18 hours on Volcan Baru

A group of 15 Peace Crops Panama Volunteers take off to climb Panama’s one and only Volcano, Volcan Baru in Chiriqui, Panama. This is my take on the journey.

The crew and I left David on a school bus to drive an hour north to Boquete, the base of Volcan Baru, at 9pm. We then took a taxi up to the entrance and started hiking at 11pm. The climb is estimated at 6 hours, straight up for 15km…which is about 10 miles. That is, hiking ten miles up a Volcano between the house of 11pm and 5am in the morning, in the dark and in the cold. We’re kind of nuts, but definitely a brave crew.

The trend is to leave at night is so that you can avoid the rain on the trial during the day. Hiking all night puts you at the summit for sunrise where both oceans can be seen. YEAH! We’re totally doing it! Being one of the 3 girls in the group of 18, I made sure I wore my hot pink spandex and other layers including a baby yellow running tank and bright blue microfiber layer, cause everything is more fun in a bright outfit.

The first hour was pretty bad, I thought I was gonna be in bad shape for the whole hike. I was dead last…and huffin and puffin. I was actually really nervous as to how I would perform, as we did no such training and the last time I hiked was on the Franconia Ride with Bryn, July 2008 before Peace Corps. But up I went.

Luckily, in the second and third hour I found my groove. Unable to talk to the guys since I was concentrating on my breathing, I opted for my IPod and soon found myself far ahead of the pact and moving at a brisk pace. Around the half way mark, Green was set for the bronze, following closely behind Jon and Brian, who were leading the way. As we got higher however, I could feel my body slowing and some of the other guys catching up.

Around 3am a group of 5 of us has established ourselves as the lead pact, as this naturally does on long hikes. Brian, Jon, Austin, Dan and I made our way step by step up the Volcano. It also got significantly colder and I had to pull on my black hoodie. This decreased my level of joy since I was no longer clad in a rainbow of Caribbean colored athletic gear, but we were on the side of a volcano, and sacrifices had to be made.

I brought up the rear, but would catch up every half hour or so when we refueled and hydrated. After about an hour with the group though, I started feeling real sick.

Now I must note that before I joined Peace Corps I bought myself a brand spankin new CamelBack, which for those of you who don’t know is a bladder of water designed to put in a backpack with a hose to sip on, so while hiking you don’t have to stop to take out your water bottle, unscrew it, the works. I’ve never used my CamelBack in the 21 months I’ve lived in Latin America. I did however take it off its hook from my house to pack it in my “bag of things to take up Volcan Baru” to find not a few, but a nest of cockroaches living inside the sleeve. I dropped the thing on the floor and watched Nacho chase the lil buggers around my house. Now the cockroaches were in the sleeve, not in the bladder where the water goes, so I presumed things would be fine. I packed away the CamelBack, not washing the never used pouch after one and half years. Gross KK.

Up on the trail I was drinking out of my CamelBack regularly, trying to ignore the musty and gross taste in my mouth that reminded me of the smell of cucarachas. Somehow I think there was debris in the pouch, and this contaminated water, after 3 hours was starting to get to me. Call it the altitude, call it the gross cucaracha water, upon meeting the four guys at our next rest stop I wanders over to the brush, staggering due to nausea and lack of oxygen and threw up like ten times. The boys were horrified, and then laughed. I turned and yelled at them for making fun of me. This violent episode lasted about 5 minutes, and after leaving my mark on the trail I was renewed. Like a burst of energy I emerged from my sick funk and was ready to conquer the volcano. This was a good thing since we were only a little bit past half way, cold from stopping, and desperate to make it to the top before sunrise. “Don’t worry Kaitlin, even though we saw you puke your brains out, we still think you’re sexy,” remarked one of the dudes as we continued the accent.

Onward and upward. The next chapter of the hike was slow moving, and slower the higher we climbed. Half of me was proud of myself for keeping up with the group’s leaders. The other half of me was mad at myself for how much my legs and lungs hurt, a clear sign I need to be working out more often than my twice a week beach jog. My lower back shot with pain from wearing a pack and hunching over while climbing. Somebody needs to strengthen her core muscles!
It got kinda of ridiculous at times. We would start as a group. Jon and Brian would immediately pull ahead followed by Dan and I. Austin was behind but after about 10 minutes of Volcan Stairmaster 2010, I would literally fall to the ground, lay on my back and just breathe deeply in and out for a minute or so, swearing, and twisting my legs to stretch out my back. Austin would pass and I would mutter “keep going! I’m fine I swear! Ahhhh shit!” Then I’d pull myself together, get up and sluggishly scale the trail to meet the boys at the next rest stop. Then the cycle would continue after we departed from getting too cold, a break less usually than five minutes, if you can call that a break at all.

