Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from El Salvador’s Highest point, El Pital. May your holiday festivities be filled with the joy of togetherness and filled with many high points. Today’s climb was not a volcano! This was our only non-volcano climb during Volcanopalooza 2015. El Pital is a peak of 2730 metres in northern El Salvador and today I am celebrating reaching my 12th country high point.

It turns out the border/la fronterra runs right along the top of the peak so we all took turns heading over to Honduras for a short time. It was a lovely hike up to the peak through a cloud forest reminiscent of trekking in Nepal.

This part of El Salvador is known for its agriculture and many crops such as beets, cabbage, onions, and potatoes are grown on the steep sides of El Pital. The cloud forest lived up to its name so we missed much of the famed “Miromundo” (view of the world) view since the top of the peak was encased in cloud with only occasional openings to let us peak through.

This is my fourth Christmas in a Latin American country (Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina and El Salvador) and we are looking forward to heading into the town square in the few minutes. Already, we hear firecrackers and fireworks exploding in regular intervals all around us. We are based here in Suchitoto for the next three nights and we’re off to climb another volcano tomorrow for Christmas Day. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All. Thanks for following along with us on Volcanopalooza 2015.