Hiking San Cristobal

so, i just climbed the highest volcano in central america. it's called 'san cristobal'. it was pretty much a nightmare. yesterday, a school bus dropped us of in a rural community at the foot of this volcano. we had to walk 8 kilometers (with backpacks and 2 days water supply) uphill just to get to this guy's place where we could hang hammocks up and sleep. we woke up at 4:30 in the morning to start climbing.
guys, newsflash: i don't think i'm a climber. it was probably one of the most miserable things that i've ever done in my entire 22 years. we hiked uphill (duh) for about 2 1/2 hours in the forest before we hit the last 2 1/2 hour climb uphill in pure SAND AND GRAVEL at a 60 degree angle. I gave up. I got close enough in my opinion to what could reasonably be considered "the top" and sat down in the dirt with another girl we went with and we decided that we knew our limits of volcano climbing and that we'd sit down and just hang out in the cloud (we were that high up!!) so then it started raining really hard on the way down and the sole of one of my hiking shoes just came right off. i was rather frustrated to say the least, but did not cry. i think there are more blisters on my feet than toes but i made it home in one piece and have some interesting pictures which i posted today. the new address for my pictures is: http://picasaweb.google.com/elizabeth.p.slack. go there!