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El Salvador HP - easy summit but beware of scorpions
- Date:
- 19.04.2013
From the small town of San Ignacio in El Salvador there is only a few buses per day to Las Pilas. We skipped the early 7:00 AM bus, and decided on the 9:30 AM departure instead. After 45 minutes on a very steep hairpin road, we jumped off at the pass, Rio Chiquito, at 2200 m.a.s.l. The bus fare to Rio Chiquito is only USD 1.15. From the pass (Rio Chiquito) a cobble stone road, later turning into a dirt road, goes almost all the way to the summit. The sign in Rio Chiquito says 5.5 km to the summit, but we felt it was shorter. The road was easy walking in a pleasant temperature. There were a few barking dogs along the road, but the evil ones were safely behind fence. We had to pay a 2 USD entrance fee, because this mountain is private property. At the end of the road we arrived a nice >>>
Police escort on Santa María Volcano
- Date:
- 07.04.2013
We paid only 125 quetzal (16 USD) each to have Monte Verde organizing a small team of 4 clients. For me and Tommaso we would save nothing trying to do it independently, because taxi to/from trailhead is fairly expensive. So it was an easy choice to do this as an organized tour from Xela. Also because of safety since this trail is notorious for armed robberies. It would be better to have a local guide to "talk" with any armed bandits, than sorting this out ourselves in very broken spanish. TEAM: Carlos - Guide from Guatemala Tommaso - Italy Lyngve - Norway Clara - England Chad - USA Two policemen was supposed to meet us at the trailhead around 5:30 AM and escort us to the summit because there was an armed robbery of two groups the previous day. The police was not there, but we hiked up anyway. Our >>>