Iztaccihuatl

Last weekend I traveled to Iztaccihuatl (volcano.) It was probably one of the prettiest places I have ever been in my entire life. It was also really good to be out of the city for a weekend.
There are several things to take away from my stay in volcano territory, and they are as follows:
1. If you really want to travel to remote places, you need to be open to the fact that you have know idea what you are getting yourself into. No matter how much you try to prepare and think you have a plan, it will almost always fall through. This weekend, we tried to catch a bus that never came, so we had to ask a different bus driver for a favor to drop us off on his way someplace else. We found on the internet that there were cabins half way up the volcano to sleep in. Upon arrival, we found no such cabins. But we had also heard that it only got down to 10-15 degrees C at night, so we resolved to sleep outside. That night our water bottles froze it was so cold. So we slept in a 3 person tent with 7 people.
2. Altitude sickness is a horrible thing. I was fine, but I had two friends that couldn't stop throwing up and had horrible headaches to the lack of oxygen. (Hannah included)
3. When the wild dogs came to your camp, and are howling all around you, it is fairly frightening. However, if you light a fire, they go away.
4. You really can use cow manure as fuel.

With all that being sad, it was probably my favorite trip since I've been here. The air was so fresh, and all you could hear was the wind...