Pico de Orizaba
My boyfriend and I just returned from our trip to Mexico. It was absolutlely awesome! We went to climb Pico de Orizaba, a volcano standing at 18,405ft, making it the 3rd highest peak in North America.
Most trip reports stated that it was a good idea to take at least 5 days to do the hike, allowing for proper acclimatization. Well, my bf likes to do things at a quicker pace than what is expected, so we intended to take 5 days for the entire expedition, which included flying days and one day to visit Teotihuacan -- in other words, we were going to climb that volcano about 3 1/2 days.
Day 1:
We took a red eye from LAX to MX City, hopped on 2 buses and made it to Tlachichuca. While there, we scoped out the little town and searched for an outfitter to drive us to the mountain. The people here kind of look at you funny because you're a tourist, but once you say "hola," their faces brighten up and become really friendly. The kids around town are really curious and everyone seems to enjoy trying to help us out with directions and information.
Soon, we found Senior Gerar, one of the guys who drive people from Tlachichuca to the Piedra Grande hut at the base of Orizaba. After at least an hour of bargaining (literally!) with him about giving us a deal, we finally settled on a great one that included a roundtrip ride from his hotel to Hidalgo and a night in his hotel when we return...and we would be leaving for the mountain that same evening! It was really difficult to settle on this bargain because my bf says he doesn't like getting screwed in foreign countries just because we're travellers. (Just for your information, he also does it for the challenge. We get our bargain deals with people, but always give them a big tip at the end of our stay; this actually seems to make our hosts even happier with us than other guests who pay the full price, but don't leave as good a tip. Go figure...works for us in any case!)
As Sr. Gerar readied up his 4WD vehicle, we went into town to buy some supplies and find us some grub. We all had been so excited about tacos, we were ecstatic when we found a woman selling some from a little set-up in the middle of town. Mmmm...street tacos...delicious! I only ate one, but one of our travel buddies went a little crazy buying chips and those fried orange things that you put lime and chili on. A little too much grease, but we couldn't let any of it go to waste, so we stuffed ourselves. Hmm, maybe not the best idea when you're about to go to high altitude...but hey, at the sight of food, can you blame us for completely forgetting that whole cautionary eating thing before climbing a mountain?
Anyway, after a whole day of shuttling from place to place with our heavy packs, we were on our way to the mountain. We couldn't believe we were making such good time as everything seemed to be falling into place so perfectly. Well, perfectly until we started loading the car and the sky started falling on us! A huge storm started rolling in and Sr. Gerar hurried us up because he wanted to make sure we would make it to the drop-off point before the roads got too soggy.
...To be continued...
Most trip reports stated that it was a good idea to take at least 5 days to do the hike, allowing for proper acclimatization. Well, my bf likes to do things at a quicker pace than what is expected, so we intended to take 5 days for the entire expedition, which included flying days and one day to visit Teotihuacan -- in other words, we were going to climb that volcano about 3 1/2 days.
Day 1:
We took a red eye from LAX to MX City, hopped on 2 buses and made it to Tlachichuca. While there, we scoped out the little town and searched for an outfitter to drive us to the mountain. The people here kind of look at you funny because you're a tourist, but once you say "hola," their faces brighten up and become really friendly. The kids around town are really curious and everyone seems to enjoy trying to help us out with directions and information.
Soon, we found Senior Gerar, one of the guys who drive people from Tlachichuca to the Piedra Grande hut at the base of Orizaba. After at least an hour of bargaining (literally!) with him about giving us a deal, we finally settled on a great one that included a roundtrip ride from his hotel to Hidalgo and a night in his hotel when we return...and we would be leaving for the mountain that same evening! It was really difficult to settle on this bargain because my bf says he doesn't like getting screwed in foreign countries just because we're travellers. (Just for your information, he also does it for the challenge. We get our bargain deals with people, but always give them a big tip at the end of our stay; this actually seems to make our hosts even happier with us than other guests who pay the full price, but don't leave as good a tip. Go figure...works for us in any case!)
As Sr. Gerar readied up his 4WD vehicle, we went into town to buy some supplies and find us some grub. We all had been so excited about tacos, we were ecstatic when we found a woman selling some from a little set-up in the middle of town. Mmmm...street tacos...delicious! I only ate one, but one of our travel buddies went a little crazy buying chips and those fried orange things that you put lime and chili on. A little too much grease, but we couldn't let any of it go to waste, so we stuffed ourselves. Hmm, maybe not the best idea when you're about to go to high altitude...but hey, at the sight of food, can you blame us for completely forgetting that whole cautionary eating thing before climbing a mountain?
Anyway, after a whole day of shuttling from place to place with our heavy packs, we were on our way to the mountain. We couldn't believe we were making such good time as everything seemed to be falling into place so perfectly. Well, perfectly until we started loading the car and the sky started falling on us! A huge storm started rolling in and Sr. Gerar hurried us up because he wanted to make sure we would make it to the drop-off point before the roads got too soggy.
...To be continued...
posted by VeritableReverie | 10/14/2005 10:14:00 AM
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