How to Celebrate a Birthday

March 31, 2011
Mexico City

How to Celebrate a Birthday

First, start with an idea: Hmm...I want to do something my father never did on his 62nd birthday!

Think of possibilities: Visit a colonial city. Go to a museum you've never been to. See a movie. Have a great dinner in a new part of town you don't know well. Climb a volcano.

Pick the one that best meets the criteria of something your father never did on his 62nd birtday.

CLIMB A VOLCANO!

And so I did. I certainly didn't like the idea of turning 62, but if I had to do it, I might as well do it in style. Up at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of the birthday. Shower. Pack warm clothes. It might be warm in 7,500 foot Mexico City, but it will not be warm at 15,000 feet. Grab a taxi to the bus station. Travel the hour up and out of Mexico City to Toluca, at 8,500 feet. Start the day right with a big bottle of cold Diet Coke and a package of cookies. Hey! Why not? It's my birthday and I can do anything I want.

I get to Toluca by 8:30 a.m., walk outside and start asking taxis how much they will charge me to take me to the trail head of El Nevado de Toluca, wait at least two hours while I finish the ascent to the crater's rim, then return me to Toluca. I get quotes of 700 pesos. No way! My guide books tells me 500 pesos! $42.00.

I find Max.

"You speak English?" he says.

"I do." "500 pesos," he says.

He's my man.

I settle a few other issues, like where to buy some breakfast and enough liquid to keep me hydrated as I slog up an extinct volcano almost three miles above sea level. This is not a difficult climb. We head out of Toluca. El Nevado looms ahead. It's a clear, early morning. I'm told to do this hike early as it it clouds up by midday. Max and I are rattling along in a fine mix of English and Spanish. He lived eight years in Pittsburg and speaks the language well. When neither of us can figure out how to express ourselves in the other language, we swtich back to our native tongue. It's a great way to start the day! Twenty minutes out of the city he diverts off the Federal Highway and starts a steady climb up another well paved road. Pine trees shade the dry, parched ground. It's not rained here in several months and it's bone dry. Soon we enter the El Nevado de Toluca National Park and the paved road turns to a well packed dirt track. We climb and climb. Both of us say we have headaches. We're well above 12,000 feet, and this is rarified air. I'm grateful that I've been living at 7,500 feet and am aclimatized to that. It will make the last leg of the hike that much easier.

We reach the end of the road. He's warned me that I'll have to hike at least a kilometer up. That's just over a half a mile, but I'm at 14,500 feet and at that altitude a half mile takes on a whole other story. I take off and start the ascent way too fast. I'm well above 13,000 feet and this was a fast climb to this altitude.

I'm healthy, but my lungs take a beating and I start a hacking cough tht leads to dry heaves. And this is just ten minutes into the hike. But I refuse to give up. I will not do that. This is my birthday climb and I will get to the rim of the crater.

So I start to climb more slowly. From several trips to Bolivia where I've lived for days at this altitude, I've learned that the best thing is to count twenty slow steps, stop for a reasonable time, then repeat the process. It's slow, but within the hour I reach the crater.

Below me lay two lakes--la laguna de la luna and la laguna del sol. I really want to take the trail down to the crater, but my deal with Max was to climb to the crater, hang around a bit, then return. He is, after all, waiting in his taxi for me.

I stay on the crater's rim for almost an hour, soaking up vistas, thanking God for the ability to do this, and texting a few people boasting of my accomplishment.

I'm totally bummed, though, that my camera's battery wore out on the ride up the mountain. But I'm also so exhilarated that I've already decided to come back with a few others--and my good Niokon where I'll photo document the whole adventure. That time we'll negotiate for a longer stay on the summit, allowing us to take the trails down into the crate and around the lakes.

The walk down to the car is a cinch. Max is napping. I wake him, we take off and within the hour we're back in Toluca.

Mission Accomplished! I had a fantastic birthday and certainly did something my father never did on his 62nd birthday!