La Muela

This Sunday I hiked a mountain, La Muela, with my friends Vince and Elena. La Muela ("The Molar) is one of the many mountains that surround Xela. We walked from the city, through farms and beautiful fields, to the base of the mountain. There is no distinct trail initially, so the first hour we bushwhacked through thick foliage, hoping none of the plants were too poisonous.

We finally came upon the trail (rather luckily) and continued the steep ascent to the top. I was feeling tired, hungry and ready to be at the top when we stumbled upon one of the coolest things I've ever seen. One whole side of the mountain was spewing steam from various pockets and vents. There is a great deal of tectonic activity in this area of the world (one local told me Xela has "earthquake seasons") and therefore an adundance of natural hot springs, or in this case, natural steam baths made of boulders. It was a surreal and magical sight. And I have to get the photos of this from Vince...

We descended in the daily afternoon rain which quickly turned into a thick fog. Luckily, we had the trail to follow the whole way down. Well, kind of. Somehow we ended up trekking through a corn field, then a cabbage field, then a beet field, then another corn field and finally to the road. We ended the day at Los Vahos, one-hundred-year-old steam baths.