Mt. Liamuiga

I climbed a volcano!!! Alright, so it's dormant and hasn't erupted in over 1800 years. But it's still a volcano. Mt. Liamuiga is the highest point in St. Kitts at an elevation of 3792 feet on the Western side of the island. It was formerly called Mt. Misery: quite accurately if you ask me.

 

The scenery on the drive to the base. It reminds me a little of a scene from Madagascar.

Mount Liamuiga is a 3,792 feet (1,156 m) stratovolcano which forms the western part of the island of Saint Kitts. The peak is the highest point on the island of Saint Kitts, in the federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and in the entire British Leeward Islands, as well as one of the tallest peaks in the eastern Caribbean archipelago. The peak is topped by a 0.6 miles (1 km) wide summit crater, which contained a shallow crater lake until 1959. As of 2006, the crater lake had re-formed. The last verified eruptions from the volcano were about 1,800 years ago, while reports of possible eruptions in 1692 and 1843 are considered uncertain.
Mount Liamuiga was formerly named Mount Misery. The renaming took place on the date of St. Kitts' independence, September 19, 1983. However, many older citizens still refer to it as Mount Misery. The name Liamuiga is derived from the Kalinago name for the entire island of St. Kitts, which means, "fertile land."
The mountainsides are covered in farmland and small villages up to the 1,500 feet (460 m) height, after which lush tropical
rainforests drape the slopes until cloud forest takes over at 3,000 ft (900 m). Many tours and guided hikes are organized to the peak's summit and surrounding rainforests, usually starting from Belmont Estate in the village of St. Paul's. From the summit, the views are outstanding, including the entire island and the beautiful Caribbean Sea, as well as the neighbouring islands of Saba, Statia, St. Barths, St. Martin, Antigua, and Nevis.

 

Just to prove that I was actually there and didn't just steal someone's pictures!

 

Geoff's family is visiting, so he coordinated the hike with one of our Kittitian friends Royston, one of the most famous tour guides on the island. And you can see why, here he is climbing a tree like a monkey!

 

Which is what we were afraid (ok fine I was the only one who was scared) we heard rustling in the trees above us.

 

 

I tried being graceful.

 

A lot of the hike was straight up vertical (pun intended).

 

A lot of the hike went like this: Royston waiting on me and Julie Ann.

 

But we finally made it to the top!

  

 

And it was definitely beyond worth it. It took us about 2 hours going up and 1 hours 20 minutes on the way down. Pictures will never do justice to the feel of the breeze at the top (especially after sweating your way to the top), looking over the hills to the ocean on all sides. I don't think I can count the times I said MashAllah as we sat at the top eating my home made granola trail mix, peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (I couldn't make up my mind so I mixed it all together), and turkey sandwiches. It is an absolutely breathtaking view. I think I sweat more than I have the whole time I've been here, which is saying A LOT.

I know William Murray and Julie Ann want to climb Mt. Nevis (which is potentially active), but I think one volcano might just be enough for me. Everyone says Mt. Nevis is way harder... so I don't know if I can handle it. MAYBE just maybe those two can bribe me into it.