Friends, family, loved ones, Stuart here calling in from the Altzimoni Hut on Iztaccíhuatl (just a little over 12,600 feet here). Just want to give you a little head’s up about our and insight about our progress so far:
Saturday we left Mexico City. Arnaldo, our Driver, gave us an excellent tour, though all too brief as usual, of the Museum of Anthropology and we drove up to Paso de Cortez (at just 12,000 feet). Along the way we stopped off at Amecameca, where we could grab some last minute groceries. We visited the Market which is always an interesting experience and stopped off for lunch. And then we went at the pass, we registered our climb. We found out unfortunately the Altzimoni Hut was a little bit busy and we elected to stay at Buena Vista Villas and Cabañas which worked out really well; it was just a little ways down the road and we had a good time there.
Today we did an acclimatization hike. We walked from Paso de Cortez up to La Joya, the regular trailhead, went up the regular route that Los Pies/La Arista del Sol route, stopped at a Portillo (at about 14,000 feet) which was enough for folks. But really great day for hiking, the weather was great, had some great views of Popocatépetl blowing off some steam, it was erupting, and some nice views out towards our second objective up towards Puebla and Pico de Orizaba.
Tomorrow: plan is to move up to our High Camp, basically Ayaloco Glacier. Everybody sends their love, is doing well. And yeah, we’ll keep you posted on our progress, looking forward to moving up the mountain tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in, bye for now.
