Got back yesterday from my hike up Tajumulco with Quetzaltrekkers. They are a volunteer organization that offers backpacking trips throughout the Guatemalan Highlands(www.quetzaltrekkers.com) to help raise money for Escuela de la Calle, a Xela based organization for at risk youth. They provide all gear, food, transportation, and guides. Tajumulco is a dormant volcano and the highest point in Central America at 4220m(13845ft) we left Saturday morning at 5am with are group packed into the back of a pick-up to the bus station, where we caught a chicken bus to San Marcos. Once there we had breakfast at a local Comidor and then took another bus to the trail head if you can call it that. We began hiking around 10am the weather was cool and we were stuck in the clouds with only brief glimpses of the surrounding landscape. There were 17 people in are group a few to many for my liking but a good group none the less. This was not the most difficult hike I'd ever done but due to the altitude and some pretty steep sections of trail it was a definite workout. We finally got above the clouds about 2pm. You can see numerous other volcano's sticking up through the sea of clouds. We hike until about 3pm then had a great lunch of salad, curried potato's, chips, and bread which helped lighten are load. We then hiked another hour and a half to the camping area(4000m) where we setup the tents gathered some firewood and relaxed before we hiked up the smaller of the 2 summits for the sunset. We got back to camp in time for soup and pasta and which hit the spot because it was starting to get cold out. The stars were amazing a haven't seen that many in a long time along with lightning way off to the south of us, it's pretty neat to be above and see it light up clouds. We all hit the tents pretty early after a hard days climb. We got up at 4:15 to frost and the final 220m climb to the summit to catch the sunrise. It took us about 45 min to reach the summit which felt even colder due to the high winds. We hung out for about an hour taking pictures and admiring the view of the landscape and into the crater that was until now hidden from view. We then hiked back to camp made breakfast and packed up. We headed out about 9am and made it down before noon. We repeated the same transport as before stopping off in San Marcos for lunch at the same Comidor. We got back into Xela by 3:45. This was a great trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone, you are given plenty of time to make the climb, and anyone in fair shape should be able to do it. The price at the time of this post was 320Q which includes everything. It's entirely possible to do this hike on your own if you wanted, the most difficult part is getting to the trail head. the trail is pretty obvious just keep going up and ignore the smaller trails that lead off the main one. I'm going to do another hike with Quetzaltrekkers tomorrow from Xela to Lago de Atitlan. So I'll make that report when I'm in San Pedro relaxing by the lake. I'm sure it will be better than the bus ride I had been planning on making.