My flight into Mexico City arrived at 12:30PM, 15 minutes late, on Thursday November 10 because the plane was late getting off the ground at DFW. I got through customs by 1PM. I had four bags because I was carrying gear for German. When you clear customs you come out of the glass doors and there're some metal poles to prevent you from taking your baggage cart any further. There are uniformed porters lined up there to help.
I hired a porter to help me get to the bus terminal to catch the 1:30 bus to Puebla. I asked him if we could make the 1:30 bus and he responded "Quien sabe?" (who knows). We walked at top speed through the crowded terminal for maybe 10 minutes. I recommend using porters. I over-tipped him heavily (paid him $10) and he blessed me. We arrived at the counter at about 1:25 PM but they wouldn't let me on. I don't know if the bus was full or if it was too late. For sure I would have delayed the bus. Mexican buses are like Swiss trains: prompt.
I hung out in the bus terminal waiting for the 2:30 bus. There are buses that leave every hour on the hour but they go to a terminal that is far from downtown. The buses that leave every hour on the half hour go downtown to Quatro Poniente. Bus Schedule
Blow up of church.
I used a public computer terminal in the waiting room at the bus terminal to e-mail German and tell him I'd be on the 2:30 bus. The computer terminal was free in general but for some reason I had to pay to access my gmail account. I don't know how that could be. Access to certain mail servers was free, but for general access to the www you had to pay. I had to go down the hall to a little shop and buy a phone card and use that to pay for the internet access. While I was looking for the shop a friendly guy carrying a machine gun asked me if I needed help. He showed me the shop. I bought a sandwich, a beer, a bottle of water, and the card for something like $6. I used the phone card for maybe a half hour and then had plenty of time remaining for calls later. The bus trip to Puebla was uneventful and we arrived on schedule at 4:30.
German arrived a few minutes later and we spent the afternoon/evening trying to find guides for Izta and Pico.
I didn't want to go with guides but German doesn't climb and he was my host and he did want guides. We had previously arranged for a young lady to guide us but she flaked out on us. While German used a pay phone near Zocolo to find guides I brushed up on my Spanish by attempting to ask a beautiful police lady a bunch of stupid questions. Finally we settled on Sergio and Rosa... (i never could remember the last 3 syllables of Rosa's name so I'll call her "Rosa".
On Friday morning I got up and took these pictures from German's back yard:
Popo from German's back yard.
Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
Sergio's hut
We went into the university so German could teach and then I gave the weekly seminar at the physics department. When I got back to German's office I was saddened to learn that one of my best friends, Brosl
had died about the time my talk talk began. It was expected. I half thought he died on me so as not to be subjected to another climbing story on my return. This trip and this report were part of what I did to mark his passing. He was one of a kind.
One night he shows up at my house with guitarist Stanley Jordan. I asked him to play Moonlight Sonata. Of course he said he couldn't do it, and then proceeded to play something like the first 3 pages (of sheet music) from memory. They stayed until I don't know 3 in the morning.
At some point Brosl tell's Stanley, "John's a good guitar player too" which is ridiculous. I noodle around, like singing in the shower or something. Of course, Stanley's gracious as hell and he's all "oh, here, take my guitar and play". I didn't touch it. You never knew who he was going to show up with. Brosl was a trip. Later dude.
The physics department at Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (which dates to 1578) gave me a nice ceramic plate and $40 for my talk and they told German that he could spend up to 300 pesos on a dinner for the two of us. We combined the $40 and the 300 pesos (roughly $70 total) and ate at a fancy restaurant. The only thing I remember about the meal was that the waiter insisted that some Spanish wine was better than an Argentine one (Navarro Correo). I don't remember what we drank but I remember what we didn't drink: Navarro Correo. The waiter didn't know much about wine. After dinner we wandered around Puebla admiring the architecture.
It's funny. It almost seems like there are two economies working there, the global one and the local one. We had no problem spending $70 on dinner
but whenever were were in Puebla for lunch we ate at "Comida corrida" restaurants where we'd get a 5 course meal for about $3. The servings weren't enormous but just about the right amount of food. For some reason we ate breakfast at a very American style restaurant and that would cost about $10 each. That was nice because there were always pretty girls to gawk at.
The old hermitage
On Saturday morning we went to the plaza in Cholula for a leisurely breakfast. It's hard to describe how it felt to sit on the plaza. I spent half my time ogling beautiful women and the other half fantasizing that I'd been transported back into the Aztec empire. We met Sergio and Rosa who joined us at breakfast. After eating Alejandro and Humberto arrived and we left Cholula for Izta. We drove to Sergio's hut at 11,000' on Izta, arriving about noon.
I'm not sure where that was. I know that we didn't go through Paso de Cortez to get there.
Inside the old original Hermitage
Outside the old original Hermitage
We hung out there and hiked to the hermitage which was spectacular. It was a sort of monastery. The monks used to live in a tiny dark cave but I guess it was a bit dank or crowded or cold because later they built this spectacular edifice:
The Hermitage is upgraded.
