On Sunday us trainees all climbed the San Vicente volcano. Now I like to consider myself a pretty legit former athelete and went into this fully confident that really...if most people take 8 hours, maybe I could do it in 5. no problem. maybe I could even run it. Wishful thinking. We left at 7:30 or so and didn´t hit the summit until 12ish, and I was spent, alititude giddy and cold for the first time since I got here. The "summit" if it can even be called that was not the gaping lava crater I had been imagining, but a concrete slab and small army base protecting an information center. The group sat on the slab chowing down bizzarre sandwiches while young men with machine guns patrolled every corner of the 12 by 18 foot slab. yikes. But the mountain was stunning! I mean, the first site of garbage-free forested land since I arrived in El Salvador, with views all the way to Honduras on one side and all the way to the sea on the other. Doesn´t get much better than that.