Day Three

Wow! Mexico City is so great. We spent our first day exploring the historic center of Mexico City, opting to take our time exploring on our own, trying the local food, wandering around the cathedrals and shops.

We took a guided walking tour, in which we got to know the actual story behind what we had been looking at all day. Arturo, our tour guide, was wonderful and gave us a practically private tour for three hours pointing out Aztec ruins, explaining cultural significance of the religious figures depicted throughout the city, and giving us tips on where to find the best food.

Today (Friday), we went on a hike to Itzaccíhuatl-Popocatépetl National Park, which contains the second and third highest peaks in the country.We climbed a bit up the approach trail for climbers on Itzaccíhuatl, La Joyita. We hiked around 3 miles round trip, which may not sound like much, but with ~1500 ft of elevation gain, at an altitude reaching 14,000 feet, we definitely were feeling it.

Popo

The legend is of two people in love, turned into volcanoes to be together beyond death. Popocatépetl promises to protect Itza with a lit torch (Popo is an active volcano, illegal to climb!).

We learned a lot today, mostly in our transport to and within the park. Driving here is certainly nothing like driving in Seattle. Most drivers don’t use turn signals, traffic signals seem optional, and feels like driving in an interstate 5 gridlock except traffic is going in six directions at the same time. It took us over 3 hours to drive the 60 miles back from our hike.

Additionally, we got a much later start than we had hoped, due to a lot of confusion (and thus backtracking) on what roads we were allowed to take to the parking lot. This meant that due to the afternoon smog, our view was a bit obstructed of the volcanoes.

All in all, we did a really great job, and today served as a confidence builder for our climb on Thursday. We celebrated with more tacos and margaritas to round off the day (and a few Uber rides, certainly did not have any more driving in us after today).

Tomorrow, the rest of the team arrives and we are so excited to see them and kick off some of the more intense hiking and climbing!

~Paige

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