Lots of people visit the Hermitage
The Dome
Photos from inside the hermitage
Sergio with Popo in the background
Beatification
It was dark and quiet inside.
The snow virgin inside the hermitage on Izta.
The prayer that burgeons from silence is powerful and strong. Inside the hermitage on Izta.
Dove outside the hermitage. (On Izta.)
Ugly guy inside the hermitage on Izta.
Rosa's incredible lunch cooking. (On Izta)
The Crater
After we got back from the hermitage we ate, drank, and packed up. We left the hut at about 5PM drove to Paso de Cortez and on to La Joya (13,000') arriving at 6PM. It must have been an amazing site for Cortez when he came over that pass and saw the Aztec empire out in front of him. We were in bed by 7PM. It was hard to sleep because there were lots of people there partying.
Our first break was here at around 15,000'.
Izta's Feet (Los Pies)
The Refugio
We got up at 3AM and left at 4AM. This was the highest I'd ever slept before. By the time we were around 14,300', an altitude that had never bothed me at all before, I felt pretty lousy. I'd never driven higher than about 11,000' before. Anyway we stopped and rested and after that I felt fine, stupid, but fine. This picture shows us about to leave after our first rest break. Note the mind-like-a-steel-trap grin.
We climbed up past her feet. Sergio had to stop near the refugio at about 16,000' because of a cramp. There were a lot of people camping there.
We arrived at her stomach around noon, where we stopped. We didn't continue on to her breasts shown here because it was a little late.
Izta's Naughty bits (The Crater)
Heading from the crater rim to the stomache.
German resting on Izta at our highpoint.
Looking at Izta's breasts from her stomache.
Tlahuizcalpantecutli
Sergio is a linguist who taught me the Nahuatl name for Venus: Tlahuizcalpantecutli. At 16,000' it was nearly impossible for me to remember. Only German spoke English so I got to brush up on my lousy Spanish. The higher we went the harder it was to follow the conversations. I had a blast on this trip. I was a little disappointed that we didn't reach the summit (we were something like 400 vertical feet and 3-4 miles from the summit where we stopped) but the trip was awesome. I had never climbed anything higher than CO 14er's before and had never done the rest step, so the fact that we went slower than I would've naturally gone was a learning experience for me. I wore a heart monitor the entire 13 1/2 hour trip and my average heart rate was 113. I've never climbed at such a leisurely pace before. I measured my blood O2 saturation at the refugio at 16,000' and it was 78%! Later that week on Orizaba at 15,000' it was 90% so the acclimation on Izta really made a difference. Basically the altitude was not an issue for me except early on. Climbing at that pace was different. I'm sure if I'd "run" up the way I normally do, I'd have regretted it.
Popo was venting steam nearly constantly.
Popo was letting off a lot of steam that day.
OH yeah. Somewhere out on the net I saw a trip report where some guy had explained that Mexico was a country of "haves" and "have nots" with no middle class and that clearly the Mexicans on the mountains were among the "haves" because they had North Face etc gear. He went on to say that this was just an "ignorant ugly American's view" or some such. Even though he acknowledged his own ignorance it really pissed me off so I'll vent here. About 60% of the population in Mexico is middle class. German, Sergio, Humberto, Alejandro, Rosa, are all middle class. Sergio has taught a mountaineering course for decades. He lives modestly and he lives his life so that he can climb. He tried running a professional guide service for a while and didn't like turning the thing that he loves into a business so he quit that. I plan to go back in March with my 15 year old daughter and I will probably try to arrange to climb with Sergio. He's a good guy. There're a lot of climbers down there that will guide quite cheaply. If you want guides and want to experience the local culture you might consider going with non-professionals. They are WAY cheaper than the professionals but you probably reduce your chances of summiting. The reduced chance to summit is not because of lack of knowledge/skill etc but because non-professionals have lives apart from climbing so they'll have more restricted schedules. My summit bids for both Izta and Pico were two days/one night each, including driving to and from Puebla. I spent something like $500 total on this trip, guides, food, gasoline, etc. (I used miles to pay for my airfare and stayed at German's.) I would rather have spent more time on the mountain and less time in Puebla but I think that could be arranged.
German said that there are guides that don't actually want to go to the summit so they'll run you as hard as they can so that you get sick and have to turn around. I don't know how common that is. You can go to the climbing stores in Puebla and they'll recommend guides for you. I'm not sure how German found Sergi'o. I think someone at the university recommended him.
Brosl Hasslacher, as in FHP -- the first lattice gas model to do the Navier Stokes? Now the NM tie makes sense.
"In New Mexico he always awoke a young man; not until he rose and began to shave did he realize that he was growing older." -- Willa Cather, from "Death Comes to the Archbishop"
Mexican Volcanoes > Iztaccihuatl > Guided climb on Izta
