Volcano Ipala

I was sitting at the lunch table the other day discussing one of the monks' favorite topics: What I've seen in Guatemala, what I haven't seen, then half-hearted plans made to visit these places.  In the middle of this discussion Brother Abraham asks me if I have seen Volcán Ipala, the volcano with the lake at the top.  I hadn't, but I had heard all about it.  He responded that he would call his brothers and, "si Dios quiere" we would make plans to go Thursday.   I thought it was just another saying, but as Thursday drew near he had made ore plans, and this outing had become a veritable family reunion, with all 3 of his brothers and one of his 2 sisters and all of their families, "si Dios quiere."  Come Thursday morning, apparently Dios quería, because we were on the road.  We made three or four stops along the way to pick up family members waiting alongside the road, and before long we had two trucks full, with more people sitting in the truck bed.  Inside the truck was Abraham's sister, her daughter, and her grandchildren.  It's always fun to meet new people, and it was really entertaining to hear them try and teach the little girl to say "burro:"
-bujo
-no, burro, say rrrrrro
-buyo
-no, burrrrrrrro, burrrro
-budjo
-no, burrro, rrrrro
-si

     With the entertainment in the back, not much time passed before we were looking out the window at what would soon be yet another notch in my belt.

     We had heard that there was a possible back route up the volcano which would allow us to make it all the way up in cars, avoiding the necessity of carrying the huge amounts of baggage his sister brought (which turned out to be a 3 course meal, so I was okay carrying it).  There is, in fact, a road, but it was under construction, so we could only take it to within about 2km of the summit.  That worked out fine for me because I was able to see more of the spectacular scenery around the volcano.

     One of the cool advantage that climbing a volcano has over hiking in the mountains is that often, the volcanoes are the highest points, meaning that the view from the top of the volcano of the land below is really awesome.  While 2km typically isn't that much, 2km up the side of a volcano carrying everything needed for a huge meal turned out to be a little much for most of the party, and they somehow worked out a deal with someone who had a car at the top of the volcano to come down and pick them up.  I decided to press on, and actually made it up before them.
     The lake in the crater of this volcano was just awesome to see.  It smelled just like a real Minnesota lake, looked like a real Minnesota lake, and with the ice cold wind blowing off of it actually felt like a real Minnesota lake, which helped assuage the holiday pangs of homesickness a little.

     While all the monks seem to be under the impression that this is one of the only lakes in a volcano crater in the world, I'm sorry to report that it is only one of 53 in the world, and one of six in Guatemala (meaning that 8.333 percent of volcanoes in Guatemala have a lake).  That being said, it was truly awesome to see.

     I wanted to swim in the lake, but it was actually really really cold up there.  I have no idea what the elevation was, but it was pretty tall, and the wind came whipping through that saddle at the far side of the lake and picked up speed across the lake until a few gusts were almost strong enough to blow people over.  Or maybe those are just excuses I've made up to hide the fact that I'm losing my think MN blood.  All I know is that when they started up the fires to cook lunch, standing around that was a pretty popular place to be.
     Lunch was delicious, and they even remembered to bring the black beans and corn tortillas I love so much!

This is Abraham's sister showing off the meat.  I tried to get the recipe for the sauce, but all they would tell me is:  Culantro, onions, some tomato, dry white wine, mustard seed, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  If you are feeling adventurous, give it a try.  The final product (if you get it right) is absolutely delicious.

     The meal was spectacular, but after a long day of hiking, sightseeing, and battling the cold wind, we were all ready to head out.  The ride home was nothing spectacular, but the sun did come out just long enough for me to snap some farewell pictures of the volcano as we sped away.