When the top was in sight, it got real steep. My favorite move of this part of the journey was the hands on my knees once every five seconds lunge forward. Lower back breaking off, feet swelling, lungs collapsing, I would climb about 100 ft or so up, and then keel over to rest, and up again, and up again, and up again. Even though we were hiking in a group, we’d spread out so much that it was a very personal, alone experience. I would tear up a little in pain, and then in happiness that I actually could do this, as hard as it was. I would yell obstinacies and grunt loudly for motivation and to voice the pain I was feeling throughout my body. The guys later told me they’d hear weird noises from down the mountain and would stop to curiously look around. it was just me, bitchin. When it got really bad I thought of my sister Maddie and my friend Blair. I was like “Maddie ran the Boston Marathon and Blair hiked the entire Appalachian trial! If they can do THAT, then I can get to the top of this juvenile Volcano!” And up I went.

Finally, cell phone antennas in sight, I emerge at the base of the peak where towers are built. Its pitch black dark out and about 5am. The 4 boys are about 15 minutes ahead of me and I see the trail of their 4 headlamps climbing the rock face to get to the very top. I follow, and looking up at the sky, I cried a little. Down on my left was the city of David, the mountain towns, and the Pacific ocean. Lights illuminated the populated areas. Stars completely filled the cloudless dark sky, and looking straight ahead toward Costa Rica, lighting flashed where the water and land met. To my right I could make out the lights of Bocas town, Changuinola, and Almirante, on my side, the Bocas/Caribbean side of the country. Scary and beautiful! I trekked up the last 200 feet of the climb, meeting the boys at the second to last point on the trail. We followed the rocks up, actually having to rock climb at this point to the platform and highest part of the volcano. At 5:30am April 17th, Jon, Dan and I arrived at the top.

And then it was cold. For 45 minutes we sat at the peak huddling to keep warm under a giant trash bag I had packed in case of rain. The boys, as silly as they are did not bring layers, but luckily I had brought like 3 sets of outerwear which I gladly dispersed. Good thing you brought a woman along guys, as we munched on the banana chips and cookies I also carried to the top.

The morning glow began and we could see down to the tower as the other members of our party arrived at the base. The sun came up over the Caribbean side as the lighting died down at our backs. The sky was insane. We were shivering but as the sun got higher it warmed up immensely. The other group arrived at the top after dawn and slowly but surely all members of our party made it up! I was so proud of everyone. We ran round the peak, took pics, ate snacks, and just talked about the beauty of the area.

How amazing it was to see two oceans from the same vantage point!! I could even see my peninsula, and where my community lies. We could see all of the Bocas islands as well as Costa Rica. Up at the top we were a little over 11,000 feet. When I skydived in Australia it was at 14,000 feet. Now that’s a pretty impressive comparison.

After playing around for a while we finally decided to track down the mountain at 8am. What was supposed to be a four hour journey took 6. We thought it would be a breeze, but the steep incline was hell on our knees. My legs were jello, knees aching, and toes pounding into my sneakers. I lost it a few times. It took every ounce of effort in my body to fight the pain and keep moving, making switch backs down the mountain. The last two hours it started to rain and we had all reached our breaking point. But finally, as all things do, the trial came to the end, and with some phone calls and huddling under the ranger station we go a cab to take us back into town. I had been in the first group to make it to the top and then in the last group to make it down. My mother always told me I did things in extremes.

So to sum up: We were on the Volcano for over 18 hours on our feet with no sleep or real meals, saw the sunrise over the Caribbean at 6am after hiking all night. We ascended 11,400 feet above sea level. 15km up and then down again, which is roughly 20 miles of hiking. We laughed, we cried, we sweat, we shivered, we were hungry, we threw up, we were in pain and experienced runner’s highs. We made it to the top and down again in one piece. We saw two oceans and the width of Panama from the top. Not only was it one of my favorite challenges of Peace Corps; but one of the best experiences of my life.