Hiking Iztaccihuatl: The "Sleeping Woman" Volcano

.....Guess who's back? Seeing as it's been more than 4 months(!) since my last post, I thought it was high time to arrange another adventure in Mexico. The trouble is, most of the places I want to go to in Mexico now are much easier or better to go to with a group, and getting a group together requires more effort than I've been willing to put forth lately. Except for yesterday.

If you remember back to my last post, waaaay back in early January, I told you that I was going to hike the volcanoes sometime this year. And friends, that was no lie. (Except for the fact that I said 'volcanoes,' meaning both of them. At the time, I didn't realize it's been prohibited to hike Popocatepetl for the last 20 years). Getting to Iztaccihuatl, the dormant volcano that can be seen to the south of Mexico City, was tricky. I was lucky enough to go with 3 friends, who all speak fluent Spanish, and we were able to figure out how to make our way around volcano-town.

Our day started around 7 am, when we began meeting up with each other in the subway and the TAPO bus station in the eastern part of the city. We caught a bus to Amecameca at a little after 8 in the morning, and arrived there around 9:45. With food being the first thing on our minds, we stopped in the little market for a quesadilla breakfast.

The market in Amecameca. Our breakfast place was the one on
the right side, with the metal-shack roofing and the orange signs.

After our bellies were full of quesadillas, coffee, and tamarind-water, we negotiated with a taxi driver to take us up to the trailhead at La Joya. The drive took a little over an hour on winding mountain roads with hairpin turns, and the last 7 kilometers turned into an unmaintained dirt road where cars average less than 10 miles per hour.

It was okay, though, because our taxi driver had Captain America on the dashboard, watching over us.

Just before the road turned into dirt, we stopped to buy our permits
to go up the mountain at the Izta-Popo National Park Headquarters.

The view of Popocatepetl from the Park Headquarters

The view of Iztaccihuatl from the Park Headquarters

Our hiking group

Izta, from where we started.

Looking back down the trail towards the valley of Mexico.

Myself, and Popocatepetl in the background

Our hiking group, after getting our asses kicked by all the uphill work. The views were worth it.

The view of Popocatepetl after hiking about 60 - 90 minutes up Iztaccihuatl.

There's snow in Mexico? There's SNOW in Mexico?!? (Thankfully, only on the volcanoes.)

Continuing past the treeline, the mountain became mainly rock and dirt.

The higher we climbed, the steeper and colder it got (obviously). Notice how the gloves and thicker jacket came out?

After hiking about 3 and a half hours up the volcano, we were in the clouds. It
was certainly below freezing, but again, worth it. I only wish I'd brought a hat.

 After 3.5 hours, it was time to head back down. We were all suffering from being underdressed for the cold, and our taxi was supposed to meet us at 6:30.

On the way back down Izta, we ran into a group with 6 dogs, including THE softest and sweetest
husky puppy that I've ever seen. I had to steal their dog just for a minute, for cuddles and a picture.

We were glad we descended when we did. The clouds took over and the rain started around 5 pm.

At the base of the mountain, we tried to start a fire. It worked, for about 5 minutes, but rain kind of ruined it.

 Our taxi was supposed to be back around 6:30. In Mexico, though, these things are never certain, and since there was only one road, we decided to hitch a ride (OMG so sorry mom and dad!) in the back of a truck until we either saw our taxi coming up the road or made it to the Park Headquarters.

3 of us hanging on for dear life as the truck scrambled down the bumpy mountain road.

Since riding in the back of a truck in the rain at high altitudes may or may not make someone lose all feeling in their hands, arms, face, ears, and legs, I had to re-teach myself how to move after getting (falling) out of the truck when we stopped at the Park Headquarters. I never knew how much I could appreciate the hot mud-coffee they served there.

Side note: Just as I was writing here, a strong earthquake struck in DF. Obviously, everything seems to be okay, otherwise I wouldn't be blogging right now. Still, everyone here knows I'm a giant baby about earthquakes. Thank you Ana, the nicest roommate ever, who called and texted to check on me right after it happened, even though you're on vacaton! 

Aaaaanyways.....The taxi did come to pick us up at the Park Headquarters, and we found out that they weren't letting anybody up the dirt road, so it was actually lucky that we hitched a ride down! The nice, warm taxi took us all the way back down to our bus station in Amecameca. We grabbed dinner at the Chinese buffet adjacent to the station before getting our tickets to go home. Luckily, buses come every 15 minutes, so we were headed back to DF shortly after 8 pm. I was home, muddy and exhausted, by 10:30. Who knew you could get a beautiful, challenging, Rocky-Mountain-esque hike making only a day trip from DF?