Naturally we decided to climb the bigger of the two. The volcano is known as Concepción and measures roughly 1,700 meters. This is still an active volcano and you can see smoke coming from the top on a daily basis and the last time it erupted was 2010.
Anyways, at dawn on Saturday I found myself with Nathan, Johnny, and Anton heading towards the volcano to make the hike towards the top. We all had some water and were ready to take it on.
We had all already hiked a volcano in Guatemala so didn’t think that this would be that hard. However, when we got to the bottom our guide asked us if we had water. We said yes and showed him our bottles. He said we needed more and directed us to a store to buy several more bottles of water. We were told a meal would be provided for us, however we found out that no meal was being provided for us and not having anything to eat yet, Johnny quickly went and bought a loaf of basically hotdog buns for us to eat as we climbed.
We headed up the volcano on what was pretty easy terrain. However, the trail soon disappeared and we found ourselves literally climbing up rocks and cliffs trying to stick with our guide.
I consider myself a pretty fit guy and enjoy working out, however within minutes I was covered in sweat and had already downed one of my 1.5 litter bottles of water.
We were struggling to keep pressing on to reach the summit basically staggering forward one foot at a time. The only thing that kept us going was the encouragement from one another and the reward we knew we would get when we got to the top. Several times I thought I couldn’t do it and had to reference my life verse of Philippians 4:13 knowing I could do it with strength from the Lord.
We started climbing around 7 am. Around 11:45 am our guide stopped us and said this is as close to the top as he was going to go. He said the top was very hot and dangerous due to the slippery gravel and tremendous winds that could literally blow you over the edge (they were that strong).
We were so disappointed; we had not put forth all this effort to come up this short. After getting our guides permission we decided to continue on. After traveling a few 100 yards, we reached the top. It was indescribable! We were sitting on the edge of a volcano looking into the smoking crater. After basking in the glory and the realization of what we had accomplished we embarked on the still very intense 3-hour descent.
Sitting at dinner that night with the guys, as we destroyed massive amounts of food and consumed gallon after gallon of water, I reflected on the day. I realized that this challenge of climbing the volcano is a lot like some of the hardships we go through in our walks with the Lord.
We accept Jesus into our heart and our so pumped to follow Him (starting to climb the volcano). We then encounter hardships and brokenness from the world, which cause us to want to give up (the trail disappears and we our literally climbing up rocks). We continue to fight and follow Jesus because we know what the final reward will be worth it (wanting to reach the top). Finally getting to spend eternity with Jesus and experience the glory of heaven (reaching the top and seeing the glory of it).
