Police escort on Santa María Volcano (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 local guide Carlos was awesome, he even speak excellent English.

The trailhead is located around 2500 m.a.s.l. and the path is in very good condition (a new trail was built 3 years ago). We did the summit in less than 3 hours. Then we spent almost 2 hours on the summit and got to see the nearby Santiaguito explode two times.

I carried no valuebles on this hike, no camera cellphone or money. Tommaso had a cheap camera, so I will get some photos from him :-)