Climbing Santa Ana Volcano

So today we climbed the highest Volcano in El Salvador - Volcan Ilamatepec or just Santa Ana Volcano. It is 2381m albeit we only went to the craters edge and not to the full summit. It was much easier than the last volcano!

We had about 500m of ascent from the trail head first through forest and then more sparsely vegetated slopes.

The huge Agave plants were impressive. This is what they make Tequila from. The flowers form once in the plant’s life and then they die. But when you see the size of them (twice a human) you can see it is a once in a lifetime investment.

Continuing the theme of armed guards there were two armed police on the top ensuring all the tourists were safe.

The crater itself was impressive with a strong sulfur smell and a 200m drop to the acidic lake. We added a new bird on the top - Violet Green Swallow which takes me to 399 for the trip.

Afterwards we visited the much larger crater lake of Coatepeque for lunch.Read more