So this is how our full day of excitement, disappointment, getting lost, but being so grateful for being safe and being surrounded by this breathtaking nature, turned out to be a wonderful day.
Feeling very blessed.
I shared all of these pictures in my last 3 posts of our experience trying to hike up the Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador, and now I am sharing a video of it all and because I didn't want you to go back and check all these separate posts, I put them all here together and I hope you will enjoy it.
One of my goals/my bucket list, was to climb the Volcano Santa Ana in El Salvador, since I have seen many pictures and videos from this beautiful volcano and I just knew that this is the place I will visit one day and today was one of those days, since my sister-in-law came to visit for a week from the USA, we thought it would be great to take her there.
El Salvador has many volcanos for tourist to visit, but this Santa Ana volcano is quite different because it has this aqua colored water inside of it, which I have never seen or heard of in any other volcanos. I don't quite know what it is or why it is like that, so I will have to check it out and do some research.
We were prepared with 4 heavy backpacks, filled with plenty of water and food since it is very hot and the whole hike supposed to take us 4 hours.
Sandwiches ready.
We were supposed to go to the Volcano at 8 am, with another family member (Michael) who was supposed to pick us up because he knows which way to go since I don't know where exactly to go, but at the end (Michael) could not make it.
Because we didn't want to waste a day, we decided to use GPS, which unfortunately took us to the wrong place, but that is mostly because we didn't really put the exact place on the GPS that we wanted to go.
What an interesting and a bit scary experience we had. First of all it took us forever to drive up this not so good gravel/dirt road where eventually we had to park the truck since the road got to steep and with almost drivable and so we thought we could hike up a bit and ask someone if this is the right place since the further up we drive, the more it didn't look like we were in the right place.
Gorgeous coffee and the view was also so beautiful, even though we didn't get to see much of it because of the trees blocking the view. We were also very surprised how hight we have driven, and that is why the trip was scary since it is only I, Nancy and my boys and we are in the middle of nowhere and we don't know how much further we have to go and we have been driving for about 40 minutes up this dirt road.
We were surrounded by coffee fincas so there were not too many people to ask for directions, but finally we got to talk to one of the man we found, which was quite a story, but that is another long story to explain, but at the end we found out that this was not the right place, so we had to turn around which was another scary and almost impossible thing to do since the dirt road was so narrow and with us driving the huge Dodge truck, I almost felt like crying, but we did it.
The drive was really, really beautiful since you are surrounded by this amazing green nature (most of it coffee fincas) and all these gorgeous colorful flowers, so we still got to enjoy the scary but beautiful drive and we have learned that this is not the right way to the volcano, but at least we got to see something new.
Now, because it is 1 oclock, we have to decide to either waste the rest of the day and go back home, or use the GPS again and try our luck again. The thing is, this time the GPS did show us the direction where I thought it would be and where the guy on top of the mountain said we have to go, so we decided to for it.
Drove by the beautiful Mirador of the Lake Coatepeque which we also wanted to take Nancy to, because it is absolutely an amazing tourist place to visit, but unfortunately, Nancy doesn't have enough time to see all these beautiful places.
We finally made it to the right place. We have arrived.
Cute little pathway through a private property.
Opening the gate to the cute little pathway. Just following the signs, not knowing what to expect on our way.
This is where we have to hike up to. It doesn't really look like a volcano since it is not very steep, but it is huge on top, so it looks like a normal mountain.
This is getting very exciting now. We are finally here. Yay.
I believ this was just an abounded church in the middle of nowhere.
So the last time the Santa Ana Volcano erupted in October of 2005.
So we made it to this cute little park with few stores and washrooms and office where we can finally get some information and where you pay for your hike which is $3.00/person.
Cute little rest place.
So after asking some questions at the office, we found out that we are not allowed to keep on hiking up the volcano since it is too late and we are not allowed to hike by ourselves.
You are only allowed to hike up with either the police officer which we would have to go to another place to get registered for specific day and time or we can come back tomorrow at 11 am and hike up with a tour guy and more people.
Well....this was disappointing since we were so ready for our hike and we just have wasted more time (the whole day) and we have not seen the volcano and now we have to drive to a different place to get registered for maybe tomorrow morning.
Now we are heading back down where we started. We felt really discouraged after trying all day to hike up the volcano and the more we try the more setbacks we get, but we will try to look for the registration place and see if we get any luck.
@JOORDANZZZ enjoying the gorgeous view of the Volcano Izalco.
We are all enjoying the amazing view. This was definitely worth the trip.
Cute little nature tunnel up the hill.
The three troublemakers enjoying the view.
At the end we did end up signing up for the next morning, but we have to be here at 6 am. That means, we have to wake up at 4 am and leave the house at 5 am to be here right on time, since the policeman said be here sharp or he will leave.
We had no idea that the two volcanos were this close to each other, which is very cool. I knew that the Volcano Izalco was around here somewhere driving toward Sonsonate, but had no idea it was this close.
Now we can register either for a hike up the Santa Ana Volcano or the Izalco Volcano. But like I said before, Santa Ana Volcano is just one of those must see, amazing aqua water volcano unlike all the other ones.
Santa Ana Volcano is not as steep and easier to hike up to even though it is a longer hike. Volcano Izalco is more challenging from what we hear since it is steeper but shorter hike up. From what we also heard is that Volcano Izalco is pretty slippery and more dangerous since the hike is on the volcano gravel which is pretty slippery and one lady actually slipped and was killed while doing the hike. I think I will maybe pass this hike.
Out of so many setbacks and being a bit disappointed of not being able to hike up the Santa Ana Volcano today, we still had a wonderful day since we have seen many gorgeous places and we learned how to be prepared and where to go for the next time.
Hope you are having a wonderful Thursday and hope you enjoyed the video and tomorrow I will share our wonderful experience hiking up the amazing volcano.
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It's beautiful scenery up there! Adventurous too!
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This post has been selected for 7 Tag Curation Project | Thursday (#travel)
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Such an adventure this turned into for you!
Yes it did @melinda010100.
But after all of this, it was a blessed day that we are very grateful for.