the locals we met, including the rebels were all very nice despite me not speaking the language and I was even offered breakfast from this guy who spent some time in the USA. It was such an experience.
The hike down the volcano was much much easier than on the way back and instead of taking 2 days it only took us 2 hours, but that’s also walking in the right direction.
We were joined by some young locals on the way down that got annoying at times but they were ok.
At the base we got some beers and some burgers in celebration of completing the hike and made our way back to Xela via San Marcos. The journey from the base of Tacamulco to San Marcos Edwin and I hitched in the back of a pickup truck and passed a market where the locals around (as always) starred at us with those curious and dumbstruck eyes.
We grabbed dinner at the market again back in Xela and tried to book accommodation in Antigua but everything over new years was fully booked… we are just going to wing it tomorrow and see what happens.
Sunrise views and the hike down the highest point in central America.
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